Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Chronicles 20:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; at which time Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Sippai, that was of the children of the giant: and they were subdued.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse opens the thought unit and establishes its first name, action, or speech: “And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; at which….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “David's servants defeat Philistine giant-warriors.”
Read It With
- 1 Chronicles 20:4–8
Read 1 Chronicles 20:4 with 20:4–8. The selected wording supplies one opening in the thought unit and establishes its first name, action, or speech; the surrounding verses supply the relationships and outcome summarized here: Sibbechai, Elhanan, and Jonathan defeat named large Philistine warriors connected with Gath.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within “David's servants defeat Philistine giant-warriors,” 1 Chronicles 20:4 opens the thought unit and establishes its first name, action, or speech through the wording “And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; at which….” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: The short sequence attributes the final giant conflicts to David's servants rather than David alone. 1 Chronicles 20:1–3 has just established this prior movement: Joab devastates Ammonite land and captures Rabbah, David takes a heavy crown and spoil, and the population undergoes a difficultly worded, violent fate. Together those details explain why “David's servants defeat Philistine giant-warriors” belongs here rather than merely following a database record.
Read 1 Chronicles 20:4–8 together
Why these verses belong together: 1 Chronicles 20:4–8 forms the complete movement “David's servants defeat Philistine giant-warriors”: Sibbechai, Elhanan, and Jonathan defeat named large Philistine warriors connected with Gath.
Verse 4. 4 And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; at which time Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Sippai, that was of the children of the giant: and they were subdued.
Verse 5. 5 And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver’s beam.
Verse 6. 6 And yet again there was war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand, and six on each foot: and he also was the son of the giant.
Verse 7. 7 But when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David’s brother slew him.
Verse 8. 8 These were born unto the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
What Remains True
Accounts of conflict must name agents, victims, land, loss, and literary judgment without converting ancient war into a modern command or ethnic hostility. This unit tests that truth through the narrated movement: Sibbechai, Elhanan, and Jonathan defeat named large Philistine warriors connected with Gath. In 1 Chronicles 20:4, the concrete line “And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; at which…” keeps that truth accountable to the narrated evidence.
How It Can Shape Life
- The evidence to keep visible in this verse is “And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; at which….” When reading conflict or making public decisions, distinguish description from command, count human cost, protect noncombatants, reject ethnic generalization, and pursue accountable noncoercive action. This response follows from the unit's own movement: Sibbechai, Elhanan, and Jonathan defeat named large Philistine warriors connected with Gath.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Chronicles 20:4–8 — David's servants defeat Philistine giant-warriorsSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 1 Chronicles 20:4–8, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Chronicles
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 20:4–8
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Full Notes: 1 Chronicles
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 1 Chronicles 20:4–8, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Open source ↗