1 Chronicles 20

1 [In that region], kings usually went [with their armies] to fight [their enemies] (in the springtime/when the cold season ended). But that year, David [did not do that. Instead, he] stayed in Jerusalem, and he sent [his commander] Joab [to lead the army]. Joab took his troops. They [crossed the Jordan River and] ruined the land of the Ammon people-group. Then they went to Rabbah, [the capital city, ] and surrounded it. David stayed in Jerusalem [for a while. But later he took more troops and went to help] Joab. Their armies attacked Rabbah and destroyed it.

Now it happened that, after the course of a year, in the time when kings usually go forth to war, Joab gathered an army with experienced soldiers, and he laid waste to the land of the sons of Ammon. And he continued on and besieged Rabbah. But David was staying in Jerusalem when Joab struck Rabbah and destroyed it.

2 Then David took the crown from the head of the king of Rabbah (OR, from the head of their god Milcom) and put it on his own head. It [was very heavy; it] weighed (75 pounds/34 kg.), and it had many very valuable stones [fastened to it]. They also took many other valuable things from the city.

Then David took the crown of Milcom from his head, and he found in it the weight of one talent of gold, and very precious gems. And he made for himself a diadem from it. Also, he took the best spoils of the city, which were very many.

3 Then they brought the people out of the city and forced them to [work for their army, ] using saws and iron picks and axes. David’s soldiers did this in all the cities of the Ammon people-group. Then David and all of his army returned to Jerusalem.

Then he led away the people who were in it. And he caused plows, and sleds, and iron chariots to go over them, so much so that they were cut apart and crushed. So did David treat all the cities of the sons of Ammon. And he returned with all his people to Jerusalem.

4 Later, [David’s army] fought a battle with the army of Philistia, at Gezer [city]. During the battle Sibbecai, from Hushah [clan], killed Sippai, one of the descendants of the Rapha [giants]. So the armies of Philistia were defeated.

After these things, a war was begun at Gezer against the Philistines, in which Sibbecai the Hushathite struck Sippai from the race of the Rephaim, and he humbled them.

5 In another battle against the soldiers of Philistia, Elhanan, the son of Jair, killed Lahmi, the [younger] brother of [the giant] Goliath from Gath [town], who had a spear which was as thick as a weaver’s rod.

Also, another war was undertaken against the Philistines, in which Adeodatus, a son of the forest, a Bethlehemite, struck the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the wood of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

6 There was another battle near Gath. A (huge man/giant) was there who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. He was descended from [the] Rapha [giants].

Then too, another war occurred in Gath, in which there was a very tall man, having six digits, that is, all together twenty-four. This man too was born from the stock of the Rephaim.

7 When he made fun of the soldiers of Israel, Jonathan, the son of David’s [older] brother Shimea, killed him.

He blasphemed Israel. And Jonathan, the son of Shimea, the brother of David, struck him down.

8 Those were some of the descendants of [the] Rapha [giants] who had lived in Gath, who were killed [MTY] by David and his soldiers.

These were the sons of the Rephaim in Gath, who fell by the hand of David and his servants.