דברי הימים א, פרק כ׳, פסוק ג׳

King David imposed a harsh and cruel punishment on the Ammonites who opposed him. The captured people were subjected to a series of brutal executions using destructive implements. This severe response was not contained merely to the Ammonite capital. The deadly campaign swept through the kingdom, inflicting the same fate upon residents across many cities before David and his army finally returned to Jerusalem [ביאור שטיינזלץ].

The primary method of execution involved cutting and sawing the condemned. The weapons used were heavy saws, defined by their jagged teeth and notches, which inflicted damage through a repeated dragging motion [מצודת ציון]. The intense focus on the act of sawing serves to clarify and emphasize the severity of the punishment [מצודת ציון]. It conveys the sheer cruelty of the event, capturing how the heavy blades were dragged across the bodies of those sentenced to die [רלב״ג].

Alongside the standard saws, David employed an array of other iron tools forged with sharp grooves and notches [מצודת ציון]. The exact nature of these additional weapons is understood in several ways. They may have been smaller, serrated instruments [מצודת ציון], or complex devices constructed from multiple saw blades combined [מלבי״ם]. Another perspective aligns this event with parallel historical records, suggesting these implements were a broader category of iron cutting and shearing tools, representing a distinct type of weapon rather than a mere repetition of the standard saw [רלב״ג, מלבי״ם].