[¹] Or, before.
8. over all Israel] in 2 Samuel v. 17, over Israel. In both passages the reference is to the later anointing by the whole people (2 Samuel v. 3).
all the Philistines] David, as king of Judah, was of little or no political importance to the Philistines; as king of united Israel, he became a possible menace, and was accordingly attacked without delay.
went up] i.e. from their own low-lying territory by the sea into the hill-country of Judah.
went out against them] margin went out before them, i.e. anticipated them, did not wait for them to attack him. In 2 Samuel v. 17 went down to the hold, an expression which might refer to some part of the difficult hill-country of Judah in which he had long defied Saul, or may mean the “hold” of Jerusalem, which David had seized from the Jebusites (see note on xi. 5).
⁹Now the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim.
9. the valley of Rephaim] probably the shallow valley, now called Beḳā‘a, across which runs the road from Jerusalem to Beth-lehem (Bädeker, Palestine⁵, pp. 15, 99).
¹⁰And David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? and wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the Lord said unto him, Go up; for I will deliver them into thine hand.
10. inquired of God] doubtless by means of the sacred lot, the Urim and Thummim (see Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible s.v., and Kirkpatrick’s notes on 1 Samuel x. 22, xxiii. 6).
¹¹So they came up to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there; and David said, God hath broken[¹] mine enemies by mine hand, like the breach of waters. Therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim[²].