And David smote Hadarezer king of Zobah, at Hamath, as he went to establish his dominion by the river Euphrates.
David's push northward brings him against Hadadezer of Zobah, a Syrian power standing between Israel and the Euphrates. Two questions come up at once. Who was establishing dominion at that river? And why does a book about worship and the temple stop to record a battle?
The clause about the river is harder than it looks in English, and one writer argues the Hebrew settles who is doing the establishing:
The Hebrew says literally "to extend his hand to the River." I have simply put "power" in place of "hand," since that is clearly its force. Read this way, it is clear that the phrase fits David rather than Hadadezer... David had no dominion to recover at the River, while the Syrian king's land was at least close to it. Hadadezer stretching his own territory north to the Euphrates would hardly have brought him into conflict with David, whose kingdom lay to the south. But it is easy to see that David, coming north to the River, would find the kingdom of Zobah in his way.
David was not grabbing land at random. The Euphrates was the line God had named to Abraham. Even the name of the beaten kingdom teaches something:
Next we are told that David defeated the king of Zobah in northern Syria (v.3), as he went to establish his authority around the Euphrates River. David clearly wanted to extend his kingdom as far as the boundaries God had decreed Israel would one day have (Gen. 15:18). Syria pictures the materialistic spirit that soaks up every blessing God gives and takes the credit for it, as though the blessing began with itself. Its name means exalted.
But reach and ownership are not the same thing:
This, remember, is what Israel has never yet received — the land as it was promised to Abraham. Though David's empire reached the Euphrates at one point, it was only over tributary kings, and that land never was Israel's possession.
The power on show here was given to David, and it reached past the nations on Israel's doorstep:
The Spirit of God shows us the power given to David... This power extended beyond the nations right around Israel... Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became David's servants and brought gifts. So the Lord preserved David wherever he went.
One writer takes that name, exalted, and applies it to man himself:
Syria stands for man, whom God has exalted in Christ in His own gracious and wonderful way, but who, by exalting himself, drags himself down to his own ruin. It is this second thing that the history of Aram, or Syria, shows us. The world keeps illustrating it in different ways. "Man's day" is a day in which man makes himself great with what he has robbed from God, and lifts himself up by the very things God's mercy has given him.
Chronicles centres on the ark, the temple and worship. So why does it stop for a run of battles?
We need the account of David's victories to show us how the kingdom could be set up, how Israel could be freed from their enemies, and how Solomon could begin a reign of peace, righteousness and rule over the nations. Only a conquering, victorious king could bring these things about. His victories are set down together in one block, so that the book need not come back to them again... Christ's dominion will come in the same way at the end.
Unbroken success carries its own danger. One writer reads this run of victories as a test for David:
The Lord preserves David wherever he goes... In short, the Lord gives David the full tide of prosperity, as no one else has had it. How does he bear it?... Adversity tests the character, because it makes a demand on the resources in ourselves. Prosperity tests the nature, and our power of self-control.
- Dominion, extended. The Hebrew reads: to stretch out his hand to the River. David is the one moving north, and Zobah lay in his way.
- Dominion, promised. The Euphrates was the boundary God had named to Abraham. David reached for that line.
- Dominion, conferred. God gave David the power, and the Lord preserved him wherever he went.
- Dominion, limited. David's empire did reach the Euphrates, but only over tributary kings. Israel has still never owned the land promised to Abraham.
- Dominion, previewed. An exalted kingdom falls, and a conquering king rules the nations. Christ will bring in His own dominion the same way at the end.
And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen; and David houghed all the chariot [horses], but reserved of them [for] a hundred chariots.
Chapter 17 promised David an everlasting house. Chapter 18 records his wars. Verse 4 counts the spoil of one of them, then reports a strange act: David crippled almost every captured horse. Why destroy the best weapon you have just won, and why keep enough for a hundred chariots?
One writer ties these victories back to the chapter before, and finds the lesson there.
The lesson taught is that spiritual power always follows communion with the mind of God. In chapter 17 David had wanted to build a house for the Lord. God accepted the thought of his heart, but He did not let David carry out his purpose... Right with God, filled with His thoughts, in communion with His mind, David could go out in spiritual power for conflict. So it says, "After this David defeated the Philistines and subdued them."... Lack of power in dealing with souls, and lack of power in preaching the Word and in prayer, may all be traced back to being out of communion with the mind of God.
Another writer, on the parallel record in 2 Samuel 8, points to a line that appears twice:
The victories of this chapter grow out of David's communion with his God. The victories of 2 Samuel 5 were the same: the fruit of his dependence and obedience... So this chapter says twice: "The LORD preserved David wherever he went."
In the ESV that line reads, "And the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went."
Older versions call this "houghed." A dictionary gives the plain meaning.
To lame a horse and make it useless by cutting the sinews of the hind leg, called the hamstring.
One writer notes the exception, and the lasting effect:
He hamstrung all the horses except enough for use in 100 chariots. Of course, the hamstrung horses could not again be used for war.
David was not inventing this. One writer traces the order back to Israel's first entry into the land.
