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2 Samuel 8:13

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

2 Samuel 8:13

Verse 13 of 18

Scripture focus

And David gat [him] a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt, [being] eighteen thousand [men].

2 Samuel 8:13 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on 2 Samuel 8:13

Theological / Devotional

The Syrians. The LXX, the Syriac, and several Hebrew MSS have “Edomites.” The parallel text of 1 Chron. 18:12 also has “the Edomites” (see on 2 Sam. 8:12 for a possible confusion of the two names). That the Edomites are intended is clear from the fact that the smiting took place in “the valley of salt,” which was in Edom (2 Kings 14:7; Ps. 60, title; see also on 2 Sam. 8:14, which is evidently a sequel).

Eighteen thousand men. Abishai, the brother of Joab, is named as the general of David who slew these 18,000 men (1 Chron. 18:12). Joab himself slew 12,000 Edomites in the same locality (Ps. 60, title). There is a record also of a campaign of Joab in which he smote “every male in Edom” (1 Kings 11:15, 16).

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