2 Samuel 5:17

THE PHILISTINES CAME UP AGAINST DAVID

"When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David; but David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of the Lord, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? Wilt thou give them into my hand?" And the Lord said to David, "Go up; for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into your hand." And David came to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them; and he said, "The Lord has broken through my enemies before me like a bursting flood." Therefore the name of that place is called Baal-perazim. And the Philistines left their idols there, and David and his men carried them away."

"All the Philistines went up in search of David ... David went down into the stronghold" (2 Samuel 5:17). The implications of this passage are not clear. The Philistines going "up" in search of David seems to imply that they went up against Jerusalem; but David's going "down" into the stronghold is thought by some to indicate the cave of Adullum or some other place rather than Jerusalem. Such passages as this feed the disagreement of scholars as regards the time when these battles were fought. We do not know what the answer is; but it could be that David's going down into the stronghold is a reference to his leaving the city of Jerusalem and setting up his outpost against the Philistines at some area fortification below the elevation of David's capital. Caird proposed this solution:

"If David was engaged in building operations on the hill northward from Jerusalem, he certainly would have had to `go down' to the old Jebusite city, which stood at a slightly lower level."[20]

"Now the Philistines spread out in the valley of Rephaim" (2 Samuel 5:18). Many able scholars, including Willis, identify this valley as "southwest of Jerusalem";[21] but Caird insists that, "The valley of Rephaim has been wrongly identified with the plain El Baqa which runs southwest of Jerusalem, but if the valley is placed to the south of Jerusalem, the boundary would fall well within the territory of Judah. In the present passage, it is said that David pursued the Philistines from Geba to Gezer (2 Samuel 5:25), which could have been done only if the battle were fought to the north of Jerusalem."[22] This is another of those questions which can hardly be settled satisfactorily within the limits of the abbreviated information which has come down to us.

"The Philistines left their idols there, and David and his men carried them away" (2 Samuel 5:21). 1 Chronicles 14:12 relates that David's men burned the idols of the Philistines as commanded in Deuteronomy 7:5,25; but this does not contradict what is said here. They did both!