2 Samuel 10:1-19
1 And it came to pass after this, that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanun his son reigned in his stead.
2 Then said David, I will shew kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father shewed 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, Thinkesta thou that David doth honour 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.
6 And when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Bethrehob, and the Syrians of Zoba, twenty thousand footmen, and of king Maacah a thousand men, and of Ishtobb twelve thousand men.
7 And when David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the host of the mighty men.
8 And the children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entering in of the gate: and the Syrians of Zoba, and of Rehob, and Ishtob, and Maacah, were by themselves in the field.
9 When Joab saw that the front of the battle was against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians:
10 And the rest of the people he delivered into the hand of Abishai his brother, that he might put them in array against the children of Ammon.
11 And he said, If the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me: but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee.
12 Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth him good.
13 And Joab drew nigh, and the people that were with him, unto the battle against the Syrians: and they fled before him.
14 And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, then fled they also before Abishai, and entered into the city. So Joab returned from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem.
15 And when the Syrians saw that they were smitten before Israel, they gathered themselves together.
16 And Hadarezer sent, and brought out the Syrians that were beyond the river:c and they came to Helam; and Shobach the captain of the host of Hadarezer went before them.
17 And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together, and passed over Jordan, and came to Helam. And the Syrians set themselves in array against David, and fought with him.
18 And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen,d and smote Shobach the captain of their host, who died there.
19 And when all the kings that were servants to Hadarezer saw that they were smitten before Israel, they made peace with Israel, and served them. So the Syrians feared to help the children of Ammon any more.
The Ammonites were of the family of Lot (Genesis 19:36). We have seen in 1 Samuel 2:1 that in Saul's day their king was called "Nahash," which means "serpent." It is thought likely that this was a flattering title given to Ammonite kings because the serpent was considered to be the symbol of wisdom. Of course the wisdom of the world is "devilish" (James 3:15): this is not true wisdom, but subtlety. Ammon is the picture of satanically false religion. Its wicked cruelty was rewarded by a crushing defeat by Saul in 1 Samuel 11:11. if the "Nahash" then ruling was killed in that battle, then Nahash, the father of Hanun was likely his son. Yet it may be the same Nahash, who could be cunning enough to outwardly show kindness to David because of David's separation from Saul. At any rate, the kindness of an Ammonite is always deceitful, and David was not wise to seek to encourage friendship with this enemy of God.
David therefore erred in his too gracious desire to return this kindness by sending men with a message of sympathy concerning the death of the father of Hanun (v.2). The princes of Ammon were suspicious, just as people of false religions are suspicious of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. False doctrines never give honest credit to the grace of God, but emphasize the legal principle of man's self-righteousness. Its motives are selfish, therefore it suspects the same selfish motives in others. These princes decide that David's men were merely sent as spies (v.3).
They therefore resort to the gross folly of treating David's men with insulting contempt, shaving off half of their beards and cutting off their garments in the middle as far as their hips, sending them away deeply humiliated (v.4). When David heard this he first gave the men a vacation at Jericho until their beards grew. Nothing is said of how David himself responded to this offensive insult that was leveled at him and at Israel, nor are we told of any move that David made with a view to attacking Ammon before Ammon began preparations for battle.
The Ammonites knew perfectly well that David and Israel would greatly resent this insult, and decided to prepare to take the offensive rather than to wait to defend themselves. They were not confident of their own power to defeat Israel, so that they sent to the Syrians to hire a total of 33,000 soldiers to help them. It may be that the Syrians wanted an opportunity to revenge their former defeat by Israel. These armies gathered together against Israel before we read of David's taking any action. The Ammonites came to "the entrance of the gate," but we are not told what city this was. The Syrians were in the field. Thus Israel was faced with a two-front formidable array.
When Joab went out to meet the Ammonites and Syrians, he evidently considered the Syrians a greater threat than the Ammonites, for he chose choice men to go with him against Syria while the remaining soldiers he sent with Abishai to engage the Ammonites (vs.9-10). They each agreed to help the other if the need arose (v.11). Though it seems doubtful that Joab was a born again man, his words. here (v.12) are good. He knew it was important to give God His place in the battle, and that God would work His own will. Applying this in a personal way is a different matter.
When Joab and his men attacked, the Syrians were quickly put to flight (v.13). We are not told at this time how many were killed, but the Ammonites, seeing the Syrians flee, were themselves taken with fear and turned to flee into the city, which appears to be an Ammonite city (v.14). The victory was gained with apparently not too much bloodshed, and Joab and his army returned to Jerusalem.
However, Syria was still not willing to admit total defeat. Hadadezer, the Syrian king of Zobah, of whom we have read in Chapter 8:3-8 as being soundly defeated by David, was evidently thirsting for revenge and mustered a larger army, enlisting Syrians from east of the Euphrates River to supplement his own large company (v.16).
When David received information of this assemblage, he did not wait for the Syrians to cross the Jordan to attack Israel, but gathered all Israel to cross the Jordan going eastward, to meet the enemy before they came near Jerusalem (v.17). This gave them no time to plot any special strategy. The battle was evidently not very prolonged. The Syrians again fled and David's men killed 700 charioteers and 40,000 horsemen, an enormous decimation of an army that had not previously boasted that total number (v.6). The Syrian commander, Shobach, was among those killed. The Ammonites had evidently faded into the background: they are not even mentioned in this battle, though they had started the whole thing.
Hadadezer and the kings under him could do nothing but accept defeat: they made peace with Israel and submitted to their authority, having been taught a serious lesson not to help the Ammonites (v.11).