And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.
He brought forth the people ... and put them under saws ... This excessive severity and employment of tortures which the Hebrews on no other occasion are recorded to have practiced, must have been resorted to as an act of retributive justice on a people who were infamous for their cruelties (1 Samuel 11:2; Amos 1:13). Josephus ('Antiquities,' b. 7:, ch. 7:, sec. 5), who gives the same account as in our version, speaks of the conqueror torturing the Ammonites before putting them to death. But for the sake of humanity, and the honour of David's name, there is reason to believe that no such barbarities were inflicted, and that the language of the sacred historian is susceptible of a meaning consistent with the infliction of much milder punishment. He put them (to labour) in saws, iron mines, and brick-kilns. In other words, he reduced the captive Ammonites to the condition of slaves, employing them in such manual services, as sawyers, miners, hewers of wood, and similar exhausting occupations, as were suited only to the most humble and menial condition (see the notes at 1 Chronicles 20:3).