And after this it came to pass
After David had rest from his enemies for a time, and after the
conversation he had had with Nathan about building the house of
God, and after the message sent to him from the Lord by that
prophet, forbidding him to build, and David's prayer to the Lord
upon it, the following events happened; and which are recorded to
show that David's rest from his enemies did not last long, and
that he had other work to do than to build the house of God:
that David smote the Philistines, and subdued
them;
these had been long and implacable enemies of Israel; Samson
began to weaken them in his days; a war was waged between them
and Israel in the times of Samuel and Saul, and the battle
sometimes went on one side and sometimes on the other; but now
David made an entire conquest of them: before they had used to
come into the land of Israel, and there fight with Israel, but
now David entered into their land, and took it from them:
and David took Methegammah out of the hands of the
Philistines;
the name of a province in Palestine, and from the parallel place
in ( 1 Chronicles
18:1 ) , it appears to be Gath, and its adjacent towns; but
why that was called the bridle of Ammah, or the bridle of a
cubit, as it may be rendered, is not easy to say. The conjecture
of Kimchi is, that there was a pool or river of water, so Ammah
is thought to signify; and Aquila renders it a water course,
which passed through the city, having been brought from without
it into it, the communication of which from place to place it may
be David cut off, by stopping or turning its stream; but
interpreters more generally suppose that Gath was built upon an
hill called Ammah, see ( 2 Samuel
2:24 ) ; thought to be the same with the Amgaris of Pliny
F4 though that is sometimes read
Angaris, a mountain he places in Palestine; and that it was
called Metheg, a bridle, because being a frontier city, and being
very strong and powerful, erected into a kingdom, it was a curb
and bridle upon the Israelites; but now David taking it out of
their hands, opened his way for the more easy subduing the rest
of their country: or the word may be rendered Metheg and her
mother, that is, Gath, the metropolis, since that and her
daughters, or towns, are said to be taken, ( 1 Chronicles
18:1 ) ; and Metheg might be one of them.