2 Samuel 18:8

8 The battle spread out over the entire countryside, and the forest devoured more soldiers than the sword that day.

2 Samuel 18:8 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 18:8

For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the
country
Or the warriors were scattered, as the Targum; Absalom's soldiers, their ranks were broken, and they were thrown into the utmost confusion, and ran about here and there all over the field or plain in which the battle was fought, and into the neighbouring wood:

and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured;
there were more slain in it the in the field of battle, what by one thing or another; as by falling into pits and on stumps of trees, and being entangled in the bushes, and could make but little haste, and so were overtaken by David's men, and slain; insomuch that, as Josephus

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 observes, there were more slain fleeing than fighting, and perhaps some might perish by wild beasts; so the Targum,

``and the beasts of the wood slew more of the people than were slain by the sword;''

and so the Syriac and Arabic versions render the words to the same purpose.

F8 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 7. c. 10. sect. 2.)

2 Samuel 18:8 In-Context

6 So the troops marched into the field to meet the Israelites. The battle was fought in the Ephraim forest.

7 The army of Israel was defeated there by David's soldiers. A great slaughter of twenty thousand men took place that day.

8 The battle spread out over the entire countryside, and the forest devoured more soldiers than the sword that day.

9 Absalom came upon some of David's men. Absalom was riding on a mule, and the mule went under the tangled branches of a large oak tree. Absalom's head got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair while the mule under him kept on going.

10 One of the men saw this and reported to Joab, "I just saw Absalom hanging from an oak tree."