Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Chronicles 20:3
And he brought out the people that [were] in it, and cut [them] with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes. Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
3. and cut them with saws ] Read (cp. 2Sa 12:31, R.V. mg.) and put them with saws, i.e. put them to work with saws, etc. Cp. 2Ch 2:17-18; Jos 9:21-23. The implements mentioned here and in the parallel passage of 2 Sam. suggest task-work, not massacre. The Ammonites were reduced to bondage like that of Israel in Egypt. The exceptionally harsh treatment of the Ammonites was doubtless due to the exceptional insults which David’s ambassadors had received from them. A very different spirit towards Ammon is shewn in Deu 2:19.
4 8 (= 2Sa 21:18-22). Philistine champions slain
This section is the last in which the Chronicler notices David’s wars. It is taken from 2 Samuel 21, where, however, it is preceded by an account (2Sa 21:15-17) of David’s narrow escape in an encounter with a Philistine.
Between the two sections of this chapter the Chronicler omits the account of the rebellions of Absalom and of Sheba, and the story of the Gibeonite vengeance on the house of Saul (2Sa 13:1 to 2Sa 21:14).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 3. He brought out the people] See this transaction particularly explained in the notes on the parallel places, 2Sa 12:30-31.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
3. cut them with saws, c.TheHebrew word, “cut them,” is, with the difference ofthe final letter, the same as that rendered “put them,” inthe parallel passage of Samuel [2Sa12:31] and many consider that putting them to saws, axes, and soforth, means nothing more than that David condemned the inhabitantsof Rabbah to hard and penal servitude.
1Ch20:4-8. THREEOVERTHROWS OF THEPHILISTINES AND THREEGIANTS SLAIN.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
See Gill “1Ch 20:1”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(3) And he brought.Better, And the people that were in it he brought out, and sawed with the saw, and with the iron threshing-drags (Isa. 41:15), and with the axes.
Sawed.The Hebrew is an old word, only found here. Samuel reads, by change of one letter, set them in, or among, the saws, &c.
With the axes.So Samuel. Our Hebrew text repeats the word saw in the plural, owing to a scribes error. The two words differ by a single letter. Samuel adds, and made them pass through the brick-kiln, or Molochs fire (2Ki. 23:10).
Even so dealt David.Literally, And so David used to do. These cruelties were enacted again at the taking of every Ammonite city. There needs no attempt to palliate such revolting savagery; but according to the ideas of that age it was only a glorious revenge. As David treated Ammon, so would the Ammonites have treated Israel, had the victory been theirs. (Comp. their behaviour to the Gileadites, Amo. 1:13; comp. also the atrocities of Assyrian conquerors, Hos. 10:14; and of the Babylonians Psa. 137:7-9.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
cut. Hebrew. sur. Occurs only here; the meaning “cut” is arbitrary. It must be explained by 2Sa 12:31, where it is sum, and is rendered “put” = “appointed them [to work] with”. See notes there. Sur is probably from yashar = to regulate, or rule.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
And he: 1Ch 19:2-5, Psa 21:8, Psa 21:9
and cut: Instead of wyyasar, “and he cut,” the parallel passage is wyyasem, “and he put them;” which is also the reading here of seven manuscripts collated by Dr. Kennicott. Sawing asunder, etc., of human beings, have no more place in the text, than they had in David’s conduct towards the Ammonites.
with saws: Exo 1:14, Jos 9:23, Jdg 8:6-7, Jdg 8:16-17, 1Ki 9:21
Reciprocal: 2Sa 12:31 – and put them 2Ch 25:12 – cast them