2 Samuel 8:1–18

Original Meaning

Catalogue of Defeated Nations (8:1–6)

THE OPENING PHRASE (NIV “In the course of time”) is an idiom used frequently as a transition marker in 2 Samuel (see comment on 2:1; see also 10:1; 13:1; 15:1; 21:18). It is a distinctive temporal introduction, which at one and the same time separates and links this chapter with what has gone before.8 After the important speeches of David’s covenantal promise in chapter 7, this text again picks up the refrain of David’s military successes as a demonstration that those promises are in fact becoming a reality.

As we have seen, the original source known as “The History of David’s Rise” had a recurring phrase: Yahweh was with David.9 The overarching theological conviction of the narrative was that Yahweh’s presence with David caused him to succeed where Saul failed and verified David’s legitimacy as the true anointed one. Now we have another recurring phrase, making the same point in a more specific manner (8:6, 14): “The LORD gave David victory wherever he went.” This phrase serves not only as the theme of the chapter but also as the literary marker for our three units (standing as it does at each transition, 8:1–6, 7–14, 15–18).

This recurring phrase refers in 8:1–6 to military victory.10 The Philistines have been Israel’s perennial enemy (see 1 Sam. 14:52; 19:8; 23:1–5; 31:1).11 After the collapse of the Egyptian Empire in Syria-Palestine at the close of the Late Bronze Age (around 1200 B.C.), the Philistines inhabited the southwest coastal plains while the Israelites were in the central hills. They often fought each other to a standstill, but the Philistines began to dominate Israel and occupied much of the Israelite countryside because of their monopoly on iron weaponry (1 Sam. 13:19–21). Saul’s failure as king may be defined in human, historical terms as his failure to drive the Philistines from Israelite territory. His death and mutilation at the hands of the Philistines was a stunning indictment on his impotency as king (1 Sam. 31).

But the Philistines are unable to continue encroaching on Israelite territory once David is anointed king over a unified Israel. As we have seen, shortly after his coronation, David drove the Philistines from Judah’s heartland and confined them to the coastal plains (5:17–25). The victory mentioned here probably indicates that he reclaims disputed territory and almost completely subjugates them (8:1).12

The rest of the paragraph lists David’s victories over enemies in the Transjordan (Moab) and the north (the Arameans of Zobah and Damascus). His cruel treatment of Moabite prisoners of war is surprising in light of his Moabite ancestry and the fact that the Moabites had helped his parents during their enforced exile (Ruth 4:21–22; 1 Sam. 22:3–4). Attempts to explain the execution of two-thirds of the captives as merciful seem forced, though there may have been an economic basis for his actions that benefited Israel.13

As the opening temporal clause of the paragraph ties chapters 7 and 8 together, the “taut series of military success reports in ch. 8 is the fulfilment of the proleptic or promising clauses” of chapter 7.14 Yahweh had given David “rest” from his enemies in the past (7:1), and in his oracle through Nathan the prophet, Yahweh reassured David he would give “rest from all your enemies” (7:11). With the final subjugation of the Philistines to the southwest, the Transjordanian nations to the east, and Arameans to the north, this chapter illustrates Yahweh’s great faithfulness to David. The covenantal promises of chapter 7 are becoming a reality.

David Collects the Spoils of War (8:7–14)

Bridging Contexts

THIS LITTLE CHAPTER contains greater theological import than we might think on a surface reading. In the context of the extended narrative of 2 Samuel, it plays an illuminating role. We have witnessed much. David has become king, first of Judah, then of all Israel. He has established Jerusalem as a new capital for the united kingdom, has brought the ark of the covenant into the city with great pomp and ceremony and has been blessed by Yahweh’s promise to keep his dynasty in perpetuity. As readers we are prepared to learn of David’s great success as Israel’s ideal king, and indeed the text before us serves as a capstone of the narrative of David’s royal career.21 The force of the narrative prepares for more successes, which makes David’s reversals in the court history more shocking. But that is getting ahead of the story.

