Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians.
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).