¹⁷ David heard about what was happening. So he took all Israel's soldiers across the Jordan River to Helam. The Syrian soldiers stood in their places ready to fight. When the battle started, ¹⁸ the Syrians ran away from the Israelites. David and his army killed 700 Syrians who drove chariots. They killed 40,000 other Syrian soldiers. David also knocked down Shobach, the captain of the Syrian army. Shobach died there.

¹⁹ All the other kings who were under Hadadezer's authority saw that Israel had won the battle. So they made an agreement with Israel that they would not fight against them any more. They agreed to serve the Israelites. After that, the Syrians were afraid to help the Ammonites any more.