1 Chronicles 20

Introduction

First Chronicles 20 is one of the shortest chapters in the book, containing only eight verses, yet it is one of the most theologically significant -- not for what it says, but for what it omits. The chapter covers the conclusion of the Ammonite war with the capture of Rabbah (vv. 1-3) and a series of battles against Philistine giants (vv. 4-8). The parallel material in 2 Samuel spans several chapters: 2 Samuel 12:26-31 for the siege of Rabbah and 2 Samuel 21:15-22 for the Philistine wars. But between those two passages in 2 Samuel lies the entire Bathsheba narrative (2 Samuel 11:1 through 2 Samuel 12:25) -- David's adultery with Bathsheba, his murder of Uriah the Hittite, Nathan's confrontation and parable, and the death of the first child. The Chronicler passes over all of it in silence.

This omission is not an accident or a whitewashing of David's character. The Chronicler is writing with a specific theological purpose. His audience is the post-exilic community that has returned from Babylon and is rebuilding the temple. For this audience, David matters primarily as the founder of temple worship and the one who received the divine blueprint for the sanctuary. The Chronicler's David is a liturgical figure -- not a flawless one, but one whose story is told through the lens of what matters most for Israel's worship life. The sins of David are recorded elsewhere in the canon and were well known. The Chronicler's silence does not erase them; it simply tells a different story for a different purpose.

The Capture of Rabbah (vv. 1-3)

¹ 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. ² 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. ³ David brought out the people who were there and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes. And he did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all his troops returned to Jerusalem.

¹ At the turn of the year, at the time when kings go out to war, Joab led the army's forces and laid waste to the land of the Ammonites. He came and besieged Rabbah, while David stayed in Jerusalem. Then Joab struck Rabbah and tore it down. ² David took the crown from the head of their king -- it was found to weigh a talent of gold, and there was a precious stone set in it -- and it was placed on David's head. He also carried out a very great quantity of plunder from the city. ³ He brought out the people who were in it and set them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes. David did this to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the army returned to Jerusalem.

Notes

The opening phrase לְעֵת צֵאת הַמְּלָכִים ("at the time when kings go out to war") is identical to the phrase that opens 2 Samuel 11:1. In 2 Samuel, this sentence is the launching point for the entire Bathsheba affair: "In the spring, at the time when kings go out to war... David remained in Jerusalem." The phrase carries an implicit accusation in 2 Samuel -- David should have been with his army, but instead he was idle on his rooftop where he saw Bathsheba bathing. The Chronicler preserves the same phrase and even the same note that "David stayed in Jerusalem" (וְדָוִיד יֹשֵׁב בִּירוּשָׁלִָם), but everything between David's staying behind and the fall of Rabbah is simply absent. For readers who know the Samuel account, the silence is deafening. For the Chronicler's purposes, however, the point is the military outcome: Joab captured Rabbah, and David received the spoils.

The verb וַיַּשְׁחֵת ("ravaged" or "laid waste") in v. 1 comes from the root שָׁחַת, meaning "to destroy, corrupt, ruin." It indicates a thorough devastation of Ammonite territory, not merely a military passage.

In v. 2, the Hebrew מַלְכָּם ("their king") is ambiguous. The consonantal text could also be vocalized as "Milcom," the name of the chief Ammonite deity (1 Kings 11:5, 1 Kings 11:33). If this reading is correct, David took the crown from the idol of Milcom in the Ammonite temple -- a symbolic act of conquest over both the nation and its god. The weight of the crown, a talent of gold (approximately 75 pounds or 34 kilograms), has struck commentators as impossibly heavy for a human head. This supports the reading "Milcom," since the crown may have adorned a statue rather than a human king. Alternatively, the crown may have been placed on David's head only briefly in a ceremonial gesture, or "placed on David's head" may be a figurative expression meaning it was added to his royal treasury.

Verse 3 describes David putting the conquered Ammonites to forced labor with מְגֵרָה ("saws"), חֲרִיצֵי הַבַּרְזֶל ("iron picks" or "iron cutting tools"), and מְגֵרוֹת ("axes" or possibly another type of saw). The parallel in 2 Samuel 12:31 has been read by some interpreters as describing torture rather than labor, due to a slight difference in the Hebrew verb used. The Chronicler's version, using the verb וַיָּשַׂר (from the root שׂוּר or שָׂרַר, "to cut" or "to saw"), more clearly indicates that David set the people to work with these implements -- that is, he conscripted them into labor gangs for construction or quarrying. This was a common practice in the ancient Near East for conquered populations.

