1 Tawarikh 19:1--21:30
Konteks19:1 Later King Nahash of the Ammonites died and his son succeeded him. 19:2 David said, “I will express my loyalty 1 to Hanun son of Nahash, for his father was loyal 2 to me.” So David sent messengers to express his sympathy over his father’s death. 3 When David’s servants entered Ammonite territory to visit Hanun and express the king’s sympathy, 4 19:3 the Ammonite officials said to Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy? 5 No, his servants have come to you so they can get information and spy out the land!” 6 19:4 So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved their beards off. 7 He cut off the lower part of their robes so that their buttocks were exposed 8 and then sent them away. 19:5 Messengers 9 came and told David what had happened to the men, so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho 10 until your beards grow again; then you may come back.”
19:6 When the Ammonites realized that David was disgusted with them, 11 Hanun and the Ammonites sent 1,000 talents 12 of silver to hire chariots and charioteers from Aram Naharaim, Aram Maacah, and Zobah. 13 19:7 They hired 32,000 chariots, along with the king of Maacah and his army, who came and camped in front of Medeba. The Ammonites also assembled from their cities and marched out to do battle.
19:8 When David heard the news, he sent Joab and the entire army to meet them. 14 19:9 The Ammonites marched out and were deployed for battle at the entrance to the city, while the kings who had come were by themselves in the field. 19:10 When Joab saw that the battle would be fought on two fronts, he chose some of Israel’s best men and deployed them against the Arameans. 15 19:11 He put his brother Abishai in charge of the rest of the army and they were deployed against the Ammonites. 19:12 Joab 16 said, “If the Arameans start to overpower me, 17 you come to my rescue. If the Ammonites start to overpower you, 18 I will come to your rescue. 19:13 Be strong! Let’s fight bravely for the sake of our people and the cities of our God! The Lord will do what he decides is best!” 19 19:14 So Joab and his men 20 marched toward the Arameans to do battle, and they fled before him. 19:15 When the Ammonites saw the Arameans flee, they fled before Joab’s 21 brother Abishai and withdrew into the city. Joab went back to Jerusalem. 22
19:16 When the Arameans realized they had been defeated by Israel, they sent for reinforcements from beyond the Euphrates River, 23 led by Shophach the commanding general of Hadadezer’s army. 24 19:17 When David was informed, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan River, 25 and marched against them. 26 David deployed his army against the Arameans for battle and they fought against him. 27 19:18 The Arameans fled before Israel. David killed 7,000 28 Aramean charioteers and 40,000 infantrymen; he also killed Shophach 29 the commanding general. 19:19 When Hadadezer’s subjects saw they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became his subjects. The Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites.
20:1 In the spring, at the time when kings normally conduct wars, 30 Joab led the army into battle and devastated the land of the Ammonites. He went and besieged Rabbah, while David stayed in Jerusalem. Joab defeated Rabbah and tore it down. 20:2 David took the crown from the head of their king 31 and wore it 32 (its weight was a talent 33 of gold and it was set with precious stones). He took a large amount of plunder from the city. 20:3 He removed the city’s residents and made them do hard labor with saws, iron picks, and axes. 34 This was his policy 35 with all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the army returned to Jerusalem.
20:4 Later there was a battle 36 with the Philistines in Gezer. 37 At that time Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Sippai, 38 one of the descendants of the Rephaim, and the Philistines 39 were subdued.
20:5 There was another battle with the Philistines in which Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, 40 whose spear had a shaft as big as the crossbeam of a weaver’s loom. 41
20:6 In a battle in Gath 42 there was a large man who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot – twenty-four in all! He too was a descendant of Rapha. 20:7 When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, 43 David’s brother, killed him.
20:8 These were the descendants of Rapha who lived in Gath; they were killed 44 by the hand of David and his soldiers. 45
21:1 An adversary 46 opposed 47 Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had. 48 21:2 David told Joab and the leaders of the army, 49 “Go, count the number of warriors 50 from Beer Sheba to Dan. Then bring back a report to me so I may know how many we have.” 51 21:3 Joab replied, “May the Lord make his army 52 a hundred times larger! My master, O king, do not all of them serve my master? Why does my master want to do this? Why bring judgment on Israel?” 53
21:4 But the king’s edict stood, despite Joab’s objections. 54 So Joab left and traveled throughout Israel before returning to Jerusalem. 55 21:5 Joab reported to David the number of warriors. 56 In all Israel there were 1,100,000 57 sword-wielding soldiers; Judah alone had 470,000 sword-wielding soldiers. 58 21:6 Now Joab 59 did not number Levi and Benjamin, for the king’s edict disgusted him. 21:7 God was also offended by it, 60 so he attacked Israel.
