Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 20:15

And they came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maachah, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench: and all the people that [were] with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down.

15. cast up a bank ] The besiegers erected a mound of earth against the city wall to enable them to batter the upper and weaker part of it. This stood in “the trench” or outwork of the city: a term which includes the low outer wall and the space between it and the main wall. For mention of siege mounds see 2Ki 19:32; Isa 29:3; Jer 6:6; Jer 32:24; Jer 33:4; Eze 4:2; Eze 17:17; Eze 21:22; Eze 26:8; Dan 11:15. They are represented on the bas-reliefs depicting the siege of Lachish which were found at Kouyunjik. Layard’s Monuments of Nineveh, Vol. II. PI. 18, 21.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Cast up a bank – See the marginal references. The throwing up of mounds against the walls of besieged places by the besiegers is well illustrated in the Assyrian sculptures.

The trench – The pomoerium, or fortified space outside the wall. When the mound was planted in the pomoerium the battering engines were able to approach close to the wall to make a breach.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 15. They cast up a bank against the city] The word solelah, which we render bank, means, most probably, a battering engine of some kind, or a tower overlooking the walls, on which archers and slingers could stand and annoy the inhabitants, while others of the besiegers could proceed to sap the walls. That it cannot be a bank that stood in the trench, is evident from the circumstance thus expressed.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

They came, i.e. Joab and his army, which is easily understood, both from the foregoing and following verses.

They cast up a bank; from whence they might either batter the wall, or shoot at those who defended it against them who should assault it. See 2Ki 19:32; Jer 32:24; 33:4. Otherwise, they threw down the bank of the city, which they had raised up to defend the city on the weakest side.

It stood in the trench, i.e. the bank stood in or near to the trench, or wall of the city; so that the city was in great danger of being taken. Otherwise, the city stood within the trench, or wall, being defended only by a single trench, or a weak wall; the bank which was raised up there to defend it being thrown down.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

15. Abel of Beth-maachahaverdant placethe addition of “Maachah” betokening thatit belonged to the district Maachah, which lay far up the Jordan atthe foot of Lebanon.

2Sa20:16-22. A WISE WOMANSAVES THE CITYBY SHEBA’S HEAD.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And they came and besieged him in Abel of Bethmaachah,…. That is, Joab and Abishai, with the forces under them, who pursued him hither:

and they cast up a bank against the city; which some understand of a warlike machine or engine, with which stones were cast; but it rather seems to be a bank of earth thrown up, for the better working of such engines to more advantage against the city, by throwing from thence darts into the city, or stones against the walls of it, to batter it down; such banks were used in sieges, as that Caesar’s soldiers raised in twenty five days, which was three hundred thirty feet broad, and eighty feet high z; Kimchi interprets this of filling up the ditches round about the city with dust and earth, and so making it level, whereby they could come the more easily to the walls and batter them, or scale them, and take the city by storm:

and it stood in the trench; the army under Joab stood where the trench round the city had been, now filled up:

and all the people that [were] with Joab battered the wall to throw it down; with their engines, or whatever battering instruments they had; so, often, as Hesiod a says, a whole city suffers for one bad man.

z Caesar. Comment. l. 7. c. 24. a Opera & Dies, l. 1. ver. 236.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(15)Abel of Beth-maachah.Omit the preposition of. (See 2Sa. 20:14.)

Stood in the trench.The trench is the space between the wall of the city and the lower outer wall. When the besiegers had succeeded in planting the mounds for their battering engines in this space they had already gained an important advantage.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

15. A bank against the city A mound or rampart on which the besieging forces might easily approach the city wall.

It stood in the trench The marginal reading is better, it stood against the outmost wall; that is, the embankment or rampart just mentioned stood against or near by the exterior fortification ( pomoerium) which the inhabitants of Abel had built around the wall of their city. The building of an embankment against these outer works of the city enabled the besieging army to batter the wall with engines.

Battered the wall What methods or instruments they used for destroying these walls it is difficult to tell. The engines invented during Uzziah’s reign (2Ch 26:15) were not then in use; but perhaps they used something resembling the battering ram of the ancient Romans.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

2Sa 20:15. They cast up a bank against the city The LXX render it, they levelled the bank, or glacis, of the city; which receives some countenance from the words immediately following, and it stood in the trench. The Vulgate reads, and they surrounded the city with fortifications. But some learned persons have imagined, that the word solelah, rendered a bank, signifies an engine of war, used in casting stones, or other heavy bodies, against the walls of a city. Parkhurst is of this opinion, who says, that it signifies a balista, a battering engine, anciently made use of to shoot stones against the wall of a besieged city, in order to beat them down. That this is the true meaning of the word, rather than a bank heaped up of stones or earth, seems evident from the present passage, and Jer 6:6; Jer 32:24; Jer 33:4. One of the Greek versions in the Hexapla renders it, Eze 26:8 by balistas. But should any one in some places prefer the other meaning, which the ancient versions generally favour, it will be best to render it battery, which will preserve the idea of the word. Dr. Delaney observes, that from the accounts we have of Joab’s digging a trench round this city, and battering the walls, critics have fairly concluded, that the science of besieging cities with lines of circumvallation and contravallation, as they call them, and battering engines, was much older than any account left us of this practice in the history of the heathen world: though Herodotus, in his first book, gives Harpagus, Cyrus’s general, the credit of having invented the lines now mentioned, and taken the city of Phocoea (the first city, according to him, so taken) by that invention; whereas the sacred writer speaks of one of those lines on occasion of the siege of Abel, as of a thing familiar and well known to his readers. See Scheuchzer on the place.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

2Sa 20:15 And they came and besieged him in Abel of Bethmaachah, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench: and all the people that [were] with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down.

Ver. 15. And they came and besieged him. ] Who now probably repented him of his bold and treacherous enterprise; sicut Leo cassibus irretitus ait, Si praescivissem?

Battered the wall to throw it down. ] It had been pity those walls should have stood, if they had been too high to throw a traitor’s head over. Sheba, likely, thought himself very safe when gotten into a walled city: but what said the voice from heaven to Phocas the traitor? – if Nicephorus may be believed – Though thou build thy walls as high as heaven, and as strong as thou canst make them, yet sin lying at the bottom will easily undermine and overturn them: , the city of thy defence will soon be taken.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

bank = mound.

trench = rampart.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

cast up: 2Ki 19:32, Jer 32:24, Jer 33:4, Luk 19:43

a bank: So LXX generally render solelah, by or ; which latter is described by Potter as “a mount, which was raised so high as to equal, if not exceed, the top of the besieged walls. The sides were walled in with bricks or stones, or secured with strong rafters; the fore part only, being by degrees to be moved near the walls, remained bare.”

it stood in the trench: or, it stood against the outmost wall

battered: etc. Heb. marred to throw down

Reciprocal: 1Ki 15:20 – Dan 2Ki 15:29 – Ijon Ecc 9:14 – There was Eze 26:8 – he shall make

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2Sa 20:15. They came and besieged him Joab and his army pursued him thither. And cast up a bank They raised a very large mound of earth, equal, probably, to the height of the walls, from whence they might either batter the walls, or throw darts, or shoot at those that defended them. It stood in the trench This bank or mound was carried on so far, that it now stood in or near to the trench and foot of the wall; so that the city was in great danger of being taken.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

20:15 And they came and besieged him in Abel of Bethmaachah, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench: and all the people that [were] with Joab {k} battered the wall, to throw it down.

(k) That is, he went about to overthrow it.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes