2 Samuel 8:5

5 And Aram of Damascus cometh to give help to Hadadezer king of Zobah, and David smiteth of Aram twenty and two thousand men;

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.

---

FOOTNOTES:

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

2 Samuel 8:5 In-Context

3 And David smiteth Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah, in his going to bring back his power by the River [Euphrates;]

4 and David captureth from him a thousand and seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen, and David destroyeth utterly the whole of the charioteers, only he leaveth of them a hundred charioteers.

5 And Aram of Damascus cometh to give help to Hadadezer king of Zobah, and David smiteth of Aram twenty and two thousand men;

6 and David putteth garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and Aram is to David for a servant, bearing a present; and Jehovah saveth David whithersoever he hath gone;

7 and David taketh the shields of gold which were on the servants of Hadadezer, and bringeth them to Jerusalem;