Joab ¹  said, “If the Arameans start to overpower me, ²  you come to my rescue. If the Ammonites start to overpower you, ³  I will come to your rescue.

When the Ammonites saw the Arameans flee, they fled before his brother Abishai and went into the city. Joab withdrew from fighting the Ammonites and returned to ¹  Jerusalem. ² 

Then Hadadezer sent for Arameans from ¹  beyond the Euphrates River, ²  and they came to Helam. Shobach, the general in command of Hadadezer’s army, led them. ³ 

When David was informed, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan River, ¹  and came to Helam. The Arameans deployed their forces against David and fought with him.

Each one struck down an enemy soldier; ¹  the Syrians fled and Israel chased them. King Ben Hadad of Syria escaped on horseback with some horsemen.

When Joab saw that the battle would be fought on two fronts, he chose some of Israel’s best men and deployed them against the Arameans. ¹ 

Joab ¹  said, “If the Arameans start to overpower me, ²  you come to my rescue. If the Ammonites start to overpower you, ³  I will come to your rescue.

When the Ammonites saw the Arameans flee, they fled before Joab’s ¹  brother Abishai and withdrew into the city. Joab went back to Jerusalem. ² 

When Hadadezer’s subjects saw they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became his subjects. The Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites.

When all the kings who were subject to Hadadezer ¹  saw they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subjects of Israel. ²  The Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites.

The Ammonites marched out and were deployed for battle at the entrance of the city gate, while the men from Aram Zobah, Rehob, Ish-tob, and Maacah were by themselves in the field.

He followed their advice and joined Ahab’s son King Joram ¹  of Israel in a battle against King Hazael of Syria ²  at Ramoth Gilead in which the Syrians defeated Joram.

But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land we said, ‘Let’s get up and go to Jerusalem ¹  to get away from the Babylonian ²  and Aramean armies.’ That is why we are staying here in Jerusalem.”

“You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight,” ¹  says the Lord. “Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt, but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor ²  and the Arameans from Kir. ³ 

Zedekiah son of Kenaanah made iron horns and said, “This is what the Lord says, ‘With these you will gore Syria until they are destroyed.’”

While the battle raged throughout the day, the king stood propped up in his chariot opposite the Syrians. He died in the evening; the blood from the wound ran down into the bottom of the chariot.

But the prophet sent this message to the king of Israel, “Make sure you don’t pass through this place because Syria is invading there.”

So they picked two horsemen and the king sent them out to track the Syrian army. ¹  He ordered them, “Go and find out what’s going on.” ² 

So they tracked them ¹  as far as the Jordan. The road was filled with clothes and equipment that the Syrians had discarded in their haste. ²  The scouts ³  went back and told the king.

Then the people went out and looted the Syrian camp. A seah ¹  of finely milled flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, just as the Lord had said they would. ²