Bible Strands
2 Samuel 10:14
When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they too fled before Abishai, and they entered the city. So Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the battlefield moment immediately after Joab’s troops rout the Arameans, as the Ammonite allies witness the collapse and retreat into their city. Joab then disengages from the Ammonites and marches back to Jerusalem.
The words — The Hebrew נָס (nas) and וַ/יָּנֻ֙סוּ֙ (va/i.ya.Nu.su) both derive from the root for flight, literally rendering “it had fled” and “they fled.” These terms track the immediate tactical collapse of the Aramean coalition before the Ammonites follow suit.
The thread — The same coalition’s defeat and retreat appears in the parallel account of 1 Chronicles 19:15–18. The motif of allied forces breaking under Israelite advance also recurs in Joshua 10:10, where routed armies flee down mountain passes.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that tactical collapse follows when opposing forces unite against God’s appointed commander. It requires the reader to observe how physical retreat in the narrative maps onto spiritual surrender or resistance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, then fled they also before Abishai, and entered into the city. So Joab returned from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem.