2 Samuel 8:10
he sent his son Joram to greet King David and bless him for fighting and defeating Hadadezer, who had been at war with Toi. Joram brought with him articles of silver and gold and bronze,
Sermons
David's Wars and VictoriesB. Dale 2 Samuel 8:1-14
David's Foreign WarsW. G. Blaikie, M. A.2 Samuel 8:1-18
The Victorious KingF. B. Meyer, B. A.2 Samuel 8:1-18
God Over ManPulpit Analyst2 Samuel 8:6-14
The Garrison of the GracesSpurgeon, Charles Haddon2 Samuel 8:6-14














The Revised Version translates, "The Lord gave victory to David;" but in the margin, "saved David," which is equivalent to the translation in the Authorized Version, and is the more literal meaning of the original, from which there is no necessity to depart. In the Psalms, in which David praises God for his help against his enemies, he speaks as much of the protection he experienced as of the victories he won. His preservation in so many perils of war was worthy of special mention. The record is one that might be made in an account of the lives of most of us; in some respects, of all.

I. THE PRESERVATION EXPERIENCED.

1. Physical. That of bodily life and health and of the senses. Protection in perils by land or water. Preservation from serious illnesses, or deliverance from them. The uniformity of good health and wholeness of limbs is a greater blessing than restoration from sickness or repair of fractures, although it does not usually excite so much notice or call forth so much gratitude.

2. Mental. That of the soundness of the mind, of perception, memory, reason. It might be salutary for each of us to pay one visit to a lunatic asylum. Such impressions of the value of our reason may be obtained there as can be obtained nowhere else.

3. Moral and spiritual. That of faith and a good conscience, of principles and habits of religion and virtue. Protection from specially powerful temptations which, yielded to, would have been our ruin.

4. Of reputation. From slander or misunderstanding. A good name is conducive, not only to our comfort, but to our success in life, and to our usefulness. To some, owing to peculiar circumstances, its continuance is marvellous.

5. Prolonged. In many cases for very many years, in which dangers numerous, various, repeated, and imminent, have been met with. The greater the perils and the longer the period, so much the more noteworthy the preservation.

II. TO WHOM IT IS TO BE ASCRIBED. "The Lord." David owed much to faithful friends and brave soldiers, who regarded his life as their special care, and defended it at the peril of their own (see 2 Samuel 21:15-17); but the historian ascribes all to God; and David, when he reviews his life, or any part of it, does the same. In like manner, as we look back, we may remember many who have in various ways ministered to our preservation, and towards whom we rightly cherish gratitude; but these, and all else that has contributed to our well being, we rightly ascribe to God (comp. 2 Timothy 3:11; 2 Timothy 4:16, 17).

III. THE EMOTIONS IT SHOULD AWAKEN.

1. Gratitude. Expressed in praise and renewed self-dedication.

My life, which thou hast made thy care,
Lord, I devote to thee."

Also in zealous endeavours to preserve others from evil, especially the young and inexperienced (see Psalm 116., 117.)

2. Confidence and hope. As to future physical and mental preservation, so far as seems good to the infinite wisdom and goodness; but especially as to the moral and spiritual (see Psalm 91. and 121.; 2 Corinthians 1:9, 10; 2 Timothy 4:18).

"We'll praise him for all that is past,
And trust him for all that's to come." = - G.W.

David smote the Philistines and subdued them.
These years of war gave birth to some of the grandest of the psalms, amongst which may be numbered, 2., 20., 21., 60., 110.

I. THE FOE. They trust in chariots and in horses; their kings think that they will be saved by the multitude of their hosts. They inspire fear through the hearts of Israel, so that the land trembles as though God had rent it, and the people drink the wine of staggering and dismay. So tremendous is their assault, so overwhelming their numbers, that all help of man seems vain. It is thus in every era of the history of God's people, that Satan has stirred up their foes. Right behind the coalitions of men lies the malignity of the fallen spirit, who ever seeks to bruise the heel of the woman's seed.

