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.

And it comes to pass, at the time of the turn of the year—at the time of the going out of the messengers—that Joab leads out the force of the host, and destroys the land of the sons of Ammon, and comes in and besieges Rabbah—David is abiding in Jerusalem—and Joab strikes Rabbah, and breaks it down.

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.

And David takes the crown of their king from off his head, and finds it [to be] a talent of gold [in] weight, and [with] precious stone in it, and it is on the head of David; and he has brought out very much spoil of the city,

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.

and he has brought out the people who [are] in it, and sets [them] to the saw, and to cutting instruments of iron, and to axes; and thus David does to all cities of the sons of Ammon, and David turns back—and all the 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.

And it comes to pass after this, that war remains in Gezer with the Philistines; then Sibbechai the Hushathite has struck Sippai, of the children of the giant, and they are humbled.

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.

And there is war with the Philistines again, and Elhanan son of Jair strikes Lahmi, brother of Goliath the Gittite, the wood of whose spear [is] like a weavers’ 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].

And there is war in Gath again, and there is a man of [great] measure, and his fingers and his toes [are] six and six—twenty-four [total], and he has also been born to the giant.

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

And he reproaches Israel, and Jonathan son of Shimea, brother of David, strikes him.

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 born to the giant in Gath, and they fall by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.