David wins against his enemies

18 After some time, David attacked the Philistines and he won against them. He took Gath city and the villages around it from the Philistines.

² David also won a battle against the Moabites. They were now under David's authority and they paid taxes to him.

³ David also won a battle against Hadadezer, king of Zobah. He won land as far as Hamath. That happened when Hadadezer took his army to the Euphrates river to show that he had authority there. ⁴ David took from Hadadezer 1,000 chariots and 7,000 men who drove them. He also caught 20,000 of Hadadezer's other soldiers. David kept 100 horses that pulled chariots. But he cut the legs of the other horses so that they could not run.

⁵ The Syrians from Damascus sent an army to help King Hadadezer of Zobah. But David killed 22,000 soldiers of the Syrian army. ⁶ David put some of his soldiers in Damascus to keep his authority over the Syrian people. They had to pay taxes to King David.

The Lord helped David to win all the battles that he fought.

⁷ David took the gold shields that Hadadezer's officers had carried. He brought the shields to Jerusalem. ⁸ David also took a lot of bronze things from Tebah and Cun. Those towns had belonged to Hadadezer towns. Later, Solomon used that bronze to make the big bath in the temple that was called ‘the Sea’. He also used the bronze to make pillars and other things for the temple.

⁹ Tou, the king of Hamath, heard news that David had won the battle against the whole army of King Hadadezer of Zobah. ¹⁰ There had been a war between King Hadadezer and King Tou. So Tou sent his son, Hadoram, to say ‘hello’ to King David. He wanted to praise David because he had won the battle against King Hadadezer. He also sent many gifts of gold, silver and bronze to David.

¹¹ King David took those gifts and he offered them to the Lord. He also offered to the Lord all the silver and gold things that he had taken from other nations. Those nations were Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines and the Amalekites.

¹² Zeruiah's son Abishai killed 18,000 men from Edom in the Valley of Salt. ¹³ He put groups of his soldiers in Edom, so that David had authority over all the Edomites.

The Lord helped David to win all the battles that he fought.

David's officers

¹⁴ David ruled over all Israel. He did everything that was right and fair for all his people. ¹⁵ Zeruiah's son Joab was the leader of Israel's army. Ahilud's son Jehoshaphat wrote down the important things that happened. ¹⁶ Ahitub's son Zadok and Abiathar's son Ahimelech were priests. Shavsha was David's secretary. ¹⁷ Jehoiada's son Benaiah was the leader of David's personal guards. David's sons were his most important officers.^[a]