2 Samuel 12:30 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And he took the crown of their king from his head. The weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David 's head. And he brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount.

NIV: David took the crown from their king’s head, and it was placed on his own head. It weighed a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones. David took a great quantity of plunder from the city

NASB: Then he took the crown of their king from his head; and its weight was a talent of gold, and it had a precious stone; and it was placed on David’s head. And he brought out the plunder of the city in great amounts.

CSB: He took the crown from the head of their king, and it was placed on David’s head. The crown weighed seventy-five pounds of gold, and it had a precious stone in it. In addition, David took away a large quantity of plunder from the city.

NLT: David removed the crown from the king’s head, and it was placed on his own head. The crown was made of gold and set with gems, and it weighed seventy-five pounds. David took a vast amount of plunder from the city.

KJV: And he took their king's crown from off his head, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones: and it was set on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance.

NKJV: Then he took their king’s crown from his head. Its weight was a talent of gold, with precious stones. And it was set on David’s head. Also he brought out the spoil of the city in great abundance.

Hanun, king of the Ammonites, learns how foolish it is to take the advice of young, untested princes. David had offered friendship when Hanun's father died. The princes told Hanun the messengers were spies. Hanun foolishly and viciously humiliated David's representatives. When he realized the Israelite army was on its way, he hired neighboring armies for protection. But they were no match for Joab and David; they fled, and Hanun and the Ammonites hid in their walled city, Rabbah (2 Samuel 10).

The next year, in the spring, David called on Joab and the army to return to Rabbah (2 Samuel 12:1). Joab, David's nephew and military commander, laid siege to the city. Knowing the Ammonites are finished and the city is ready to fall, Joab sends for David (2 Samuel 12:26–29). David reclaims the honor of his men and his nation by taking Hanun's crown. The upstart is no longer king.

The crown itself is apparently massive and heavy. A talent of gold would have weighed about seventy pounds, or almost thirty-two kilograms. Such a crown would have been entirely ceremonial and only worn for brief moments. The crown was fixed with a precious jewel, probably also quite large.

Israel's vengeance doesn't stop at Rabbah. The Israelite armies go on to defeat all the Ammonite cities, looting them of everything worth having, including the people. It's possible that some of those foolish princes (2 Samuel 10:3) wind up working at the Israelite brick kilns (2 Samuel 12:31).

Second Samuel 12:26–31 explains how David finishes what Hanun started. The Ammonite king disgraced David's messengers, and David sent Joab to war (2 Samuel 10). They fought to a stalemate until the spring, when Joab returned while David sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah. The walled city of Rabbah is set to fall, and Joab calls David to finish the fight. First Chronicles 20:4 gives a shortened version of 2 Samuel 10 and this passage.

In 2 Samuel 12, David learns the consequences of his sins against Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Samuel 11). David thought no one of consequence knew what he'd done. Nathan the prophet reveals that God knows; the Lord demands justice for David's victims. David's household will rebel, and Bathsheba's son will die. David humbly repents, and Bathsheba later conceives Solomon, the future king. Joab, about to defeat the Ammonites, calls David to finish the fight. In 2 Samuel 13, the seeds of the promised rebellion are sown. Psalm 51 is David's expression of remorse for his sins.

David begins to lose control of his seemingly perfect situation. While the respected soldier Uriah was fighting Ammonites with Joab (2 Samuel 10), David slept with Uriah's wife, Bathsheba. To cover her pregnancy, David arranged for Uriah to die in battle (2 Samuel 11). Nathan, the prophet, confronts David over his crimes. God takes the child's life and will allow David's household to rebel against him. This begins when David's son rapes his own half-sister, Tamar (2 Samuel 13), starting a series of events that will result in another son, Absalom, taking the throne from his father (2 Samuel 14—16).

Second Samuel continues the story of David, who will become king over Judah. The other tribes of Israel are resistant, eventually sparking a civil war. David wins and makes Jerusalem his capital. Early success is followed by moral failure and controversy in David's house. The book of 1 Kings will begin by detailing David's decline and death.