18:3 David defeated King Hadadezer of Zobah as far as Hamath, when he went to extend his authority 1 to the Euphrates River. 2 18:4 David seized from him 1,000 chariots, 7,000 charioteers, 3 and 20,000 infantrymen. David cut the hamstrings of all but a hundred of Hadadezer’s 4 chariot horses. 5 18:5 The Arameans of Damascus came to help King Hadadezer of Zobah, but David killed 22,000 of the Arameans. 18:6 David placed garrisons in the territory of the Arameans of Damascus; 6 the Arameans became David’s subjects and brought tribute. The Lord protected 7 David wherever he campaigned. 8 18:7 David took the golden shields which Hadadezer’s servants had carried 9 and brought them to Jerusalem. 10 18:8 From Tibhath 11 and Kun, 12 Hadadezer’s cities, David took a great deal of bronze. (Solomon used it to make the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” 13 the pillars, and other bronze items.
18:9 When King Tou 14 of Hamath heard that David had defeated the entire army of King Hadadezer of Zobah, 18:10 he sent his son Hadoram 15 to King David to extend his best wishes 16 and to pronounce a blessing on him for his victory over Hadadezer, for Tou had been at war with Hadadezer. 17 He also sent various items made of gold, silver, and bronze. 18
1 tn Heb “hand.”
2 tn Heb “when he went to set up his hand at the Euphrates River.” The Hebrew word יָד (yad, “hand”) is usually understood to mean “control” or “dominion” here. However, since יָד does occasionally refer to a monument, perhaps one could translate, “to set up his monument at the Euphrates River” (i.e., as a visible marker of the limits of his dominion). For another example of the Hiphil of נָצַב (natsav) used with יָד (“monument”), see 1 Sam 15:12.
3 tn Or “horsemen.”
4 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Hadadezer) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “and David cut the hamstrings of all the chariot horses, and he left from them one hundred chariot horses.”
6 tc Heb “and David placed in Aram of Damascus.” The object נְצִיבִים (nÿtsivim, “garrisons”) appears to have been accidentally omitted from the text. See v. 13, as well as the parallel passage in 2 Sam 8:6, which includes it.
7 tn Or “delivered.”
8 tn Or “wherever he went.”
9 tn Heb “which were upon the servants of Hadadezer.”
10 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
11 tn The MT reads “Tibhath” here, a variant name for Tebah (cf. 2 Sam 8:8). Some English translations substitute the other version of the name here (e.g., NIV, NLT), while others follow the reading of the Hebrew text at this point (e.g., NAB, NASB, NRSV).
12 tn The parallel text of 2 Sam 8:8 has the variant name “Berothai.”
13 tn Heb “the sea of bronze,” or “[the] sea, the bronze one.” See the note at 1 Kgs 7:23.
14 tn The name is spelled “Toi” in the parallel text in 2 Sam 8:9.
15 tn The name is spelled “Joram” in the parallel text in 2 Sam 8:10.
16 tn Heb “to ask concerning him for peace.”
17 tn Heb “and to bless him because he fought with Hadadezer and defeated him, for Hadadezer was a man of battles with Tou.”
18 tn Heb “[along with] all items of gold and silver and bronze.”