Apart from the isolated notice in Dt 3", where a pa.ssing reference is made to it as the site of the bed or sarcophagus of Og king of Baslian, and the statement in Jos 13^ that it lay out.>-ide the ea-stern border of the tribe of Gad on the east of Jordan, no allusion is made in the OT to the capital of the Ammonites until the reign of David. According to the narrative of 2 S lO'-lP 12-«-»' (which appears in a condensed and less accurate form in 8-', see Samuel, Books of) an embassy was -sent bj' David to condole with Hanun king of Amnion on the death of his father Nahash. The envojs, however, were grossly insulted by the Ammonite king and his servants, who, in view of the growing power of the Israelite monarch, were inclined, jierliaps not unnaturally, to suspect the motives of his embassy. This treatment of the envoys could have but one result, and the Ammon- ites therefore at once summoned to their aid those poutlieru tribes of the Aninueans who were their more immediate neighbours on the east of Jordan. Meantime the Israelite army, under the command of Joab, had lo.st no time in invading the country of the Ammonites. Their intention, doubtless, was to lay siege to Babbah itself ; for though he was aware (2 S 10') of the alliance between the Ammonites ami Aranueans, Jo.ib docs not appear to have realized either the strength or the jiosition of the Aranucan force that was opposed to him, until he had actuallj' come within striking distance of the Ammonite capital (vy.'»). The Aiiima?ans, however, as we learn from the Chronicler (1 Ch 19'), had penetrated as far south as Medeba, and now threatened to cut oil' his retreat across the Jordan. Thus hemmed in 'before and behind,' Joab perceived that his only hope of safety lay in assuming the ofl'ensive. He therclore divided his army into two, and, having entrusted Abishai with the task of holding the Ammonites in check, himself led ' all the picked men of l.srael ' in an attack on the more powerful .^rama'an.s. The combined movement was completely successful : the AramtBans fled discomtited, and their example
was soon followed by the Ammonites, who took r-fuge in Kabbah. Joab, however, did not follow up his advantage, but retired with the armj' to Jerusalem. In the following year David took the lield in person against the Arama-ans, who had reassembled under Shobach, captain of the host of Iladadezer, at Helam (probably not far from Damascus), and defeated them with great slaughter (\'v. '*-"*). The \vay was now clear for the renewal of the war with the Ammonites, and Joab, with the whole army and the ark (11"), was despatched across the Jordan to ravage the land of the Ammonites, and to lay siege to Kabbah (IP). If, as the biblical narrative seems to imply, both the sous of Batlisheba were born during this period, the siege of Kabbah must have lasted nearly two years. The aim of the besiegers was doubtless to starve out the city, rather than to take it by storm (U-"- ^) : the actual liglitin" was probabl5' confined to the occasions on whicli the beleaguered garrison attempted a sortie. It was by exposing Uriah the Hittite to one of these sallies that Joab was able to eflect David's plan for getting rid of the former (vv.'^'").
The fate of the city was finally sealed by the capture of the spring of water from wliich the inhabitants derived their water supply (12-'' reading c~C \"i 'spring of waters' for orErr tv 'city of waters,' so Klostermann ; but .see Clieyne [Expos. Tiine.1, Sept. 18'J8, p. 143 f.], who would read liere and in the preceding verse csV? Ty 'the city of MUcom'): only in this way can we harmonize Joab's message (v.-""-) with the phrase ' the royal city' (njiS^n ry) in v.^. By the latter phrase is probably meant the royal castle or citadel, situ- ated at the apex of the lofty triangular plateau, which seems to have formed the site of the ancient Kabbah. 'The two sides are bounded by wadies which diverge from the ai)ex, where they are divided by a low neck of land, and thence separ- ating, fall into tlie valley of the Jabbok, which forms the base of the triangle' (Olipliant, The Land of Gilencl, p. 259 f.). The precipitous char- acter of the wadis — on the one side there is a drop of 300 ft., on the other of 400 ft.— precluded any access to the streams below, save at the (? artificial) depression which separated the cita<lel from the rest of the city. Hence the capture of the latter virtually placed the city at the mercy of Joab, and as.sured him of its speedy downfall.* He thereupon despatched messengers to David, bid- ding him collect the rest of his forces, and super- intend the final assault of the (ity, 'lest,' he adds, ' I take the city, and my name be called ui)on it' — in token, namely, of its concjuest by him. (See, further, on this passage, vol. i. p. 344"). David at once resiioudcd to Joab's appeal, and shortly after his arrival the city was taken, to- gether with much sjioil, including the crown of AliUom (LXX), the god of the Ammonites. (Tor a full discussion of the treatment of the inhabit- ants of Kabbah 1 y David, see Driver, A'otes on Samuel, pp. 2-2{i-22'Ji.