2 Samuel 18:8
◄  2 Samuel 18:8  ►
New International Version (©2011)
The battle spread out over the whole countryside, and the forest swallowed up more men that day than the sword.

New Living Translation (©2007)
The battle raged all across the countryside, and more men died because of the forest than were killed by the sword.

English Standard Version (©2001)
The battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
For the battle there was spread over the whole countryside, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
The battle spread over the entire region, and that day the forest claimed more people than the sword.

International Standard Version (©2012)
The battle spread throughout the entire countryside, and the forest claimed more casualties that day than did the sword fighting.

NET Bible (©2006)
The battle there was spread out over the whole area, and the forest consumed more soldiers than the sword devoured that day.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
The fighting spread over the whole country. That day the woods devoured more people than the battle.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

American King James Version
For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

American Standard Version
For the battle was there spread over the face of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the battle there was scattered over the face of all the country, and there were many more of the people whom the forest consumed, than whom the sword devoured that day.

Darby Bible Translation
And the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

English Revised Version
For the battle was there spread over the face of all the country: and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

Webster's Bible Translation
For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

World English Bible
For the battle was there spread over the surface of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

Young's Literal Translation
and the battle is there scattered over the face of all the land, and the forest multiplieth to devour among the people more than those whom the sword hath devoured in that day.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:1-8 How does David render good for evil! Absalom would have only David smitten; David would have only Absalom spared. This seems to be a resemblance of man's wickedness towards God, and God's mercy to man, of which it is hard to say which is most amazing. Now the Israelites see what it is to take counsel against the Lord and his anointed.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - The battle was there scattered. The word in the Hebrew is a noun, which the Massorites have changed into a participle. But the noun is right: "The battle became a scattering," that is, it was a series of disconnected encounters, in which David's three divisions attacked and routed Absalom's men, while still on the march, without giving them an opportunity of collecting and forming in order of battle. And the wood devoured more people that day thin the sword devoured. The woodland was difficult, full of gorges and begs and steep defiles leading down to the Jordan, and the fugitives easily lest their way in it, and wandered about till they were hopelessly entangled in thicket and morass.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country,.... Or the warriors were scattered, as the Targum; Absalom's soldiers, their ranks were broken, and they were thrown into the utmost confusion, and ran about here and there all over the field or plain in which the battle was fought, and into the neighbouring wood:

and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured; there were more slain in it the in the field of battle, what by one thing or another; as by falling into pits and on stumps of trees, and being entangled in the bushes, and could make but little haste, and so were overtaken by David's men, and slain; insomuch that, as Josephus (h) observes, there were more slain fleeing than fighting, and perhaps some might perish by wild beasts; so the Targum,"and the beasts of the wood slew more of the people than were slain by the sword;''and so the Syriac and Arabic versions render the words to the same purpose.

(h) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 7. c. 10. sect. 2.)

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. the wood devoured more people than the sword—The thick forest of oaks and terebinths, by obstructing the flight, greatly aided the victors in the pursuit.

2 Samuel 18:8 Parallel Commentaries

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Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


Absalom Killed
…7Where the people of Israel were slain before the servants of David, and there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand men. 8For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured. 9And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode on a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away. …

2 Samuel 18:7 There Israel's troops were routed by David's men, and the casualties that day were great--twenty thousand men.
2 Samuel 18:9 Now Absalom happened to meet David's men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom's hair got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on going.