1 Chronicles 20

World English Bible 83 include this book

1 At the time of the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, Joab led out the army and wasted the country of the children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Joab struck Rabbah, and overthrew it.

2 David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it. It was set on David’s head, and he brought very much plunder out of the city.

3 He brought out the people who were in it, and had them cut with saws, with iron picks, and with axes. David did so to all the cities of the children of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

4 After this, war arose at Gezer with the Philistines. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, of the sons of the giant; and they were subdued.

5 Again there was war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

6 There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six on each hand and six on each foot; and he also was born to the giant.

7 When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him.

8 These were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

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4 places named in this chapter.

Where this was written

Jerusalem traditional A temple-centred history composed in the restored Jerusalem.

When this was written

Traditions differ. Each position is shown rather than one asserted as settled.

Traditional: 450 BC–430 BC Ezra
Traditionally the work of Ezra the scribe.
Critical: 400 BC–350 BC The Chronicler
Genealogies reaching several generations past Zerubbabel point later.

Elsewhere in the world

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (450 BC–350 BC).

1200 BC–400 BC Olmec civilisation Mesoamerica
The earliest major Mesoamerican civilisation, known for colossal stone heads and an early calendar.
1070 BC–350 AD The kingdom of Kush Africa
A Nubian power on the upper Nile that ruled Egypt itself as its twenty-fifth dynasty.
550 BC–330 BC The Persian empire founded Persia
Cyrus and his successors ruled from the Aegean to the Indus, the largest empire the world had yet seen.
500 BC–500 AD The Nazca lines South America
Vast figures drawn on the Peruvian desert, visible only from the surrounding hills.
499 BC–449 BC Greco-Persian wars Greece
Persia's attempts to subdue the Greek mainland failed at Marathon, Salamis and Plataea.
484 BC–425 BC Herodotus writes his Histories Greece
The first sustained attempt to inquire into the causes of events rather than simply record them.
460 BC–370 BC Hippocratic medicine Greece
Medicine separated from religion, seeking natural causes for disease.
447 BC–432 BC The Parthenon built Greece
Athens' temple to Athena, built at the height of its imperial confidence.

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