(1) After the year was expired.--Heb., at the time of the return of the year: i.e., in spring. (See 1Kings 20:22; 1Kings 20:26.)

At the time that kings go out.--See 1Kings 20:16. Military operations were commonly suspended during winter. The Assyrian kings have chronicled their habit of making yearly expeditions of conquest and plunder. It was exceptional for the king to "remain in the country."

Joab led forth the power of the army.--Samuel gives details: "David sent Joab and his servants (? the contingents of tributaries, 1Chronicles 19:19), and all Israel" (i.e., the entire national array).

Wasted the country.--An explanation of Samuel: "wasted the sons of Ammon."

Rabbah, or Rabbath Ammon, the capital. (See 2Samuel 11:1; Amos 1:14; Jeremiah 49:2-3.)

But David tarried (Heb., was tarrying) at Jerusalem.--While Joab's campaign was in progress-In 2Samuel 11:1 this remark prepares the way for the account which there follows of David's temptation and fall.

And Joab smote Rabbah, and destroyed it.--A brief statement, summarizing the events related in 2Samuel 11:27-27. From that passage we learn that, after an assault which doubtless reduced the defenders to the last stage of weakness, Joab sent a message to David at Jerusalem to come and appropriate the honours of the capture. Our 1Chronicles 20:2, which abruptly introduces David himself as present at Rabbah, obviously implies a knowledge of the narrative as it is told in Samuel, and would hardly be intelligible without it. Whether the chronicler here and elsewhere borrows directly from Samuel, or from another document depending ultimately on the same original as Samuel, cannot certainly be decided.

Verse 1. - The fifteenth verse of the previous chapter stated that the discomfited Ammonites "fled... and entered into the city," i.e. into Rabbah. Hither we now learn that, by the command of David (2 Samuel 11:1), Joab, at the "return of the year," i.e. probably at the return of spring (Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22), brings the power of the army, and, after ravaging the country surrounding it, sits down to besiege Rabbah itself. The series of feasts, beginning in spring and ending in autumn, regulated the year. The sacred year began with the new moon that became full next after the spring equinox; but the civil year at the seventh new moon. This one verse illustrates in four several instances at fewest the advantage of having two versions of the same events, even though in this case in comparatively immaterial respects.

1. We here read that Joab wasted the country of the children of Ammon... and besieged Rabbah, in place of the less consistent reading of 2 Samuel 11:1, "destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah."

2. We have here in the Hebrew the right word for "kings" (חַמְּלָכִים), instead of the word for "angels" (חמְלָאכִים), as in the parallel place.

3. While we read here that Joab smote Rabbah, and destroyed it, the parallel place, now shifted to 2 Samuel 12:27-29, tells of Joab's generosity (if it were this, and not fear or possibly somewhat tardy obedience to strict commands given on his commission), in his message to David, to repair to the spot immediately and share the glory of the reduction of the city, or be its nominal captor.

4. And, once more, while we read here that Joab smote Rabbah, and destroyed it, and yet read in the parallel place of the delay and the visit of David (with which the very first clause of our ver. 2, "And David took," etc., is in perfect accord) and of David's nominal taking of the city, we find probably the just and inartificial explanation of all this in 2 Samuel 12:26-29. There we read more particularly that Joab sent word he had taken the "city of waters," i.e. the lower part of the city (where a stream had its source, and no doubt supplied the city with water), which was very likely the key of the whole position,and called upon David to come up and "encamp against the city and take it," i.e. the city, or citadel, which stood upon the heights north of the stream. Glimpses of this kind may suffice to convince us how rapidly a text, really correct, would melt away for us a very large proportion of the whole number of the lesser obstacles which often impede our path in the historical books of the Old Testament. At the time that kings go out. It was no doubt the case that, even in Palestine, the winter was often a period of enforced inactivity. Rabbah. Tim punishment of Ammou for the treatment of David's well-intended embassy of condolence is now about to be completed. The familiar root of Rabbah signifies multitudinous number, and, resulting thence, the greatness of importance. It was the chief city of the Ammonites, if not their only city of importance enough for mention. In five passages its connection with Ammon is coupled with its name (Deuteronomy 3:11; 2 Samuel 12:26; 2 Samuel 17:27; Jeremiah 49:2; Ezekiel 21:20), "Rabbah of the children of Ammon." It has been conjectured to be the Ham of the Zuzim, or the Ashteroth Karnaim of the Rephaim (Genesis 14:5), of which latter theory there is some interesting evidence of a corroborating tendency at all events (see Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,' 2:985). Rabbah is the proper spelling of the word, except when in a constructive state, as in the above phrase. The relations of Moab and Ammon with Israel are full of interest. After the overthrow of Og, King of Bashan (Numbers 21:33), "Moab and Ammon still remained independent allies south and cast of the Israelite settlements. Both fell before David - Moab, evidently the weaker, first; Ammon not without a long resistance, which made the siege and fall of its capital, Rabbah-ammon, the crowning act of David's conquests. The ruins which now adorn the 'royal city' are of a later Roman date; but the commanding position of the citadel remains; and the unusual sight of a living stream abounding in fish (2 Samuel 12:27; Isaiah 16:2) marks the significance of Joab's song of victory, 'I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken the city of waters'" (Stanley's 'Sinai and Palestine,' 323, edit. 1866).

20:1-8 David's wars. - Though the Lord will severely correct the sins of his believing people, he will not leave them in the hands of their enemies. His assistance will overcome all advantages of number and strength of those that defy his Israel. All that trust in Christ, shall be made more than conquerors through him that loveth them.See Gill on 1 Chronicles 20:1, 2 Samuel 11:1, 1 Chronicles 20:2, 2 Samuel 12:30, 2 Samuel 21:15, and 1 Chronicles 21:1.