Bible Strands
2 Samuel 12:30
Then he took the crown from the head of their king. It weighed a talent of gold and was set with precious stones, and it was placed on David’s head. And David took a great amount of plunder from the city.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records David’s actions immediately after his army captures Rabbah, the Ammonite capital. The account notes the physical transfer of the defeated king’s regalia and the city’s spoils to the Israelite commander.
The words — עֲטֶֽרֶת ('a.te.ret) identifies the crown stripped from the enemy monarch, while כִּכַּר (ki.Kar) quantifies its weight as a talent of gold. These lexical anchors ground the narrative in measurable, material conquest.
The thread — The same event appears in 1 Chronicles 20:2, which repeats the removal and weighing of the crown. Both passages situate the conquest within a recorded pattern of royal transfer rather than isolated triumph.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to track how conquered authority is physically relocated through objects like crowns and plunder. It asks for observation of the concrete mechanics of victory without supplying moral evaluation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- 1 Chronicles 20:2 Then David took the crown from the head of their king. It was found to weigh a talent of gold and was set with precious stones, and it was placed on David’s head. And David took a great amount of plunder from the city.