Bible Strands
2 Samuel 18:7
There the people of Israel were defeated by David’s servants, and the slaughter was great that day—twenty thousand men.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the decisive engagement at the forest of Ephraim, where David’s loyal troops confront the rebel forces of Israel.
The words — וַ/יִּנָּ֤גְפוּ (va/i.yi.Na.ge.fu) literally means “and they were struck down,” while שָׁם֙ (sham) fixes the location as “there.”
The thread — The phrase “defeated by David’s servants” reappears in 2 Samuel 2:17, and the theme of civil slaughter is echoed in the warning of 2 Samuel 2:26 and the prohibition against associating with the rebellious in Proverbs 24:21.
Why it lands — The verse states a concrete military result—twenty thousand combatants killed—to document the collapse of the rebellion without embellishment.
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
Where the people of Israel were slain before the servants of David, and there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand men.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 24:21 My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not associate with the rebellious.
- 2 Samuel 2:17 The battle that day was intense, and Abner and the men of Israel were defeated by the servants of David.
- 2 Samuel 2:26 Then Abner called out to Joab: “Must the sword devour forever? Do you not realize that this will only end in bitterness? How long before you tell the troops to stop pursuing their brothers?”
- 2 Samuel 2:31 but they had struck down 360 Benjamites who were with Abner.
- 2 Samuel 15:6 Absalom did this to all the Israelites who came to the king for justice. In this way he stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
- 2 Samuel 19:41 Soon all the men of Israel came to the king and asked, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, take you away secretly and bring the king and his household across the Jordan, together with all of David’s men?”
- 2 Chronicles 13:16 So the Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands.
- 2 Chronicles 28:6 For in one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 valiant men in Judah. This happened because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers.
- Proverbs 11:21 Be assured that the wicked will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will escape.