1 Chronicles 19:10-15 meaning
1 Chronicles 19:10-15 records how Joab met a battle on two fronts: Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him in front and in the rear, he selected from all the choice men of Israel and they arrayed themselves against the Arameans (v 10). The verb "saw" matters; Joab read the field accurately before he acted. The hired Arameans in the open plain were the stronger and more mobile force, so Joab took the choice men of Israel (v 10), the best of the mighty men, and faced them himself. He gave the harder task to the better troops and to himself.
The rest of the army went to his brother: But the remainder of the people he placed in the hand of Abshai his brother; and they arrayed themselves against the sons of Ammon (v 11). Abshai is the spelling the NASB95 uses here for Abishai, the commander who had defeated the Edomites in the Valley of Salt (1 Chronicles 18:12). The Ammonites at the city gate were the less dangerous enemy, since they could retreat behind walls, and Joab assigned them to the remainder of the people (v 11) under a commander he trusted. The plan divided Israel's force, which is ordinarily a mistake against two enemies, and the next verse shows how Joab made the division safe.
The two brothers bind themselves to each other: He said, "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you shall help me; but if the sons of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will help you" (v 12). Each wing would fight its own battle, and each would turn to help the other as needed. The arrangement turned one divided army into two forces holding a common reserve, and it rested on trust between brothers who had fought side by side since the days of Saul (1 Samuel 26:6).
The wisdom is the same Solomon later wrote down: "Two are better than one...for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). Paul applies it to the church, where the members are to "bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2), and the picture of two commanders each pledged to come to the other's aid is a serviceable image of how the body of Christ is meant to fight.
Joab then gives the army its reasons: "Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God; and may the LORD do what is good in His sight" (v 13). The charge to be strong and show themselves courageous repeats the words Moses and God gave Joshua on the edge of the land, "Be strong and courageous" (Deuteronomy 31:6; Joshua 1:6-9). Joab's reasons for courage are two, and they are the right two. The first is "our people," the families behind the lines. The second is "the cities of our God" (v 13); the land belonged to the LORD (Leviticus 25:23), and the towns of Israel were His towns, so a hired army camped at Medeba threatened God's property. Joab fought as a steward.
The last clause is the center of the speech: may the LORD do what is good in His sight (v 13). Joab had done the planning a commander could do and then placed the result in God's hands. The sentence is the language of submission that Eli used when Samuel told him of judgment, "It is the LORD; let Him do what seems good to Him" (1 Samuel 3:18), and that David would use when he fled Jerusalem, "let Him do to me as seems good to Him" (2 Samuel 15:26). It states a truth about battle: "The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the LORD" (Proverbs 21:31). Joab was a hard and often ruthless man (1 Kings 2:5), yet his speech stands as a model regardless.
The lesson for the reader is a decision rule for any contest whose outcome is unknown: do the work well, fight for the right reasons, and leave the result to God, trusting that what He does will be good in His sight. Moses had told Israel's soldiers the same thing when they faced chariots: "do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God...is with you" (Deuteronomy 20:1).
The battle follows the plan: So Joab and the people who were with him drew near to the battle against the Arameans, and they fled before him (v 14). Joab attacked the stronger force first, and the hired army broke. Mercenaries fight for pay, and when the fighting turned hard, the Arameans had little to hold them. They fled before him without the text recording a prolonged struggle; the LORD who "helped David wherever he went" (1 Chronicles 18:6) gave David's general the field.
The second enemy collapses behind the first: When the sons of Ammon saw that the Arameans fled, they also fled before Abshai his brother and entered the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem (v 15). Ammon's courage had depended on the army it had bought, and when that army ran, Ammon ran too, back through the gate it had kept at its back. The Ammonites were defeated in the field and shut up in their city, and Joab, with the campaign season likely ending, came to Jerusalem without laying siege. The siege of Rabbah would come the next spring (1 Chronicles 20:1). The chapter's first battle closes with both enemies routed and the two brothers' pledge to each other untested, because neither wing needed rescue. God did what was good in His sight (v 13), and it was good for Israel.