2 Samuel 18:8

8 The battle there was spreading over the surface of all the land, and {the forest devoured more among the army than} the sword [did] on 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 The army went out to the field to meet Israel, and the battle was [fought] in the forest of Ephraim.

7 The army of Israel [was] defeated there before the servants of David, and the defeat there was great on that day: twenty thousand.

8 The battle there was spreading over the surface of all the land, and {the forest devoured more among the army than} the sword [did] on that day.

9 Absalom was found in the presence of the servants of David [as he was] riding on the mule. The mule went under the thicket of the great oak tree, and his head [was] caught in the tree. He [was] left hanging between heaven and earth, and the mule which [was] under him went on.

10 When a certain man saw [it], he told Joab, and he said, "Look, I saw Absalom hanging in the oak tree!"

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "the forest made numerous to eat among the army more than"