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2 Samuel 5:18

in 2 Samuel 5

Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

Now the Philistines had come and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.

KJV

The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.

This verse in 2 Samuel 5

Commentary

4 notes on this verse
The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. Or "of the giants", as Jos 15:8; which lay to the west of Jerusalem; of which; see Gill on Jos 15:8; the Philistines spreading themselves in it, shows that they were very numerous.

This site's exposition

went down to the hold

on 2 Samuel 5:17-18

News of an anointed king over all Israel draws every Philistine army up at once, and David withdraws to the hold rather than meeting them in the open, the same caution that marks the enquiries to come. Verse 18 names the ground they camp on, the valley of Rephaim, the valley of the giants, the same word that names the four kinsmen of the giant killed at Gath in the next book's roster and the champion David himself once faced there. The map still carries the name a generation after Goliath fell.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Here we have only the heads of their address, containing the grounds they went upon in making David king. Their relation to him was some inducement: " We are thy bone and thy flesh (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

valley of Rephaim--that is, "of giants," a broad and fertile plain, which descends gradually from the central mountains towards the northwest. It was the route by which they marched against Jerusalem. The "hold" to which David went down "was some fortified place where he might oppose the progress of the invaders," and where he signally defeated them.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

The words behind it

5 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וּפְלִשְׁתִּ֖יםand [the] Philistines

    ufelishtimH6430287 times

  • בָּ֑אוּthey came

    bauH9352568 times

  • וַיִּנָּטְשׁ֖וּand they were spread out

    vaiyinateshuH5203

  • בְּעֵ֥מֶקin [the] valley of

    beemekH601069 times

  • רְפָאִֽים׃Rephaim

    refaimH749725 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Joshua 15:8

    From there the border went up the Valley of Hinnom along the southern slope of the Jebusites (that is, Jerusalem) and ascended to the top of the hill that faces the Valley of Hinnom…

    it leads to

    • Joshua 18:16

      Then it went down to the foot of the hill that faces the Valley of Hinnom at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim and ran down the Valley of Hinnom toward the…

    • Joshua 15:63

      But the descendants of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. So to this day the Jebusites live there among the descendants of Judah.

    • Judges 19:10

      But the man was unwilling to spend the night. He got up and departed, and arrived opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine.

    • Joshua 18:28

      Zelah, Haeleph, Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath-jearim—fourteen cities, along with their villages. This was the inheritance of the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.

  • Through

    2 Samuel 23:13

    At harvest time, three of the thirty chief men went down to David at the cave of Adullam, while a company of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim.

    it leads to

    • 1 Samuel 22:1

      So David left Gath and took refuge in the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there.

  • Through

    Isaiah 17:5

    as the reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the ears with his arm, as one gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.

    it leads to

    • Matthew 13:30

      Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”

    • Jeremiah 51:33

      For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her…

    • Joel 3:13

      Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because their wickedness is great.

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Samuel

David Mourns the Death of Absalom, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
David Mourns the Death of Absalom, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.