'Hadad helps';[1]), son of Rehob, was king of Zobah or Sova (Imperial Aramaic Ṣoḇā), a Syrian kingdom that may have been in the Beqaa Valley (now in Lebanon),[2] extended along the eastern side of the Anti-Lebanon mountains, reaching Hama to the north.
[3] Zobah exercised power throughout southern Syria and inevitably clashed with the expanding empire of Israel.
[1] Hanun, king of Ammon (now Jordan), hired Hadadezer in his war against David.
Joab found them in a double-battle array, with the Ammonites toward the capital of Rabbah (now Amman) and the Sovan mercenaries near Madaba.
[4] The power of the Ammonites and the Syrians was finally broken, and David's empire expanded to the Euphrates according to 2 Samuel 10:15–19 and 1 Chronicles 19:15–19.