- 125-
in 2 Samuel 10:16 and 1 Chronicles 19:16 by the notice, that the Syrian auxiliaries
thence derived were placed under the command of Shobach, the captain of the host
of Hadad-Ezer.
The decisive battle was fought at Helam (2 Samuel 10:17), near Hamath (1
Chronicles 18:3), and resulted in the total destruction of the Syrian host. No less than
1000 chariots, 7000^291 horsemen, and 20,000 footmen, were taken; while those who
fell in the battle amounted to 700, or rather (according to 1 Chronicles 19:18) 7000
charioteers and horsemen, and 40,000 footmen (in 2 Samuel, "horsemen"). Shobach
himself was wounded, and died on the field of battle.^292
David next turned against the Syrians of Damascus, who had come to the succor of
Hadad-Ezer, slew 22,000 of them, put garrisons throughout the country, and made it
tributary. But all the spoil taken in that war - notably the "golden shields," and the
brass from which afterwards "the brazen sea, and the pillars and the vessels of
brass," were made for the Temple (1 Chronicles 18:8) - was carried to Jerusalem.
The immediate results of these victories was not only peace along the borders of
Palestine, but that all those turbulent tribes became tributary to David. One of the
kings or chieftains, Toi, the king of Hamath, had always been at war with Hadad-
Ezer. On his complete defeat, Toi sent his son Hadoram^293 to David to seek his
alliance. The gifts which he brought, as indeed all the spoil of the war, were
dedicated to the Lord, and deposited in the treasury of the sanctuary for future use.
But still the formidable combination against Israel was not wholly broken up. On the
return of David's army from their victory over the Syrians, they had to encounter the
Edomites^294 (2 Samuel 8:13, 14), who had advanced as far as the "valley of salt,"
south of the Dead Sea.
The expedition was entrusted to Abishai, Joab's brother (1 Chronicles 18:12, 13),
and resulted in the total rout of the enemy, and the garrisoning of the principal places
in Edom by David's men; though, to judge by 1 Kings 11:5, 16, the operations took
some time, and were attended with much bloodshed. The account just given of the
wars of David appropriately closes with a notice of his principal officers of state,
among whom we mark Joab as general-in-chief, Jehoshaphat as chancellor (magister
memorioe), or recorder and adviser, Zadok as high-priest at Gibeon (1 Chronicles
16:39), and Jonathan as assistant of his father Abiathar (1 Kings 1:7, 42; 2:22-27) at
Jerusalem, Seraiah as secretary of state, and Benaiah as captain of the body-guard -
the Cherethi and Pelethi, or "executioners and runners"^295 - while the king's sons
acted as intimate advisers.^296
The record of this period of David's reign - indeed, of his life - would have been
incomplete if the memory of his friendship with Jonathan had passed without
(^)