2 Samuel 12:28 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Encamp against the city, and take it For, having taken one part of the city, he concluded the remaining part of it could not long stand out. Lest I take the city Lest I have the honour of taking it; and it be called by my name As from the conquest of Africa, the Roman general Scipio, many years after, was called Africanus. By this it appears that though Joab had many faults, yet he loved his prince, and endeavoured to raise his glory. “There is a magnificence in this proposal capable of creating admiration in the meanest minds. The man that could transfer the glory of his own conquests upon his prince, needs no higher eulogy. And it is but justice to the character of Joab to declare that he is supreme, if not unrivalled, in this singular instance of heroism. Rabbah, it must be observed, was a royal, a large, and a populous city, the metropolis of Arabia Felix, watered, and in some measure encompassed by the river Jabbok. It had its name from its grandeur, being derived from a Hebrew word which signifies to increase and grow great, and was now in the height of its glory.” Delaney.