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CHAPTER XX

Joab smites the city of Rabbah; and David puts the crown of its king upon his own head, and treats the people of the city with great rigour, 1-3. First battle with the Philistines, 4. Second battle with the Philistines, 5. Third battle with the Philistines, 6, 7. In these battles three giants are slain, 8.

NOTES ON CHAP. XX

Verse 1. "After the year was expired, at the time that kings go out to battle" - About the spring of the year; see the note on 2 Sam. xi. 1.

After this verse the parallel place in Samuel relates the whole story of David and Bath-sheba, and the murder of Uriah, which the compiler of these books passes over as he designedly does almost every thing prejudicial to the character of David. All he states is, but David tarried at Jerusalem; and, while he thus tarried, and Joab conducted the war against the Ammonites, the awful transactions above referred to took place.

Verse 2. "David took the crown of their king-off his head" - See 2 Sam. xii. 30.

"Precious stones in it" - The Targum says, "And there was set in it a precious stone, worth a talent of gold; this was that magnetic stone that supported the woven gold in the air." What does he mean?

Verse 3. "He brought out the people" - See this transaction particularly explained in the notes on the parallel places, 2 Samuel xii. 30, 31.

Verse 5. "Elhanan the son of Jair" - See the note on 2 Sam. xxi. 19. The Targum says, "David, the son of Jesse, a pious man, who rose at midnight to sing praises to God, slew Lachmi, the brother of Goliath, the same day on which he slew Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-staff was like a weaver's beam."

Verse 6. "Fingers and toes were four and twenty" - See the note on 2 Sam. xxi. 20.

Verse 8. "These were born unto the giant in Gath" - "These were born aprhl leharapha, to that Rapha in Gath, or to Arapha." So the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Chaldee.