2 Samuel 10

2. S. 10:** 1 And it came to pass after this, that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon 2 died, and Hanun—his son reigned in his stead. And David said, I will shew kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father shewed kindness unto me. So David sent by the hand of his servants to comfort him concerning his father. And David’s servants came into the land of the children of Ammon. But 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 sent his servants unto thee to search the city, and to spy it out, and to overthrow it? So 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. When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return. And when the children of Ammon saw that they were become odious to David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with a thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the host of the mighty men. And the children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entering in of the gate of the city; and the Syrians of Zobah, and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field. Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians: and the rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai his brother, and he put them in array against the children of Ammon. 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. 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. So Joab and the people that were with him drew nigh unto the battle against the Syrians: and they fled before him. And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, and entered into the city. Then Joab returned from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem. And when the Syrians saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they gathered themselves together. And Hadadezer sent, and brought out the Syrians that were beyond the River: and they came to Helam, with Shobach the captain of the host of Hadadezer at their head. And it was told David; and he gathered all Israel together, and passed over Jordan, and came to Helam, and came upon them, and set the battle in array against them. So when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him.

1. Chron. 19:** 18 And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians the men of seven thousand chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach the captain of the host. And when all the kings that were the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they made peace with David, and served him: neither would the Syrians help the children of Ammon any more.

David had now reached the summit of his prosperity and power. The historian has now to record how he fell from that height into a sin which brought shame and suffering upon himself and disaster upon his kingdom. This war with the Ammonites is described in detail, because of its close connection with that act, which marked the fatal turning-point in David’s reign. The war with the Ammonites is incidentally alluded to in ch. 8: 12 among David’s other wars; and the war with the Syrians to which it led is not improbably the same as that recorded in ch. 8: 3-6. It is there related that Hadadezer sustained a crushing defeat, and that a great part of his vassals transferred their allegiance to David. The circumstances narrated here (verse 16) explain the otherwise obscure mention of the Euphrates in ch. 8: 3: the seat of war, the persons engaged, the results, and the general details, are so similar as to make it improbable that the narratives refer to two distinct wars.

It is easy to assign a reason for this repetition. There the account forms part of the collected summary of David’s principal wars, as it was probably by far the most important and most distant of them: here it appears as a necessary pendant to the history of the Ammonite war, which is being related in full in order to lead up to and explain the circumstances of David’s fall. A. F. K.

Hanun’s Insult to David’s Ambassadors.

4. The rights of ambassadors—the peculiar privileges belonging to their office, as representing the power from whom they came and as being still under its protection in a foreign land, were already well understood. We may therefore conceive the indignation of David when he heard that his ambassadors—men of rank and station—had been treated with the most gross indignity by the king of Ammon, under the pretence that they had come to spy the nakedness of the land. He shaved off half their beards, and cut off the skirts of their robes, so as to leave half of their persons bare. Kit.—The shaving of the beard was one of the highest indignities that the malice of man could invent in those countries, where all people thought their hair the greatest ornament : insomuch that they never shaved their heads or their beards, except in case of mourning ; and even in that case it was forbidden to the Israelites (Lev. 19 : 27). Thus when the Ammonites had caused one half of their beards to be shaven, they abhorred to cut the other. It is still a great mark of infamy among the Arabs to cut off the beard. Patrick.

6. The Ammonites did not wait for a formal declaration of war by David. Nor did they flatter themselves, when they came to their senses, that against one who had gained such renown as a warrior they could stand alone. Their insult to King David turned out a costly affair. To get assistance they had to give gold. The parallel passage in Chronicles gives a thousand talents of silver as the cost of the first bargain with the Syrians. These Syrian mercenaries came from various districts—Beth-rehob, Zoba, Beth-maacah, and Tob. Some of these had already been subdued by David ; in other cases there was apparently no previous collision. W. G. B.

The text of Chronicles differs from that of Samuel in several points. It mentions the price paid to the Syrians, a thousand talents of silver, and names Medeba as the rendezvous where their forces assembled. The names of the countries from which the mercenaries were drawn are given as Mesopotamia, Maacah, and Zobah. Beth-rehob may be included under Mesopotamia. Tob is not mentioned : perhaps it was a dependency of Zobah, and is included under it. The contingent sent by each is not specified. The total number of thirty-two thousand besides the men of Maacah, agrees with the numbers here ; but the reading chariots in the present text of 1 Chron. 19 : 7 can scarcely be right. Thirty-two thousand chariots would be a force of unexampled magnitude. The text of Samuel also seems to be defective, as the force doubtless had some cavalry and chariots and did not consist of infantry only.

8. At the entering in of the gate.** This is generally supposed to be the gate of the Ammonite capital Rabbah. But the account in Chronicles states explicitly that the Syrian mercenaries mustered at Medeba, which was nearly twenty miles southwest of Rabbah, and clearly implies that it was the city which the Ammonites occupied. Further, it is evident from verse

9, which describes Joab as in danger of being crushed between the two forces, that the Syrians were at no great distance from the city. And how came the Syrian force to march past Rabbah to Medeba, if the Ammonites meant to make their stand at Rabbah ? or how could Joab possibly have advanced to Rabbah, leaving this huge Syrian force in his rear ? A. F. K.