21:8 David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this! Now, please remove the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” 21:9 The Lord told Gad, David’s prophet, 61 21:10 “Go, tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I am offering you three forms of judgment from which to choose. Pick one of them.”’” 62 21:11 Gad went to David and told him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Pick one of these: 21:12 three 63 years of famine, or three months being chased by your enemies and struck down by their swords, 64 or three days being struck down by the Lord, during which a plague will invade the land and the Lord’s messenger will destroy throughout Israel’s territory.’ 65 Now, decide what I should tell the one who sent me.” 21:13 David said to Gad, “I am very upset! I prefer to be attacked by the Lord, for his mercy is very great; I do not want to be attacked by men!” 66 21:14 So the Lord sent a plague through Israel, and 70,000 Israelite men died.
21:15 God sent an angel 67 to ravage 68 Jerusalem. As he was doing so, 69 the Lord watched 70 and relented from 71 his judgment. 72 He told the angel who was destroying, “That’s enough! 73 Stop now!” 74
Now the Lord’s angel was standing near the threshing floor of Ornan 75 the Jebusite. 21:16 David looked up and saw the Lord’s messenger standing between the earth and sky with his sword drawn and in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. David and the leaders, covered with sackcloth, threw themselves down with their faces to the ground. 76 21:17 David said to God, “Was I not the one who decided to number the army? I am the one who sinned and committed this awful deed! 77 As for these sheep – what have they done? O Lord my God, attack me and my family, 78 but remove the plague from your people!” 79
21:18 So the Lord’s messenger told Gad to instruct David to go up and build 80 an altar for the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 21:19 So David went up as Gad instructed him to do in the name of the Lord. 81 21:20 While Ornan was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the messenger, and he and his four sons hid themselves. 21:21 When David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David; he came out from the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face 82 to the ground. 21:22 David said to Ornan, “Sell me the threshing floor 83 so I can build 84 on it an altar for the Lord – I’ll pay top price 85 – so that the plague may be removed 86 from the people.” 21:23 Ornan told David, “You can have it! 87 My master, the king, may do what he wants. 88 Look, I am giving you the oxen for burnt sacrifices, the threshing sledges for wood, and the wheat for an offering. I give it all to you.” 21:24 King David replied to Ornan, “No, I insist on buying it for top price. 89 I will not offer to the Lord what belongs to you or offer a burnt sacrifice 90 that cost me nothing. 91 21:25 So David bought the place from Ornan for 600 pieces of gold. 92 21:26 David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. 93 He called out to the Lord, and the Lord 94 responded by sending fire from the sky and consuming the burnt sacrifice on the altar. 21:27 The Lord ordered the messenger 95 to put his sword back into its sheath.
21:28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord responded to him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. 21:29 Now the Lord’s tabernacle (which Moses had made in the wilderness) and the altar for burnt sacrifices were at that time at the worship center 96 in Gibeon. 21:30 But David could not go before it to seek God’s will, for he was afraid of the sword of the Lord’s messenger.
[19:2] 2 tn Heb “did loyalty.”
[19:2] 3 tn Heb “to console him concerning his father.”
[19:2] 4 tn Heb “and the servants of David came to the land of the sons of Ammon to Hanun to console him.”
[19:3] 5 tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”
[19:3] 6 tc Heb “Is it not to explore and to overturn and to spy out the land (that) his servants have come to you?” The Hebrew term לַהֲפֹךְ (lahafakh, “to overturn”) seems misplaced in the sequence. Some emend the form to לַחְפֹּר (lakhpor, “to spy out”). The sequence of three infinitives may be a conflation of alternative readings.
[19:4] 7 tn Heb “shaved them.” See v. 5.
[19:4] 8 tn Heb “and he cut their robes in the middle unto the buttocks.”
[19:5] 9 tn Heb “they.” The logical referent, though not specified in the Hebrew text, has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[19:5] 10 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[19:6] 11 tn Heb “that they were a stench [i.e., disgusting] with David.”
