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…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Samuel 5:22
the Philistines came up yet again--The next year they renewed their hostile attempt with a larger force, but God manifestly interposed in David's favor.
Adam Clarke on 2 Samuel 5:23
Fetch a compass behind them - When they may be had, God will not work without using human means. By this he taught David caution, prudence, and dependence on the Divine strength.
John Gill on 2 Samuel 5:23
And when David inquired of the Lord,.... For though he had success before, and got the victory, he would not engage again with them without having the mind and will of God, on whom he knew victory alone depended:
he said, thou shalt not go up; that is, directly, and in a straight line:
but fetch a compass behind them; and get to the rear of them, instead of falling upon them in the front:
and come upon them over against the mulberry trees: which grew in the valley of Rephaim, and near where the Philistines had pitched.
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Samuel 5:17–end
David gains two Victories over the Philistines (compare Ch1 14:8-17). - Both these victories belong in all probability to the interval between the anointing of David at Hebron over all Israel and the conquest of the citadel of Zion. This is very evident, so far as the first is concerned, from the words, "When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel" (Sa2 5:17), not when David had conquered the citadel of Zion. Moreover, when the Philistines approached, David "went down to the hold," or mountain fortress, by which we cannot possibly understand the citadel upon Zion, on account of the expression "went down." If David had been living upon Zion at the time, he would h…
