The Syrians - Read the Edomites, as in marginal references (compare Psalms 60:1-12 title), and as the context 2 Samuel 8:14 requires. For a further account of this war of extermination with Edom, see 1 Kings 11:15-16. The war with Edom was of some duration, not without serious reverses and dangers to the Israelites (2 Samuel 8:2 note). The different accounts probably relate to different parts of the campaign.
Related Commentaries of 2 Samuel 8:13
2 Samuel 8:13
13 And David gat him a name when he returned from smitingd of the Syrians in the valley of salt, being eighteen thousand men.