They came and besieged him in Abel of Beth Maacah, and they cast up a mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab battered the wall to throw it down.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 15. Works. Hebrew a bank, or terrace against the city, and it stood in the trench; ( Bible.) so that the town ditch was filled up, (Grot.) or terraces were raised, from which archers assailed the besieged. Joab made a ditch to defend his men from foreign assailants; and he had already taken the outward wall, so that the town could not hold out for any length of time.—The walls. S. Jerom thinks with battering rams: but they were not yet invented. Calmet.—They undermined the walls, while some attempted to pull them down with hooks and ropes. Calmet. 17:13. Bible.