2nd Samuel Chapter 5 verse 21 Holy Bible
And they left their images there; and David and his men took them away.
read chapter 5 in ASV
And the Philistines, when they went in flight, did not take their images with them, and David and his men took them away.
read chapter 5 in BBE
And they left their images there, and David and his men took them away.
read chapter 5 in DARBY
And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them.
read chapter 5 in KJV
And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them.
read chapter 5 in WBT
They left their images there; and David and his men took them away.
read chapter 5 in WEB
And they forsake there their idols, and David and his men lift them up.
read chapter 5 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - They left their images. This is a further proof of the suddenness of the attack, and the completeness of the Philistine discomfiture. For images we find "gods" in the parallel place in 1 Chronicles 14:12, and the word used here is rendered "idols" in 1 Samuel 31:9. As the Philistines supposed that these images of their deities would ensure their victory, they would set great store by them, as the Israelites did by the ark (1 Samuel 4:4), and the French by the oriflamme. Their capture, therefore, was a feat as great as the winning of the eagle of a Roman legion. David and his men burned them; Hebrew, took them away. This translation of the Authorized Version, made to force the words into verbal agreement with 1 Chronicles 14:12, is utterly indefensible; and, like most wrong things, it is absurd. The Bible cannot be improved by frauds, and really the two narratives complete one another. David and his men carried off these images as trophies, just as the Philistines carried off the ark (1 Samuel 4:11). But the ark proved mightier than the Philistine gods, and in terror the people restored it to Israel. But no avenging hand interfered to rescue these gods, and, after being paraded in triumph, they were made into a bonfire.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) Their images.--The Philistines took their idols with them to battle, as the Israelites had formerly taken the ark, and the suddenness and completeness of their defeat is shown by their leaving them on the field. The statement that David "burned" them is taken from 1Chronicles 14:12, the Hebrew here being simply "took them away." (See Deuteronomy 7:5.)
