2 Samuel 10:8

8 The Ammonites marched out and arranged themselves in battle formation at the city gate. The Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah took up a position out in the open fields.

2 Samuel 10:8 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 10:8

And the children of Ammon came out
Either out of Rabbah their metropolis, as Josephus ^F21; or rather out of Medeba, as it seems from ( 1 Chronicles 19:7 ) ; a city that lay on the borders of their country, and was a frontier town, see ( Numbers 21:30 ) ;

and put the battle in array, at the entering in of the gate;
of the city of Medeba; they were first within the city, but, upon the approach of Joab and his army, they came out and drew up in a line of battle at the gate of it:

and the Syrians of Zoba, and of Rehob, and Ishtob, and Maacah, [were]
by themselves in the field;
at some distance from the city, the Ammonites not choosing to trust: mercenaries in it; and perhaps they placed these ambush in the field, to get Joab between two fires, as we now express it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 Antiqu. l. 7. c. 6. sect. 2.

2 Samuel 10:8 In-Context

6 When it dawned on the Ammonites that as far as David was concerned they stunk to high heaven, they hired Aramean soldiers from Beth-Rehob and Zobah - twenty thousand infantry - and a thousand men from the king of Maacah, and twelve thousand men from Tob.

7 When David heard of this, he dispatched Joab with his strongest fighters in full force.

8 The Ammonites marched out and arranged themselves in battle formation at the city gate. The Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah took up a position out in the open fields.

9 When Joab saw that he had two fronts to fight, before and behind, he took his pick of the best of Israel and deployed them to confront the Arameans.

10 The rest of the army he put under the command of Abishai, his brother, and deployed them to confront the Ammonites.