Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 18:8
For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
8. the wood devoured more, &c.] The explanation generally given is that they perished in the pits and precipices and morasses of the forest: but this seems unlikely. More probably it means that owing to the nature of the ground more were slain in the pursuit through the forest, than in the actual battle.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The battle was scattered – Probably Absaloms forces were far more numerous than Davids; but, most likely by Joabs skillful generalship, the field of battle was such that numbers did not tell, and Davids veteran troops were able to destroy Absaloms rabble in detail. The wood entangled them, and was perhaps full of pits, precipices, and morasses 2Sa 18:17.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. The wood devoured more people] It is generally supposed that, when the army was broken, they betook themselves to the wood, fell into pits, swamps, c., and, being entangled, were hewn down by David’s men but the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, state that they were devoured by wild beasts in the wood.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The battle was there scattered, i. e. the warriors being beaten in the fight, fled, and were dispersed; the abstract being put for the concrete, as poverty is put for poor men, 2Ki 24:14, and deceit for the deceiver, and dreams for dreamers, Pro 12:24; 13:6.
The wood devoured more people, i.e. more people died in the wood, either through hunger, and thirst, and weariness; or by the wild beasts, whereof great numbers were there, which, though they were driven away by noise and clamour from the place of the main battle, yet might easily meet with them when they fled several ways, which also might be directed and sent to them by Gods providence and just judgment to punish them for their rebellion; or by falling into ditches and pits, which were in that place, 2Sa 18:17, and probably were covered with grass or wood, so as they could not see them till they fell into them; or by being hanged in trees, as Absalom was, 2Sa 18:9; and especially by Davids men, who pursued them, and killed them in the wood: and the wood is rightly said to have devoured them, because it gave the occasion to their destruction, inasmuch as the trees, and ditches, and pits, entangled them, and stopped their flight, and made them an easy prey to Davids men, who followed them, and slew them in the pursuit, being therein directed and assisted by the people of that country, who, after the manner, fell in with the victorious side.
Than the sword devoured, to wit, in the main battle; the sword being put for the battle, by a common metonymy.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. the wood devoured more peoplethan the swordThe thick forest of oaks and terebinths, byobstructing the flight, greatly aided the victors in the pursuit.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country,…. Or the warriors were scattered, as the Targum; Absalom’s soldiers, their ranks were broken, and they were thrown into the utmost confusion, and ran about here and there all over the field or plain in which the battle was fought, and into the neighbouring wood:
and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured; there were more slain in it the in the field of battle, what by one thing or another; as by falling into pits and on stumps of trees, and being entangled in the bushes, and could make but little haste, and so were overtaken by David’s men, and slain; insomuch that, as Josephus h observes, there were more slain fleeing than fighting, and perhaps some might perish by wild beasts; so the Targum,
“and the beasts of the wood slew more of the people than were slain by the sword;”
and so the Syriac and Arabic versions render the words to the same purpose.
h Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 7. c. 10. sect. 2.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The conflict extended over the surface of the whole land, i.e., the whole of that region (the Chethib is not the plural , which would be quite unsuitable, but is most probably a noun, ,nuon a , signifying bursting asunder, or wild flight; the Keri is a Niphal participle, fem. gen.); “and the wood devoured more of the people than the sword ate on the same day.” The woody region was most likely full of ravines, precipices, and marches, into which the flying foe was pursued, and where so many perished.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(8) The wood devoured more.The battle and the pursuit covered a wide range of country; more were slain in the pursuit through the wood, both by accident and by the sword, than in the actual battle itself.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. A bear See on 1Sa 17:34.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8. Scattered For they could not march en masse through the tangled forests.
The wood devoured more people than the sword This forest was probably full of deep gorges and pits, into which, in their haste, multitudes were thrown and perished; others were lost; and some, perhaps, as the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic versions suggest, destroyed by wild beasts. Tristram, who passed through this region in 1864, writes: “We rose to the higher ground, and cantered through a noble forest of oaks. Perhaps we were in the woods of Mahanaim. Somewhere a little to the east of us was fought the battle with the rebellious Absalom, and by such an oak as these was he caught. In picturing the broken lines, and a rout through such an open forest, how we realized the statement: ‘The battle was there scattered over the face of all the country, and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.’ As I rode under a grand old oak tree, I, too, lost my hat and turban, which were caught by a bough.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Sa 18:8 For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
Ver. 8. And the wood devoured more people that day. ] While in running from death, they ran to it; sive in stipites impegerint, sive in arbores illisetint, sive in scrobes, praecipitia aut etiam feras inciderint; whether they fell upon the stubs, or fell into the ditches, or were hanged in the trees, or devoured by wild beasts, or were slain there in the pursuit, or knocked on the head by the country people; quod arguit hanc divinam esse vindictam, saith Jerome.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the face. Figure of speech Pleonasm, with Prosopopceia. App-6. devoured. Hebrew “multiplied to devour”, to emphasise the great number. Figure of speech Prosopopaia. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
in the wood, That is, probably, many more were slain in pursuit through the wood than in the battle, by falling into swamps, pits, etc., and being entangled and cut down by David’s men. Such is the relation of Josephus; but the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic state, that they were devoured by wild beasts in the wood. Exo 15:10, Jos 10:11, Jdg 5:20, Jdg 5:21, 1Ki 20:30, Psa 3:7, Psa 43:1
devoured more: Heb. multiplied to devour
Reciprocal: Psa 18:38 – General Pro 24:22 – their Ecc 4:16 – they also
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Sa 18:8. The battle was scattered over all the country In that neighbourhood; both in the field and in the wood. The wood devoured more people than the sword Some think the wood is said to devour them because they fell into pits, or stumbled upon stumps of trees, or pressed one another to death, as they came into strait places, or were killed by wild beasts. But the most natural meaning of the words is, that there were more slain in the wood, into which Absaloms men fled, than in the open field; that is, more in their flight, which was stopped by the wood, than in the battle.