I Chronicles 20, More Victories

David's kingdom is growing. There have been a series of battles with the Ammonites in the east and still, occasionally, struggles with the Philistines in the west.

1 Chronicles 20: 1-3, When kings go off to war...

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, Joab led out the armed forces. He laid waste the land of the Ammonites and went to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and left it in ruins.

David took the crown from the head of their king--its weight was found to be a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones--and it was placed on David's head. He took a great quantity of plunder from the city and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.

Joab lays siege to the Ammonite city of Rabbah and conquers it. Joab waits for David to arrive so that David can have the Ammonite king's crown placed on his head. 

This passage parallels 2 Samuel 11:1 & 2 Samuel12:26-31. Notably absent is the sordid affair with Bathsheba that began when "David remained in Jerusalem." That affair, and its many consequences, lead to strife and pain for David's kingdom throughout the remainder of his reign.

1 Chronicles 20: 4-5, Victories over the Philistines

In the course of time, war broke out with the Philistines, at Gezer. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, one of the descendants of the Rephaites, and the Philistines were subjugated.

In another battle with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver's rod.

 

Other conquests are described. In a conflict with the Philistines, a soldier Sibbecai kills a Philistine Sippai and helps defeat the Philistines. In another, a man named Elhanan kills the brother of Goliath.

1 Chronicles 20: 6-8, Other descendants of Rapha

In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot--twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha. When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David's brother, killed him. These were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.

The descendants of Rapha were supposedly giants and here we have a warrior with six fingers on each hand, six toes of each foot!  A nephew of David kills him and other descendants of Rapha fall in battle with David's men.

Verses 4-8 are parallel to 2 Samuel 21:15-22.