Chapter 8

After this, David defeated the Philistines and brought their pride low; wrested from them, too, their claim to exact tribute.

He also defeated the Moabites, and measured out their fate to them by lot, bringing them down to the dust; life and death were the two lots he measured out to them; and Moab became tributary to king David.

He defeated Adarezer, son of Rohob, king of Soba, that had marched out to extend his domains beyond the river Euphrates;

seventeen hundred horsemen he took alive, and twenty thousand that fought on foot, and cut the hamstrings of the horses, but kept a hundred teams for himself.

When the Syrians of Damascus came out to reinforce Adarezer, king of Soba, David routed their army of twenty-two thousand,

and put a garrison of his own in the Damascus region of Syria, which became tributary to him. Undertake what enterprise he would, ever the Lord protected him.

All the golden trappings, which Adarezer’s men wore, David carried off and brought to Jerusalem;

from Bete, too, and Beroth, cities in Adarezer’s dominion, he carried away great stores of bronze.

When the news of this victory over Adarezer’s forces reached Thou, king of Emath,

he sent his son Joram to greet David and wish him well, out of gratitude for the conquest and rout of Adarezer, who was Thou’s enemy; and this Joram brought presents with him, of gold and silver and bronze,

which king David consecrated to the Lord, together with all the silver and gold he had set apart from the spoils of the conquered nations,

Syria, Moab, Ammon, the Philistines, Amalec, and now Adarezer, son of Rohob, king of Soba.

David won renown, too, on his way back from the conquest of Syria, by defeating eighteen thousand men in the Valley of the Salt-pits;

after this he kept troops in Edom to garrison it, and the whole of Edom became subject to him. And still the Lord protected David in all his enterprises.

The whole of Israel was under his rule, and to all his people he administered justice and gave award.

His army was commanded by Joab, son of Sarvia, and Josaphat, son of Ahilud, kept the records;

the priests were Sadoc, son of Achitob, and Achimelech, son of Abiathar, and Saraias was secretary;

Banaias, son of Joiada, was at the head of the Cerethites and Phelethites, and David’s sons, too, were his ministers.