David earned a reputation when he returned from striking down eighteen thousand men of the Syrians in the Valley of Salt.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 13. Name, or triumphal arch. Rabbins.—He acquired great fame. Calmet. 17:9, 1 Maccabees 5:57. Menochius.—Syria, which is styled Aram in Hebrew The Septuagint have read Edom, or Idumea, as the two names have often been confounded, on account of the similarity of the letters. The following verse seems favourable to this reading, as well as the title of the Psalms 59.; and 1 Chronicles 18:12, says, Abisai … slew of the Edomites, in the valley of the salt-pits, 18,000. It is probable that David was present. This Idumea was on the east of the Dead Sea, and had Bosra for its capital. The salt-pits might be a great plain, about three miles south of Palmyra or Thadmor, which supplies almost all Syria with salt. Brun. Calmet.—Othes think that the borders of the most salt lake of Sodom are denoted. Menochius. See Genesis 14:10.