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New Defender's Study Bible Notes
20:1 David tarried at Jerusalem. The events associated with Uriah and Bathsheba took place during the time of David’s tarrying at Jerusalem (II Samuel 11:1–12:25). Thus the Chronicler’s account jumps from the time when Joab besieged Rabbah (II Samuel 11:1) to the destruction of Rabbah (II Samuel 12:26). He apparently wished to spare his readers returning from their Babylonian exile from dwelling too much on this unsavory event in the career of their great ancestral king David.
20:3 cut them with saws. Whether this refers to a cruel and systematic murder of the Ammonites seems unlikely. The terminology may be a colloquialism for putting them to hard labor.
20:5 brother of Goliath. See note on II Samuel 21:19. Several children of “the giant” are mentioned in I Chronicles 20:4,6,8. Whether this was a single giant or a generic term for a remnant tribe of giants still surviving in this former land of giants is not clear.
20:7 Jonathan. Jonathan was a nephew of David. Shimea, his father, was an older brother of David (I Chronicles 2:13). It seems possible that he was named after Saul’s son and David’s friend Jonathan.