2 Kings 8:13
David also made himself a name, when he returned after taking Syria in the valley of the saltpits, killing eighteen thousand:
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Fecit quoque sibi David nomen cum reverteretur capta Syria in valle Salinarum, cæsis decem et octo millibus :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐποίησεν Δαυεὶδ ὄνομα· καὶ ἐν τῷ ἀνακάμπτειν αὐτὸν ἐπάταξεν τὴν Ἰδουμαίαν ἐν Γεβέλεμ εἰς ὀκτὼ καὶ δέκα χιλιάδας.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיַּ֤עַשׂ דָּוִד֙ שֵׁ֔ם בְּשֻׁב֕וֹ מֵהַכּוֹת֥וֹ אֶת אֲרָ֖ם בְּגֵיא מֶ֑לַח שְׁמוֹנָ֥ה עָשָׂ֖ר אָֽלֶף
Haydock's commentary
Name, or triumphal arch. (Rabbins)
He acquired great fame, chap. vii. 9., and Machabees v. 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 Psalm lix; and 1 Paralipomenon xviii. 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 xiv. 10.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome Against the Pelagians, Book II
2 Sam. viii. 13, 14 . David receives the promises with the humble confession of his weakness. “Is this the law of man, O God?”