II. THE ATTITUDE OF FAITH. Whilst the Serried ranks of the foe are are in sight, the hero-king is permitted a vision into the unseen and eternal. There is no fear upon the face of God, no change in his determination to set his king upon his holy hill. In fact, it seems that the day of his foe's attack is that in which he receives a new assurance of sonship, and is bidden to claim the nations for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. In perfect peace he anticipates the result, the Lord will send forth the rod of His strength out of Zion, and strike through kings in the day of His wrath, and make His enemies His footstool, so that in all after-days he may combine the office of priest and king, as Melchizedek did on that same site centuries before.

III. THE WARRIORS OF THE PRIEST-KING. Catching the contagion of his faith, they triumph in God's salvation, and in His Name set up their banners. They believe that God, as a Man of War, is going forth with their, hosts, and will tread down their adversaries. They are characterised by the willingness of their service. No mercenaries are pressed into their ranks; they gladly gather around the standard, as the warriors of whom Deborah sang, who willingly offered themselves. They are clad not in mail, but in the fine linen of the priests; "the beauties of holiness," a phrase which .suggests that the warfare was conducted by religious men as an act of worship to God. They are numerous as the dewdrops that bespangle the morning grass, when every blade has its own coronet of jewels, and the light is reflected from a million diamonds (Psalm 110.) What an exquisite conception of David's ideal for his soldiers, and of the knightly chivalry, of the purity, truth, and righteousness, in which all the soldiers of the Messiah should be arrayed!

IV. THE COMPLETENESS OF THE VICTORY. The armies of the alien cannot stand the onset of those heaven-accoutred soldiers. Kings of armies flee apace. They are bowed down and fallen in bitter, hopeless defeat. They are made as a fiery furnace in the time of God's anger, and swallowed up in His wrath. Their dead bodies strew the battlefield, and the valleys are choked with slain. In David we have a type of the Messiah. For, of a truth, against the Holy Servant Jesus, whom God has anointed, both the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel have gathered together. Men have refused His sway, and do refuse it; but God hath sworn, and will not repent, that to Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess: and it is more sure than that to-morrow's sun will rise that, ere long, great voices shall be heard in Heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ: and He shall reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 11:15-18.)

