2 Samuel 18:6-8

[6] So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim; [7] Where the people of Israel were slain before the servants of David, and there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand [8] For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

What is the context of 2 Samuel 18:6-8?

Absalom’s Defeat (2 Samuel 18:1-8 true)
The Battle Begins (2 Samuel 18:1-8 true)
Absalom Slain (2 Samuel 18:1-18 true)
Absalom Killed (2 Samuel 18:1-18 true)
Absalom’s Defeat and Death (2 Samuel 18:1-18 true)
Absalom Dies in Battle (2 Samuel 18:1-33 true)
Absalom’s Death (2 Samuel 18:1-33 true)

What does 2 Samuel 18:6-8 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

The location of the forest of Ephraim is unknown, but it was probably in Gilead (cf. Judges 12:1-5). ^[1] As early as the Judges period, so many Ephraimites had settled in Gilead that the western Ephraimites called the Gileadites "fugitives of Ephraim" ( Judges 12:4). ^[2] How the forest devoured more of Absalom"s men than David"s soldiers did ( 2 Samuel 18:8) is not clear, but that it did suggests that Yahweh assisted David"s men by using the forest somehow to give him the victory.