1 Chronicles 20 explained: Rabbah Falls and Giants Defeated

A spring campaign (v. 1)

Armies usually set out in spring, after the winter rains, when roads were passable and there was food in the fields. Joab, David's army commander, besieged and destroyed Rabbah, the Ammonite capital, on the site of modern Amman in Jordan.

What is left unsaid (v. 1)

In 2 Samuel, this siege is when David stayed home, slept with Bathsheba and arranged her husband's death. Chronicles keeps only the line that David stayed in Jerusalem and skips the rest; many scholars think this fits the book's focus on David as founder of the royal line and planner of the temple, though the text itself gives no reason.

The heavy crown (v. 2)

It weighed a talent of gold, very roughly 34 kilograms (75 pounds), so some suggest it was worn only briefly for ceremony or hung above a throne. The Hebrew for "their king" can also be read as Milcom, the Ammonite god, so the crown may have come from the god's statue, but this is uncertain.

The fate of the people (v. 3)

The Hebrew here is unclear: one reading says David cut the captives with saws, while many scholars, pointing to an almost identical word in 2 Samuel meaning "put," think he forced them into hard labor with saws, picks and axes. Either way, it describes harsh treatment of a conquered people, and the text does not comment on it.

Three Philistine giants (vv. 4-8)

In three battles, David's soldiers killed huge Philistine warriors said to descend from Rapha, an ancient people remembered as unusually tall. One had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all, and the chapter ends by crediting these victories to David and his men.

Goliath's brother (v. 5)

The parallel passage in 2 Samuel 21 says Elhanan killed Goliath himself, while here he kills Goliath's brother Lahmi. Scholars are unsure why; many think one text was damaged in copying, while others think Chronicles was bringing it into line with the famous story of David killing Goliath.

Key verse: 1 Chronicles 20:8

Something to think about

Chronicles leaves out David's worst moment while recording his victories; when you tell the story of someone you admire, or of yourself, what gets left out, and why?