11:1 In the spring of the year, at the time when kings1 normally conduct wars,2 David sent out Joab with his officers3 and the entire Israelite army.4 They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem.5
tc Codex Leningrad (B19A), on which BHS is based, has here “messengers” (הַמַּלְאכִים, hammal’khim), probably as the result of contamination from the occurrence of that word in v. 4. The present translation follows most Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, which read “kings” (הַמֶּלָאכִים, hammela’kim).