1 Chronicles 20 · a question people ask
What did David do to the people of Rabbah?
The chapter says it in one verse: "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" (20:3). 2 Samuel tells it in other words: "He brought out the people who were in it, and put them to work under saws, under iron picks, under axes of iron, and made them go to the brick kiln; and he did so to all the cities of the children of Ammon" (2 Samuel 12:31). The two Hebrew verbs are different. Here it is sur, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "saw", and which is found only in this verse; in 2 Samuel 12:31 it is sum, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "put, place, set". So readers take these verses in more than one way (2 Samuel 12's honest question sets them side by side too). Neither verse says more, or says whether it was right, and these notes don't add to them. The verse ends, "Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem" (20:3).
The verses
“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.”
“He brought out the people who were in it, and put them to work under saws, under iron picks, under axes of iron, and made them go to the brick kiln; and he did so to all the cities of the children of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.”