And David took the arms of gold, which the servants of Adarezer wore, and brought them to Jerusalem.

and David taketh the shields of gold which were on the servants of Hadadezer, and bringeth them to Jerusalem;

And David took their gold body-covers from the servants of Hadadezer and took them to Jerusalem.

And David took the armbands of gold, which the servants of Hadadezer had, and he brought them to Jerusalem.

David took the shields of gold - We know not what these were. Some translate arms, others quivers, others bracelets, others collars, and others shields. They were probably costly ornaments by which the Syrian soldiers were decked and distinguished. And those who are called servants here, were probably the choice troops or body-guard of Hadadezer, as the argyraspides were of Alexander the Great. See Quintus Curtius.

And David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer, and brought them to (e) Jerusalem.
(e) For the use of the temple.

And David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer,.... That were found with them, which they had in their hands; these must be supposed to be with the principal officers of his army; or golden chains, as Aquila, or golden bracelets on their arms, as the Septuagint; the Syriac version is "quivers of gold", such as they put arrows into, and so Jarchi and R. Isaiah understand it of such, and refer to Jeremiah 51:11; and so Josephus (r):
and brought them to Jerusalem; where they were laid up, and converted to the use of the sanctuary Solomon built; see Song 4:4.
(r) Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 7. c. 5.) sect. 3.

Of the booty taken in these wars, David carried the golden shields which he took from the servants, i.e., the governors and vassal princes, of Hadadezer, to Jerusalem.
(Note: The lxx has this additional clause: "And Shishak the king of Egypt took them away, when he went up against Jerusalem in the days of Rehoboam the son of Solomon," which is neither to be found in the Chronicles nor in any other ancient version, and is merely an inference drawn by the Greek translator, or by some copyists of the lxx, from 1-Kings 14:25-28, taken in connection with the fact that the application of the brass is given in 1-Chronicles 18:8. But, in the first place, the author of this gloss has overlooked the fact that the golden shields of Rehoboam which Shishak carried away, were not those captured by David, but those which Solomon had had made, according to 1-Kings 10:16, for the retainers of his palace; and in the second place, he has not observed that, according to 2-Samuel 8:11 of this chapter, and also of the Chronicles, David dedicated to the Lord all the gold and silver that he had taken, i.e., put it in the treasury of the sanctuary to be reserved for the future temple, and that at the end of his reign he handed over to his son and successor Solomon all the gold, silver, iron, and brass that he had collected for the purpose, to be applied to the building of the temple (1-Chronicles 22:14., 1-Chronicles 29:2.). Consequently the clause in question, which Thenius would adopt from the lxx into our own text, is nothing more than the production of a presumptuous Alexandrian, whose error lies upon the very surface, so that the question of its genuineness cannot for a moment be entertained.)
Shelet signifies "a shield," according to the Targums and Rabbins, and this meaning is applicable to all the passages in which the word occurs; whilst the meaning "equivalent" cannot be sustained either by the rendering πανοπλία adopted by Aquila and Symmachus in 2-Kings 11:10, or by the renderings of the Vulgate, viz., arma in loc. and armatura in Song 4:4, or by an appeal to the etymology (vid., Gesenius' Thes. and Dietrich's Lexicon).

On the servants - Or rather, which were with the servants, that is, committed to their custody, as being kept in the king's armoury: for it is not probable they carried them into the field.