And when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Bethrehob, and the Syrians of Zoba, twenty thousand footmen, and of king Maacah a thousand men, and of Ishtob twelve thousand men.
When the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David. To chastise those insolent and When the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David. To chastise those insolent and inhospitable Ammonites, who had violated the common law of nations, David sent a large army under the command of Joab, while they, informed of the impending attack, made energetic preparations to repel it by engaging the services of an immense number of Syrian mercenaries.
Beth-rehob - the capital of the low-lying region between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon.
Zoba - (see the notes at 2 Samuel 8:3.)
Of king Maacah. His territories lay on the other side of Jordan, near Gilead (Deuteronomy 3:14).
Ish-tob - i:e., the men of Tob; the place of Jephthah's marauding adventures (see also 1 Chronicles 19:6; Psalms 60:1, title). As the Israelite soldiers poured into the Ammonite territory, that people met them at the frontier town of Medeba (1 Chronicles 19:7-9), the native troops covering the city, while the Syrian mercenaries lay at some distance encamped in the fields. In making the attack, Joab divided his forces into two separate detachments-the one of which, under the command of his brother Abishai, was to concentrate the attack upon the city, while he himself marched against the overwhelming host of mercenary auxiliaries. It was a just and necessary war that had been forced on Israel, and they could hope for the blessing of God upon their arms. With great judgment the battle opened against the mercenaries, who could not stand against the furious onset of Joab; and not feeling the cause their own, consulted their safety by flight. The Ammonites, who had placed their chief dependence upon a foreign aid, then retreated to intrench themselves within the walls of the town.