📖WEB · 1 Chronicles 18:13
What does 1 Chronicles 18:13 mean?
"He put garrisons in Edom; and all the Edomites became servants to David. Yahweh gave victory to David wherever he went."
— 1 Chronicles 18:13 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
he sent Hadoram his son to king David, to Greet him, and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer and struck him (for Hadadezer had wars with Tou); and he had with him all kinds of vessels of gold and silver and brass.
King David also dedicated these to Yahweh, with the silver and the gold that he carried away from all the nations; from Edom, from Moab, from the children of Ammon, from the Philistines, and from Amalek.
Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah struck eighteen thousand of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
He put garrisons in Edom; and all the Edomites became servants to David. Yahweh gave victory to David wherever he went.
David reigned over all Israel; and he executed justice and righteousness for all his people.
Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder;
Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Abimelech the son of Abiathar, were priests; Shavsha was scribe;
Explanation
This verse comes at the close of a chapter that catalogs David's military victories over surrounding nations—the Philistines, Moabites, the king of Zobah, the Arameans of Damascus, and finally the Edomites. In plain terms, it tells us that David established military outposts (garrisons) throughout Edom, a kingdom south and east of Israel, and as a result the Edomite people came under Israelite rule as subjects who paid tribute or provided service. The verse then adds a summary statement about David's reign as a whole: wherever he went to fight, the Lord gave him success.
The book of 1 Chronicles was written after the Babylonian exile, likely by a priestly or scribal figure, for a Jewish community that had returned to the land but was now weak, scattered, and living under foreign rule rather than possessing an independent kingdom. The Chronicler retells Israel's history, and especially David's reign, to remind this discouraged post-exilic audience of who they were and what God had done through their great king. The parallel account of these events appears in 2 Samuel 8, but Chronicles tends to streamline the history and highlight God's hand in Israel's national life
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