We can now understand the account of the messengers who bore the news of Absalom’s death to David. The battle between Joab and Absalom took place a little to the south-east of Mahanaim. Josephus says that Joab “put his army in battle array over against the enemy in the great plain where he had a wood behind him” (Antiq. vii. 9, 8, and 10, 1-5). Absalom’s men were routed, and fled through the forests and valleys, pursued by David’s men. The battle was scattered over the face of all the country (2 Sam. xviii. 8), and probably extended to the foot-hills. The two messengers appear to start from some point on the hills, where Joab stood on vantage ground. “The Cushite,” an Ethiopian slave of Joab’s, attempted to go across over deep wadies and broken ground; but Ahimaaz, who knew the country better, struck down to the Jordan Valley, and ran by the way of the Plain (the _Kikkar_) where he had a level and smooth road all the rest of the way. Consequently, although he started second, he arrived first. David sat between the two gates at Mahanaim, and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate unto the wall, whence he descried the messengers approaching.
Succoth also was a city east of Jordan, for Jacob came to it before he crossed the Jordan from the east, and Gideon passed it after he had crossed the Jordan from the west (Judges vii. 4). From the account of Jacob’s return it would seem to be at no great distance from Mahanaim. But notwithstanding that Jacob had crossed the Jabbok southward before he met Esau, and journeyed to Succoth after parting with Esau, there is reason for placing Succoth north of the Jabbok. Jacob recrossed the stream. The Jerusalem Talmud tells us that Succoth, one of the cities “in the valley,” came to be called Darala; and just north of the Jabbok we find _Deir ’Alla_, one of the most conspicuous mounds or _tells_ in the plain, 60 feet high, and covered with broken pottery of many colours and qualities. The site was mapped by Warren in 1868.
The word Succoth means “tents,” and perhaps the place was named from the tents of the Arabs so constantly seen there. The region about the mouth of the Jabbok is fertile, with abundant grass and water, and is very much frequented now by the powerful desert tribes for the purpose of pasturing their flocks and herds. When Gideon, who crossed the Jordan near _Beisan_, had followed the Midianites down the valley to Succoth, it is said that “he went up by the way of them that dwell in tents,” apparently some well-known route leading up the Jabbok Valley to the eastern deserts.