[19:6] 12 tn The Hebrew word כִּכַּר (kikar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or, by extension, to a standard unit of weight. According to the older (Babylonian) standard the “talent” weighed 130 lbs. (58.9 kg), but later this was lowered to 108.3 lbs. (49.1 kg). More recent research suggests the “light” standard talent was 67.3 lbs. (30.6 kg). Using this as the standard for calculation, the Ammonites hired chariots and charioteers for about 33.7 tons (30,600 kg) of silver.
[19:6] 13 tn The parallel text of 2 Sam 10:6 has “Aram Beth Rehob and Aram Zobah.”
[19:8] 14 tn The words “the news” and “to meet them” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.
[19:10] 15 tc The parallel text of 2 Sam 10:10 has “the Ammonites” in place of “the Arameans” here.
[19:10] tn Heb “and Joab saw that the face of the battle was to him before and behind and he chose from all the best in Israel and arranged to meet Aram.”
[19:12] 16 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[19:12] 17 tn Heb “if Aram is stronger than me.”
[19:12] 18 tn Heb “if the sons of Ammon are stronger than you.”
[19:13] 19 tn Heb “and the
[19:14] 20 tn Heb “and the army which was with him.”
[19:15] 21 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[19:15] 22 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[19:16] 23 tn Heb “the River,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[19:16] 24 tn Heb “and Aram saw that they were struck down before Israel and they sent messengers and brought out Aram which is beyond the River, and Shophach the commander of the army of Hadadezer [was] before them.”
[19:17] 25 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[19:17] 26 tc The parallel text of 2 Sam 10:17 “he came to Helam.”
[19:17] tn Heb “and he came to them and was deployed against them.”
[19:17] 27 tn Heb “and David was deployed to meet Aram [for] battle and they fought with him.”
[19:18] 28 tc The parallel text of 2 Sam 10:18 has “seven hundred.”
[19:18] 29 tn The parallel text of 2 Sam 10:18 has the variant spelling “Shobach.”
[20:1] 30 tn Heb “and it was at the time of the turning of the year, at the time of the going out of kings.”
[20:2] 31 tc The translation follows the MT, which reads “of their king”; the LXX and Vulgate read “of Milcom” (cf. 1 Kgs 11:5). Milcom, also known as Molech, was the god of the Ammonites.
[20:2] 32 tn Heb “and it was on the head of David.”
[20:2] 33 sn See the note on the word “talents” in 19:6.
[20:3] 34 tc The Hebrew text reads “saws,” but since saws were just mentioned, it is preferable to emend מְגֵרוֹת (mÿgerot, “saws”) to מַגְזְרוֹת (magzÿrot, “axes”).
[20:3] 35 tn Heb “and so he would do.”
[20:4] 36 tn Heb “battle stood.”
[20:4] 37 tn The parallel text in 2 Sam 21:18 identifies this site as “Gob.”
[20:4] 38 tn The parallel text in 2 Sam 21:18 has the variant spelling “Saph.”
[20:4] 39 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Philistines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[20:5] 40 tc The Hebrew text reads, “Elchanan son of Jair killed Lachmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite.” But it is likely that the accusative marker in front of לַחְמִי (lakhmiy, “Lachmi”) is a corruption of בֵּית (bet), and that אֶת־לַחְמִי (’et-lakhmiy) should be emended to בֵּית הַלַּחְמִי (bet hallakhmiy, “the Bethlehemite”). See 2 Sam 21:19.
[20:5] 41 tc See tc note on the parallel passage in 2 Sam 21:19.
[20:6] 42 tn Heb “and there was another battle, in Gath.”
[20:7] 43 tn The parallel text in 2 Sam 21:21 has the variant spelling “Shimeah.”
[20:8] 45 tn Heb “his servants.”
[21:1] 46 tn Or “Satan.” The Hebrew word שָׂטָן (satan) can refer to an adversary in general or Satan in particular. There is no article accompanying the term here, which suggests it should be understood generally (cf. NAB “a satan”).
[21:1] 47 tn Heb “stood against.”
[21:1] 48 tn Heb “and incited David to count Israel.” As v. 5 indicates, David was not interested in a general census, but in determining how much military strength he had.
