10In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. ²David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash,^t just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.

When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites, ³the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Hasn’t David sent them to you only to explore the city and spy it out^u and overthrow it?” ⁴So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of each man’s beard,^v cut off their garments at the buttocks,^w and sent them away.

⁵When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.”

⁶When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious^x to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean^y foot soldiers from Beth Rehob^z and Zobah,^a as well as the king of Maakah^b with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob.^c

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Cross references

tSee 1 Sa 11:1
uSee Nu 21:32
vSee Lev 19:27; Isa 7:20; 15:2; 50:6; 52:14; Jer 48:37; Eze 5:1
w Isa 20:4
xSee Ge 34:30
ySee 2 Sa 8:5
zSee Nu 13:21
aSee 1 Sa 14:47
bSee Dt 3:14
c Jdg 11:3–5