(F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

The first series of David's wars, on the termination of which it is said that he enjoyed "rest round about from all his enemies" (2 Samuel 7:1), was concluded before his proposal to build the temple. These seem to have been wars with such remnants of the ancient inhabitants as combined to molest his people within the limits of the twelve tribes. The wars now undertaken were chiefly against neighbouring nations, including the occupants of that large territory between Palestine and the Euphrates, which God had promised to Abraham (Genesis 15:18). The nations against which David now went forth were most of them extremely warlike; they seem, too, to have been banded together in leagues or confederacies; so that the enterprise was attended with difficulties and dangers which only a heart, made brave and fearless by trust in the Invisible, could have ventured to face. The 20th Psalm may have been written for the occasion, and left behind for the Levites, to be sung in the name of the nation, when they remembered the perils to which their king and his troops had gone forth. It is an instructive fact that the history of these wars occupies so small a portion of the Bible. A single verse is all that can be afforded to most of them. Had they been narrated at length, they would probably have forced a narrative that would have placed David, as a captain, on a level with Cyrus, Hannibal, or Caesar. It is one of the less noticed proofs of the inspiration of the Old Testament, that such dazzling transactions as these are passed over so briefly. There is no other history in the world where more space would be occupied in describing the carrying of an ark to its permanent resting-place, than in narrating seven great military campaigns. It would be beyond the power of human nature to resist the temptation to describe great battles — the story of which is always read with such interest, and which reflect so much earthly glory on one's nation, and create in the mind of the national reader such a feeling of satisfaction and pride.(1) The first campaign was against David's old friends, the Philistines. In former battles, David seems to have been content with driving them out of his territories — now he attacked them in their own. The town which he took, called Metheg-ammah, or the bridle of Ammah (so named from its situation), appears, from 1 Chronicles 18:1, to have been Gath itself. It was now David's lot, amid the vicissitudes of the world, to attack the place where he had once been sheltered — to hurl his weapons against the king (if he was still alive) whose hospitality he had experienced.(2) Much the same thing had to be done in his next campaign — that against Moab. The king of Moab had protected his father and mother when it became apparently unsafe for them to remain in their native land — and, through Ruth, Moabite blood ran in David's veins. Jewish writers have a tradition that, after a time, the king put his parents to death, and that this occasioned the war which David carried on against them. The severity practised against Moab was very great; it was a terrible blow, intended to cripple them for a whole generation, and make it physically impossible for them to take up arms again.(3) The third of David's conquests was over a more distant enemy, Hadadezer, the king of Zobah, in the direction of the Euphrates. It appears that in the course of this campaign another enemy had to be encountered — a vast mass of Syrians came out against him. It is evident that this campaign Was a very remarkable one, for the slaughter of the Syrians amounted to the prodigious number of 22,000; and the victory, besides giving David possession of Damascus and the whole of Syria, was followed by the voluntary submission of Tel, the king of Hamath (ver. 10), in the valley of Lebanon.(4) Of the wars with the Ammonites and Amalekites (ver. 12) nothing is recorded, nor is it certain whether these wars were carried on at the same time with the other campaigns, or whether (as we are inclined to think) the war with Amalek was that which took place while David was at Ziklag, and the war with Ammon that which is described in a subsequent chapter.(5) The last enemy specified is Edom; arid it is evident that the contest with that ferocious people was peculiarly bloody and critical. There is a degree of indistinctness in the narrative of this event, when it is attempted to harmonize the three passages that contain allusions to it — in Samuel and Chronicles, and in the introduction to the 60th Psalm. In one place, it is said that it was 18,000 Syrians that fell in the Valley of Salt (2 Samuel 8:18); in another they are said to have been Edomites (1 Chronicles 8:12); the introduction to the Psalm makes the number of Edomites 12,000; in Samuel, the victory is ascribed to David — in Chronicles, to Abishai — and in the Psalm, to Joab. It is probable that the war with Edom was carried on at the same time as the war with the Syrians; that while David and his army were in the north a detachment of the Syrians was sent to co-operate with the Edomites in attacking the southern part of Judah; that hearing of this, David despatched Abishai with a portion of his troops to encounter them; that Abishai completely defeated the confederate armies in the Valley of Salt (near Edom), much about the same time as David routed the Syrians in the neighbourhood of Damascus. If the Edomites and Syrians were confededate, it is not surprising that in one.place it should be said it was 18,000 Syrians that fell, and in another 18,000 Edomites. The psalm (60th), gives us a glimpse of the state of things in David's army at this time, revealing the frightful difficulties and dangers of the enterprise, and the singularly lofty efforts of prayerful courage which were needed to carry him through the crisis, It appears that his army, far from home, and engaged with a very powerful foe, had sunk to the lowest ebb, and had even, for a time, been visited with the most direful reverses. The effect of these victories must have been very striking. Nor, only were the people now freed from all the harassing attacks to which they had been subject at every moment and on every side, but the Hebrew kingdom was elevated to the rank of a first-rate Power. Garrisons were placed in all the surrounding strongholds; the accumulated hoards of Eastern wealth were transferred to Jerusalem; and streams of tribute rolled their golden waters into the treasury of David. The secret of David's success is expressed once and again in the narrative: "The Lord was with David, and preserved him whithersoever he went." It is one of the great lessons of the Old Testament that the godly man can and does perform his duty better than any other, because the Lord is with him — whether he be steward of a house, or keeper of a prison, or ruler of a kingdom, like Joseph; or a judge and lawgiver, like Moses; or a warrior, like Samson or Gideon or Jephthah; or a king, like David or Jehoshaphat or Josiah; or a prime minister over a hundred and twenty provinces, like Daniel. This is one of the prominent lessons of the Book of Psalms — it is inscribed upon its very portals; the godly man "shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." In all these warlike expeditions King David fulfilled his typical character — was an emblem of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, going forth "conquering and to conquer."

