2 Samuel 10:17

_AND WHEN IT WAS TOLD DAVID, HE GATHERED ALL ISRAEL TOGETHER, AND PASSED OVER JORDAN, AND CAME TO HELAM. AND THE SYRIANS SET THEMSELVES IN ARRAY AGAINST DAVID, AND FOUGHT WITH HIM._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

15-19 Here is a new attempt of the Syrians. Even the baffled cause will make head as long as there is any life in it; the enemies of the Son of David do so. But now the promise made to Abraham, Genesis 15:18, and repeated to Joshua, Joshua 1:4, that the borders of Israel should extend to the river Euphrates, was performed. Learn hence, that it is dangerous to help those who have God against them; for when they fall, their helpers will fall with them....

Verse 2 Samuel 10:17. _DAVID - GATHERED ALL ISRAEL TOGETHER_] He thought that such a war required his own presence....

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 10:1 THE KING OF THE CHILDREN OF AMMON DIED. This war is very briefly referred to in 2 Samuel 8:12; but we have now entered upon a narrative, the interest of which is altogether unlike all that has gone before. There we saw David crowned with earthly glory, and made the monarch of a vast empire; he is also a prophet, and, as such, not only restores, but enriches and enlarges, the worship of the sanctuary; and, as prophet and king, he becomes not only the type, but the ancestor of the Messiah. In this narrative he is a sinner, punished with terrible, though merited, severity, and must henceforth walk humbly and sorrowfully as a penitent before God. From...

AND WHEN IT WAS TOLD DAVID,.... What preparations the Syrians were making to fight him, and where they were: HE GATHERED ALL ISRAEL TOGETHER; all the fighting men in the country: AND PASSED OVER JORDAN, AND CAME TO HELAM: which, according to Bunting b, was twenty miles from Jerusalem. David seems to have gone himself in person to this war: AND THE SYRIANS SET THEMSELVES IN ARRAY AGAINST DAVID, AND FOUGHT WITH HIM; they formed themselves in a line of battle, and attacked him first, being eager to fight, and perhaps confident of victory, because of their numbers. b Travels, c. p. 140, 141....

7. THE WAR WITH AMMON AND THE SYRIANS CHAPTER 10 _ 1. David and Hanun (2 Samuel 10:1)_ 2. Ammon and the Syrians smitten (2 Samuel 10:6) The chapter with the war against Ammon and the Syrians is the prelude to the great sin of David. While Joab is carrying on the siege of Rabbah, the last city of the Ammonites, David, no doubt flushed with the great victory and prosperity, remained in his house and committed his awful sin. The war with Ammon originated through the insults which Hanun the King of Ammon had heaped upon David's ambassadors. David wanted to show kindness also to Hanun as his father Nahash had shown kindness to David. We have no record of this kindness. In this endeavour David did certainly not follow the right course, for Ammon was an enemy, and while Nahash

2 SAMUEL 10. WAR WITH THE AMMONITES AND THE SYRIANS (J). 2 Samuel 10:1. The king of Ammon insults David's ambassadors. [J. G. Frazer (_Taboo and the Perils of the Soul,_ p. 273) connects Hanun's action with the well-known belief that to get possession of the hair of a person is to have him in one's power. He supposes that Hanun, distrusting David's designs and desirous to have some guarantee of peace, thought he secured this by retaining half the beards and garments He quotes as a parallel the treatment of a traitor by two Moabite Arabs who shaved completely one side of his head and his moustache on the other, and set him at liberty. A. S. P.] 2 SAMUEL 10:6. The Ammonites hire mercenaries from the Syrian states; Joab takes command of the general levy of Israel and the standi

Renewed attack of the Syrians. Their total defeat 16. _And Hadarezer sent_, &c. The correct form of his name is probably _Hadadezer_. See note on ch. 2 Samuel 8:3. He now mustered his vassals and tributaries (2 Samuel 10:19) from beyond "the river," i.e. the Euphrates. "Brought out" = caused to take the field: it is the causative voice of the verb "to go out," which is the technical term for going out to war (1 Samuel 8:20; 2 Samuel 11:1). _and they came to Helam_ The words might be translated _and their force came_; but on the whole it is preferable to take _Helam_as a proper name, as in...

_David's Army Divided Into Two Companies._ 2 Samuel 10:6-19 6 And when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zoba, twenty thousand footmen, and of king Maacah a thousand men, and of Ishtob twelve thousand men. 7 And when David heard of _it,_ he sent Joab, and all the host of the mighty men. 8 And the children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entering in of the gate: and the Syrians of Zoba, and of Rehob, and Ishtob, and Maacah, _were_ by themselves in the field. 9 When Joab saw that the front of the battle was against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice _men_ of Israel, and put _them_ in array against the Syrians: 10 And the rest of the people he delivered into the hand of Abishai his brother, that he mi

THE WAR WITH AMMON AND SYRIA 2. His father shewed kindness unto me] Occasion not stated....