8 Sometime later, David attacked the Philistines and defeated them, and he captured Meteg-Ammah from them.

2 Then he defeated the Moabites. David forced them to lie on the ground and used a length of rope to decide their fate—those inside two lengths of the rope were killed, and those inside the third length were spared and so the Moabites became David’s servants—bringing him tribute.

3 Then David defeated Tsovah’s King Hadadezer (son of Rehov) who had tried to reestablish his authority over the Euphrates River. 4 David captured 1,700 horsemen and twenty thousand men on foot. He hamstrung all the chariot horses except for a hundred of them.

5 Then the Arameans came from Damascus to help Tsovah’s king Hadadezer but David killed twenty-two thousand of them. 6 David stationed garrisons in Aram (in Damascus) and the Arameans became David’s servants—bringing him tribute, and Yahweh helped David win wherever he went. 7 David confiscated the gold shields that Hadadezer’s servants carried and brought them to Yerushalem. 8 He also brought a large amount of bronze out of Hadadezer’s cities of Betah and Berotay.

9 When Hamat’s King Toi heard that David had defeated Hadadezer’s entire army, 10 he sent his son Yoram to ask for peace for Hamat and to congratulate him for fighting Hadadezer and defeating him because Hadadezer often battled against Toi. Yoram brought containers with him, made of gold, silver, and bronze. 11 King David dedicated them to Yahweh, along with the silver and gold that he’d taken from all the nations that they’d conquered: 12 from Aram and Moab, from the Ammonites and the Philistines, and from Amalak and from the plunder of Tsovah’s King Hadadezer (son of Rehov).

13 Then David made more of a name for himself when he returned from defeating eighteen thousand Arameans in the Salt Valley.[ref] 14 He stationed garrisons throughout Edom and made the people his servants, and Yahweh protected David wherever they fought.

15 So David reigned over all Israel and led all his people with justice and integrity. 16 Tseruyah’s son Yoav was the army commander and Ahilud’s son Yehoshafat was the secretary. 17 The priests were Ahitub’s son Tsadok and Evyatar’s son Ahimelek, and Serayah was secretary. 18 Yehoyada’s son Benayah supervised the Keretites and the Peletites (David’s bodyguard), and David’s sons were his administrators.