Kings II 18:1-8

1 And David numbered the people with him, and set over them captains of thousands and captains of hundreds.

2 And David sent away the people, the third part under the hand of Joab, and the third part under the hand of Abessa the son of Saruia, the brother of Joab, and the third part under the hand of Ethi the Gittite. And David said to the people, I also will surely go out with you.

3 And they said, Thou shalt not go out: for if we should indeed flee, they will not care for us; and if half of us should die, they will not mind us; for thou as ten thousand of us: and now well that thou shalt be to us an aid to help us in the city.

4 And the king said to them, Whatsoever shall seem good in your eyes I will do. And the king stood by the side of the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.

5 And the king commanded Joab and Abessa and Ethi, saying, Spare for my sake the young man Abessalom. And all the people heard the king charging all the commanders concerning Abessalom.

6 And all the people went out into the wood against Israel; and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim.

7 And the people of Israel fell down there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter in that day, twenty thousand men.

8 And the battle there was scattered over the face of all the land: and the wood consumed more of the people than the sword consumed among the people in that day.

Kings II 18:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 18

This chapter begins with the good reign of Hezekiah king of Judah, the reformation he made in the kingdom, and the prosperity that attended him when Israel was carried captive, 2Ki 18:1-12 and gives an account of the siege of Jerusalem by the king of Assyria, and of the distress Hezekiah was in, and the hard measures he was obliged to submit unto, 2Ki 18:13-18 and of the reviling and blasphemous speech of Rabshakeh, one of the generals of the king of Assyria, urging the Jews to a revolt from their king, 2Ki 18:19-37.

Footnotes

• [a]. in, by.
• [b]. as we, ten thousand.
• [c]. hand.