2 Samuel 8:13

And David gat [him] a name,.... Fame and reputation in the several nations of the world for valour and courage, for the many and signal victories that he obtained; the Jewish writers generally refer

And David gat him a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt, being eighteen thousand men. Returned from smiting of the Syrians , [ 'et (H854) 'Araam (H758).

Gat him a name, i.e. much increased his reputation. The Syrians, or Edomites, as they are said to be, . It is likely these two people were confederates, and that divers of the Syrians whom David had defeated in Syria fled to Edom, and there joined with them against their common enemy, and made up together a very great army, (as the number of the men slain in it showeth,) consisting of the veteran soldiers of both countries; although the slaughter here following may seem not to have been of the Syrians, as the words at first reading seem to intimate, but of the Edomites; (it not being probable that the Syrians would come so far from their own country, as to the valley of salt, to fight;) and this verse may be read thus, and that very agreeably to the Hebrew: And David gat him a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians, in smiting (which is easily repeated out of the last clause, according to the common usage of Scripture) in the valley of salt eighteen thousand men, who were Edomites, as is sufficiently implied here in the next verse, and expressed . The valley of salt; a place in Edom so called, either from its neighbourhood to the Salt Sea, or for some other cause now unknown. Being eighteen thousand men; as it is also 1 , where also they are said to be smitten by Abishai, because he was then a chief commander of the army under David, and, it may be, began the fight; as, for the like reason, they are said to be smitten by Joab, , where also there are only 12,000 mentioned; which place, if it speak of this battle, the state of it was this: Abishai begins the combat, and kills 6000; after him comes in Joab, and kills 12,000 more, which makes up this 18,000. But why may not that be another history and battle? So the Edomites and Syrians together did first fight with Abishai, and lost 18,000 men, and afterwards recruited their forces and fought with Joab, and lost other 12,000 men. Nor is it strange if two battles were fought in one place; of which there are divers instances in historians.

2 Samuel 8:13 And David gat [him] a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt, [being] eighteen thousand [men].Ver. 13. And David gat him a name.] He set him up a triumphal arch or trophy, saith Abulensis and others; he was worthily renowned and reckoned amongst the world’ s worthies; he was everywhere cried up for a great warrior and a famous conqueror. From smiting of the Syrians.] Amongst whom also were very many of the Edomites, who here met with their bane, and lost the library of their country. See 1 Chronicles 18:12 Psalms 60:1, title: which psalm David sang at this time, and on this occasion.

(13) When he returned from smiting of the Syrians.—Possibly, from the similarity in the original between Syria and Edom (see 2 Samuel 8:3; 2 Samuel 8:12), the words “he smote Edom” have dropped out of the text, but this supposition is not necessary. The course of affairs appears to have been as follows:—the war was originally undertaken against the Ammonites (2 Samuel 10:1-12), who had obtained the aid of the Syrians. In the first campaign their combined armies were defeated (2 Samuel 10:13-14), and they sought aid from every quarter, from the tribes beyond the Euphrates, on the north (2 Samuel 10:16), and from the Edomites on the south. David first inflicted a crushing defeat upon the allies near Hamath, and then “returned” to the south, where he again met them in “the valley of salt”—the Arabalt south of the Dead Sea, this latter army being naturally chiefly composed of Edomites, and so called in 1 Chronicles 18:12, and in the title of Psalms 60, but here spoken of as Syrians because the whole confederacy is called by the name of its most powerful member. David himself returned from the southern campaign; but what was done by his general, Abishai, under his orders, is naturally said to have been done by him. Meantime, when this first battle, attended with the slaughter of 18,000 men, had been won by Abishai, Joab, the general-in-chief, being set free by the victories in the north, gained another battle in the same locality, killing 12,000 (Psalms 60, title). The power of Edom was now completely broken, and the whole forces of Israel were mustered under Joab to overrun their country and destroy all its male inhabitants (1 Kings 11:15-16), certain of them, however, excepted (1 Kings 11:17), and their descendants in after ages were relentless foes of Israel. (Comp. the prophecy of Isaac, Genesis 27:40.) In this summary of David’s reign the historian here turns from his wars and victories over other nations to the internal affairs of his kingdom. Substantially the same list of officers is again given in 2 Samuel 20:23-26.

Verse 13. David gat him a name] Became a very celebrated and eminent man. The Targum has it, David collected troops; namely, to recruit his army when he returned from smiting the Syrians. His many battles had no doubt greatly thinned his army. The valley of salt] Supposed to be a large plain abounding in this mineral, about a league from the city of Palmyra or Tadmor in the wilderness.

13, 14. Conquest of Edom 13. gat him a name] Won renown. Cp. ch. 2 Samuel 7:9. This, and not “erected a monument,” as some render, is the right meaning. when he returned from smiting of the Syrians] The text is certainly corrupt. Chr. reads, “And Abishai the son of Zeruiah smote Edom in the valley of salt, (to the number of) eighteen thousand men.” The Sept. has, “And David made a name: and as he returned he smote Edom in Gebelem [a corrupt transliteration of the words meaning valley of salt] to the number of eighteen thousand.” Moreover the Valley of Salt was nowhere in the neighbourhood of Syria, but on the ancient border between Judah and Edom, to the S. of the Dead Sea. It was the scene of Amaziah’s victory over the Edomites (2 Kings 14:7). We must therefore either adopt the Sept. reading, or insert after Syrians the words and he smote Edom, which may easily have dropped out, as the second of two similarly ending clauses. Psalms 60 is referred to this occasion by its title; “Michtam of David. When he fought with Aram of the two rivers [Mesopotamia] and Aram of Zobah, and Joab returned and smote Edom in the Valley of Salt (to the number of) twelve thousand men.” The genuineness of this title is disputed, chiefly on the ground that the Psalm speaks of heavy disasters, of which there is no mention in the history. But we should scarcely expect defeat to be chronicled in such an extremely brief summary as the present, which records only the final results of the war. We may conjecture that while David was occupied with his campaign against the Ammonites and Syrians, Edom seized the opportunity for invading the south of Judah, and succeeded in inflicting serious damage, until David sent back part of his forces under Joab or Abishai, and repulsed their attack, following up his victory by the complete subjugation of Edom. We learn further from 1 Kings 11:15-16, that the war was pursued with relentless severity, and signal vengeance taken upon the Edomites. That the successful campaign is here attributed to David, in Chr. to Abishai, in the Psalm and in 1 Kings to Joab, need cause no difficulty. David was concerned in it as king, Joab as general of the army, Abishai probably as commander of the division sent forward in advance. The variations as to the number of slain, here put at 18,000, in the Psalm at 12,000, may be due either to a textual error, or to some difference in the mode of reckoning.

The Syrians - Read the Edomites, as in marginal references (compare Psalms 60:1-12 title), and as the context 2 Samuel 8:14 requires. For a further account of this war of extermination with Edom, see 1 Kings 11:15-16.

13. Gat him a name — Or, made him a monument, for ωׁ ?ν, name, is sometimes used in this sense.