or laziness
permitted in his management, that so it might prove, as God had foretold
to him, that when he had overthrown his enemies, he should leave his
posterity to reign in peace afterward: so he called together his army
again, and when he had charged them to be ready and prepared for war,
and when he thought that all things in his army were in a good state,
he removed from Jerusalem, and came against the Philistines; and when
he had overcome them in battle, and had cut off a great part of their
country, and adjoined it to the country of the Hebrews, he transferred
the war to the Moabites; and when he had overcome two parts of their
army in battle, he took the remaining part captive, and imposed tribute
upon them, to be paid annually. He then made war against Iadadezer, the
son of Rehob, king of Sophene; [10] and when he had joined battle
with him at 'the river Euphrates, he destroyed twenty thousand of
his footmen, and about seven thousand of his horsemen. He also took a
thousand of his chariots, and destroyed the greatest part of them, and
ordered that no more than one hundred should be kept. [11]

2. Now when Hadad, king of Damascus and of Syria, heard that David
fought against Hadadezer, who was his friend, he came to his assistance
with a powerful army, in hopes to rescue him; and when he had joined
battle with David at the river Euphrates, he failed of his purpose, and
lost in the battle a great number of his soldiers; for there were slain
of the army of Hadad twenty thousand, and all the rest fled. Nicelens
also [of Damascus] makes mention of this king in the fourth book of his
histories; where he speaks thus: "A great while after these things had
happened, there was one of that country whose name was Hadad, who was
become very potent; he reigned over Damascus, and, the other parts
of Syria, excepting Phoenicia. He made war against David, the king of
Judea, and tried his fortune in many battles, and particularly in the
last battle at Euphrates, wherein he was beaten. He seemed to have been
the most excellent of all their kings in strength and manhood," Nay,
besides this, he says of his posterity, that "they succeeded one another
in his kingdom, and in his name;" where he thus speaks: "When Hadad was
dead, his posterity reigned for ten generations, each of his successors
receiving from his father that his dominion, and this his name; as did
the Ptolemies in Egypt. But the third was the most powerful of them all,