8:1 Later David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. David took Metheg Ammah 1 from the Philistines. 2 8:2 He defeated the Moabites. He made them lie on the ground and then used a rope to measure them off. He put two-thirds of them to death and spared the other third. 3 The Moabites became David’s subjects and brought tribute. 4
8:13 David became famous 5 when he returned from defeating the Arameans 6 in the Valley of Salt, he defeated 7 18,000 in all. 8:14 He placed garrisons throughout Edom, 8 and all the Edomites became David’s subjects. The Lord protected David wherever he campaigned.
1 tn Heb “the bridle of one cubit.” Many English versions treat this as a place name because the parallel text in 1 Chr 18:1 reads “Gath” (which is used by NLT here). It is possible that “the bridle of one cubit” is to be understood as “the token of surrender,” referring to the Philistine’s defeat rather than a specific place (cf. TEV, CEV).
2 tn Heb “from the hand [i.e., control] of the Philistines.”
3 tn Heb “and he measured [with] two [lengths] of rope to put to death and [with] the fullness of the rope to keep alive.”
4 tn Heb “and the Moabites were servants of David, carriers of tribute.”
5 tn Heb “made a name.”
6 tn So NASB, NCV; NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “Edomites” (see the note on “Aram” in v. 12).
7 tn The words “he defeated” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
8 tc The MT is repetitious here: “He placed in Edom garrisons; in all Edom he placed garrisons.” The Vulgate lacks “in all Edom”; most of the Greek tradition (with the exception of the Lucianic recension and the recension of Origen) and the Syriac Peshitta lack “he placed garrisons.” The MT reading appears here to be the result of a conflation of variant readings.