The Capture of Rabbah 1In the spring,a at the time when kings march out to war, Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the Ammonites. He came to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. And Joab attacked Rabbah and demolished it. 2Then David took the crown from the head of their king.b It was found to weigh a talent of goldc and was set with precious stones, and it was placed on David’s head. And David took a great amount of plunder from the city. 3David brought out the people who were there and put them to workd with saws, iron picks, and axes. And he did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all his troops returned to Jerusalem. Battles against the Philistines 4Some time later, war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai,e a descendant of the Rephaim,f and the Philistines were subdued. 5Once again there was a battle with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brotherg of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. 6And there was also a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha, 7and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of David’s brother Shimei killed him. 8So these descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants. Footnotes: 1 a Literally At the turn of the year 2 b Or from the head of Milcom. Milcom, also called Molech, was god of the Ammonites; see Leviticus 18:21 and 1 Kings 11:7. 2 c A talent is approximately 75.4 pounds or 34.2 kilograms of gold. 3 d Or cut them 4 e Sippai is a variant of Saph; see 2 Samuel 21:18. 4 f Or the giants; see also descendants of Rapha in verses 6 and 8. 5 g Or Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother; see 2 Samuel 21:19. Berean Standard Bible (BSB) printed 2016, 2020, 2022, 2025 by Bible Hub and Berean.Bible. Produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, unfoldingWord, Bible Aquifer, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee. This text of God's Word has been dedicated to the public domain. Free downloads and unlimited usage available. See also the Berean Literal Bible and Berean Interlinear Bible. Bible Hub |