Chapter Eight
David’s Victories
[Verses 1-14 parallel 1 Chronicles 18:1-13]
David expanded the kingdom significantly, giving him political control over a vast area. The primary motivation was undoubtedly to offer greater security for his people, but his military effort also aligned well with the command from God many years earlier, to clear out and purge the people as well as the “pagan pollution” from the Promised Land. However, that edict was not fully obeyed from the beginning, not only had many of the people groups remained entrenched in the land, several of these pagan worshiping people were made into slaves, which allowed their pagan beliefs and rituals to survive and be observed by the Israelites. God wanted them completely removed from the land. These enemies would not have been a problem at this time (or in the future) if they had fully obeyed God back then. It is interesting to note that the text does not mention any instruction from God to David regarding the campaigns noted in this chapter.
8:1 After this David defeated the Philistines and subdued them, and David took Metheg-ammah out of the hand of the Philistines.
No time frame is given for this victory over the Philistines, here we read that David took Metheg-ammah, this is not a name of the city, it is a transliteration of the Hebrew phrase mě’·ṯěḡ hā ʾǎm·mā(h)’, which translates as “the bridle of the mother city.” Meaning they conquered the main governing city of the Philistines. In the parallel verse in 1 Chronicles 18:1, the city is identified as Gath, which was the closest main city to Israel and likely its greatest threat to the west.
8:2 And he defeated Moab and he measured them with a line, making them lie down on the ground. Two lines he measured to be put to death, and one full line to be spared. And the Moabites became servants to David and brought tribute.
David went to Moab and after he defeated them, he had them lie down on the ground, often thought to humiliate them. He measured them off in groups with a length of rope and then measured off two groups to be killed for every one group that was to be spared. The Septuagint and some manuscripts vary the middle portion of this verse, some state that David’s procedure killed half the people while other versions state that two-thirds that were executed. This form of humiliation and execution has no parallel in the Bible. The Moabites became subject to David and regularly brought him gifts. This event fulfills Balaam’s prophecy regarding Moab (see Numbers 24:17).
Many question how David, whose great-grandmother Ruth being a Moabite (see Ruth 4:18-22) and that not long prior to this time he had sent his parents and family to the king of Moab for protection from Saul (see 1 Samuel 22:4), became so enraged to conquer and humiliate Moab in this way? Some believe that the king violated David’s trust and had his parents and most of his siblings killed as reported in the ancient Jewish commentary on the book of Numbers, the Midrash Bamidbar Rabbah (14 folio 212).[1] Click here to read about ancient Jewish writings.
8:3 David also defeated Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to restore his power at the river Euphrates.
Now going north (over sixty miles north of the Sea of Galilee), David defeats Hadadezer (also spelled Hadarezer), the king of Zobah (modern-day Syria) and went further northeast to the Euphrates River to “restore his power” (Hebrew yāḏ’, hand, strength, can also be authority or right of possession). Since God had promised Abram that the Promised Land would extend to the Euphrates River (see Genesis 15:18, see also Exodus 23:31; Deuteronomy 1:7; 11:24; Joshua 1:4), David did have the right to possess the land up to the river.
8:4 And David took from him 1,700 horsemen, and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses but left enough for 100 chariots.
David commandeered a lot of men, horses, and chariots during his invasion of Zobah (a city-state of Syria/Aram). There are conflicting sources and interpretations regarding the numbers, for example both 1 Chronicles 18:4 and the Septuagint state that David seized 1,000 chariots, 7,000 calvary men (horse riders), and 20,000 foot soldiers.
This is undoubtedly a copyist error. Probably an early copyist inadvertently omitted the word “chariot” that we find supplied in some translations. This in turn created a problem for a later copyist who would have recognized that it was not proper Hebrew structure to write “one thousand seven thousand horsemen,” so he would have reduced the second “thousand” to “hundred” resulting in the reading we now have in 2 Samuel 8:4. It is probably the 1 Chronicles passage that retains the correct number.[2]
Regardless of actual numbers, David now had a lot of horses, interestingly, one of God’s regulations for Israel’s kings was that they, “must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses.” (Deuteronomy 17:16, ESV) It is unknown if that is the reason why David only kept enough horses for one hundred chariots. For the remaining horses, he couldn’t leave them there with his enemy, so he hamstrung (Hebrew yᵉʿǎq·qēr’, to cut the large tendons at the back of the major joint of a four-legged animal’s legs) them to prevent them from running or to serve in battle again. This is the same tactic that Joshua used during his campaigns purging Canaan in the past (see Joshua 11:6-9, as instructed by God, see also Genesis 49:6).
