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2 Samuel 8 of 24

2 Samuel 8

A chapter of military summaries and administrative lists — the balance sheet of a kingdom at the height of its power.

Summary

David smites the Philistines and subdues them, taking Metheg-ammah from them. He smites Moab and measures the prisoners with a line: two lines to be put to death, one full line to be kept alive. Moab becomes subject to David and brings gifts. He smites Hadadezer son of Rehob king of Zobah as Hadadezer goes to recover his border at the river Euphrates. David takes from him a thousand and seven hundred horsemen and twenty thousand footmen, hamstrings most of the chariot horses but keeps a hundred chariots worth of them. The Syrians of Damascus come to help Hadadezer and David smites them too — twenty-two thousand men — then puts garrisons in Syria of Damascus and Syria becomes David's servant. The Lord preserves David wherever he goes. David takes the golden shields from Hadadezer's servants and brings them to Jerusalem. He takes from Betah and Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, exceeding much brass.

Toi king of Hamath, having been in wars with Hadadezer, hears that David has smitten all his army and sends his son Joram with silver, gold, and brass to congratulate David and make a treaty. David dedicates all this silver and gold to the Lord, along with the silver and gold from all the nations he has subdued — Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, the spoil of Hadadezer. He puts garrisons in Edom; all Edom becomes his servants. The Lord preserves David wherever he goes. The chapter ends with the administrative roll: Joab over the host; Jehoshaphat the recorder; Zadok and Ahimelech the priests; Seraiah the scribe; Benaiah over the Cherethites and Pelethites; David's sons chief rulers.

Appears
David Joab
Themes
Military Expansion Consolidation of Power Divine Election
All 24 chapters — click to jump
  1. 2 Samuel 1Chapter 1 is the hinge between 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel.
  2. 2 Samuel 2Chapter 2 opens the period of civil war that will occupy much of the first half of the book.
  3. 2 Samuel 3Chapter 3 is one of the most politically complex chapters in the book.
  4. 2 Samuel 4Chapter 4 closes the civil war with a brief, ugly episode.
  5. 2 Samuel 5Chapter 5 is the pivotal chapter of the book's first half.
  6. 2 Samuel 6Chapter 6 is one of the most dramatically charged chapters in 2 Samuel, covering two episodes that frame the ark's arrival in Jerusalem.
  7. 2 Samuel 7Chapter 7 is the theological centre of the entire David narrative and one of the most consequential passages in the Hebrew Bible for later Jewish and Christian thought.
  8. 2 Samuel 8Chapter 8 reads differently from everything around it.
  9. 2 Samuel 9Chapter 9 is the chapter the Court History uses to establish one key dimension of David's character before the crisis arrives.
  10. 2 Samuel 10Chapter 10 establishes the military context of the Bathsheba episode.
  11. 2 Samuel 11Chapter 11 is the turning point of 2 Samuel and one of the most consequential chapters in biblical narrative.
  12. 2 Samuel 12Chapter 12 contains the most famous confrontation in the book.
  13. 2 Samuel 13Chapter 13 is the first fulfilment of Nathan's sentence in chapter 12.
  14. 2 Samuel 14Chapter 14 covers the three years in which David longs for Absalom but will not recall him, and Joab's intervention to change that.
  15. 2 Samuel 15Chapter 15 is the emotional nadir of the first movement of the Absalom crisis.
  16. 2 Samuel 16Chapter 16 covers three encounters as David makes his way out of Jerusalem.
  17. 2 Samuel 17Chapter 17 is the intelligence chapter of the Absalom revolt and turns on a moment of competitive counsel.
  18. 2 Samuel 18Chapter 18 is the emotional climax of 2 Samuel.
  19. 2 Samuel 19Chapter 19 covers David's return to Jerusalem and the political settlements it requires.
  20. 2 Samuel 20Chapter 20 is the coda to the Absalom crisis.
  21. 2 Samuel 21Chapter 21 opens the appendix section of 2 Samuel — chapters 21-24 are not chronological narrative but supplementary materials: two episodes of famine and plague bracketing two poems and two hero lists.
  22. 2 Samuel 22Chapter 22 is an extended psalm, found also as Psalm 18 in the Psalter, which the editors of 2 Samuel have placed near the end of the book as David's retrospective meditation on his life.
  23. 2 Samuel 23Chapter 23 contains two distinct sections.
  24. 2 Samuel 24Chapter 24 is the second appendix episode bracketing the poems of chapters 22-23, and it closes the book on an unexpected note.
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2 Samuel 7
Next · Chapter 9 →
2 Samuel 9
The book itself
Summary & story
What 2 Samuel is, why it matters.
Analysis
Themes
Power, consequence, grief, the dynastic promise, and the realism of the prose.
Who's who
David's court
The household of a king who has everything and gives most of it away.

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