1 Chronicles 18:9-11 meaning
1 Chronicles 18:9-11 shows a neighboring king choosing friendship with David over the fate of Hadadezer: Now when Tou king of Hamath heard that David had defeated all the army of Hadadezer king of Zobah, he sent Hadoram his son to King David to greet him and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer and had defeated him; for Hadadezer had been at war with Tou. And Hadoram brought all kinds of articles of gold and silver and bronze (vv 9-10). Hamath sat on the Orontes River at the northern limit of the land God had promised (Numbers 34:8), and its king had suffered under Hadadezer's ambitions. 2 Samuel 8:9-10 calls the king Toi and his son Joram; the chronicler writes Tou and Hadoram, variant forms of the same names.
Tou's embassy is a picture of how David's victories reordered the region. A king who had been at war with Hadadezer found his enemy's conqueror on his border and sent his own son with gifts to greet him and to bless him (v 10). The gifts were an acknowledgment of David's new standing, and Hamath's friendship secured Israel's northern frontier without another battle.
Solomon would later hold territory as far as Hamath (2 Chronicles 8:3-4). The psalm that celebrates the Son of David foresaw a day when "the kings of Sheba and Seba" would "offer gifts" (Psalm 72:10), and Tou of Hamath, sending gold and silver and bronze to David, is an early instance of kings coming to the throne God had established. David's own promise from God, that He would make him "a name like the name of the great ones who are in the earth" (1 Chronicles 17:8), is being kept in the sight of the nations.
What David did with the gifts is the chronicler's main concern: King David also dedicated these to the LORD with the silver and the gold which he had carried away from all the nations: from Edom, Moab, the sons of Ammon, the Philistines, and from Amalek (v 11). The word dedicated comes from the Hebrew root "qadash," to set apart as holy. David received the treasure as the LORD's and handed it over to Him.
The list of nations gathers the whole chapter and reaches beyond it: Edom anticipates the war of the next two verses, Moab recalls 1 Chronicles 18:2, the sons of Ammon points ahead to chapters 19 and 20, the Philistines recalls 1 Chronicles 18:1, and Amalek reaches back to David's days at Ziklag (1 Samuel 30:16-20). 2 Samuel 8:12 lists Aram in place of Edom at the head of this list; the two names differ by a single Hebrew letter, and the chronicler's Edom fits the Edomite war that follows.
Where the dedicated treasure went is recorded later in Chronicles. David tells Solomon that he has prepared for the house of the LORD gold, silver, bronze, and iron beyond weighing (1 Chronicles 22:14), and the chronicler lists the Levites who had charge of "the treasures of the dedicated gifts" that David and his commanders "had dedicated from the spoil won in battles" to repair the house of the LORD (1 Chronicles 26:26-27). The spoil of Edom and Moab and Hamath became lampstands and basins in the temple.
The lesson reaches past David. Haggai would remind a later and poorer generation, "The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine, declares the LORD of hosts" (Haggai 2:8); David acted on that truth in the day of his greatest success. A believer who prospers faces the same question David faced with the treasure of the nations, and the answer David gave was to set it apart for God's house and God's purposes. Paul tells those who are rich to be "generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future" (1 Timothy 6:18-19); such giving is part of the faithful walk that Christ rewards at His judgment seat (1 Corinthians 3:13-14).