(W. G. Blaikie, M. A.)

People
Abiathar, Ahilud, Ahimelech, Ahitub, Amalek, Amalekites, Ammonites, Aram, Benaiah, Cherethites, David, Edomites, Hadadezer, Hadoram, Jehoiada, Jehoshaphat, Joab, Joram, Kerethites, Moabites, Pelethites, Rehob, Seraiah, Syrians, Tebah, Toi, Tou, Zadok, Zeruiah
Places
Amalek, Aram, Berothai, Betah, Damascus, Edom, Euphrates River, Hamath, Israel, Jerusalem, Metheg-ammah, Moab, Valley of Salt, Zobah
Topics
Articles, Battle, Bless, Blessing, Brass, Bronze, Congratulate, Continually, David, Defeated, Fight, Fought, Gold, Greet, Hadadezer, Hadade'zer, Hadoram, Inquire, Joram, Often, Overcome, Peace, Salute, Silver, Smiteth, Smitten, Struck, Toi, To'i, Tou, Vessels, Victory, War, Wars, Welfare
Outline
1. David subdues the Philistines and the Moabites
3. He smites Hadadezer, and the Syrians
9. Toi sends Joram with presents to bless him
11. David dedicates the presents and the spoil to God
14. He puts garrisons in Edom
16. David's officers

Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Samuel 8:1-14

     5087   David, reign of
     5366   king

2 Samuel 8:1-18

     7236   Israel, united kingdom

2 Samuel 8:9-10

     5328   greeting

2 Samuel 8:9-11

     4333   gold

Library
'More than Conquerors through Him'
'And the children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entering in of the gate: and the Syrians of Zoba, and of Rehob, and Ish-tob, and Maacah, were by themselves in the field. 9. When Joab saw that the front of the battle was against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians: 10. And the rest of the people he delivered into the hand of Abishai his brother, that he might put them in array against the children of Ammon.
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Palestine Eighteen Centuries Ago
Eighteen and a half centuries ago, and the land which now lies desolate--its bare, grey hills looking into ill-tilled or neglected valleys, its timber cut down, its olive- and vine-clad terraces crumbled into dust, its villages stricken with poverty and squalor, its thoroughfares insecure and deserted, its native population well-nigh gone, and with them its industry, wealth, and strength--presented a scene of beauty, richness, and busy life almost unsurpassed in the then known world. The Rabbis never
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

The King --Continued.
The second event recorded as important in the bright early years is the great promise of the perpetuity of the kingdom in David's house. As soon as the king was firmly established and free from war, he remembered the ancient word which said, "When He giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety, then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there" (Deut. xii. 10, 11). His own ease rebukes him; he regards his tranquillity
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David

A Cloud of Witnesses.
"By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when his end was nigh, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.... By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been compassed about for seven days. By faith Rahab the harlot perished not with them that were disobedient,
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews

Samuel
Alike from the literary and the historical point of view, the book[1] of Samuel stands midway between the book of Judges and the book of Kings. As we have already seen, the Deuteronomic book of Judges in all probability ran into Samuel and ended in ch. xii.; while the story of David, begun in Samuel, embraces the first two chapters of the first book of Kings. The book of Samuel is not very happily named, as much of it is devoted to Saul and the greater part to David; yet it is not altogether inappropriate,
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
2 Samuel 8:10 NIV
2 Samuel 8:10 NLT
2 Samuel 8:10 ESV
2 Samuel 8:10 NASB
2 Samuel 8:10 KJV

2 Samuel 8:10 Bible Apps
2 Samuel 8:10 Parallel
2 Samuel 8:10 Biblia Paralela
2 Samuel 8:10 Chinese Bible
2 Samuel 8:10 French Bible
2 Samuel 8:10 German Bible

2 Samuel 8:10 Commentaries

Bible Hub
2 Samuel 8:9
Top of Page
Top of Page