And Joab said unto the man that told him,.... That gave the above account of him:
and, behold, thou sawest [him]; in reality; or, "didst thou see him?" is it a fact?
and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground; kill him on the spot, that he might have dropped from the tree to the ground:
and I would have given thee ten [shekels] of silver; on the news of it, for doing it, which was near twenty four shillings of our money; Josephus says i fifty shekels; the Arabic version has it ten thousand talents of silver, too great a sum by far:
and a girdle? which was a mark of great honour, and a token of a commission under him, and of investing: him with a military office; see
1 Samuel 18:4; it used to be given as an honorary reward to soldiers that behaved well, as on the contrary it was reckoned a reproach to be ungirt, or the girdle to be taken away k.
i Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 7. c. 10. sect. 2.) k Vide Lydium de re militare, l. 3. c. 6.