The thrust and function of the text before us is clear exegetically, thanks to the narrator’s transparent use of the recurring theme: “The LORD gave David victory wherever he went” (8:6, 14). As we have seen above, the chapter is most likely based on a source produced early in David’s reign, and its claims are historically reasonable. I suspect the historian has supplemented the earlier source by adding this catchphrase at key junctures to conveniently divide the materials and make the point unequivocally: God himself, not King David, is the Savior of Israel.

Stumbling blocks. Though the message of the text is clear exegetically, there are at least three stumbling blocks that may make application difficult for present-day believers. The first of these is a cultural difficulty because of the enormous gulf separating modern believers from ancient Israelite culture, while the others are more subtle theological difficulties.

(1) We cannot help but notice the militaristic nature of chapter 8. If it were not for the recurring theme of verses 6 and 14 and the mention that David consecrated the war loot to Yahweh (v. 11), we might conclude that a strictly secular military report has been mistakenly included in the Bible. Not only so, but David’s treatment of prisoners of war and captured war horses would by today’s standards make him guilty of war crimes, and rightly so. Many contemporary readers have difficulty reading this text and making the application intended.

But herein lies part of the problem. Our interpretive mistake lies in our attempt to evaluate David’s treatment of prisoners and animals by today’s standards. David did not live in a time remotely similar to today’s Western culture, and his actions in warfare should not be judged by current mores.22 Perhaps more importantly, the true significance of his actions is revealed by the text itself, which the recurring theme in verses 6 and 14 emphasizes. Wherever David went, he was successful. Whether he was fighting the Philistines, Moabites, Arameans, and so on, or taking riches from Israel’s enemies, God was with David so powerfully that he always enjoyed victory. The sometimes brutal excesses that make this text difficult for present-day Christian readers are the same features that for the original readers help emphasize the king’s God-given successes. David was so totally successful that he was unencumbered in his treatment of war prisoners and extravagant in his distribution of his victims’ plunder. This is an anointed king who cuts and slices through God’s enemies without restraint because God is powerful through him.

(2) The second stumbling block is the degree of subtlety used in the extended narrative, which links this text with the immediately preceding chapter. Chapter 7 recorded the covenant God established with David and its many promised blessings. While chapter 8 solidifies the kingdom of God firmly in David’s hands, it appears also to fulfill (partially) the promises of God to David recorded in chapter 7.

At the beginning of that unit, God had granted rest from Israel’s enemies so that David enjoyed a modicum of peace in Jerusalem (7:1). The glorious promises of chapter 7 included a much broader and all-encompassing picture, however. As part of a package of promises (continued divine presence, making David’s name great, and establishing his dynasty forever), God also promised to give a more complete and lasting “rest” from all Israel’s enemies (7:11). By placing our text directly after chapter 7, the historian illustrates that Yahweh fulfills his covenant promises to David, beginning immediately with spectacular military successes and unprecedented war booty.

By implication, this text also illustrates the truth of the broader program of divine blessing given in chapter 7. If the promise of rest is fulfilled so quickly and definitively, so must also the other promises of chapter 7 be believed, even if their fulfillment is for the future. David’s name will become great, God will be with him wherever he goes, and in fact, David’s dynasty will be established forever. By weaving chapters 7 and 8 together carefully, the historian has given the reader reason to pause and celebrate the covenant-making and promise-keeping God. But if we fail to read the chapters together, we will miss the connections.

(3) The third stumbling block is the way some present-day Christians (especially in North America) hear the refrain so central to a balanced reading of the chapter: “The LORD gave David victory wherever he went.” The difficulty has to do not so much with the distance between that day and our own as with the hollowness of so-called “success theology” rampant among parts of the church today. Some readers take the chapter and its theme verse out of context and assume it means God will give victory to his children no matter what the contravening and accompanying circumstances. Does this text teach that King David will always and only enjoy success?

Once again, in order to avoid this stumbling block we must remember the extended narrative and carefully read the text in light of that context. Did David’s covenant relationship with Yahweh mean he was free to do whatever he pleased? Would he always enjoy success despite all circumstances? Certainly not! In fact, the immediately preceding chapter, in which that covenant relationship was solidified, contains an imposing stipulation: David is not permitted to build the temple of Yahweh, ever! That has been precluded by his military service (1 Chron. 22:8; 28:3). The king may enjoy consistent military success in chapter 8, but he does not get everything he wanted in chapter 7.

