1 Chronicles 20
About 1 ChroniclesWritten by AI
1 Chronicles retells Israel's story for people who had come home from exile in Babylon and were asking whether God was still with them. It covers ground you have already read in Samuel, but from a different angle, with a special interest in David, the temple, the priests and Levites, and worship. The author is unnamed; Jewish tradition credits Ezra, and many scholars speak more cautiously of the Chronicler, writing perhaps in the 400s BC. 1 and 2 Chronicles were first one book.
It begins with nine chapters of genealogies, from Adam to the families who resettled Jerusalem, quietly showing that Israel's story is unbroken. Then it moves quickly past Saul to David: his rise, the ark brought to Jerusalem, God's covenant, and his careful preparations for a temple his son Solomon will build.
Watch for what is emphasized and what is left out, and for the note of worship running through it all: “everything comes from You, and from Your own hand we have given to You.”
Before you read 1 Chronicles 20Written by AI
Joab captures the Ammonite city of Rabbah while David stays in Jerusalem. The Chronicler does not tell the story of David and Bathsheba that happened at this time; his focus is elsewhere, though he does not deny it. The chapter ends with Philistine giants defeated by David's men.
The Capture of Rabbah
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.
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.
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.
Battles against the Philistines
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.
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.
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, and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of David’s brother Shimei killed him.
So these descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.