2 Samuel 12:26

THE CONQUEST AND ENSLAVEMENT OF THE AMMONITES

"Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites, and took the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David, and said, "I have fought against Rabbah; moreover I have taken the city of waters. Now, then, gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it; lest I take the city, and it be called by my name." So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah, and fought against it and took it. And he took the crown of their king from his head; the weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone; and it was placed on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city, a very great amount. And he brought forth the people who were in it, and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and iron axes, and made them toil at the brickkilns; and thus he did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem."

"Now Joab ... took the royal city" (2 Samuel 12:27). This is a topic sentence followed by a more detailed explanation.

"I have taken the city of waters" (2 Samuel 12:27). "This means that he had captured the city's water supply."[22] That of course, assured his conquest of the whole city, exactly as General Eisenhower's capture of the twenty-one water wells that supplied the city of Casa Blanca resulted in his capture of the city during the invasion of Africa in World War II.

"The city of waters" (2 Samuel 12:27) was the name of the fortification built to protect the fountain that still flows in Amman the capital of Jordan."[23]

The loyalty of Joab to David is conspicuous in this episode. He might easily have captured Rabbah, having already taken their water supply, but he desired that the king should have the glory of taking the city and so arranged it.

"And he took the crown of their king from his head" (2 Samuel 12:30). "The word here rendered their king is also the name of the national idol of the Ammonites, namely, Malcam (or Milcom. The RSV margin gives Milcom as the alternative reading). See Amos 1:15 and Zephaniah 1:5. That crown weighed a talent of gold, the equivalent of 100 to 125 pounds."[24] Thus it is extremely unlikely that David wore that kind of weight on the top of his head. The weight of that crown indicates clearly that it adorned a statute of their idol, not the head of their ruler.

"In it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David's head" (2 Samuel 12:30). A proper respect for the antecedent of the pronoun it in this passage reveals that it was the precious stone that was placed on David's head, probably as an ornament in the crown that he wore.

The translators of the RSV have severely altered the meaning of the last few clauses here in 2 Samuel 12:31, contrasting dramatically with the ASV. Note the difference:

ASV: "David brought forth the people ... and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln: and thus did he to all the cities of the Ammonites."

Of course, this is a reference to the wholesale torture of the Ammonites. Such brutal and inhuman treatment of captives was widely practiced in ancient times as proved by the statement in Amos that, "Damascus threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron" (Amos 1:3); and we are not fully convinced that David was not guilty of a similar treatment of the Ammonites. In the whole Biblical account of David's behavior, we find nothing whatever that requires us to suppose that he was incapable of such an atrocity. God's prophet in this very chapter tells us that HE HAD NO PITY (2 Samuel 12:5).

There are difficulties with the translation, because the RSV margin has "to harrows of iron" and "brick mould" instead of brickkiln; and the majority of modern scholars accept the meaning of these last two verses as reporting that David put all of the Ammonites into industrial enslavement. We sincerely hope that their understanding of the passage is correct, and that the RSV is the true translation.