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.** There are here four useful and practical lessons. (1) A lesson of mutual helpfulness. “As occasion demands,” says Joab, “thou shalt help me and I will help thee.” He was neither so vain as to think he could not possibly need a brother’s help, nor so mean as to dream of standing aloof in a brother’s difficulty. God intends that we shall be indebted to each other, and if Joab has to come to the help of Abishai, Abishai has no more reason to be ashamed than Joab. (2) A lesson of manly heroism. “Be of good courage and let us play the man.” A hero is a man in the fullest sense of the word. There are heroes of the workshop, of the counter, of the office, of the market-place, on whose fortitude might be put quite as severe a strain as though they stood upon the battle-field, amid the glitter of cold steel or the rattle of musketry. If you are to play the part of the man, you must carefully cultivate the higher part of your nature. Lay the foundation of those intellectual and moral habits which will not only open up to you a vast range of elevating enjoyment, but will make you more capable of receiving the highest truth of all—the truth that concerns the kingdom of God. (3) A lesson of Christian patriotism. Great dangers put an edge upon true courage. “God and our country,” was the cry of these two young men. It was a call to action and to danger, impelled by love to Israel and Israel’s God. “Christian patriotism” was the term I used. You have no right to separate these words. The weal of our land is inseparably bound up with its religious condition. A true patriot will burn with desire to have his country leavened with real piety. (4) A lesson of trust and submission. “And the Lord will do that which seemeth Him good.” I do not venture to say that Joab was a saint, but on this occasion, certainly, his conduct and language were admirable, and worthy of imitation. J. T. Davidson.

Of poor sauntering triflers, in human shape and men’s apparel, we have enough ; of literary Sybarites, bred on stories, fugitive poetry, and monthly magazines; of minute scholars, glorying in the niceties of metre and accent, college honors, and other tongues; of dressed creatures that sweeten soirées and playhouses with their odors; of things that flutter and die in the light of fashion, as moths about a lamp; of religious professors that almost ask leave to serve Christ of the sons of Belial who surround them; more than enough have we of such young men whose everlasting discourse is of the last amusement or the last scandal. But of MEN, spirits in earnest, souls that have an aim, bent toward some object, and that a great one; bearing and doing, training themselves by toil, by temperance, by self-denial, by prayer, for the benefit of the greatest number, it must be confessed with lamentation that we have but few. And if, as we suppose, the times which are coming on the earth will demand such men, strong to do and strong to suffer, our only mode of providing them is to deal with the young, and to pour the plastic masses into the shaping mould. J. W. A.

13,14. The Syrians were routed by Joab, and the Ammonites fled before Abishai, and retreated to their walled city Rabbah. B.—15-18. But the Syrians were not disposed to yield without another conflict. Determined to do his utmost, Hadadezer, king of the Syrians of Zobah, sent across the Euphrates, and prevailed on their neighbors there to join them in the effort to crush the power of David. That a very large number of these Mesopotamian Syrians responded to the invitation of Hadadezer is apparent from the number of the slain (verse 18). The matter assumed so serious an aspect that David himself was now constrained to take the field, at the head of “all Israel.” The Syrian troops were commanded by Shobach, who appears to have been a distinguished general. It must have been a death-struggle between the Syrian power and the power of David. But again the victory was with the Israelites, and among the slain were the men of seven thousand chariots and forty thousand horsemen, along with Shobach, captain of the Syrian host. It must have been a most decisive victory, for after it took place all the states that had been tributary to Hadadezer transferred their allegiance to David. W. G. B.—The power of Hadadezer was so entirely broken that he no more appears in history. The Syrian tributary princes, who had been obliged to join him, made their own terms with David, and left the Ammonites to their own resources. Kit.—Thus the promise made to Abraham (Gen. 15 : 18) and repeated to Joshua (ch. 1 : 4), that the borders of Israel should extend to the river Euphrates, was performed at length. H.

Ammon offered but a feeble resistance to the Hebrews after the battle of Helam. All their cities except Rabbah were taken in the beginning of the following year. Rabbah itself was closely beleaguered. Its strong position, the existence of a water supply within its walls, and the inability of the Hebrews to conduct siege operations, gave the survivors of the nation a respite from destruction. But the war yields in importance to events which were then taking place at Jerusalem. Sime.

The close of the great wars of conquest just referred to brings us to the fiftieth year of David’s age and the twentieth of his reign. It brings us also to the saddest and the most deplorable event in his history. The period of David’s greatest worldly prosperity seems not to have been by any means one of corresponding prosperity as regarded his spiritual condition. Probably worldly success had itself been a snare to him. Whatever the true cause, it is evident there was a general falling away of spirituality and conscientiousness in the service of God on the part of David about this period. Lee.—The period which had now elapsed of David’s reign comprehends a space of about twenty years; during which he had waged several wars, all righteously begun, and successfully ended. He had fought no battle during that period which he did not win, and assaulted no city which he did not take. In a civil war of five years’ continuance he never once lifted up his sword against a subject; and, at the end of it, he punished no rebel, he remembered no offence, he revenged no injury, but the murder of his rival. To crown all, with all his rare and true felicities, their only sure source and security, his religion and his innocence, still remained with him; and, had his innocence still remained with him, his happiness would have continued also. But a new and sad scene, very different from the past, is now to be opened. Delaney.