2 Samuel 18:7

Where the people of Israel were slaine before the seruants of Dauid, and there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand men.
- King James Version (1611) - View 1611 Bible Scan

The people of Israel were defeated there before the servants of David, and the slaughter there that day was great, 20,000 men.
- New American Standard Version (1995)

And the people of Israel were smitten there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men.
- American Standard Version (1901)

And the people of Israel were overcome there by the servants of David, and there was a great destruction that day, and twenty thousand men were put to the sword.
- Basic English Bible

And the people of Israel were routed before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day: twenty thousand men.
- Darby Bible

Where the people of Israel were slain before the servants of David, and there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand men.
- Webster's Bible

The people of Israel were struck there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men.
- World English Bible

and smitten there are the people of Israel before the servants of David, and the smiting there is great on that day -- twenty thousand;
- Youngs Literal Bible

And the people of Israel were smitten there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men.
- Jewish Publication Society Bible

Wesley's Notes for 2 Samuel 18:7

18:5 Deal gently - If you conquer (which be presaged they would by God's gracious answer to his prayer for the turning of Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness,) take him prisoner, but do not kill him. Which desire proceeded, from his great indulgence towards his children: from his consciousness that he himself was the meritorious cause of this rebellion, Absalom being given up to it for the punishment of David's sins; from the consideration of his youth, which commonly makes men foolish, and subject to ill counsels: and from his piety, being loth that he should be cut off in the act of his sin without any space for repentance. But ''what means, says Bp. Hall, this ill - placed mercy? Deal gently with a traitor? Of all traitors with a son? And all this for thy sake, whose crown, whose blood he hunts after? Even in the holiest parents nature may be guilty of an injurious tenderness. But was not this done in type of that unmeasurable mercy, of the true King of Israel, who prayed for his murderers, Father, forgive them! Deal gently with them for my sake! Yea, when God sends an affliction to correct his children, it is with this charge, deal gently with them for my sake: for he knows our frame.

18:8 The wood - 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 from the place of the main battle, yet might easily meet with them when they fled several ways: or, by falling into ditches and pits, which were in that place, ver.#17|, and probably were covered with grass or wood, so that they could not see them till they fell into them: and especially by David's 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 David's men, who followed them, and slew them in the pursuit. The sword - In the main battle: the sword being put for the battle, by a common figure.

18:9 The servants of David - Who, according to David's command, spared him, and gave him an opportunity to escape. His head - In which probably he was entangled by the hair of the head, which being very long and thick, might easily catch hold of a bough, especially when the great God directed it. Either he wore no helmet, or he had thrown it away as well as his other arms, to hasten his flight. Thus the matter of his pride was the instrument of his ruin.