2 Samuel 12:26

“And Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, etc.] Of his being sent against it, and of his besieging it, we read in (<101101>2 Samuel 11:1); but it can hardly be thought that he had been so long besieging it, as that David had two children by Bathsheba; but the account of the finishing of it is placed here, that the story concerning Bathsheba might lie together without any interruption: and took the royal city; or that part of it in which the king’s palace was, and which, as Abarbinel observes, was without the city, as the palaces of kings now usually are.”

“RABBAH IS TAKEN. (Sa2 12:26-31) Joab fought against Rabbah--The time during which this siege lasted, since the intercourse with Bath-sheba, and the birth of at least one child, if not two, occurred during the progress of it, probably extended over two years.”

“Royal city - That is, that part of the city where was the king's palace; though now it seems he was retired to a strong fort. 2 Kings (2 Samuel) 12:27”

“12:26-31 David’s battle with the Ammonites, begun in ch 10, ended in success.”

“Joab: Sa2 11:25; Ch1 20:1 Rabbah: Rabbah, or Rabbath-Ammon, also called Philadelphia, from Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, was situated east of Jordan, and, according to Eusebius, ten miles east from Jazer. It is sometimes mentioned as belonging to Arabia, sometimes to Coelo-Syria; and was one of the cities of the Decapolis east of Jordan. Josephus extends the region of Perea as far as Philadelphia. It is now, says Burckhardt, called Amman, distant about 19 miles to the se by e of Szalt, and lies along the banks of a river called Moiet Amman, which has its source in a pond, at a few hundred paces from the south-western end of the town, and empties itself in the Zerka, or Jabbok, about…”

“Conquest of Rabbah, and Punishment of the Ammonites (comp. Ch1 20:1-3). \- "Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the king's city." המּלוּכה עיר, the capital of the kingdom, is the city with the exception of the acropolis, as Sa2 12:27 clearly shows, where the captured city is called "the water-city." Rabbah was situated, as the ruins of Ammn show, on both banks of the river (Moiet) Ammn (the upper Jabbok), in a valley which is shut in upon the north and south by two bare ranges of hills of moderate height, and is not more than 200 paces in breadth. "The northern height is crowned by the castle, the ancient acropolis, which stands on the north-western side of the…”