The Ammonites Barrowed
Those were wild and terrible days in which David lived. To his own times he seemed mild and merciful; but to modern hearts some deeds of his reign seem of unthinkable severity. While his triumph over the Syrians made him the chief ruler of the region, there must have been many walled cities which refused him submission. Chief among these was Rabbah, the capital of the Ammonites, whose king had so insulted Israel’s ambassadors. David seems to have resolved to make a terrible example of Ammon. He sent Joab to lay close siege to Rabbah; and when the time had come for the final assault, the monarch himself joined his army and was present at the taking of the city. The Ammonites who were captured were put to death with savage brutality by David’s express command.
Commentators on the Bible have argued about this passage, which occurs both in Samuel and in Chronicles. Some students think or hope the meaning is that the prisoners were put to work with saws and harrows. But the grimmer statement that they were slain by such implements not only stands in the Bible text but is in harmony with David’s savagery against the Moabites. He may have thought it necessary to let the subject nations know how terribly he meant to punish all rebellion.
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