2 Samuel 18:8

_FOR THE BATTLE WAS THERE SCATTERED OVER THE FACE OF ALL THE COUNTRY: AND THE WOOD DEVOURED MORE PEOPLE THAT DAY THAN THE SWORD DEVOURED._ The wood devoured more people ... than the sword. The thick forest of oaks and terebinths, by obstructing the flight, greatly aided the victors in the pursuit, and was the occasion of more being slain in the rout than in the battle. This view is supported by Josephus: 'David's men were conquerors, as being superior in military strength and skill; so they pursued the rebels, as they fled away through the forests and valleys; some they took prisoners, and they killed many, more in the flight than on the field, because there fell about 20,000 that day' ('Antiquities,' b. 7:, ch. 10:, sec. 2)....

1-8 How does David render good for evil! Absalom would have only David smitten; David would have only Absalom spared. This seems to be a resemblance of man's wickedness towards God, and God's mercy to man, of which it is hard to say which is most amazing. Now the Israelites see what it is to take counsel against the Lord and his anointed....

Verse 2 Samuel 18:8. _THE WOOD DEVOURED MORE PEOPLE_] It is generally supposed that, when the army was broken, they betook themselves to the wood, fell into pits, swamps, c., and, being entangled, were hewn down by David's men but the _Chaldee, Syriac_, and _Arabic_, state that they were _devoured by wild beasts_ in the wood....

THE BATTLE WAS SCATTERED - Probably Absalom’s forces were far more numerous than David’s; but, most likely by Joab’s skillful generalship, the field of battle was such that numbers did not tell, and David’s veteran troops were able to destroy Absalom’s rabble in detail. The wood entangled them, and was perhaps full of pits, precipices, and morasses 2 Samuel 18:17....

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 18:1 AND DAVID NUMBERED. The verb really means that he organized his army, and arranged it in companies and divisions. As Absalom gathered all Israel to him, there would be some delay; and David, like a wise general, made use of it for training the brave but undisciplined men who had joined him, chiefly from Gilead. Besides these, he had with him numerous veterans, whose skill and experience would be invaluable in such service. The result was that when the rebels came to close quarters, they had a vast body of men, but David a disciplined force, which, under skilful generalship, scattered Absalom's raw levies with ease. The arrangement into thousands and hundreds was in accordance with the civil divisions (Exodus 18:25), both being,

FOR THE BATTLE WAS THERE SCATTERED OVER THE FACE OF ALL THE COUNTRY,.... Or the warriors were scattered, as the Targum; Absalom's soldiers, their ranks were broken, and they were thrown into the utmost confusion, and ran about here and there all over the field or plain in which the battle was fought, and into the neighbouring wood: AND THE WOOD DEVOURED MORE PEOPLE THAT DAY THAN THE SWORD DEVOURED; there were more slain in it the in the field of battle, what by one thing or another; as by falling into pits and on stumps of trees, and being entangled in the bushes, and could make but little haste, and so were overtaken by David's men, and slain; insomuch that, as Josephus h observes, there were more slain fleeing than fighting, and perhaps some might perish by wild beasts; so the Targum, "and the beasts of the wood slew more of the people than were slain by the sword;'' and so the Syri...

8. THE CIVIL WAR AND ABSALOM'S DEATH CHAPTER 18 _ 1. The battle in the forest of Ephraim (2 Samuel 18:1)_ 2. The death of Absalom (2 Samuel 18:9) 3. The tidings of his death and David's grief (2 Samuel 18:19) And now everything is ready for the battle and the victory. The army of David consisted of three divisions, Joab, Abishai and the faithful Ittai had the command. David was ready to go forth with his warriors, but the people refused to let him go. What a testimony they gave concerning him! “Thou art worth ten thousand of us. But of Him, who according to the flesh is the Son of David, we say, “He alone is worthy.” The king then stood by the gate of Mahanaim to see the d

1 SAMUEL 18:1 TO 1 SAMUEL 19:8. DEFEAT AND DEATH OF ABSALOM. DAVID'S GRIEF (J). 2 SAMUEL 18:1. Absalom's followers are defeated with great slaughter. Nothing is known as to the battle-field, the Forest of Ephraim, beyond what may be gathered from this story. Many fugitives lost their lives by falling headlong in the broken, rocky country; some perhaps, especially the wounded died of hunger and exhaustion in these inhospitable tracts, with which they were not familiar. Forest here, as often in England, _e.g._ Ashdown Forest, denotes the kind of country described above, and not a continuous mass of trees (_cf._ Budde)....

THE FACE. Figure of speech _Pleonasm,_ with _Prosopopceia._ App-6. devoured. Hebrew "multiplied to devour", to emphasise the great number. Figure of speech _Prosopopaia._ App-6....

_the wood devoured more_, &c. The explanation generally given is that they perished in the pits and precipices and morasses of the forest: but this seems unlikely. More probably it means that owing to the nature of the ground more were slain in the pursuit through the forest, than in the actual battle....