the choicest of his troops (2 Samuel 10:7). Joab found the enemy in double battle -array. The Ammonite army

stood a short distance outside their capital, Rabbah, while the Syrian auxiliaries were posted on the wide

unwooded plateau of Medeba (1 Chronicles 19:7), about fifteen miles south-west of Rabbah. Thus Joab

found himself shut in between two armies. But his was not the heart to sink in face of such danger. Dividing

his men into two corps, he placed the best soldiers under his brother Abishai, to meet a possible attack of

the Ammonites, encouraging him with brave and pious words, while he himself, with the rest of the army, fell

upon the Syrians. From the first the victory was his. When the Ammonites saw the flight of their auxiliaries,

they retired within the walls of Rabbah without striking a blow. But the war did not close with this almost

bloodless victory, although Joab returned to Jerusalem. It rather commenced with it. Possibly this may

explain why only the second act in this bloody drama is recorded in the summary account given in 2 Samuel

8:3, etc., and in 1 Chronicles 18:4, etc. Combining these narratives with the fuller details in 2 Samuel 10 and 1

Chronicles 19, we gather that, on his defeat, or rather after his precipitate flight, Hadad-Ezer "went to turn

again his hand at the river [Euphrates]," that is, to recruit his forces there (2 Samuel 8:3, in 1 Chronicles 18:3:

"to establish his hand"290 ) - a statement which is further explained in 2 Samuel 10:16 and 1 Chronicles 19:16

by the notice, that the Syrian auxiliaries thence derived were placed under the command of Shobach, the

captain of the host of Hadad-Ezer.

The decisive battle was fought at Helam (2 Samuel 10:17), near Hamath (1 Chronicles 18:3), and resulted in

the total destruction of the Syrian host. No less than 1000 chariots, 7000291 horsemen, and 20,000 footmen,

were taken; while those who fell in the battle amounted to 700, or rather (according to 1 Chronicles 19:18)

7000 charioteers and horsemen, and 40,000 footmen (in 2 Samuel, "horsemen"). Shobach himself was

wounded, and died on the field of battle.292

David next turned against the Syrians of Damascus, who had come to the succor of Hadad-Ezer, slew 22,000

of them, put garrisons throughout the country, and made it tributary. But all the spoil taken in that war -

notably the "golden shields," and the brass from which afterwards "the brazen sea, and the pillars and the

vessels of brass," were made for the Temple (1 Chronicles 18:8) - was carried to Jerusalem. The immediate

results of these victories was not only peace along the borders of Palestine, but that all those turbulent

tribes became tributary to David. One of the kings or chieftains, Toi, the king of Hamath, had always been at

war with Hadad- Ezer. On his complete defeat, Toi sent his son Hadoram293 to David to seek his alliance.

The gifts which he brought, as indeed all the spoil of the war, were dedicated to the Lord, and deposited in

the treasury of the sanctuary for future use.

But still the formidable combination against Israel was not wholly broken up. On the return of David's army

from their victory over the Syrians, they had to encounter the Edomites  294 (2 Samuel 8:13, 14), who had

advanced as far as the "valley of salt," south of the Dead Sea.

The expedition was entrusted to Abishai, Joab's brother (1 Chronicles 18:12, 13), and resulted in the total

rout of the enemy, and the garrisoning of the principal places in Edom by David's men; though, to judge by

1 Kings 11:5, 16, the opera tions took some time, and were attended with much bloodshed. The account just

given of the wars of David appropriately closes with a notice of his principal officers of state, among whom

we mark Joab as general-in-chief, Jehoshaphat as chancellor (magister memorioe), or recorder and adviser,

Zadok as high-priest at Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39), and Jonathan as assistant of his father Abiathar (1

Kings 1:7, 42; 2:22-27) at Jerusalem, Seraiah as secretary of state, and Benaiah as captain of the body-guard -

the Cherethi and Pelethi, or "executioners and runners"295- while the king's sons acted as intimate

The record of this period of David's reign - indeed, of his life - would have been incomplete if the memory of

his friendship with Jonathan had passed without leaving a trace behind. But it was not so. When he had

reached the climax of his power,297 he made inquiry for any descendant of Saul to whom he might show "the

kindness of God" for Jonathan's sake.