Matthew Henry on 2 Samuel 5:17–end
The particular service for which David was raised up was to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, Sa2 3:18. This therefore divine Providence, in the first place, gives him an opportunity of accomplishing. Two great victories obtained over the Philistines we have here an account of, by which David not only balanced the disgrace and retrieved the loss Israel had sustained in the battle wherein Saul was slain, but went far towards the total subduing of those vexatious neighbours, the last remains of the devoted nations.
I. In both these actions the Philistines were the aggressors, stirred first towards their own destruction, and pulled it on their own heads. 1. In the former they came…
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there they left their images--probably their "lares" or household deities, which they had brought into the field to fight for them. They were burnt as ordained by law (Deu 7:5).
Adam Clarke on 2 Samuel 5:21
They left their images - It was the custom of most nations to carry their gods with them to battle: in imitation of this custom the Israelites once took the ark and lost it in the field; see Sa1 4:10, Sa1 4:11.
John Gill on 2 Samuel 5:21
And they left their images,.... Their idol gods, which they brought with them to protect and defend them, and give them success; perhaps in imitation of the Israelites, who formerly brought the ark of God into their camp against the Philistines, 1 Samuel 4:3; and it appears to have been the custom of other countries, in later times, to bring their gods with them to battle (x):
and David and his men burnt them: that is, his men burnt them at his command, 1 Chronicles 14:12; agreeably to the law of God, that so no profit might be made of them, Deuteronomy 7:5; the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, and others, render it, "and took them", or "carried them away" (y); as they might do, and,…
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