Psalm 60

The title names a two-front crisis. David's forces were campaigning far north against the Aramean kingdoms — Aram-naharaim in the Euphrates bend and Aram-zobah in the Beqaa — and while the army was up there, Edom struck the exposed south. Joab came back down and defeated the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, the flat salt plain at the southern end of the Dead Sea, where the ground is white crust and there is nowhere to hide.

The numbers differ across the records: this title says twelve thousand Edomites, while Samuel and Chronicles give eighteen thousand and credit Abishai. The straightforward reading is that a campaign had more than one engagement and different records count different parts of it, with Joab named as the commander over a force his brother led in the field.

Two lines are legal pictures, not insults for their own sake. A washpot was the basin a servant carried in for a guest's feet — the lowest job in the house. And throwing a sandal onto a piece of ground was a recognised way of claiming possession; the book of Ruth records the sandal changing hands to seal a property transfer. Over Edom I will cast out my shoe means Edom is now legally mine.

The banner given to those who fear God is an army standard. Ancient units marched and rallied to poles carrying emblems, and losing the standard meant losing the formation. The psalm asks for a rallying point after the ranks have broken.