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1 Chronicles 20 — The chapter that skips David's worst moment to show what God was building anyway
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fresh.bible editorialThe Chronicler deliberately skips David's affair with Bathsheba — choosing to tell the story of what God was building through him, not every place he fell.
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This is one of those chapters that reads like a highlight reel. Short, punchy, and packed with action. is expanding, his generals are winning decisive victories, and a handful of warriors are doing things that belong in an action movie — taking down literal giants in one-on-one combat.
But there's a quiet detail tucked into the very first verse that the Chronicler doesn't explain. If you know the larger story, it reads differently. Let's get into it.
Spring had arrived — and in the ancient world, that meant one thing: war season. Roads dried out, supplies were plentiful, and kings marched out with their armies. So led forces out to devastate the territory and lay siege to their capital city, .
But here's the detail: stayed behind in .
Joab led the army out, ravaged the country of the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. Joab struck Rabbah and overthrew it.
Once the city fell, David showed up to claim the spoils:
David took the crown from the Ammonite king's head. It weighed a talent of gold — with a precious stone set in it — and it was placed on David's head. He brought out an enormous amount of plunder from the city. He brought out the people and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes. He did this to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and the entire army returned to Jerusalem.
(Quick context: a talent of gold is roughly 75 pounds. That's not a crown you wear casually — it's a statement piece. The kind of thing you display to say "their king answers to me now.")
The Chronicler breezes past David staying home. If you've read 2 , you know what happened during that stay in Jerusalem — the incident, one of the darkest chapters of David's life. But Chronicles deliberately doesn't go there. This book is telling the story of David's from the angle of the and the throne — what God was building through him, not every place he fell. It's not hiding it. It's just telling a different part of the story.
After the campaign, the came back for more. Because they always came back for more. This time the battle was at , and the Philistines had brought someone intimidating:
War broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Sippai, who was a descendant of the giants — and the Philistines were subdued.
One verse. One giant. One warrior named Sibbecai who apparently didn't think it was a big deal. No dramatic buildup, no trash talk, no five-smooth-stones moment. Just a man doing his job. Sometimes doesn't come with a dramatic soundtrack. Sibbecai doesn't get a book of the Bible. He gets a single verse. But that verse changed the outcome of a war.
The weren't done. Two more battles. Two more giants. And two more Israelite warriors who refused to back down.
War broke out again with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jair struck down Lahmi — the brother of Goliath the Gittite — whose spear shaft was as thick as a weaver's beam.
Read that again. The brother of . David killed the famous one. But apparently there was a family of these guys. And Elhanan stepped up and handled the sequel.
Then it got even stranger:
Another battle broke out at Gath, where there was a massive man who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot — twenty-four total. He was also descended from the giants. When he taunted Israel, Jonathan — the son of Shimea, David's brother — struck him down.
Six fingers on each hand. Six toes on each foot. The text wants you to know this wasn't just a tall guy — this was something else entirely. And when he opened his mouth to taunt , David's own nephew shut him up permanently.
The chapter closes with a summary that ties it all together:
These giants were descendants of the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
Here's what's worth sitting with. David killed his giant when he was a teenager with a sling. Now, years later, his warriors are killing giants too. The courage of a leader becomes the culture of a team. David didn't just win his own battle — he built the kind of people who could win theirs. The text credits both "David" and "his servants." That's not an accident. He set the tone, and they carried it forward.
Think about the people in your life who made you braver just by being brave first. That's what's happening here. Giants that would have terrified an earlier generation of are falling one by one — because someone showed them it could be done.