2 Samuel 11:1

2 Samuel 11:1. The siege of Rabbah

= 1 Chronicles 20:1

1. after the year was expired Better, at the return of the year: that is when spring set in with the commencement of the year in the month Abib or Nisan. Cp. 1Ki 20:22; 1 Kings 20:26; 2 Chronicles 36:10. If Joab's return to Jerusalem (ch. 2 Samuel 10:14) was due to the lateness of the season, the next year was probably occupied with the Syrian campaign, and the expedition against Rabbah did not take place until the year after it.

at the time when kings go forthto battle] At the time of year when kings were accustomed to reopen the campaign after the winter cessation of hostilities.

destroyed the children of Ammon The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 20:1 gives the right explanation, "wasted the country of the children of Ammon." While Rabbah was besieged, the country was ravaged.

Rabbah Rabbah(the great city), or more fully Rabbah of the children of Ammon(ch. 2 Samuel 12:26), the capital of the Ammonites, was situated in a strong position about 22 miles east of the Jordan, on a branch of the valley of the Jabbok. It consisted of the lower town, called "the city of waters" (ch. 2 Samuel 12:27), from the perennial stream which has its source in it; and the citadel, a place of great strength, built on a hill rising abruptly on the north side of the lower town (ch. 2 Samuel 12:28-29). We are not told whether the city was destroyed on its capture. If so, it was afterwards rebuilt (Amos 1:14), and was a place of importance at the time of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion (Jeremiah 49:2-3; Ezekiel 21:20).

Its name was changed to Philadelpheia by Ptolemy Philadelphus in the third century b. c., and down to the fourth century a. d. it continued to be famous. For a description of the ruins, which give proof of the magnificence and wealth of the city during the later period of its existence, see Tristram's Land of Israel, p. 533 ff.; Oliphant's Land of Gilead, p. 251 ff.

David tarried still at Jerusalem Exposing himself to the temptations of idleness. So Ovid writes:

"Quaeritur Aegisthus quare sit factus adulter?

In promptu causa est; desidiosus erat."