At the time when kings go forth to battle— The author of the Observations remarks justly, that this passage seems to suppose, that there was one particular time of the year, in this country, to which the operations of war were limited. So Sir John Chardin, speaking of the Basha of Basra, who endeavoured in his time to erect himself into an independent sovereign, tells us, that, perceiving in the spring, that the Turkish army were prepared to thunder upon him the next September or October, (for the heat of those climates will not permit them to take the field sooner,) he sent beforehand to offer his territory to the king of Persia. The contrary, however, obtained in the Croisade wars; in the Archbishop of Tyre's history whereof, we meet with expeditions or battles in every month of the year: yet there is one story which he tells us, that seems to confirm Sir John Chardin's account, and to show, that, though the active and superstitious zeal of those times might not regard it, the summer was no proper time for war in those countries: and this is where he tells us, that in a battle fought betwixt Baldwin IV. and Saladine, in Galilee, as many perished in both armies by the violence of the heat as by the sword.
Related Commentaries of 2 Samuel 11:1
2 Samuel 11:1
1 And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.