2 Samuel 10: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

David sends messengers to comfort Hanun, the new king of Ammon, after his father Nahash dies. Hanun's officials tell him the men are spies, so Hanun shaves off half of each man's beard, cuts their clothes off at the hips, and sends them away humiliated. Expecting war, the Ammonites hire Aramean troops, and Joab and his brother Abishai split Israel's army to fight enemies on two fronts and win. When the Arameans regroup with more troops from beyond the Euphrates, David himself defeats them, and Hadarezer's vassal kings make peace with Israel and stop helping Ammon.

Claim by Claim

1. 10:1
   • After this the king of the Ammonites died.
   • Hanun his son became king in his place.
2. 10:2
   • David said he would show loyal kindness to Hanun son of Nahash.
   • David said Hanun's father had shown loyal kindness to David.
   • David sent his servants to console Hanun concerning his father.
   • David's servants came into the land of the Ammonites.
3. 10:3
   • The princes of the Ammonites spoke to Hanun their lord.
   • The princes asked whether Hanun thought David was honoring his father by sending comforters to him.
   • The princes asked whether David had rather sent his servants to search out the city.
   • The princes said David sent his servants to spy out the city.
   • The princes said David sent his servants to overthrow the city.
4. 10:4
   • Hanun seized David's servants.
   • Hanun shaved off half of each man's beard.
   • Hanun cut their garments off in the middle, as far as their buttocks.
   • Hanun sent them away.
5. 10:5
   • Someone reported this to David.
   • David sent men to meet them.
   • The men were greatly humiliated.
   • The king told them to stay in Jericho until their beards grew back.
   • The king told them to return after their beards grew back.
6. 10:6
   • The Ammonites saw that they had become a stench to David.
   • The Ammonites sent and hired the Arameans of Beth-rehob and the Arameans of Zobah, twenty thousand foot soldiers.
   • The Ammonites hired a thousand men from the king of Maacah.
   • The Ammonites hired twelve thousand men of Tob.
7. 10:7
   • David heard of it.
   • David sent Joab and the whole army of mighty men.
8. 10:8
   • The Ammonites came out and drew up for battle at the entrance of the gate.
   • The Arameans of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the open field.
9. 10:9
   • Joab saw that the battle line was against him in front and behind.
   • Joab chose from all the choice men of Israel.
   • Joab drew them up against the Arameans.
10. 10:10
    • Joab put the rest of the people under the command of Abishai his brother.
    • Abishai drew them up against the Ammonites.
11. 10:11
    • Joab said that if the Arameans were too strong for him, Abishai would rescue him.
    • Joab said that if the Ammonites were too strong for Abishai, Joab would come and rescue him.
12. 10:12
    • Joab told Abishai to be strong.
    • Joab said they should strengthen themselves for their people and for the cities of their God.
    • Joab said the LORD would do what was good in his own eyes.
13. 10:13
    • Joab and the people with him advanced to the battle against the Arameans.
    • The Arameans fled before him.
14. 10:14
    • The Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled.
    • The Ammonites fled before Abishai.
    • The Ammonites entered the city.
    • Joab turned back from fighting the Ammonites.
    • Joab came to Jerusalem.
15. 10:15
    • The Arameans saw that they had been defeated before Israel.
    • The Arameans gathered themselves together.
16. 10:16
    • Hadadezer sent and brought out the Arameans who were beyond the River.
    • They came to Helam.
    • Shobach the commander of Hadadezer's army was at their head.
17. 10:17
    • It was told to David.
    • David gathered all Israel together.
    • David crossed the Jordan.
    • David came to Helam.
    • The Arameans drew up in array against David.
    • The Arameans fought with David.
18. 10:18
    • The Arameans fled before Israel.
    • David killed seven hundred chariotry of the Arameans.
    • David killed forty thousand horsemen.
    • David struck down Shobach the commander of their army.
    • Shobach died there.
19. 10:19
    • All the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated before Israel.
    • Those kings made peace with Israel.
    • Those kings became subject to Israel.
    • The Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites any more.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1

The Ammonites were a kingdom just east of the Jordan River, with their capital at Rabbah (the site of modern Amman in Jordan). They were long-standing neighbors and frequent rivals of Israel.

10:2

Nahash was the previous Ammonite king. What kindness he had shown David is never explained; since Nahash had fought against Saul (1 Samuel 11), the two may have had an understanding while David was a fugitive from Saul. Sending an official delegation of condolence on a king's death was a normal diplomatic act between allied rulers, and served to renew the agreement between them under the new king.

10:3

The suspicion was not absurd: ambassadors in the ancient world genuinely did double as intelligence gatherers, sizing up a city's walls and gates while being entertained inside them. Arguing this way also let the Ammonite officials push their new and untested king toward breaking with Israel.

10:4

Two deliberate humiliations. A full beard was a mark of adult male standing, and shaving half of it left a man visibly disfigured and unable to hide it. Cutting the long robes off at the hips exposed the buttocks, which in this culture was profound public disgrace. Envoys were also understood to be protected persons representing their king; assaulting them was an insult to David himself and effectively a declaration of war.

10:5

Jericho lay near the Jordan, on the road the returning envoys would travel, and well short of Jerusalem. David lets them stop there rather than enter the capital in their disgraced state.

10:6

The Hebrew says the Ammonites had "become a stench" to David, an idiom for having made themselves utterly offensive to him. The "Arameans" (the King James "Syrians") were a group of small kingdoms in what is now Syria and southern Lebanon. Beth-rehob, Zoba, Maacah and Tob were separate Aramean states, hired here as mercenaries. "Ishtob" in the King James is really the Hebrew phrase "men of Tob", which the translators read as a single place name.

10:7

Joab was the commander of David's army and also his nephew. "Mighty men" translates a term for seasoned, professional warriors rather than ordinary conscripts.

10:8

The city is the Ammonite capital, Rabbah. Its defenders drew up outside their own gate while their hired Aramean allies took position separately in the open ground, leaving Joab's army caught between the two forces.

10:9

Enemies in front and behind is the worst spot an army can be in. Joab had to split his men to face both ways at once.

10:10

Abishai was Joab's brother and, like him, David's nephew. The sons of Zeruiah, David's sister, formed the family circle from which David drew his top commanders.

10:12

"Let us play the men" is a King James idiom meaning "let us act with strength and courage", not anything to do with performance or pretense.

10:16

Hadadezer was king of Zobah, whom David had already defeated once (2 Samuel 8). "Beyond the river" means the far side of the Euphrates, in northern Mesopotamia. Helam was a town east of the Jordan; its exact location is unknown.

10:17

Helam lay east of the Jordan, in territory the Arameans controlled, so David crossed the river and fought on their ground rather than waiting to be invaded.

10:18

The numbers here differ from the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 19:18, which reads seven thousand chariots and forty thousand foot soldiers. The Hebrew word used here means horsemen or charioteers, and ancient copies vary; the difference is usually taken as a copying error somewhere in the transmission of one or other book.

10:19

"Became its subjects" means they entered vassal treaties: they kept their own kings, but owed Israel tribute payments and military support.