Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

1 Chronicles 20:2

in 1 Chronicles 20

Then David took the crown from the head of their king. It was found to weigh a talent of gold and was set with precious stones, and it was placed on David’s head. And David took a great amount of plunder from the city.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was set upon David’s head: and he brought forth the spoil of the city, exceeding much.

KJV

And David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was set upon David’s head: and he brought also exceeding much spoil out of the city.

⋯

This verse in 1 Chronicles 20

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

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?

This site's exposition

In the spring

on 1 Chronicles 20:1-3

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.

This site's exposition

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.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

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.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

[The crown] was placed on David’s head. [Interpreters] ask (e.g., Pseudo-Rashi): How could he have withstood it, when it weighed a talent of gold?
Radak: Provence, 1160–1235 · Radak on I Chronicles 20:2:1, via Sefaria, The Commentary of Radak to Chronicles: A Translation with Introduction and Supercommentary, by Yitzhak Berger, Brown University, 2007
2 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Now it came to pass at the time of the return of the year when there are grasses in the field to feed the horses.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on I Chronicles 20:1:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
Vayyasar with a saw. [David] crushed [the people of Rabbah] with a saw.
Radak: Provence, 1160–1235 · Radak on I Chronicles 20:3:1, via Sefaria, The Commentary of Radak to Chronicles: A Translation with Introduction and Supercommentary, by Yitzhak Berger, Brown University, 2007

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

23 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיִּקַּ֣חand he took

    vaiyikachH3947 →966 times

  • דָּוִ֣ידDavid

    davidH1732 →999 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • עֲטֶֽרֶת־[the] crown of

    ʾateret-H5850 →

  • מַלְכָּם֩king their

    malkamH4428 →2525 times

  • מֵעַ֨לfrom on

    mealH5921 →5755 times

  • רֹאשׁ֜וֹhead his

    roshoH7218 →599 times

  • וַֽיִּמְצָאָ֣הּ׀and he found it

    vaiyimtzaahH4672 →455 times

  • מִשְׁקַ֣לweight of

    mishkalH4948 →49 times

  • כִּכַּר־a talent of

    kikar-H3603 →68 times

  • זָהָ֗בgold

    zahavH2091 →389 times

  • וּבָהּ֙and [was] in it

    uvah

  • אֶ֣בֶןa stone

    ʾevenH68 →273 times

  • יְקָרָ֔הprecious

    yekarahH3368 →

  • וַתְּהִ֖יand it was

    vatehiH1961 →3559 times

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • רֹ֣אשׁ[the] head of

    roshH7218 →599 times

  • דָּוִ֑ידDavid

    davidH1732 →999 times

  • וּשְׁלַ֥לand [the] plunder of

    ushelalH7998 →

  • הָעִ֛ירthe city

    hairH5892 →1090 times

  • הוֹצִ֖יאhe brought out

    hotzi'H3318 →1067 times

  • הַרְבֵּ֥הmuch

    harbehH7235 →227 times

  • מְאֹֽד׃very

    meodH3966 →300 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

4 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Psalms 21:3For You welcomed him with rich blessings; You placed on his head a crown of pure gold.5 works2 Samuel 12:30Then he took the crown from the head of their king. It weighed a talent of gold and was set with precious stones, and it was placed on David’s head. And David took a great amount of plunder from the city.4 works1 Chronicles 18:11and King David dedicated these to the LORD, along with the silver and gold he had carried off from all these nations—from Edom and Moab, and from the Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalekites.2 works2 Samuel 8:11–12and King David dedicated these to the LORD, along with the silver and gold he had dedicated from all the nations he had subdued—2 works

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    1 Chronicles 18:11

    and King David dedicated these to the LORD, along with the silver and gold he had carried off from all these nations—from Edom and Moab, and from the Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalekites.

    it leads to

    • 1 Chronicles 22:14

      Now behold, I have taken great pains to provide for the house of the LORD—100,000 talents of gold, 1,000,000 talents of silver, and bronze and iron too great to be weighed. I have also…

    • 1 Samuel 30:20

      And he recovered all the flocks and herds, which his men drove ahead of the other livestock, calling out, “This is David’s plunder!”

    • Joshua 6:19

      For all the silver and gold and all the articles of bronze and iron are holy to the LORD; they must go into His treasury.”

    • 2 Chronicles 5:1

      So all the work that Solomon had performed for the house of the LORD was completed. Then Solomon brought in the items his father David had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and all the furnishings—and…

    • 1 Samuel 30:13

      Then David asked him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” “I am an Egyptian,” he replied, “the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me three days ago when I…

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Chronicles

King David Playing the Harp, Gerard van Honthorst, 1622. Public domain.
King David Playing the Harp, Gerard van Honthorst, 1622. Public domain.
1 Chronicles: the study guide →Read 1 Chronicles 20 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and Keil, The Books of the Chronicles.

Read on in 1 Chronicles 20 →