2 Samuel 8:5

5 When Aram of Damascus came to help Hadadezer, the king of Zobah, David killed twenty-two thousand men of Aram.

2 Samuel 8:5 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 8:5

And when the Syrians of Damascus came to succour Hadadezer king
of Zobah
These seem to have had no king at this time, or, if they had, Hadadezer was their king, which is not improbable; and Nicholas of Damascus ^F15; an Heathen writer, is clear for it, whom he calls Adad, who, he says, reigned over Damascus, and the other Syria without Phoenicia, who made war with David king of Judea, and was routed by him at Euphrates: and he seems to be the first king of Damascus, which he joined to the kingdom of Zobah, and all the kings of Damascus afterwards were called by the same name; though Josephus ^F16, who also speaks of Adad being king of Damascus and of the Syrians, yet makes him different from this Hadadezer, to whose assistance he says he came:

David slew of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men;
that is, of the Syrians of Damascus.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 Apud Joseph. ib. (l. 7. c. 5.) sect. 2.
F16 Ibid.

2 Samuel 8:5 In-Context

3 Then David struck down Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when he went to restore his monument at the Euphrates River.

4 David captured from him one thousand and seven hundred horsemen and twenty thousand {foot soldiers}. David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but {from them} he spared a hundred chariot horses.

5 When Aram of Damascus came to help Hadadezer, the king of Zobah, David killed twenty-two thousand men of Aram.

6 David placed garrisons in Aram of Damascus, so Aram became servants of David, bringing tribute. Yahweh protected David everywhere he went.

7 David took the small round gold shields which had {belonged} to the servants of Hadadezer, and he brought them [to] Jerusalem.