It was told David; and he gathered all Israel together, and passed over the Jordan, and came on them, and set the battle in array against them. So when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him.
In bringing these battle stories together, the writer has omitted a number of passages from the parallel section of 2 Samuel. He is concerned with God’s plan for establishing the kingdom of David, not with the fate of Saul’s survivors (2 Samuel 9:1-13; 2 Samuel 21:1-17), nor with David’s personal sins and family troubles (2 Samuel 11:2-25; 2 Samuel 13:1-26).