2 Samuel 5:21 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And there they left their images Their gods, which they had brought into the field with them to be carried before their host. Such was the consternation into which they were thrown. Thus we read, 2 Chronicles 25:14, that the Edomites had their gods along with them when they fought with Amaziah. And perhaps they learned this from the Israelites, who carried the ark (the symbol of God's presence) in their army when they went to fight with the Philistines; who saw it, and took it, as the Israelites now did their images, 1 Samuel 4:4-5, &c. But behold here the difference between the ark and these images! When the ark fell into the hands of the Philistines it consumed them; but when these images fell into the hands of the Israelites, they could neither hurt them, nor save themselves from being consumed.