8:5a And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck down 22,000 men of the Syrians. 6a Then David put garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David and brought tribute.
The nearby Syrians of Damascus (a key city for the Syrian/Aramean affiliated city-states) came to the aid of Hadadezer, but David struck 22,000 of their men down making them servants of David and required them to pay tribute. Probably due to the distance from Jerusalem, David put garrisons (Hebrew nᵉṣi·ḇîm’, a military outpost) in Aram (an alternate name for Syria) to keep the peace.
8:6b And the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.
This phrase will be repeated before the end of this chapter (see verse fourteen), as it is an important fact. God gave David, no matter where he went in battle, victory over his enemies.
8:7 And David took the shields of gold that were carried by the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem.
David confiscated the gold shields that the servants of Hadadezer had been carrying. Since gold is not a good metal for shields, being too soft and heavy, these were likely stored for use later as material for the Temple (see verse eleven) or stored only to end up with other golden shields on Solomon’s palace walls (see 1 Kings 10:16-21). The Septuagint adds a future-related parenthetical comment here that Sousakim (Shishak in the Hebrew), the king of Egypt, will remove these shields from Jerusalem during an invasion years later when Roboam (Rehoboam), the son of Solomon, is king[3] (see 1 Kings 14:25-26).
8:8 And from Betah and from Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, King David took very much bronze.
From Betah (believed to be the northern Syrian city of Tibhath, see 1 Chronicles 18:8) and Berothai (also spelled Berothah, north of Damascus, believed to be modern-day Bereitan, and in 1 Chronicles 18:8 it is called Cun), David removed a great quantity of bronze that was later used to make the Temple’s bronze sea, the pillars, and vessels (see 1 Chronicles 18:8).
8:9 When Toi king of Hamath heard that David had defeated the whole army of Hadadezer, 10 Toi sent his son Joram to King David, to ask about his health and to bless him because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him, for Hadadezer had often been at war with Toi. And Joram brought with him articles of silver, of gold, and of bronze.
The city-state of Hamath was near the Orontes River (modern city of Hama) in a region that was often called Coele-Syria, although not all of the people were of Aramean descent. When the king of Hamath, Toi (in 1 Chronicles 18:9 he is listed as Tou) heard about David successful conquering of Hadadezer’s army, he sent his son Joram to meet with David to ask about his health (Hebrew šā·lôm’, peace, in context it is equivalent to asking, “How are you?,” see Genesis 43:27; Exodus 18:7; Judges 18:5) and to bless (Hebrew ḇārǎḵ’, to bless, to salute, to congratulate) him. We are told that Toi had been at war with Hadadezer on and off possibly for many years. He undoubtedly wanted to “extend an olive branch” to David in order to prevent any further war. Joram brought with him a variety of silver, gold, and bronze articles.
It is interesting to note that the name ‘Joram’ means “Yah is exalted” (Yah is short for Yahweh or YHWH, there are four people in the Bible with that name) but his name in 1 Chronicles 18:10 is ‘Hadoram’ meaning “Hadad is exalted” (named after the pagan god Hadad). Some question if he was renamed to appease David or was the name modified by a translator or copyist in a similar manner as Ish-Baal’s name was changed to Ish-boseth (see 2 Samuel 2:8-9, see also commentary) and Merib-baal changed to Mephibosheth (see 1 Chronicles 18:34, see commentary for 2 Samuel 4:1, in order to keep the names of pagan deities out of the text of the book of Samuel).
8:11 These also King David dedicated to the LORD, together with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued, 12 from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, and from the spoil of Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Zobah.
David took the silver, gold, and bronze, along with the silver and gold from all of the nations he conquered and dedicated it to YHWH, which as pointed out above, was later used in the construction of the Temple (see 1 Chronicles 18:8).
8:13 And David made a name for himself when he returned from striking down 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. 14 Then he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became David’s servants. And the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.