When Israel entered Canaan, the land was full of horses and chariots. The LORD said, "You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire" (Joshua 11:6), for Israel's God refused the methods of the nations in HIS work. His people's confidence must be in Himself alone.
Another writer, on the same order in Joshua, states the purpose behind it:
The purpose of this, no doubt, was to make it impossible for His people to trust in human resources... "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God" (Psalm 20:7).
One reference work notes what the horse meant in Israel, and marks David's hundred as an exception.
Israel used the horse only for war, either in chariots or in what is now called cavalry. But using it showed a failure of confidence in the Lord: see Hosea 14:3. They had been forbidden to multiply horses, Deuteronomy 17:16. David, however, after the defeat of Hadadezer, reserved 100 horses for chariots.
That small reserve stands almost alone in Israel's story. His son went far further:
"Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen" (1 Kings 4:26). And again, "Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt" (1 Kings 10:28)... Note this: apart from the few that David captured and kept (2 Samuel 8:4), and Absalom, who prepared chariots and horses in his bid for the kingdom (2 Samuel 15:1), there is no mention of a horse in Israel up to the days of Solomon. This first command, then, Solomon flagrantly disobeyed.
One writer reads the whole chapter as a picture of a wider kingdom still to come.
This chapter is the record of David's triumphs and increasing glory. His enemies become his servants. Gentile kings become vassals. One infinitely beyond David is mirrored here, Whose glory will fill the whole earth.
- Communion first. The wars follow chapter 17. Spiritual power comes after communion with the mind of God, never before it.
- Victory given. Twice the record says the Lord preserved David wherever he went. The strength was never David's own.
- Spoil crippled. Hamstringing cut the sinew of the hind leg. Those horses could never be used for war again.
- Trust protected. Israel's God refused the nations' methods in His work. Kept horses would have won Israel's confidence, so David destroyed the spoil instead of using it.
- A greater King. David held back only a hundred chariots' worth, while Solomon later stockpiled thousands from Egypt and broke the command outright. Yet the kingdom pictured here points past David to One greater still, Whose glory will fill the whole earth.
And the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadarezer king of Zobah, and David smote of the Syrians twenty-two thousand men.
Damascus did not start this fight. Its army marched out to rescue an ally, Hadadezer king of Zobah, and lost twenty-two thousand men doing it. Two questions follow. Why did David's reach now stretch so far past Israel's borders? And what happened to all the spoil he took?
One reference work traces the story of Damascus, both before David and after him:
One of the oldest cities in the world, it is mentioned as a known city in the days of Abraham. The historian Josephus says it was founded by Uz, grandson of Shem. It is not mentioned again in Scripture until the time of David. It was the capital of Syria. The Syrians of Damascus sided with Hadadezer, king of Zobah, against Israel, but David killed 22,000 of the Syrians. Later Rezon escaped and set himself up at Damascus as king of Syria, and he was an enemy to Israel all the days of Solomon.
Earlier in the chapter David beats the Philistines and Moab, enemies close to home. Damascus lay further off:
In this chapter (1 Chronicles 18) the Spirit of God shows us the power God gave to David. He struck the Philistines. They were the cruel enemies of Israel in Saul's day, and they killed Saul himself along with his family. David struck them and subdued them. He struck Moab, the old enemy, envious and spiteful toward the people… This power reached beyond the nations right next to Israel.
One writer measures this victory against Saul's record, and gives the reason in a line:
David defeated the Syrians of Damascus too. He put garrisons in their country, subduing them and putting them under tribute (v. 6). This again was a more complete victory than Saul had ever accomplished. The reason is simple and clear. The Lord was with David in all his wars.
One writer, commenting on the matching account in 2 Samuel, looks at what came before the battles:
The victories of this chapter grow out of David's communion with his God. In the same way, the victories of 2 Samuel 5 were the fruit of his dependence and obedience. When we are in communion with Him, God has no need to discipline us as He did with Uzzah. Communion lets us go forward, sure that we are in God's pathway. We need no special instruction to show us that pathway… Our path becomes God's path because our thoughts do not differ from His. So this chapter says it twice: "The LORD gave victory to David wherever he went."
The older translation he quotes reads, "Jehovah preserved David wherever he went."
One commentator reads Syria as a picture of man himself:
As a picture, we have already traced to some extent what Aram, or Syria, represents. It stands for man. God has exalted man in Christ, in His own gracious and wonderful way. Yet man, by exalting himself, drags himself down to his own ruin. This is what we see in the historical Aram. The world keeps showing it in different ways. "Man's day" is a day when man builds himself up with what he has robbed from God, and exalts himself with what God's mercy has given him.
Grant reaches the same point from the name itself:
Syria is a picture of the materialistic principle that absorbs all the blessings God gives and takes the credit for them as though they had originated them. Its name means "exalted."
