1 Chronicles 18; 1 Chronicles 19; 1 Chronicles 20

1 Some time later King David attacked the Philistines again and defeated them. He took out of their control the city of Gath and its surrounding villages.

2 He also defeated the Moabites, who became his subjects and paid taxes to him.

3 Next, David attacked King Hadadezer of the Syrian state of Zobah, near the territory of Hamath, because Hadadezer was trying to gain control of the territory by the upper Euphrates River.

4 David captured a thousand of his chariots, seven thousand cavalry troops, and twenty thousand foot soldiers. He kept enough horses for a hundred chariots and crippled all the rest.

5 When the Syrians of Damascus sent an army to help King Hadadezer, David attacked it and killed twenty-two thousand men.

6 Then he set up military camps in their territory, and they became his subjects and paid taxes to him. The Lord made David victorious everywhere.

7 David captured the gold shields carried by Hadadezer's officials and took them to Jerusalem.

8 He also took a great quantity of bronze from Tibhath and Kun, cities ruled by Hadadezer. (Solomon later used this bronze to make the tank, the columns, and the bronze utensils for the Temple.)

9 King Toi of Hamath heard that David had defeated Hadadezer's entire army.

10 So he sent his son Joram to greet King David and congratulate him for his victory over Hadadezer, against whom Toi had fought many times. Joram brought David presents made of gold, silver, and bronze.

11 King David dedicated them for use in worship, along with the silver and gold he took from the nations he conquered - Edom, Moab, Ammon, Philistia, and Amalek.

12 Abishai, whose mother was Zeruiah, defeated the Edomites in Salt Valley and killed eighteen thousand of them.

13 He set up military camps throughout Edom, and the people there became King David's subjects. The Lord made David victorious everywhere.

14 David ruled over all Israel and made sure that his people were always treated fairly and justly.

15 Abishai's brother Joab was commander of the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was in charge of the records;

16 Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelech son of Abiathar were priests; Seraiah was court secretary;

17 Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in charge of David's bodyguards; and King David's sons held high positions in his service.

1 Some time later King Nahash of Ammon died, and his son Hanun became king.

2 King David said, "I must show loyal friendship to Hanun, as his father Nahash did to me." So David sent messengers to express his sympathy. When they arrived in Ammon and called on King Hanun,

3 the Ammonite leaders said to the king, "Do you think that it is in your father's honor that David has sent these men to express sympathy to you? Of course not! He has sent them here as spies to explore the land, so that he can conquer it!"

4 Hanun seized David's messengers, shaved off their beards, cut off their clothes at the hips, and sent them away.

5 They were too ashamed to return home. When David heard what had happened, he sent word for them to stay in Jericho and not return until their beards had grown again.

6 King Hanun and the Ammonites realized that they had made David their enemy, so they paid nearly forty tons of silver to hire chariots and charioteers from Upper Mesopotamia and from the Syrian states of Maacah and Zobah.

7 The thirty-two thousand chariots they hired and the army of the king of Maacah came and camped near Medeba. The Ammonites too came out from all their cities and got ready to fight.

8 When David heard what was happening, he sent out Joab and the whole army.

9 The Ammonites marched out and took up their position at the entrance to Rabbah, their capital city, and the kings who had come to help took up their position in the open countryside.

10 Joab saw that the enemy troops would attack him in front and from the rear, so he chose the best of Israel's soldiers and put them in position facing the Syrians.

11 He placed the rest of his troops under the command of his brother Abishai, who put them in position facing the Ammonites.

12 Joab said to him, "If you see that the Syrians are defeating me, come and help me, and if the Ammonites are defeating you, I will go and help you.

13 Be strong and courageous! Let's fight hard for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord's will be done."

14 Joab and his men advanced to attack, and the Syrians fled.

15 When the Ammonites saw the Syrians running away, they fled from Abishai and retreated into the city. Then Joab went back to Jerusalem.

16 The Syrians realized that they had been defeated by the Israelites, so they brought troops from the Syrian states on the east side of the Euphrates River and placed them under the command of Shobach, commander of the army of King Hadadezer of Zobah.

17 When David heard of it, he gathered the Israelite troops, crossed the Jordan River, and put them in position facing the Syrians. The fighting began,

18 and the Israelites drove the Syrian army back. David and his men killed seven thousand Syrian chariot drivers and forty thousand foot soldiers. They also killed the Syrian commander, Shobach.

19 When the kings who were subject to Hadadezer realized that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became his subjects.

20 The Syrians were never again willing to help the Ammonites.

1 The following spring, at the time of the year when kings usually go to war, Joab led out the army and invaded the land of Ammon; King David, however, stayed in Jerusalem. They besieged the city of Rabbah, attacked it, and destroyed it.

2 The Ammonite idol Molech had a gold crown which weighed about seventy-five pounds. In it there was a jewel, which David took and put in his own crown. He also took a large amount of loot from the city.

3 He took the people of the city and put them to work with saws, iron hoes, and axes. He did the same to the people of all the other towns of Ammon. Then he and his men returned to Jerusalem.

4 Later on, war broke out again with the Philistines at Gezer. This was when Sibbecai from Hushah killed a giant named Sippai, and the Philistines were defeated.

5 There was another battle with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath from Gath, whose spear had a shaft as thick as the bar on a weaver's loom.

6 Another battle took place at Gath, where there was a giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. He was a descendant of the ancient giants.

7 He defied the Israelites, and Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shammah, killed him.

8 These three, who were killed by David and his men, were descendants of the giants at Gath.