And the Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the city, and the kings who had come were by themselves in the open country.
We may see here, 1. How the hearts of sinners that are marked for ruin are hardened to their destruction. The children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David (Ch1 19:6), and then it would have been their wisdom to desire conditions of peace, to humble themselves and offer any satisfaction for the injury they had done him, the rather because...
Commenting on 1 Chronicles 19:6-19
children of Ammon . . . put the battle in array before the gate of the city--that is, outside the walls of Medeba, a frontier town on the Arnon. the kings that were come were by themselves in the field--The Israelitish army being thus beset by the Ammonites in front, and by the Syrian auxiliaries behind, Joab resolved to attack the latter (the more numerous...
1Ch 19:1-19 The same phenomena are met with in the detailed account of the Ammonite-Syriac war, 1Ch 19:1-2; 1Ch 20:3, as compared with 2 Sam 10:1-11:1, and 2Sa 12:26-31. In 1Ch 19:1 the omission of the name הנוּן after בּנו is merely an oversight, as the omission of the name נחשׁ in 2Sa 10:1 also is.
Commenting on 1 Chronicles 19:1-19