1 Chronicles: A Commentary

18 1/ 71 9/ 14/ Translation It happened after this that David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. He took Gath and its daughter villages1 from the hand of the Philistines. 2/ David also defeated Moab, and the Moabites became2 tribute-bearing slaves of David. 3/ David defeated Hadadezerl king of Zobah toward Hamath4 when he5 went to set up his monument on the river Euphrates.6 4/ David captured from him one thousand chariots and seven thousand cavalry/ and twenty thousand infantry, and David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but left one hundred of them. 5/ When the Arameans of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David killed twenty-two thousand Arameans. 6/ Then David put garrisons8 in Aram Damascus and the Arameans became tribute-bearing slaves to David.9 Yahweh gave victory to David wherever he went. David took the golden bow cases that were on10 the servants of Hadadezer, and he brought them to Jerusalem. 8/ From Tibhath11 and from Cun,12 cities of Hadadezer, David took very much13 bronze. With it Solomon made the bronze sea and the pillars and also the vessels of bronze.14 When Tou15 the king of Hamath heard that David had defeated the whole army of Hadadezer king of Zobah,16 10/ he11 sent Hadoram18 his son to King David to ask him for peace and to congratulate him because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him. Tou had often been at war with Hadadezer. And as for a1P9 kinds of vessels of gold, silver, and bronze, 11/ these also King David dedicated to Yahweh with silver and gold that he had carried off from all the nations, from Edom,20 and Moab, and the Ammonites, and the Philistines, and Amalek. 12/ Abshai21 the son of Zeruiah defeated Edom22 in the Valley of Salt, with eighteen23 thousand casualties. 13/ He put garrisons in Edom24 and all the Edomites became25 slaves to David, and Yahweh gave David victory wherever he went. David ruled over all Israel, and he26 executed justice and righteousness for all his people. 15/ Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder.27 16/ Zadok the son of Ahitub and Ahimelech28 the son of Abiathar were priests; Shavsha29 was secretary. 17I Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites,30 and David's sons were the chief officials31 by the side of the king. 386 18:1-17 Victories over Various enemies; David's Officials i1'nl:l1 nl n~ . 2 Sam 8:1 has an obscure and uniden· tifiable reading, i1Q~i1 ;no "Metheg-ammah," instead of "Gath and its daughter villages." Allen, 414, notes that the Chronicler may have derived Gath by a transposition of the last two letters of ma, and that i1Q~ suggested to him a mother city and so he created a reading i1'nl:l1 "daughter villages." In readings discussed in textual notes 2, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20, 25, 26, and 29 (cf. also 6 and 16), Chronicles presupposes a text of Samuel other than MT. 2 ::l~lQ l' i1'1. The singular noun must be understood as a collective since the verb in Chronicles is plural. Gf. the partial reading in 2 Sam 8:1 4QSam•: ... 1'i1. Samuel MT 'i1n1. 3 1lll11i1 with Codex Land 2 Sam 8:3 MT; but many Chronicles Hebrew MSS, LXX, and 2 Sam 8:3 LXX read 1lll11i1. Historically the correct spelling of this man's name is Hadadezer, but the alternate spelling arose already in the Samuel texts represented by Samuel LXX. Hadarezer appears throughout this chapter in some Hebrew MSS (vv. 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10) and in 1 Chr 19:16, 19. 4 i1nan i1::l1~. Japhet, 343, nan i1::l ~ "Zobah-Hamath." i1nDn is lacking in Chronicles Syr, Arab., which is apparently a correction to 2 Sam 8:3. 5 The Hebrew is ambiguous and commentators have supplied the name of either David or Hadadezer. Since Hadadezer lived southwest of the Euphrates, but north of the kingdom of David, there is no way that Hadadezer would have encountered David on a trip to the Euphrates. Hence David is the correct antecedent. Cf. McCarter, II Samuel, 242. 6 n"l!:l 1i1l::l; cf. 2 Sam 8:3 Q, LXX; Samuel K lacks the name nl!:l "Euphrates." 7 D'ili"l!:l D'!:l'?~ nll::lilil :::1::>1 '"]'?~; cf...