Chapter Eighteen

1. David’s war with the Philistines. 2. With the Moabites. 3–8. War with Hadadezer, king of Zobah, and the Arameans. 9–11. An embassy from Tou, king of Hamath. 12–13. The defeat of the Edomites by Abishai. 14–17. David’s chief officials.

Like the others, the eighteenth chapter represents a repetition with minor peculiarities 2 Sam 8.

1 Chronicles 18:1. After this, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them, and he took Gath and its villages from the hand of the Philistines. Instead of the unclear expression 2 Sam 8:1: “and he took the bridle of the mother city from the hand of the Philistines,” the book of Chronicles uses clarifying words: “Gath and its dependent cities.” Gath was one of the five chief Philistine cities and by its position, as being on the border of the Israeli and Philistine lands, could indeed be the bridle over opponents for either side.

1 Chronicles 18:2. He also defeated the Moabites, and the Moabites became subject to David, bringing him tribute. The author, for unknown reasons, omits the remark 2 Sam 8:2 about the harsh treatment of the Moabites by David. It is hardly likely that he was motivated by a desire to present David in a favorable light; otherwise he should have remained silent also about the similar treatment of the Ammonites 1 Chr 20:3. It was in this, it seems, war with the Moabites that Abishai, son of Zeruiah, defeated two sons of Ariel the Moabite 1 Chr 11:22.

1 Chronicles 18:4. And David took from him one thousand chariots, seven thousand chariot drivers, and twenty thousand foot soldiers; and David hamstrung all the chariot horses, except for one hundred that he kept. In the book of Kings only 1,700 horsemen are mentioned, and about chariots nothing is said at all, although the subsequent words presuppose their destruction.

1 Chronicles 18:8. From Tibhath and Kun, cities of Hadadezer, David took a great amount of bronze. From it Solomon made the bronze sea and the pillars and the bronze vessels. In 2 Sam 8:8 these cities are called Betah and Berothai. What caused the discrepancy cannot be determined. Neither of these names occurs elsewhere in the Holy Scripture. In the book of Kings there is no mention of the use made by Solomon of the bronze captured by David.

1 Chronicles 18:12. And Abishai, son of Zeruiah, defeated eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt; The second book of Kings 2 Sam 8:13 attributes this victory to David himself, noting that it was achieved over “Arameans.” But the war with Edomites waged by David himself, in which Joab took part among others, ended, according to the testimony of 1 Kgs 11:15-16, in the slaughter of all the male population. Meanwhile, both 2 Kings and 1 Chronicles speak only of the slaughter of part of the Edomites. Therefore, the reading of the latter should be recognized as more correct. The attribution of the victory over the Edomites to David is perhaps explained by the fact that Abishai acted in his name, by virtue of which the deed of the military commander is attributed to his sovereign king. As for the difference in the names: Arameans and Edomites, it is explained by the similarity of their Hebrew spelling.