1-15 Same as 2 Samuel 7:1-17
- A line I didn't notice when reading 2 Samuel 7: God to David through Nathan: "I took you from...following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel."
- This would be a great title for an article either about David or maybe even God's guidance, using David as an example: "From following sheep to leading people" or something similar.
- Addition in this version: "You regard me as someone of high rank, O LORD God." (Another good title, along the lines of how God loves us, no matter what we think of ourselves.)
1-17 David's Kingdom Established and Extended; His Administrators
- 1-13 same as 2 Samuel 8:1-14
- Added: Solomon later used the bronze David took from Hadadezer to make the bronze sea, pillars and vessel (in the temple, I'm supposing).
- It's King Tou, not Toi, and his son's name is Hadoram instead of Joram.
- In 2 Samuel, it says David killed 18,000 Edomites. In Chronicles it says it's Abishai that did, subjecting the Edomites to David.
- 14-17 same as 2 Samuel 8:15-18. Here, in the NRSV, it calls David's sons "chief officials," not "priests," as it did in 2 Samuel.
1 Chronicles 19:1-19 (The Same)
- Nahash king of the Ammonites dies, and his son Hanun succeeds him.
- David sends envoys to express his condolences, because of kindness Nahash showed him in the past. Another reference we have to Nahash is in 1 Samuel 11, when in a war between Ammon and Saul, Nahash gouged out the eyes of Saul's men. There is speculation that when David was fleeing from Saul, Nahash gave him refuge, since in Saul they had a common enemy.
- Ammonite officials are suspicious of David's messengers, and to humiliate them, they shave them, cut their garments in half, and send them away. When David hears of it, he tells the men to stay at Jericho until their beards have grown back.
- Knowing David's displeasure, Hanun and the Ammonites decide to attack David before he can attack them, spending 1000 talents of silver to hire 32,000 chariots from Mesopotamia - Arameans - and the king of Maacah and his army.
- David sends out Joab and his army to meet them.
- When Joab sees they are surrounded, he assigns his brother Abishai over select men from the army to face off with the Ammonites while he faces the Arameans.
- Joab to Abishai, in part: "Be strong, and let us be courageous for our people and for the cities of our God; and may the LORD do what seems good to him." As far as I can recall, this is the only time I've heard any Israelite commander declaring his dependence upon God.
- When Joab advances, the Ammonites flee; when the Arameans see the Ammonites flee, they run, too.
- Then the Arameans regroup -- this time with reinforcements and the help of Shophach, the commander of Hadadezer's army (See 2 Samuel 8).
- David's army kills 700 chariot teams and 40,000 horsemen and mortally wounds Shobach.
- When the kings around who had been servants of Hadadezer see what has happened, they make peace with Israel and become subject to them.
- "So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites any more."
1-3 Siege and Capture of Rabbah
- "In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle," Joab goes out and besieges Rabbah of the Ammonites. This is such a curious phrase, as if they're planting a crop or something. It indicates what a culture of war there was then -- perhaps not so different today. Is it just in the nature of nations to fight each other? It seems so in the Middle East, for sure. Maybe that's how it always was and always will be.
- David remained at Jerusalem. This is where 2 Samuel 11 comes in -- David's sin with Bathsheba. 1 Chronicles doesn't go into that; its purpose seems to be to officially record victories and defeats of war, not the personal lives of leaders.
- David captures the crown of Milcom (the Ammonites' king?) and wears it, brings other booty of Rabbah to Jerusalem and puts its city's residents to work in construction - saws, iron picks, iron axes, or brickwork. This doesn't make much sense in 1 Chronicles, because didn't David stay in Jerusalem? But 2 Samuel 12:26-31 explains that Joab requests David to come and "finish off the city," as it were, and take the booty, so that the taking of the city will be David's doing and not attributed to Joab. For all his violent ways, Joab was loyal to David.
In separate battles with Philistines who are "descendants of the giants":
- Sibbecai the Hushathite kills Sippai
- Elhanan son of Jair kills Lahmi, brother of Goliath
- Jonathan son of Shimea, David's brother, kills a man of Gath who has 6 fingers on each hand and 6 toes one each foot
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