1 Chronicleschapter 20
8 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the Ammonites. He came to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. And Joab attacked Rabbah and demolished it.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for readers who already had the books of Samuel and Kings and knew the fuller story of these years. It is short, and its brevity is part of its meaning. The first half finishes the war with Ammon, and the second half records three fights with champions from the Philistine city of Gath. The first hearers knew why armies marched in spring and what a captured crown signified. Listen for what the writer leaves out between the first verse and the second. Then notice that the last three fights are won by ordinary soldiers of Israel.
Context
- Who
- Readers who already had Samuel and Kings and knew what this chapter leaves out
- What
- A brief account of the capture of Rabbah and of three Israelite soldiers who killed Philistine champions.
- Where
- Rabbah, on the site of modern Amman east of the Jordan, and then Gezer and Gath in Philistine country.
- When
- The spring of the year after chapter 19, about 994 BC, with the Philistine fights over the next few years.
- Why
- To close the record of David's wars, keeping the account on the king who prepared for the temple.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Joab in its first half, leading the army against Rabbah, and to three Israelite soldiers in its second, Sibbecai, Elhanan and Jonathan the son of David's brother.
Show the rest of the historical context, 7 more paragraphs
The time is the spring campaign season of the year after chapter 19, about 994 BC, with the Philistine fights following over the next few years.
The places are Rabbah east of the Jordan, on the site of modern Amman, and then Gezer and Gath in Philistine country.
The occasion is the second campaign against the city Joab had left standing.
A first hearer knew why armies moved in spring. The winter rains had stopped, the roads were passable, and a force could live off the standing grain, so campaign seasons were set by weather and crops.
He knew what taking Rabbah required. The city sat on a height with its water supply in the valley below, so an attacker either blockaded it for months or seized the water first.
He also knew the crown. It weighed a talent of gold, which is far more than a man wears, so it was most likely the crown of the Ammonite god. The Hebrew can be read either as their king or as the god's name Milcom.
Putting the captured population to work with saws, iron picks and axes is forced labour on state building projects. That was the standard fate of a defeated city, and the same institution later split Israel in two.
Significance
The silence in this chapter is loud to anyone who knows the other account. Between the siege of Rabbah and its fall lies the whole story of Bathsheba and Uriah, and the writer passes over it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
His readers had Samuel and Kings and had heard Psalm 51 sung, so the omission hid nothing from them. He is writing a different book, about the man who founded the temple's worship, for a people who needed the institution in front of them.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
1 Chronicles carries no weekly portion and no Haftarah, and no part of it is read in the synagogue service on any Sabbath of the year. In the Hebrew Bible Chronicles stands among the Writings, and the Haftarah is drawn from the Prophets, so the yearly cycle passes this book over entirely. This site's own table of synagogue readings records the same absence. It holds no portion, no Haftarah use and no festival reading for any of the twenty-nine chapters of the book.
How it is read
The corpus carries nine kept notes of Rashi for this chapter in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, under CC-BY. He opens on the season, reading the turn of the year at which kings go out as the time when there is grass in the field to feed the horses (Rashi on I Chronicles 20:1:1).
The crown taken at Rabbah draws the most discussed note of the chapter, and Rashi gives three answers rather than one. The crown weighed a talent, and he first reports those who take the verse literally, adding his own difficulty with it, that it is hard to see how a head could bear the weight. He then gives the Sages' explanation, that a magnet held it. Then he reports what he was told at Narbonne. In the land of Ishmael the custom is to hang the king's crown above him while he sits on a throne below it. On that account the words about the crown being on David's head mean that it appeared to be on his head (Rashi on I Chronicles 20:2:2). A shorter note beside it identifies the precious stone as set in the crown (Rashi on I Chronicles 20:2:1). This is a place where a reader can watch a classical commentator weigh a literal reading, a rabbinic one and a report of foreign court practice against each other in three sentences.
