Commentators are united on the severity of David's actions, executing two-thirds of the Moabite prisoners. They note this is a shocking reversal from David's previously friendly relations with Moab. Scholars offer two main reasons for this harshness: a Jewish tradition that the Moabites murdered David's parents, whom he had entrusted to them, or that Moab treacherously attacked Israel while David was fighting the Syrians.