The spoil from these wars does not stay with David:
This chapter is the record of David's triumphs and growing glory. His enemies become his servants. Gentile kings become his subjects. Here we see a picture of One infinitely greater than David, whose glory will fill the whole earth. Tou, king of Hamath, heard of David's victory over Hadadezer and the Syrians. He congratulated David and sent him all kinds of vessels of gold, silver and bronze. The Lord is bringing costly things for His temple. Once before He prepared gold and silver for His tabernacle in the wilderness, for Israel came out of Egypt loaded with jewels of gold and silver. Now the Lord is taking spoil from the nearby Gentile nations. All of it is for the temple. War forces some to give, others give freely. All contribute.
- Help that failed. Damascus, the capital of Syria, marched out to rescue Hadadezer. It lost 22,000 men, then took David's garrisons and paid him tribute.
- Presence that won. The victory went past anything Saul achieved. The reason is plain: the Lord was with David in all his wars.
- Communion first. The victories grew out of David's communion with God. His path became God's path because his thoughts did not differ from His.
- Pride brought low. Syria pictures man. God exalted man in Christ, but man exalts himself and so ruins himself.
- Spoil turned to worship. The plunder all goes toward the temple. War forces some to give, others give freely, and all contribute. It is a small picture of One infinitely greater than David, whose glory will fill the earth.
And David put [garrisons] in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became servants to David, [and] brought gifts. And Jehovah preserved David whithersoever he went.
David beat the Syrians who came to rescue Hadadezer. He stationed troops in Damascus, made its people pay tribute — and the verse hands the credit to the LORD, not to David's sword.
David meant to reach further than Damascus. One writer disputes how translators have rendered the words behind that push.
Third comes the conquest of Syria, which extended David's empire as far as the Euphrates. It does seem that he deliberately set out to take the country as far as the limit of God's promise to Abraham (Gen. 15). This seems to be the real meaning of the words that even the Revised Version gives as "went to recover his dominion at the River" — but they say nothing of the kind. They literally mean "to extend his hand to the River," that is, to extend his power there. David had no dominion to recover at the River, while the Syrian king's territory was at least close by.
Damascus was not just beaten. David held it and taxed it, and one writer gives the reason he went further than Saul ever did.
The Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer, but David defeated them too. He killed 22,000 of them (v.5), put garrisons in their country, subdued them, and made them pay tribute (v.6). This again was a more complete victory than Saul had ever won. The reason is simple and clear. The Lord was with David in all his wars.
The last line of the verse is not a stray comment. It appears twice in this chapter, and one writer traces these victories back to David's walk with God.
The victories of this chapter grow out of David's communion with his God. In the same way, the victories of 2 Samuel 5 were the fruit of his dependence and obedience. When we are in communion with Him, God has no need to discipline us as He did with Uzzah. Communion lets us go forward, sure we are on God's path, without needing special instruction to show us that path. "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you" (Psalm 32:8) becomes real to us. Our path becomes God's path because our thoughts are not different from His. So twice in this chapter we read: "The LORD preserved David wherever he went" (vv. 6, 14).
(This writer used an older translation, which reads "preserved." The ESV reads "the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.")
Syria stands for more than a nation. One writer reads Aram, its other name, as a picture of man himself.
As a picture, we have already traced to some extent what Aram, or Syria, stands for. It stands for man. God has exalted man in Christ, in His own gracious and wonderful way. Yet man exalts himself, and by doing so drags himself down to his own ruin. That is what the Aram of history shows us. The world keeps illustrating it in different ways. "Man's day" is a day when man makes himself great with what he has robbed from God, and lifts himself up by the very things God's mercy has given him.
The same writer looks ahead to the day when a greater David does what David did here.
The Syrians of Damascus cannot help either: David puts garrisons in Damascus itself. How different the world's "activity" will look in the day when our David does this!
The tribute did not stay in David's treasury.
David dedicates to the Lord all the spoil from the victory over the enemy, and Toi's freewill offerings as well. He claims none of it for himself. What will these riches be used for? 1 Chronicles 18:7-8 shows us that they came to Jerusalem. Out of this great quantity of bronze Solomon made "the bronze sea, the pillars, and the vessels of bronze" for the temple of the Lord… The victories of 2 Samuel 5 had strengthened David's throne. The victories of 2 Samuel 8 glorify the throne of God, who sits between the cherubim.
The picture of beaten enemies turned into servants reaches past David.
The following chapter (1 Chron. 18) is the record of David's triumphs and increasing glory. His enemies become his servants. Gentile kings become his subjects. Here we see a reflection of One infinitely beyond David, Whose glory will fill the whole earth… The Lord is bringing rich gifts for His temple… Some are forced to give by war, others give willingly. All of them contribute.
- Communion. One writer ties this run of victories to David's communion with God, and to his dependence and obedience — not to his strategy.
- Kept. Twice this chapter says the Lord preserved David wherever he went. That is why he went further than Saul ever did.
- Reach. David pushed north to the limit of God's promise to Abraham, stretching his power as far as the Euphrates.
- Surrender. Syria pictures man lifted up by God and then exalting himself. The garrisons in Damascus show that pride brought under a rightful king.
- Result. David kept nothing back. The spoil became metal for the temple, so a beaten world's wealth went to glorify God's throne — and to point to One greater than David, Whose glory will fill the earth.