Unlike much of the success theology plaguing the church in North America today, David is not promised he will always avoid difficulties and defeats. Rather, he is promised God’s abiding presence and the assurance that God will be sufficient to empower him to fulfill his mission as king in providing rest for the nation Israel.

Reading this chapter with an eye to the extended narrative also reminds us that David has not always enjoyed success. He has lived through the agonizing and dangerous years in which King Saul wanted him dead. At first David lived on the fringes of Judahite society as a fugitive, running from Saul, then in exile among the Philistines. He had to fight the Amalekites on the one hand and worry about Saul’s insidious jealousy on the other. Though God was with David through all those days, they also contained times of uncertainty. The rest of 2 Samuel will illustrate further that God’s blessings in military victory in chapter 8 are no guarantee that David will avoid difficult circumstances.

Finally, the NIV’s “victory” (yošaʿ ) in 8:6, 14 is almost misleading. Though it certainly does denote military victory in this text, its general use elsewhere in the Old Testament implies help for someone in the midst of trouble rather than a general rescue from the trouble itself.23 In other words, this phrase does not mean David is somehow guaranteed success just because he is David. Nor does it mean his future will be full of only success after success. Rather, it means that David’s special relationship with God makes it possible for him to serve as the suitable anointed one for Israel, and as such, God will be with him. In general, God provides a way out of trouble, but it does not mean there will be no more trouble for David.

Our relationship with God, as his adopted sons and daughters, is certainly no guarantee that we will always meet with success, especially as defined from today’s human perspective. Rather, God will empower us to fulfill the mission to which we have been called, as David was able to become Israel’s ideal king through the power of Yahweh’s Spirit. But the image of unmitigated victory and good fortune is a figment of human imagination, not the paradigm of our lives with God.

Contemporary Significance

“THE LORD GAVE David victory wherever he went.” What would it mean for today’s believers to have victory wherever we go? David’s military victories were God’s blessings for him as the legitimately anointed and suitable king of Israel. But since today’s believers are no longer called upon to engage in holy war (and none of us is called to lead national Israel as a righteous king!), what contemporary significance can this text have for us?

Fulfilled promises of God. As we have seen, reading chapter 8 in light of the extended narrative of the books of Samuel creates a portrait of the fulfilled promises of God, including the strength and gifts to fulfill the calling we have in God’s kingdom. This chapter’s link with the preceding promise to David (2 Sam. 7) gives it significance as the partial fulfillment of those promises. Beyond the immediate context, this text takes its place in the overarching interests of the Deuteronomic History, one of which is the promised “rest” God will provide his people in the land (Deut. 12:9–10). Samuel’s farewell speech had implicitly linked security in the Promised Land with Israel’s new institution of monarchy (1 Sam. 12:6–15), and God had promised such a rest to David (2 Sam. 7:11). Solomon would need such “rest” in order to build the temple (1 Kings 5:4–5). Our text illustrates that it is through David that the promised “rest” has now become a reality.24

Our faith is indeed rooted and grounded in the promises of God. The covenant with Noah was marked by the promise not to destroy humankind again by means of a flood (Gen. 9:11). The Abrahamic covenant was distinctively characterized by promises of land, descendants, and blessing (12:1–3).25 Those promises began to take shape among Abraham’s descendants in the Sinai covenant (Ex. 19–20; 24). The Davidic covenant was marked by promises of land and eternal dynasty (2 Sam. 7:11–13). Eventually, Jeremiah will promise that God will implement a new, spiritual covenant based on an internalized law (Jer. 31:31–34). The New Testament asserts that the coming of Jesus of Nazareth fulfills the divine promises made to Abraham and David (Luke 1:68–79; Acts 13:23). The account of David’s military victories in 2 Samuel 8 takes its place in the long litany of biblical texts emphasizing the faithfulness of God to his Word.

