2 Samuel 10:1-5

III. TROUBLE IN DAVID'S FAMILY, 2 Samuel 10:1 to 2 Samuel 14:33.

1. The War With Ammon, 2 Samuel 10:1-19.

David's Ambassadors Shamed. 2 Samuel 10:1-5

And it came to pass after this, that the king of the children of Amnon died, and Hanun his son reigned in his stead.
2 Then said David, I will show kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness unto me. And David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants for his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon.
3 And the princes of the children of Ammon said unto Hanun their lord, Thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? hath not David rather sent his servants unto thee, to search the city, and to spy it out, and to overthrow it?

4 Wherefore Hanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away.

5 When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed: and the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.

1.

Who was Hanun? 2 Samuel 10:1

Hanun was the new king over the people of Ammon. David had subdued these people in one of his campaigns (2 Samuel 8:12). As the son and successor of Nahash, the king of the Ammonites in the days of Saul, he showed himself to be of the same warlike nature. He was not able to withstand the agitation of courtiers who misjudged the object of David's mission, and he treated David's ambassadors shamefully.

2.

Who was Nahash? 2 Samuel 10:2

A man named Nahash is mentioned in 1 Samuel 11:1-3. We cannot be sure that this is the same Nahash mentioned in 2 Samuel 10:2. We suppose that it was the same person. It may have been that the latter mention of the name refers to a son of the man formerly mentioned. It would be hard to understand how this man had helped David, since no specific mention of it is made. He may have befriended David during the time that David was in hiding from the presence of Saul. Nahash could have helped David in order to spite Saul, who had wreaked such vengeance on the Ammonites after they had gone out against the men of Jabesh-gilead.

Other tribes had fallen under the sword of David and Hanun was afraid to trust David because the other tribes had suffered such a fate. When the Ammonites mistreated the ambassadors from Israel, ample cause for war was present. The abuse of an ambassador was considered a just cause for war.

3.

Why did they doubt David's motives? 2 Samuel 10:3

The young prince was ready to act on suspicion. His advisors thought that David would hardly be so sympathetic as to send ambassadors to console the king when his father died. They thought that he had come to search out the city, to spy on it, and to overthrow it. The record in Chronicles indicates that they thought that he had come to spy out the entire land. This was the same motive attributed to Abner by Joab who came on a mission of peace to David at Hebron. Their suspicions are a reflection upon their own attitudes and motives, but David had given them no reason to have such fears. Their suspicions were founded on national hatred and enmity which had possibly been increased by David's treatment of Moab and other neighbors of Ammon.

4.

How did Hanun treat David's servants-'? 2 Samuel 10:4

Hanun treated David's servants shamefully. He shaved off half of their beards and cut off their garments in the middle. Whether the men were shaved down one side of their faces or their beards were cut off so that they were only half as long as they were designed to be cannot be determined. Their garments were cut off so that they were ashamed to be seen in public. For that reason, David told them to stay in Jericho, near the Jordan river, and wait until their beards were grown and they could be outfitted with other clothes. They would then be free to return to Jerusalem and make a report of their mission.