Poole on 2 Samuel 20:15: The Siege of Abel!

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Verse 15:[1]  And they came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maachah, and they (2 Kings 19:32) cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench (or, it stood against the outmost wall[2]):  and all the people that were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down (Heb. marred to throw down[3]).

[They came]  Understanding, the men of Israel (Vatablus).  Joab and his army (Piscator).

They came, that is, Joab and his army, which is easily understood, both from the foregoing and following verses.

[In Abel, and in Beth-maachah[4] (thus Jonathan, Syriac, Munster, Strigelius)]  It is one place, or they are two places conjoined (Munster).  They were neighboring places, through which Sheba was passing, in considering where he might be able to secure himself (Kimchi in Martyr).  Josephus makes them one name (Martyr).  In Abel-Beth-maachah (Montanus, Mariana, Arabic, Dutch), or of Beth-maachah (English).  And signifies that is:  for Sheba was not in two cities, but in one, which Joab besieged.  Hear Adrichomius, Theater of the Holy Land 101:2:  Abel, which is also Abel-Beth-maachah, or Abel house of Maachah, eminent and fortified, a city of upper Galilee, and a metropolis of the Israelites (Lapide).  Abel is the name of a city:  the ה [in ‎אָבֵלָה/Abel-ward] signifies motion toward a place.  Beth-maachah is perhaps the name of the region in which the city was situated (Martyr).  By this addition name this Abel is distinguished from another city of the same name.  This was a city in the tribe of Naphtali, over against Syria, which is called Maachah.  See also 2 Kings 15:29 (Dutch).  Where Abel might be is not so certain.  Jerome makes two:  one near Philadelphia, which appears to have been in the tribe of Naphtali; the other not from Gadara, in the tribe of Judah:  the latter appears to me rather to be that Abel which pertains to the tribe of Ephraim.  It is also called Maachah:  But Maachah of old belonged to the Amorites, Joshua 12, towards Jordan near mount Hermon (Martyr).  In Abel, understanding, which was near (or which is in the region of [Osiander]) Beth-maachah (Pagnine, Tigurinus).

[And they surrounded the city with works, ‎וַיִּשְׁפְּכ֤וּ סֹֽלְלָה֙ אֶל־הָעִ֔יר]  And they poured out (they poured [Munster, Malvenda], because excavated earth is poured out and heaped into a mound [Malvenda]:  they made [Osiander], spread [Junius and Tremellius], that is, raised [Vatablus], cast up [Jonathan, Dutch, English]) a bank toward (or against [Pagnine, Munster, Osiander, English], or upon [Jonathan]) the city (Pagnine, Montanus, Tigurinus, Malvenda, Junius and Tremellius, Dutch, Septuagint).  Out of heaped earth, wherewith they filled the pits of the city (Vatablus), so that they might more easily scale the wall (Malvenda); they levelled the trench (Grotius).  For they encircled with mouns (Arabic).  And they surrounded the city with siegeworks (Strigelius).  And they churned up a mound to the city; that is, some rampart raised before the wall as a bulwark (certain interpreters in Malvenda).  Others:  and they poured out the artillery, or battering ram, towards, or against, the city.  For they say that סֹלְלָה is a siege engine, whereby stones are hurled, etc. (other interpreters in Malvenda).

They cast up a bank; from whence they might either batter the wall, or shoot at those who defended it against them who should assault it.  See 2 Kings 19:32; Jeremiah 32:24; 33:4.  Otherwise, they threw down the bank of the city, which they had raised up to defend the city on the weakest side.