The fourth verse carries the second of this book's stated omissions, and Rashi names the reason plainly. Samuel records a battle in which David grew faint and was nearly killed by a Philistine giant until Abishai came to his aid. Rashi says that the account is left out here "because of David's honor", and that the disgrace in it is why the Chronicler passed it over (Rashi on I Chronicles 20:4:1). He reads the book's habit the same way at the thirteenth verse of chapter 17, where a clause of Samuel about the chastening of David's son is likewise absent. The silence is treated as a policy of the author rather than an accident of his sources.
The giants are handled as a problem of identification. Rashi matches Sippai here with Saph in Samuel and names him a brother of Goliath (Rashi on I Chronicles 20:4:2). He identifies Elhanan the son of Jair as one of David's mighty men (Rashi on I Chronicles 20:5:1). On the man killed at the fifth verse he sets out a full argument. He reports the Targum of Jonathan on the parallel verse in Samuel, which reads the killer as David himself. That reading turns the weaver's beam of the giant's spear into a play on the curtain of the Temple that David's mother wove, and it explains the name Elhanan as meaning that God favoured him. Rashi then states his own view against it, that Goliath the Gittite is a different man from Goliath the Philistine. He gives two reasons. The earlier account calls the Philistine by another title. This chapter also names the sons of Rapha in the verses on either side while leaving the Gittite out of that descent (Rashi on I Chronicles 20:5:2). At the sixth he reads the man of great stature as a man who had to be measured. He works out the six fingers and six toes against the count of twenty-four in Samuel, following the tractate Bechoroth on why both figures are needed (Rashi on I Chronicles 20:6:1 and 20:6:2).
Malbim, Metzudat David and Radak comment on this chapter as well, and one further note of Rashi stands beside them. The corpus carries their refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand here cited and unquoted. Malbim comments at I Chronicles 20:1:1, 20:3:1, 20:4:1 and 20:5:1. Metzudat David comments at I Chronicles 20:1:1, 20:2:1, 20:5:1, 20:6:1 and 20:7:1. Radak comments at I Chronicles 20:2:1, 20:3:1, 20:5:1, 20:6:1 and 20:8:1. Rashi comments at I Chronicles 20:1:2.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries four rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Two stand on the third verse, where the people of Rabbah are put to work with saws and picks and axes. They are Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 11:7:1 and Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on Missing and Extra Letters 2:8. Midrash Tehillim 10:10 stands on the first verse, where Joab besieges Rabbah while David stays in Jerusalem, and Tractate Soferim 7:4 on the fifth, the killing of the brother of Goliath. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Chronicles 20:1:1 to 20:6:2, nine kept notes in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, CC-BY; Malbim, Malbim on I Chronicles 20:1:1, 20:3:1, 20:4:1 and 20:5:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Chronicles 20:1:1, 20:2:1, 20:5:1, 20:6:1 and 20:7:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on I Chronicles 20:2:1, 20:3:1, 20:5:1, 20:6:1 and 20:8:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/20.json, the 4 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; This site's table of synagogue readings, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, which records no portion, no Haftarah use and no festival reading for 1 Chronicles.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The crown of Rabbah set on David's head
1 Chronicles 20:1-3
In the spring: The campaign against Rabbah opens with the words that open 2 Samuel 11:1, “at the time when kings march out to war”. Between “David remained in Jerusalem” and the fall of the city, 2 Samuel 11-12 records Bathsheba, Uriah's death, Nathan's rebuke and Solomon's birth.
1 Chronicles 20:1
“After the year was expired, at the time that kings go out to battle - About the spring of the year; see the note on 2Sa 11:1. After this verse the parallel place in Samuel relates the whole story of David and Bath-sheba, and the murder of Uriah, which the compiler of these books passes over as he designedly does almost every thing prejudicial to the character of David. All he states is, but David tarried at Jerusalem; and, while he thus tarried, and Joab conducted the war against the Ammonites, the awful transactions above referred to took place.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Chronicles 20:1
“See Gill on 1Ch 20:1, 2Sa 11:1, 1Ch 20:2, 2Sa 12:30, 2Sa 21:15, and 1Ch 21:1.”
