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2 Samuel 12 · a question people ask

What did David do to the people of Rabbah?

In the text

The chapter says it in one verse: "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" (12:31). Chronicles tells it in other words: "He brought out the people who were in it, and had them cut with saws, with iron picks, and with axes" (1 Chronicles 20:3). The two Hebrew verbs are different. In 12:31 it is sum, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "put, place, set"; in 1 Chronicles 20:3 it is sur, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "saw", and which is found only in that verse. The Hebrew of 12:31 has no separate word for to work. So readers take these verses in more than one way. Neither verse says more, or says whether it was right, and these notes don't add to them. The chapter's last words are "Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem" (12:31).

The verses

“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.”
2 Samuel 12:31 · World English Bible
“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.”
1 Chronicles 20:3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Samuel 12

2 Samuel 12: You are the man!

In Hebrew, the word for man, ish, comes six times in 12:1-5, through Nathan's story and David's angry answer. David gives the verdict on the man himself, "the man who has done this deserves to die!" (12:5), before Nathan says, in two Hebrew words, "You are the man!" (12:7).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions