2 Samuel 18:1-8
assembled <06485> [numbered.]
leaders ... thousands ... leaders <08269 0505> [captains of thousands.]
third ........ third .............. third <07992> [a third part.]
leadership ... Joab ...... leadership ... Joab's ............ leadership <03097 03027> [the hand of Joab.]
Ittai <0863> [Ittai.]
march out <03318> [I will surely.]
<03318> [Thou shalt.]
rapid retreat <05127> [if we flee.]
make ......... concerned ...... half ................ like <07760 02677 03644> [care for us. Heb. set their heart on us. but now.]
The particle {Æ’ttah,} Now, is doubtless a mistake for the pronoun {attah,} Thou: and so it appears to have been read by the LXX., Vulgate, and Chaldee, and by two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.
like <03644> [worth, etc. Heb. as ten thousand of us.]
support <05826> [succour. Heb. be to succour.]
gate <08179> [by the gate.]
hundreds <03967> [by hundreds.]
David's small company, by this time, was greatly recruited; but what its number was we cannot tell. Josephus says it amounted only to 4,000 men.
gently <0328> [Deal gently.]
army <05971> [all the people.]
forest ... Ephraim <0669 03293> [wood of Ephraim.]
The wood of Ephraim was evidently beyond Jordan, and apparently not far from Mahanaim; and it is supposed to be the place where the Ephraimites were slain by Jephthah.
army <05971> [the people.]
great <01419> [a great.]
20,000 <0505 06242> [twenty thousand men.]
[in the wood.]
That is, probably, many more were slain in pursuit through the wood than in the battle, by falling into swamps, pits, etc., and being entangled and cut down by David's men. Such is the relation of Josephus; but the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic state, that they were devoured by wild beasts in the wood.
consumed more ...... devoured <0398 07235> [devoured more. Heb. multiplied to devour.]