1 Chronicles 20:1
“Joab led forth the power of the army, and wasted the country . . . of Ammon--The former campaign had been disastrous, owing chiefly to the hired auxiliaries of the Ammonites; and as it was necessary, as well as just, that they should be severely chastised for their wanton outrage on the Hebrew ambassadors, Joab ravaged their country and invested their capital, Rabbah.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 20:1
“This chapter, containing such other warlike exploits belonging to David’s reign as the writer of Chronicles thinks it important to put on record, is to be compared with the passages of Samuel noted in the marginal references.”
took the crown from the: The crown taken from Rabbah's king weighs a talent of gold. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that such state crowns often hung by gold chains above the throne. Adam Clarke gives the Targum, which says one precious stone in it was worth a talent of gold.
1 Chronicles 20:2
“David took the crown of their king - off his head - See 2Sa 12:30. Precious stones in it - The Targum says, “And there was set in it a precious stone, worth a talent of gold; this was that magnetic stone that supported the woven gold in the air.” What does he mean?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 20:2
“But, like many other state crowns of Eastern kings, the crown got at Rabbah was not worn on the head, but suspended by chains of gold above the throne. precious stones--Hebrew, a "stone," or cluster of precious stones, which was set on David's head.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
saws, iron picks, and axes: The people of Rabbah are set to labor with saws, iron picks and axes, and every Ammonite city receives the same. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the Hebrew word here differs by one final letter from the word in 2 Samuel 12:31. Many read both as hard forced labor.
1 Chronicles 20:3
“He brought out the people - See this transaction particularly explained in the notes on the parallel places, 2Sa 12:30-31 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The giants of Gath fall one after another
war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer: Samuel places this fight at Gob in 2 Samuel 21:18, where Chronicles names Gezer. Older commentators read the two as a second name for one field or as a copying variant, without settling which. Sippai answers to Saph in the Samuel text, “a descendant of the Rephaim”.
Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi: Chronicles states plainly what 2 Samuel 21:19 leaves harder to read. Here “Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite” and names the man. Keil and many older commentators take Chronicles as keeping the reading Samuel's copyists lost, while others hold Goliath was a title.
1 Chronicles 20:5
Elhanan the son of Jair - See the note on 2Sa 21:19. The Targum says, “David, the son of Jesse, a pious man, who rose at midnight to sing praises to God, slew Lachmi, the brother of Goliath, the same day on which he slew Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-staff was like a weaver’s beam.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 20:6-7
The man of verse 6 has “six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot”, twenty-four in all. The account in 2 Samuel 21:20-22 counts him among the descendants of Rapha in Gath. “Jonathan the son of David’s brother Shimei” kills him when he taunts Israel.
1 Chronicles 20:6
“Fingers and toes were four and twenty - See the note on 2Sa 21:20.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
when he taunted Israel, Jonathan: Jonathan, son of David's brother Shimei, kills the taunting giant. Matthew Henry notes that those who reproach God and His Israel are the most plainly marked for ruin. He adds that the Son of David wins His victories in stages, as David did.
1 Chronicles 20:7
“None are more visibly marked for ruin that those who reproach God and his Israel. God will do great things rather than suffer the enemy to behave themselves proudly, Deut. xxxii. The victories of the Son of David, like those of David himself, are gradual.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
descendants of Rapha in Gath: The summary names the line as “these descendants of Rapha in Gath”, Rapha being a clan name. They “fell at the hands of David and his servants”. Joshua 11:22 left an Anakim remnant only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod, and this verse shows that remnant still producing champions in Gath.
