Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
2 Samuel 10 - Introduction
War with the Ammonites and their allies the Syrians
David had now reached the summit of his prosperity and power. The historian has now to record how he fell from that height into a sin which brought shame and suffering upon himself and disaster upon his kingdom. This war with the Ammonites is described in detail, because of its close connexion with that act, which marked the fatal turning-point in David's reign.
The war with the Ammonites is incidentally alluded to in ch. 2 Samuel 8:12 among David's other wars; and the war with the Syrians to which it led is not improbably the same as that recorded in ch. 2 Samuel 8:3-6.
It is there related that Hadadezer sustained a crushing defeat, and that a great part of his vassals transferred their allegiance to David. There is no hint here that they had revolted, and it seems unlikely that they could have raised so large an army on a second occasion. The circumstances narrated here (2 Samuel 10:16) explain the otherwise obscure mention of the Euphrates in ch. 2 Samuel 8:3: the seat of war, the persons engaged, the results, and the general details, are so similar as to make it at least improbable that the narratives refer to two distinct wars.
It is easy to assign a reason for this repetition. There the account forms part of the collected summary of David's principal wars, as it was probably by far the most important and most distant of them: here it appears as a necessary pendant to the history of the Ammonite war, which is being related in full in order to lead up to and explain the circumstances of David's fall.