The next campaign was against the Edomites. David struck down 18,000 Edomite men in the Valley of Salt (area directly south of the Dead Sea). He put several garrisons in Edom as all of Edom were servants to Israel. The author tells us that due to the success of this campaign, David’s reputation grew. And again we are told that YHWH gave victory to David wherever he went.
David was able to subdue Israel’s enemies from the west (the Philistines), the east (the Moabites), the south (the Edomites), and the north (the Syrians, the Zobahites, and beyond by accepting the friendship from the king of Hamath).
David’s Officials
[Verses 15-18 parallel 1 Chronicles 18:14-17]
8:15 So David reigned over all Israel. And David administered justice and equity to all his people.
In what appears to be a summary statement regarding David’s reign over all of Israel, we are told that he administered (Hebrew ʿō·śě(h)’, to do, to accomplish) justice (Hebrew miš·pāṯ’, judgment, legal decisions) and equity (Hebrew ṣᵉḏā·qā(h)’, righteousness, blameless conduct) to all of the people. Note the repeated use of ‘all’ (Hebrew ḵāl) used first to refer to all of Israel and next to all of his people, a statement of being unified.
The Old Testament repeatedly states that God is righteous and just (Ps. 36:6; Isa. 5:16; Jer. 9:24), and he expects his people to display these same qualities (Ps. 106:3; Prov. 21:3). David proved himself to be a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14; Acts 13:22) by doing what was just and right for all his people.[4]
8:16 Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder, 17 and Zadok the son of Ahitub and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar were priests, and Seraiah was secretary, 18 and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and David’s sons were priests.
Next is a short list of those who David trusted and delegated kingdom related duties to, beginning with his nephew, Joab, the son of Zeruiah, David’s sister, who was introduced to us in 2 Samuel 2:13, and then later avenged his brother Asahel’s death by killing Abner (see 2 Samuel 3:30), he was David’s commander of his army. Jehoshaphat was David’s historian, the Hebrew word mǎz·kîr’, refers to remembering (not to be confused with the king of Judah many years later, there are four people named Jehoshaphat in the Bible, plus one valley near Jerusalem). Zadok, the son of Ahitub, and Abiathar is actually the son of Ahimelech they were the high priests (it is believed that the Masoretic Text was changed to put Zadok’s name first and when Abiathar’s name was reentered it was placed after Ahimelech, creating the error)[5]. Zadok officiated in Gibeon and Abiathar officiated in Jerusalem (see 1 Chronicles 16:39), possibly to provide a balanced (fair to both Judah and Israel) spiritual presence. Seraiah who is also known as Shavsha (see 1 Chronicles 18:16), Shisha (see 1 Kings 4:3), and Sheva (2 Samuel 20:25), was secretary (Hebrew sô·p̄ēr’, to number, to recount, to declare) possibly comparable to what we call a secretary of state. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, a priest (see 1 Chronicles 27:5), is considered by some to be a military hero (see 2 Samuel 23:20-21) he was appointed over the Cherethites and the Pelethites, two non-Israelite mercenary groups that were loyal to David, possibly related to the Philistines.
The last words in this chapter state that David’s sons were priests. The parallel verse in 1 Chronicles 18:17 refers to them as chief officials (Hebrew ri(ʾ)·šō·nîm’, first, head, chief), which is similar to the wording in the Targum and Septuagint. Since they are not from the line of Aaron, they could not be YHWH’s priests. There are some believe that this could be a reference to priestly duties that a layperson could do.
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[1] Viewed online at Sefaria Library. https://www.sefaria.org/Bamidbar_Rabbah.14.1?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en (scroll down for English translation)
[2] Geisler, N. L., & Howe, T. A. (1992). When critics ask : a popular handbook on Bible difficulties (pp. 170–172). Victor Books.
[3] Pietersma, A., & Wright, B. G., eds. (2007). 2 Reigns. In P. D. McLean & B. A. Taylor (Trans.), A New English Translation of the Septuagint (Primary Texts) (2 Sa 8:7). Oxford University Press.
[4] Andrews, S. J., & Bergen, R. D. (2009). 1, 2 Samuel (Vol. 6, p. 257). Holman Reference.
[5] United Bible Societies. (n.d.). The Preliminary and Interim Report of the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (2 Sa 8:17).