And the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, and David smote of the Syrians twenty-two thousand men.
2 Samuel 8 lists conquest after conquest, and in verse 5 Syria steps into a war that was not its own. Twenty-two thousand Syrians fall, and the chapter presses one question: where did such success come from?
These victories come right after chapter 7. One writer treats that order as cause and effect.
2 Samuel 7 is the high point of David's entire history in moral terms. 2 Samuel 8 then relates a series of victories. The victories of this chapter grow out of David's communion with his God. The victories of 2 Samuel 5 came the same way: they were the fruit of his dependence and obedience... Our path becomes God's path because our thoughts do not differ from His. So it is said twice in this chapter: "the LORD preserved David wherever he went" (vv. 6, 14).
This victory says nothing about David's skill as a general. Set beside Saul, it makes a different point.
The Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer, but David defeated them too. He killed 22,000 of them (v.5). He then 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.
The same writer traces Saul's failure to one root: "he was more interested in his own self-importance than in the counsels of God." So "he could not be depended on to fight God's battles" (Leslie M. Grant).
Philistines and Moabites were neighbours. Damascus was not — and that distance is part of the point.
In 1 Chronicles 18 the Spirit of God shows us the power given to David. He struck the Philistines, the cruel enemies of Israel in Saul's day, who had killed Saul himself and his family. David struck them and subdued them. He struck Moab, the old enemy, envious and spiteful against the people... This power reached beyond the nations directly around Israel.
Commentators also read these nations as pictures. Syria carries a character drawn from the meaning of its name.
Syria is a picture of the materialistic principle. It soaks up all the blessings God gives and takes the credit for them, as if it had been their source. Its name means exalted.
Damascus carries its own meaning, and the garrisons planted there point to a greater King.
Nor can the Syrians of Damascus help: in Damascus itself David puts garrisons. How differently will the world's "activity" show itself in the day when our David does this!
The same writer calls Damascus "a noted place of traffic" and links its name with "activity" (Numerical Bible Notes).
David kept none of the plunder. It all had one destination.
David consecrates all the spoil from the victory over the enemy (vv. 11-12) to the Lord, along with Toi's free-will offerings. He claims nothing of it for himself. What purpose will these riches serve? 1 Chronicles 18:7-8 shows that they came to Jerusalem, and that Solomon used this great quantity of bronze to make the bronze sea, the pillars and the bronze vessels 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.
One writer reads the chapter as a picture — a type — of something larger than David's reign.
In all this we have again the man of faith and the type of the Lord Jesus, King in Zion. He is victorious over the enemies of Israel. He puts Israel in possession of the promised land (Gen. 15:18), as far as the Euphrates. He dedicates the spoil to the LORD. He reigns over all Israel, and executes judgment and justice to all his people. The companions of his pilgrimage share in the glory of his kingdom — a type, in all this, of the kingdom of Christ.
David did not treat every nation the same way. Toi of Hamath sent gifts that no one forced from him. Grant calls him "typical of those Gentiles who will willingly submit to the authority of the Lord Jesus when He is manifested in glory" (Leslie M. Grant).
- Communion first. The conquests of chapter 8 follow the worship of chapter 7. The victories grow out of time spent before God, not out of ambition.
- Preserved, not clever. Twice the chapter says the LORD preserved David wherever he went. That explains a victory Saul never managed.
- Reach. Damascus was not one of Israel's neighbours. The power God gave David reached past the nations right around him.
- Named. Syria pictures the spirit that takes God's blessings and claims the credit. Damascus pictures restless activity. David garrisoned both.
- Dedicated. David kept nothing. Earlier victories secured his own throne. These ones served God's throne. That is the pattern of Christ's kingdom, where all the spoil and glory go to Him.
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.
Enemy after enemy falls before David in this chapter, and Damascus itself receives Israelite garrisons. The verse credits every victory to the Lord — so why did David win where Saul never did, and what is all this conquering for?
The order of the chapters matters. One writer ties this run of conquests to the chapter before it. He also notes that the last line of our verse comes back later in the same chapter:
2 Samuel 7 is the high point of David's entire history in moral terms. Right after it, 2 Samuel 8 tells of a series of victories. 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. Communion lets us advance, sure of being in God's pathway, without needing special instruction to show us the way. "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) will become real to us. Our path becomes God's path because our thoughts do not differ from His. The chapter says it twice: "the LORD preserved David wherever he went" (vv. 6, 14).
The older translation this writer used reads "preserved David wherever he went"; the ESV has "gave victory to David wherever he went." The Lord both kept David and won his battles.
The Syrians of Damascus came out to help Hadadezer, and lost with him. That defeat sets up a comparison with Saul, the king before him:
The Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer, but David defeated them too. He killed 22,000 of them (v. 5). 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.
The verse names the land Aram and its people Syrians. Commentators who read these nations as pictures of moral conditions find in this one the story of man lifting himself up with what God gave him:
Aram or Syria stands for man as a type. God has exalted man in Christ, in His own gracious and wonderful way. Yet man, by exalting himself, debases himself to his own ruin. That is what the historical Aram 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 exalts himself with what God's mercy gave him. And therefore the day of the Lord must be "against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up… and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day" (Isaiah 2:12, 17).
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The same writer sees David's garrisons in Damascus as a preview of what is coming:
Nor can the Syrians of Damascus help: in Damascus itself David puts garrisons. How differently will the world's "activity" show itself in the day that our David does this!
In our verse the Syrians bring tribute as beaten subjects. A few verses on, another king sends gifts that nobody forced from him:
Toi king of Hamath hears that David has struck down Hadadezer, who was always at war against him. So he sends his son Joram to the king with vessels of silver, gold, and bronze. Toi gladly acknowledges the deliverance God worked through David, and offers his presents freely, with no one forcing him (compare vv. 2 and 6).
David's conquests reach the Euphrates, the border of the land God promised in Genesis 15:18. One writer gathers the whole chapter into a picture of Christ's reign:
In all this we see again the man of faith and the type of the Lord Jesus, King in Zion. He is victorious over the enemies of Israel. He puts Israel in possession of the promised land (Genesis 15:18) as far as the Euphrates. He dedicates the spoil to the LORD. He reigns over all Israel, and executes judgment and justice to all his people. The companions of his pilgrimage share in the glory of his kingdom — a type, in all this, of the kingdom of Christ.
And the wealth taken from Syria does not stay with the conqueror:
It is easy to see that the world in this form must come down in the day of Christ. It will be forced to give up what it has wrongly claimed as its own. Its riches must be dedicated to the Lord; its glory pass to Him who is the "King of glory."
- Kept, first — the refrain appears twice in this chapter (vv. 6, 14); the chapter credits every victory to the Lord's keeping, not to David's skill.
- Kept because in step — the conquests flow from the communion of chapter 7; when our thoughts do not differ from His, our path becomes His path.
- Kept further than Saul — the fuller triumph had one plain reason — the Lord was with David in all his wars.
- Kept over the proud — Aram pictures man exalting himself with what God gave him, and garrisons in Damascus show whose day is coming.
- Kept for another's glory — forced tribute from Syria, free gifts from Hamath; either way David dedicates the spoil, and the riches pass to the King of glory.