2 Samuel 8 Footnotes

8:1 Did David capture Metheg-ammah or Gath? The parallel passage in 1Ch 18:1 substitutes the Philistine city Gath for Metheg-ammah. That two-word phrase occurs only here in the Bible, with the obscure literal meaning of “the bridle of the forearm”; it may or may not be a place-name. Apparently the writer of 1 Chronicles understood to the phrase as a description of the important Philistine city and chose to substitute its common name. If Metheg-ammah is a place-name, then the writer of 2 Samuel mentioned one city that David conquered at that time, while the Chronicler mentioned another.

8:4 English versions of this passage, following variant translators’ judgments, disagree on whether David captured seventeen hundred, seven hundred, or seven thousand horsemen from Hadadezer. In the 1Ch 18:4 parallel passage, the total is seven thousand, with some additional factual differences. The KJV and NKJV apparently try to reconcile the discrepancy by stating that David captured one thousand chariots and seven hundred horsemen. The NIV rejects the MT here, following the reading of the LXX and Dead Sea Scrolls which agrees with 1Ch 18:4. A copyist’s error in pre-Christian times can be assumed for either this verse or 1Ch 18:4. Most probably of the alteration occurred in 2 Samuel after the writing of 1 Chronicles, which preserves the original wording.