2 Samuel 10:6

6. Stank Were held in abomination. See note on 1 Samuel 13:4.

Sent and hired the Syrians In the note on 2 Samuel 8:3, we have argued that probably this act of the Syrians in helping the Ammonites in their war against Israel was the occasion of David’s Aramean wars. The mere fact that this account occurs in a subsequent chapter does not prove that the events themselves were in the like chronological sequence. The conquest of Ammon is also mentioned in that chapter, (2 Samuel 10:12;) but it could have been no conquest previous to this one, for if David had subdued them before the death of Nahash, how could he have presumed to send this embassy of condolence to Hanun? And, further, if the complete subjugation into which David reduced Hadarezer and his people were previous to this, is it not strange that in this more detailed narrative there is no mention of their revolting from their allegiance?

Beth-rehob Called also in 2 Samuel 10:8, Rehob; a district lying probably southwest of Damascus, and north of Lake Merom. See on Judges 18:28.

Of king Maacah Rather, of the king of Maacah, Maacah being the name of the place, not of the king. The region of Maacah seems to have bordered on Beth-rehob, and extended southward from Mount Hermon. See on Joshua 12:5.

Ish-tob Rather, men of Tob. Tob was the district northeast of Gilead into which Jephthah fled when driven from his father’s house. See margin, and Judges 11:3. In 1 Chronicles 19:6, we are told that the Ammonites derived help from Mesopotamia also, and, according to our interpretation of chap. viii, at a later stage of this same war with Syria, when the Syrians of Damascus interfered to succour Hadarezer, they were also smitten before the army of Israel, and thus all these confederate principalities of Syria became subject to David. Thus the fragmentary narratives of chaps. viii and x of this book of Samuel, and the parallel passages in 1 Chronicles, make up at best only a broken and disconnected account of David’s Syrian wars; and therefore, for want of sufficient data, we may not expect to clear up all discrepancies in numbers that appear between the separate accounts.