[And the city was besieged, ‎וַֽתַּעֲמֹ֖ד בַּחֵ֑ל]  And it stood in the outwork (Pagnine, Montanus, Vatablus), or in the trench (English).  חֵיל can signify either (Vatablus).  ‎תַּעֲמֹד, it stood, is feminine, and is able to be referred to the city, or the mound, or the battle, or the trench, or the woman, all which are feminine to the Hebrews (Malvenda).  And it, namely, the city, stood on the bulwark (Grotius out of the Septuagint).  Or on the wall alone (Munster), namely, the interior wall, which was yet protecting the city:  but the exterior wall was demolished by the mound (Munster out of the Hebrews); that is to say, the city was close to falling (Malvenda).  So that the city might stand, equipped with a wall alone (Malvenda out of Junius and Tremellius), without a trench, or with the mound destroyed or overthrown (Malvenda).  But that alone appears to be a presumptuous supplement (Piscator).  So that it stood upon the outer wall (Dutch, similarly the English in the margin).  And the wise woman stood on the bulwark (Tigurinus), so that she might be heard all the more easily from there by the army (Malvenda).  And it stood in its vigor or fortitude (Malvenda, certain interpreters in Munster), so that the sense might be, that that bellicose army was standing bravely, that it might cast down the wall; with תַּעֲמֹד, it stood, related to מִלְחָמָה/battle (certain interpreters in Munster).  So that that (namely, the mound) might stand at (or before, which the ב often signifies) the outwork (Piscator, thus Vatablus, Mariana), that is, it was reaching to the outwork (Vatablus).  The mound was level with the wall (Mariana); or rather, it stood, understanding, the war, or battle (Vatablus), or, the people of Joab (Osiander), or, the people of the city (certain interpreters in Malvenda), or it is able to be taken concerning both, and it was fixed on the bulwark, from which it was vigorously fought (Malvenda nearly out of Vatablus).  Others:  and the city remained to be taken in the outwork.  The sense:  They came to the former wall, or to the trench of the city now filled with heaped earth (Vatablus).  And it remained besieged (Syriac).  And the camp besieged it (Jonathan).  In such a way that its citizens were reduced to the utmost extremity (Arabic) [as if they had derived חֵל/ rampart/trench from חוּל, to grieve, to dread, etc.].

It stood in the trench, that is, the bank stood in or near to the trench, or wall of the city; so that the city was in great danger of being taken.  Otherwise, the city stood within the trench, or wall, being defended only by a single trench, or a weak wall; the bank which was raised up there to defend it being thrown down.

[It was undertaking to destroy the walls, ‎מַשְׁחִיתִ֖ם לְהַפִּ֥יל הַחוֹמָֽה׃]  Marring to overthrow the wall (Mariana, similarly Montanus); they purposed (or were contending [Syriac], or were undertaking [Pagnine]) to throw down or to undermine the wall (Septuagint, Jonathan, Syriac, Pagnine, Grotius out of Josephus), namely, with axes and picks, as Tacitus teaches us in Histories 2 (Grotius).  Marring (they were battering [English, thus Munster]) the wall to cast it down (Dutch, English), or so that they might cast it down (Munster).  They were wanting to destroy and to cast down the wall (Tigurinus); they were overthrowing, or breaking up, so that they might cause it to topple; that is, they were laboring to overthrow (Vatablus).  Marring, that is, they were pulling stones out with crowbars, and were putting fire to the gates (Mariana).

[1] Hebrew:  ‎וַיָּבֹ֜אוּ וַיָּצֻ֣רוּ עָלָ֗יו בְּאָבֵ֙לָה בֵּ֣ית הַֽמַּעֲכָ֔ה֙ וַיִּשְׁפְּכ֤וּ סֹֽלְלָה֙ אֶל־הָעִ֔יר וַֽתַּעֲמֹ֖ד בַּחֵ֑ל וְכָל־הָעָם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶת־יוֹאָ֔ב מַשְׁחִיתִ֖ם לְהַפִּ֥יל הַחוֹמָֽה׃

[2] Hebrew:  ‎וַֽתַּעֲמֹ֖ד בַּחֵ֑ל.

[3] Hebrew:  ‎מַשְׁחִיתִ֖ם לְהַפִּ֥יל.

[4] Hebrew:  ‎ בְּאָבֵ֙לָה בֵּ֣ית הַֽמַּעֲכָ֔ה֙.