1 Chronicles 19 is the nineteenth chapter of the Books of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament of the ChristianBible.[1][2] The book is compiled from older sources by an unknown person or group, designated by modern scholars as "the Chronicler", and had the final shape established in late fifth or fourth century BCE.[3] This chapter records the account of David's wars against the neighboring nations, especially the Ammonites and the Arameans.[4] The whole chapter belongs to the section focusing on the kingship of David (1 Chronicles 9:35 to 29:30).[1]
Illustration from the Morgan Bible depicting Hanun humiliating David's ambassadors.
This section a part of the accounts largely corresponding with 2 Samuel 10:1–11:1; 12:26–31, omitting the episode of David, Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite and 2 Samuel 12:27–29.[4] The death of a king, such as Nahash, the Ammonite, could signal then end of international arrangements with other kingdoms, so David wanted to confirm a good relationship with Nahash's successor, Hanun, but David's successive victories against the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, and Arameans, made Hanun's counselors suspicious (verse 3).[11] 1 Chronicles 19:4-8 and 2 Samuel 10:4-7 have a parallel in the Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls) text (4Q51; 4Q Samuela or 4QSama, dates from c. 200 BCE[12]), which shows that the 'relationship between Samuel and Chronicles was not one of unilateral or unambiguous independence',[4] with distinctive differences such as the spelling of "David" in the books of Samuel (דָוִ֖ד) differs from that in the Chronicles and 4Q51 (דָּוִ֑יד) as well as some details in numbers.[13][14]
When the Ammonites saw that they had become a stench to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent one thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and horsemen from Aram Naharaim, Aram Maakah, and Zobah.[15]
"Become a stench": that is "made themselves odious" (KJV) or "disgusting".[16]
"Talents": literally "kikkar", a measurement of weight.[17] One talent was about 34 kilograms (75 lb), so 1000 talents was about 34 metric tons (33 long tons; 37 short tons).[18][19] The sum paid by the Ammonites (1,000 talents of silver, cf. 2 Chronicles 25:6) is mentioned only in the Chronicles which often note monetary matters.[20]
"Aram-Naharaim": that is "Mesopotamia" (KJV) is listed here instead of Aram Beth-rehob in 2 Samuel 10:6, perhaps because it was no longer existed at the Chronicler's time, as the Chronicler also excludes "Tob".[4]
So they hired thirty and two thousand chariots, and the king of Maachah and his people; who came and pitched before Medeba. And the children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle.[22]
"Medeba": located c. 30 kilometres (19 mi) south-southwest of Rabbah (modern Amman), the capital of the Ammonites; not mention in 2 Samuel.[11]
David defeated the Ammonites and Arameans (19:10–19)[edit]
This passage parallels 2 Samuel 10:9–19 with a few differences. The victory of David's army against the Arameans (Syrians) left the Ammonites isolated from their allies.[23]
But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed seven thousand chariot drivers and forty thousand infantry men of the Arameans, and killed Shophak, the commander of the army.[24]
^Fincke, Andrew (2001). The Samuel Scroll from Qumran. 4QSama restored and compared to the Septuagint and 4QSamc. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah. Vol. 43. Brill. pp. 3–7. doi:10.1163/9789004350410. ISBN978-90-04-12370-0.
^Cross, Frank Moore; Parry, Donald W.; Saley, Richard J. and Ulrich, Eugene.『Qumran Cave 4 – XII, 1-2 Samuel』(Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Series, XVII). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005
Ackroyd, Peter R (1993). "Chronicles, Books of". In Metzger, Bruce M; Coogan, Michael D (eds.). The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford University Press. pp. 113–116. ISBN978-0195046458.
Mabie, Frederick (2017). "I. The Chronicler's Genealogical Survey of All Israel". In Longman III, Tremper; Garland, David E (eds.). 1 and 2 Chronicles. The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Zondervan. pp. 267–308. ISBN978-0310531814. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Codex Sinaiticus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
