1 Chronicles 20:3

and cutthem with saws Read (cp. 2 Samuel 12:31, R.V. mg.) and put them with saws, i.e. put them to work with saws, etc. Cp. 2 Chronicles 2:17-18; Joshua 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 Deuteronomy 2:19.

4 8 (2 Samuel 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 (2 Samuel 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 (2 Samuel 13:1 to 2 Samuel 21:14).