King James Bible
And after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines, and subdued them: and David took Methegammah out of the hand of the Philistines.

American Standard Version
And after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines, and subdued them: and David took the bridle of the mother city out of the hand of the Philistines.

Young's Literal Translation
And it cometh to pass afterwards that David smiteth the Philistines, and humbleth them, and David taketh the bridle of the metropolis out of the hand of the Philistines.

2 Samuel 8:1 Additional Translations
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Subjugation of the Philistines. - In the introductory formula, "And it came to pass afterwards," the expression "afterwards" cannot refer specially to the contents of 2 Samuel 7, for reasons also given, but simply serves as a general formula of transition to attach what follows to the account just completed, as a thing that happened afterwards. This is incontestably evident from a comparison of 2 Samuel 10:1, where the war with the Ammonites and Syrians, the termination and result of which are given in the present chapter, is attached to what precedes by the same formula, "It came to pass afterwards" (cf. 2 Samuel 13:1). "David smote the Philistines and subdued them, and took the bridle of the mother out of the hand of the Philistines," i.e., wrested the government from them and made them tributary. The figurative expression Metheg-ammah, "bridle of the mother," i.e., the capital, has been explained by Alb. Schultens (on Job 30:11) from an Arabic idiom, in which giving up one's bridle to another is equivalent to submitting to him. Gesenius also gives several proofs of this (Thes. p. 113). Others, for example Ewald, render it arm-bridle; but there is not a single passage to support the rendering "arm" for ammah. The word is a feminine form of אם, mother, and only used in a tropical sense. "Mother" is a term applied to the chief city or capital, both in Arabic and Phoenician (vid., Ges. Thes. p. 112). The same figure is also adopted in Hebrew, where the towns dependent upon the capital are called its daughters (vid., Joshua 15:45, Joshua 15:47). In 1 Chronicles 18:1 the figurative expression is dropped for the more literal one: "David took Gath and its daughters out of the hand of the Philistines," i.e., he wrested Gath and the other towns from the Philistines. The Philistines had really five cities, every one with a prince of its own (Joshua 13:3). This was the case even in the time of Samuel (1 Samuel 6:16-17). But in the closing years of Samuel, Gath had a king who stood at the head of all the princes of the Philistines (1 Samuel 29:2., cf. 1 Samuel 27:2). Thus Gath became the capital of the land of the Philistines, which held the bridle (or reins) of Philistia in its own hand. The author of the Chronicles has therefore given the correct explanation of the figure. The one suggested by Ewald, Bertheau, and others, cannot be correct, - namely, that David wrested from the Philistines the power which they had hitherto exercised over the Israelites. The simple meaning of the passage is, that David wrested from the Philistines the power which the capital had possessed over the towns dependent upon it, i.e., over the whole of the land of Philistia; in other words, he brought the capital (Gath) and the other towns of Philistia into his own power. The reference afterwards made to a king of Gath in the time of Solomon in 1 Kings 2:39 is by no means at variance with this; for the king alluded to was one of the tributary sovereigns, as we may infer from the fact that Solomon ruled over all the kings on this side of the Euphrates as far as to Gaza (1 Kings 5:1, 1 Kings 5:4).

2 Samuel 8:1 Parallel Commentaries
Afterwards Ammah Attack Authority Bridle Capital Chief City Control Course David Defeated Hand Humbleth Mother Mother-Town Overcame Philistines Power Smiteth Smote Struck Subdued TimeAfterwards Ammah Attack Authority Bridle Capital Chief City Control Course David Defeated Hand Humbleth Mother Mother-Town Overcame Philistines Power Smiteth Smote Struck Subdued TimeThe ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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