1 Chronicles 20

EasyEnglish Bible

Joab wins the fight for Rabbah

20 In the spring, Joab led the Israelite army out to fight. That was the time of year when kings go out to fight battles. Joab and his army attacked the land of the Ammonites and he won against them. He put his soldiers around Rabbah city so that they could attack it. But David had stayed in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and he destroyed its buildings.

² When David came, he took the crown off the Ammonite king's head. The crown was made of gold. It weighed 34 kilograms. There was a valuable jewel fixed on it. David's men then put the crown on David's head. David also took a lot of valuable things from the city. ³ He brought the people out from the city to do hard work for him. He made them cut wood with saws, and use iron tools and axes. He did the same thing to the people of all the other Ammonite cities.

Then David and all his army returned to Jerusalem.

The army fights the Philistines

⁴ Some time after that, the Israelites fought a battle against the Philistines at Gezer. In that battle, Sibbecai from Hushah killed Sippai. Sippai was a descendant of Rapha.^[a] So Israel won against the Philistines.

⁵ In another battle against the Philistines, Jair's son Elhanan killed Lahmi. Lahmi was the brother of Goliath who came from Gath. He had a spear that was very thick and heavy, like a big tree.

⁶ There was another battle at Gath. Another descendant of Rapha fought against the Israelites there. He was a very large man. He had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. ⁷ He shouted to insult the Israelite soldiers. So Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shimea, killed him.

⁸ Those Philistines were descendants of Rapha and they lived in Gath. David and his soldiers killed all of them.