Lives of Scripture

Shobach (also spelled Shophach) was the commander of the army of Hadadezer, the Aramean king of Zobah, during the war Israel fought against the allied forces of Ammon and Aram in David's reign. After the Ammonites provoked war by humiliating David's envoys, they hired Aramean mercenary forces to reinforce them; when those forces were routed by Joab, Hadadezer summoned additional Arameans from beyond the Euphrates under Shobach's command to make a second attempt against Israel (2 Samuel 10:6-16; 1 Chronicles 19:16). This time David himself crossed the Jordan and led Israel's army directly against the assembled Arameans at Helam. The battle went decisively to Israel: David's forces killed the drivers of seven hundred Aramean chariots and forty thousand horsemen, and Shobach the commander was struck down in the fighting and died there (2 Samuel 10:17-18; 1 Chronicles 19:18). His death broke Aram's will to keep fighting for Ammon -- the vassal kings who had served Hadadezer made peace with Israel and became subject to David instead (2 Samuel 10:19). Shobach's brief, violent appearance in the text marks a turning point in David's wars: a formidable foreign general defeated, and a coalition against Israel dissolved, under the LORD's hand of victory for His anointed king.