[21:1] sn The parallel text in 2 Sam 24:1 says, “The
[21:2] 50 tn Heb “Go, count Israel.” See the note on “had” in v. 1.
[21:2] 51 tn Heb “their number.”
[21:3] 53 tn Heb “Why should it become guilt for Israel?” David’s decision betrays an underlying trust in his own strength rather than in divine provision. See also 1 Chr 27:23-24.
[21:4] 54 tn Heb “and the word of the king was stronger than Joab.”
[21:4] 55 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[21:5] 56 tn Heb “and Joab gave to David the number of the numbering of the army [or “people”].”
[21:5] 57 tn Heb “a thousand thousands and one hundred thousand.”
[21:5] 58 tc The parallel text in 2 Sam 24:9 has variant figures: “In Israel there were eight hundred thousand sword-wielding warriors, and in Judah there were five hundred thousands soldiers.”
[21:6] 59 tn Heb “he”; the proper name (“Joab”) has been substituted for the pronoun here for stylistic reasons; the proper name occurs at the end of the verse in the Hebrew text, where it has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.
[21:7] 60 tn Heb “There was displeasure in the eyes of God concerning this thing.”
[21:10] 62 tn Heb “Three I am extending to you; choose for yourself one of them and I will do it to you.”
[21:12] 63 tc The parallel text in the MT of 2 Sam 24:13 has “seven,” but LXX has “three” there.
[21:12] 64 tc Heb “or three months being swept away from before your enemies and the sword of your enemies overtaking.” The Hebrew term נִסְפֶּה (nisppeh, Niphal participle from סָפָה, safah) should probably be emended to נֻסְכָה (nusÿkhah, Qal infinitive from נוּס [nus] with second masculine singular suffix). See 2 Sam 24:13.
[21:12] 65 tn Heb “or three days of the sword of the
[21:13] 66 tn Heb “There is great distress to me; let me fall into the hand of the
[21:15] 67 tn The parallel text of 2 Sam 24:15 reports that God sent a plague, while 24:16-17 attributes this to the instrumentality of an angel.
[21:15] 69 tn Heb “while he was destroying.”
[21:15] 71 tn Or “was grieved because of.”
[21:15] 72 tn Heb “concerning the calamity.”
[21:15] 73 tn For this nuance of the Hebrew word רַב (rav), see BDB 913 s.v. 1.f.
[21:15] 74 tn Heb “Now, drop your hand.”
[21:15] 75 tn In the parallel text in 2 Sam 24:16 this individual is called אֲרַוְנָא (’aravna’, “Aravna”), traditionally “Araunah.” The form of the name found here also occurs in vv. 18-28.
[21:16] 76 tn Heb “and David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces.”
[21:17] 77 tn “and doing evil I did evil.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite form of the verb for emphasis.
[21:17] 78 tn Heb “let your hand be on me and on the house of my father.”
[21:17] 79 tn Heb “but on your people not for a plague.”
[21:18] 80 tn Heb “that he should go up to raise up.”
[21:19] 81 tn Heb “and David went up by the word of Gad which he spoke in the name of the
[21:22] 83 tn Heb “the place of the threshing floor.”
[21:22] 84 tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive here indicates the immediate purpose/result: “so I can build.”
[21:22] 85 tn Heb “For full silver sell to me.”
[21:22] 86 tn Following the imperative and first person prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive, this third person prefixed verbal form with vav conjunctive introduces the ultimate purpose/result: “so the plague may be removed.” Another option is subordinate this form to the preceding imperative, but the latter may be taken as a parenthetical expansion of the initial request.
[21:23] 87 tn Heb “take for yourself.”
[21:23] 88 tn Heb “what is good in his eyes.”
[21:24] 89 tn Heb “No, for buying I will buy for full silver.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
[21:24] 90 tc The parallel text in 2 Sam 24:24 has the plural “burnt sacrifices.”
[21:24] 91 tn Or “without [paying] compensation.”
[21:25] 92 tc The parallel text of 2 Sam 24:24 says David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for “fifty pieces of silver.” This would have been about 20 ounces (568 grams) of silver by weight.
[21:25] tn Heb “six hundred shekels of gold.” This would have been about 15 lbs. (6.8 kg) of gold by weight.
[21:26] 93 tn Or “tokens of peace.”
[21:26] 94 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