Interpretations

The Chronicler's omission of the Bathsheba narrative (2 Samuel 11:1 through 2 Samuel 12:25) is one of the most discussed features of the entire book of Chronicles. Several interpretive frameworks have been proposed:

Idealization for liturgical purposes. Many scholars argue that the Chronicler is not denying David's sin but is writing a "temple history" in which David's role as the founder and patron of Israelite worship is the central concern. Just as a biography of a composer might omit personal scandals to focus on musical contributions, the Chronicler shapes his narrative around what matters for post-exilic worship. The sin with Bathsheba, while devastating in David's personal life, had no direct bearing on the establishment of temple worship.
The canon as a whole. Protestant interpreters have often noted that the Chronicler's audience already possessed the books of Samuel. The omission would not have deceived anyone; it served a different rhetorical purpose. The Chronicler was free to be selective because the full account existed elsewhere in Scripture. This is an important hermeneutical principle: no single biblical book tells the whole story, and each book has its own theological perspective.
Typological reading. Some interpreters, especially within the Reformed tradition, see the Chronicler's portrait of David as deliberately typological -- pointing forward to the greater David, the Messiah, who would truly be without sin. By presenting David in his royal and liturgical functions without the Bathsheba episode, the Chronicler creates a picture that more closely foreshadows the ideal Davidic king to come.
Not whitewashing. It is important to note that the Chronicler does not omit all of David's failures. The census sin in 1 Chronicles 21:1-17 is recorded in full, precisely because it relates directly to the site of the future temple (the threshing floor of Ornan/Araunah). The Chronicler's principle of selection is thematic, not hagiographic.

Battles with Philistine Giants (vv. 4-8)

⁴ Some time later, war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, a descendant of the Rephaim, and the Philistines were subdued. ⁵ Once again there was a battle with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. ⁶ And there was also a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot -- twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha, ⁷ and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of David's brother Shimei killed him. ⁸ So these descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.

⁴ After this, war arose at Gezer against the Philistines. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Sippai, who was one of the descendants of the Rephaim, and they were subdued. ⁵ There was war with the Philistines again, and Elhanan son of Jair struck down Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear shaft was like a weaver's beam. ⁶ And there was yet another battle at Gath, where there was a man of great size whose fingers and toes numbered six on each hand and six on each foot -- twenty-four in all. He too had been born to the Rapha. ⁷ When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David's brother, killed him. ⁸ These were born to the Rapha in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

Notes

This section parallels 2 Samuel 21:15-22 and records three encounters with Philistine warriors who were descendants of the רָפָא -- the Rephaim, an ancient race of giants associated with the pre-Israelite inhabitants of Canaan (cf. Deuteronomy 2:11, Deuteronomy 2:20-21). The Rephaim appear throughout the Old Testament as a byword for superhuman size and strength. The Chronicler's inclusion of these battles serves an important purpose: they demonstrate that the defeat of Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 was not an isolated event but the beginning of a sustained campaign in which David's warriors systematically dismantled an entire clan of giants.

In v. 4, the location is given as גֶּזֶר ("Gezer"), whereas the parallel in 2 Samuel 21:18 reads "Gob." Gezer was a strategically important city on the border between the Philistine lowlands and the Judean hills. The warrior Sibbecai the Hushathite (סִבְּכַי הַחֻשָׁתִי) also appears in David's roster of mighty men (1 Chronicles 11:29). His opponent Sippai (סִפַּי) is called "Saph" in the Samuel parallel.

Verse 5 contains one of the most significant textual differences between Chronicles and Samuel. The Chronicles text clearly states that Elhanan son of Jair killed לַחְמִי אֲחִי גָּלְיָת -- "Lahmi the brother of Goliath." The parallel in 2 Samuel 21:19, however, reads that Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite killed "Goliath the Gittite." This creates an apparent contradiction with 1 Samuel 17, where David killed Goliath. The Chronicles reading resolves the difficulty by specifying that Elhanan killed Goliath's brother, not Goliath himself. Scholars are divided on whether the Chronicler is correcting a textual corruption in Samuel (where "Lahmi" and "the Bethlehemite" may have been garbled in transmission) or harmonizing an inconsistency. The name לַחְמִי could plausibly derive from a corruption of בֵּית הַלַּחְמִי ("the Bethlehemite") in the Samuel text. The detail about the spear shaft being "like a weaver's beam" (כִּמְנוֹר אֹרְגִים) echoes the description of Goliath's own spear in 1 Samuel 17:7, reinforcing the family resemblance.

The unnamed giant in vv. 6-7 is a memorable figure: a man of extraordinary size with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, a condition known medically as polydactyly. This physical anomaly underscores his connection to the Rephaim and marks him as something beyond ordinary human stature. He וַיְחָרֵף ("taunted" or "defied") Israel, using the same verb applied to Goliath's challenge in 1 Samuel 17:10, 1 Samuel 17:25-26. The verb חָרַף carries the sense of reproaching or shaming, and in the context of warfare it means to issue a contemptuous challenge. Jonathan son of Shimea (David's brother) killed him. This Jonathan is David's nephew and should not be confused with Jonathan son of Saul.

The concluding summary in v. 8 is emphatic: "these were born to the Rapha in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants." The phrase בְּיַד דָּוִיד וּבְיַד עֲבָדָיו attributes the victories collectively to David and his men, even though David himself did not personally fight in any of these three encounters. This is a royal idiom: the king's servants act as extensions of the king's authority. It also completes a theological arc that began with David's victory over Goliath in his youth -- the entire Rephaim line that once terrorized Israel has now been cut down under David's reign.