Shmuel Bais 8:5

5 And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer Melech Tzovah, Dovid struck down the Syrians two and twenty elef ish.

Shmuel Bais 8:5 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 8:5

And when the Syrians of Damascus came to succour Hadadezer king
of Zobah
These seem to have had no king at this time, or, if they had, Hadadezer was their king, which is not improbable; and Nicholas of Damascus ^F15; an Heathen writer, is clear for it, whom he calls Adad, who, he says, reigned over Damascus, and the other Syria without Phoenicia, who made war with David king of Judea, and was routed by him at Euphrates: and he seems to be the first king of Damascus, which he joined to the kingdom of Zobah, and all the kings of Damascus afterwards were called by the same name; though Josephus ^F16, who also speaks of Adad being king of Damascus and of the Syrians, yet makes him different from this Hadadezer, to whose assistance he says he came:

David slew of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men;
that is, of the Syrians of Damascus.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F15 Apud Joseph. ib. (l. 7. c. 5.) sect. 2.
F16 Ibid.

Shmuel Bais 8:5 In-Context

3 Dovid struck also Hadadezer Ben Rechov Melech Tzovah, as he went to recover his yad (rule) at the nahar (river) Euphrates.

4 And Dovid captured from him an elef and seven hundred parashim, and twenty elef foot soldiers; and Dovid hamstrung all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for one hundred chariots.

5 And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer Melech Tzovah, Dovid struck down the Syrians two and twenty elef ish.

6 Then Dovid put garrisons in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became avadim to Dovid, and brought minchah. And Hashem saved Dovid wherever he went.

7 And Dovid took the shields of zahav that were on the avadim of Hadadezer, and brought them to Yerushalayim.