A promise, of course, is only as good as the promise-giver. Those of us who have children can well understand how important it is to keep our word, once it has been promised. To fail to “keep” a promise reflects poorly on Mommy or Daddy. A little one is not as likely to accept a parental promise in the future if promises have been “broken” in the past. By contrast, this text and hundreds of others in the Bible speak to the faithfulness of God to his Word.

The faithfulness of God is a datum of sound theology, but to the believer it becomes far more than that: it passes through the processes of the understanding and goes on to become nourishing food for the soul…. Upon God’s faithfulness rests our whole hope of future blessedness. Only as He is faithful will His covenant stand and His promises be honored. Only as we have complete assurance that He is faithful may we live in peace and look forward with assurance to the life to come.26

This chapter illustrates that God is faithful to his Word and strengthens his servants for the task to which he has called them. So what can it mean for today’s believers to have victory wherever we go? It means that God has already won the victory and has promised to strengthen us for the tasks we are called to perform in the church and in the world. As David defeated Israel’s enemies, so today’s believers can expect to accomplish successfully our God-given and God-ordained tasks, with the help of his Holy Spirit. This catalogue of military victories should inspire confidence in all believers that God is at work fulfilling his Word through his people.

Original Meaning

David Collects the Spoils of War (8:7–14)

THE RECURRING PHRASE that gives structure to chapter 8 (“the LORD gave victory,” vv. 6 and 14) referred to military victory in 8:1–6. Here it relates to collections of the spoils of war. The narrative’s literary structure makes 8:7–12 the “chapter’s centre of gravity” and brings into focus what David does with the booty in Jerusalem.15 His response to Yahweh’s victory becomes the central theme in the narrative, in that David consistently “dedicated” (hiqdiš, v. 11 [“consecrated, sanctified”]) the captured articles to Yahweh. Once again in contrast to Saul, we learn who may suitably serve as Israel’s king (cf. 1 Sam. 15:1–31). When God blesses, the true anointed one gives thanks and obeys.

The inclusion of “Amalek” in 8:12 may be another subtle reminder that David is the legitimate king. We have encountered the Amalekites before in 1-2 Samuel (see comments on 1 Sam. 30:1–6). As ruthless enemies of Israel since the Exodus, Yahweh promised to destroy them (Ex. 17:14; see Deut. 25:17–19). He intended to use the monarch of Israel to fulfill this promise, and Saul’s early victories over the Amalekites served to validate his own legitimacy (1 Sam. 14:48). But when Saul failed to execute the holy-war ban against Amalek, Samuel exposed his failure as spiritual and announced Yahweh’s rejection of Saul as Israel’s legitimate king (15:10–31). By contrast, David executes God’s judgment against the Amalekites (here and 1 Sam. 30:7–25) and thus proves himself to be the legitimate king of Israel.

Several scholars have studied David’s realm from the perspective of modern political science dealing with imperial systems (see the Original Meaning section for 5:1–5). In this view, the five distinct levels of political interrelationships are: (1) tribal kingdom, (2) national kingdom, (3) consolidated territorial state, (4) multinational state, and (5) empire.16 Thus far in 2 Samuel, the historian has described the transformation of Jerusalem into a new capital city, the construction of a royal palace, the expulsion of the Philistines from Judah’s heartland, and union between Judah in the south and Israel in the north. These advances have moved the fledgling nation through the first three stages of sociopolitical development.

This text now claims that David has reached a point where he can turn his attention to Israel’s perennial foes to the east and south (Edom, Moab, and Ammon), which he must have subdued sequentially in a sort of “domino theory.”17 In the schema of modern political scientists, this moves Israel into the “multinational state” stage of development (the fourth level). Moreover, the Arameans of Zobah in the north have achieved a similar status as a “great power,” so that David’s victories over them moves Israel into the final, true “empire” stage of state formation. By means of this analysis, one can conclude that David’s expansion of Israel “dwarfed every previous political entity established in the Palestinian sphere, even exceeding the extent of the Egyptian province in the second millennium B.C.”18

David’s Officials (8:15–18)