1 Chronicles 20:8
“These were born unto the giant in Gath - “These were born להרפא leharapha, to that Rapha in Gath, or to Arapha.” So the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Chaldee. The compiler of these books passes by also the incest of Amnon with his sister Tamar, and the rebellion of Absalom, and the awful consequences of all these. These should have preceded the fourth verse.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Compressed narrative in two parts, a siege and a roll of three single combats, as chapter classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Three fights with the sons of Rapha | Verses 4 to 7 give three encounters in the same form, a place, a champion, an Israelite who kills him. Sibbecai kills Sippai at Gezer, Elhanan kills Lahmi at an unnamed field, and Jonathan kills the man with twenty-four digits at Gath. The list keeps the pattern tight enough that verse 8 can sum all three in a sentence.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Chronicles 20:4. | 1 Chronicles 20:4, 1 Chronicles 20:5, 1 Chronicles 20:6, 1 Chronicles 20:7 |
| Descended from Rapha, said of each of them | The clan name stands at verse 4 of Sippai, at verse 6 of the Gath giant, and at verse 8 of all of them together. The site's published exposition reads the Hebrew behind the last verse as sons of Rapha, a clan name rather than one man's title. Joshua 11:22 had already left an Anakim remnant standing in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod, and these verses show that remnant still producing champions.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Chronicles 20:8. | 1 Chronicles 20:4, 1 Chronicles 20:6, 1 Chronicles 20:8 |
| David remained in Jerusalem | Verse 1 keeps the phrase 2 Samuel 11:1 uses to open the Bathsheba narrative and gives it no consequence at all. In Samuel the king who stays behind is the subject of the next two chapters. Here the clause is a note on who led the army, and the next sentence is the fall of the city. The device is the echo itself, so nothing is drawn for it.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Chronicles 20:1. | 1 Chronicles 20:1 |
The silence at verse 1
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
Between the clause about David remaining in Jerusalem and the fall of Rabbah, 2 Samuel 11 and 12 record Bathsheba, the death of Uriah, Nathan's rebuke and the birth of Solomon. The site's published exposition states the omission plainly, that the Chronicler moves straight from the siege to the crown and keeps the victory while passing over the sin beside it.
The dossier carries the question as one of its six difficulties. Most of Chronicles scholarship reads the selection as governed by the book's subject, including Martin Selman in 1 Chronicles, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 1994, and Roddy Braun in 1 Chronicles, Word Biblical Commentary, 1986. Their note observes that the Chronicler keeps what no cleaned up portrait would keep, the census of chapter 21, David's confession at 21:17, and the word that barred him from building at 22:8. Julius Wellhausen in Prolegomena to the History of Israel, 1878, and the historical critical tradition after him read the book as a David idealized for a later and more devotional audience. The dossier's door is /featured/david-and-bathsheba, and this page states no verdict.
Elhanan, Lahmi and the brother of Goliath
Verse 5 says that Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite. The parallel at 2 Samuel 21:19 is harder to read. Most translations supply the words the brother of to close a reading many hold damaged in the underlying Hebrew.
The site's published exposition names two readings and settles neither. Keil and much of the commentary tradition take the Chronicles text as preserving the reading Samuel's own copying lost. Others hold that Goliath was a title carried by more than one champion of Gath. Both texts stand as they are written.
Gezer, or Gob
The parallel at 2 Samuel 21:18 places the first of these fights at Gob and this chapter places it at Gezer. Sippai here answers to Saph there. The site's published exposition reads the two either as a second name for one field or as a copying variant, and leaves the question open. Sibbecai the Hushathite is already among David's mighty men at 1 Chronicles 11:29, so the victory is not left to an unnamed soldier.
The numbers
The crown of verse 2 weighed a talent of gold, which is a weight a living man would struggle to wear. The dossier's difficulty on the size of this book's figures covers it with three positions. The first is copying damage in the Hebrew numeral notation, held by Keil and Delitzsch in Biblical Commentary on the Books of Chronicles, 1872. The second reads the Hebrew unit as something other than a literal thousand, held by John Wenham in Large Numbers in the Old Testament, Tyndale Bulletin 18, 1967. The third is deliberate scale, the ancient way of stating magnitude. The text says the crown was found to weigh a talent and that it was set on David's head, and this page states no verdict on how the two facts sit together.
Keep studying
Places1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
This site's published book guide, src/components/book/guides/1-chronicles/Book1ChroniclesGuide.tsx, the BANDS row "Wars, the Census, the Threshing Floor" at 18:1 to 21:30; This site's published book sections table, src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts, the entry "1 Chronicles": "history" and This site's published exposition for the chapter, data/commentary/1-chronicles-20-exposition.json, whose module note calls the chapter eight verses condensing 2 Samuel 11 to 12 and 2 Samuel 21:18 to 22.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.