David heard of the death of Nahash the king of the Ammonites and sent messengers to Hanun his son. He was intending to bring comfort to him – ‘I will shew kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father shewed kindness unto me.’ He had shown kindness to Mephibosheth, now he was extending kindness to the son of a foreign king, but unlike Mephibosheth, it was rejected.
It is not known exactly what kindness Nahash had shown to David; but it is assumed that, since Nahash was a bitter enemy of Saul (1 Samuel 11) that Nahash, during David’s fleeing from Saul, had treated David kindly as a means of opposing Saul. The princes of Ammon are suspicious of David’s motives and don’t believe he is genuine. King Hanun, therefore, took David’s peace envoy and David’s men are treated shamefully and shaved off half of each man’s beard and their garments up to the hips (v4). This grossly insulting action would cause them great shame in their culture. David is sent word, and he went to meet them for they were too ashamed to come home. He told them to stay at Jericho until their beards had grown. This again shows his true character, he could have sent a high ranking official to meet them, but he went himself (v1-5).
How like our Lord Jesus – God could have sent an angel but no, He sent His Son. Jesus willingly came and met us, not when we were better, just as David could have waited until their beards had grown and they got new clothes. Jesus came to us in our need and filth of sin. He came down to where we were and lifted us up.
Some strong words are used here (v6-8). The Ammonites have not only treated David’s servants very badly but they, by misconstruing David’s kindness, they think he is seeking to fight them. Of course, David was not pleased with the way they had dealt with him, and it was all their own doing, so, they now plan a battle with David’s army. They hired 20,000 foot soldiers from Beth-Rehob and Zoba (Syrians), the king of Maacah with 1,000 men and 12,000 men from Ish-Tob. David heard of it and sent Job and all the host of mighty men. The Ammonites set battle at the entrance of the gate with their allies in the open country.
This is the first mention of David’s mighty men. We read of their beginnings in 1 Samuel 22. They didn’t start off as such, in fact many were distressed, in debt, discontented people who followed David into the Cave at Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1). There were some notable men amongst them – Benaiah who killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day and killed an Egyptian who was approx. 7ft 6in tall with his own spear (1 Chronicles 11:22,23); Adino who killed 800 men at one time (2 Samuel 23:8); Jashobeam who killed 300 men (1 Chronicles 11:11); Ithai from Gibeah, a Benjamite and even Uriah the Hittite of whom we read in chapter 11, who David treated so badly. All his mighty men are listed in 1 Chronicles 11.
Some commentators say that this chapter is the background for chapter 11. David’s sin took place against the backdrop of the war against the Ammonites, during Joab’s siege of Rabbah. You will note that ‘he sent Joab and all the host of mighty men’. David stayed at home. It seems that David stayed at home on two occasions, one in chapter 10 and again in chapter 11. We’ll see the consequences of this in chapter 11. (Rabbah, presently Amman, the capital city of Jordan and a modern city of over half a million people, is the same place called Philadelphia in the New Testament.)
Joab who was a master strategist split his army in two, one led by himself and the other by Abishai and they defeated the Ammonites, some of whom fled, and the Syrians also did a runner. Those Syrians were, in fact, mercenaries. 1 Chronicles 19:6 that the Ammonites paid 1,000 talents to the Syrians. They had no patriotic interest whatever in defending Rabbah; and it is not hard to understand what happened. When Joab launched his savage all-out attack against the Syrians, his hardened fighters destroyed everyone in their path; and the mercenaries, seeing what they were up against, simply turned tail and fled for their lives (v9-19).
Joab rallied his troops with a speech to the army. “Be of good courage and let us be strong for our people, and for the cities of our God. And may the LORD do what is good in his sight.” Much was at stake – the people and the cities of our God. They were to be strong and courageous, but he recognised the outcome was in God’s hands.
However, the Syrians, when they saw they were defeated, re-grouped and Hadadezer, king of Zobah in Syria, brought out the Syrians beyond the Euphrates came and attacked. They were persistent in attacking Israel. David heard and gathered his army together. Maybe this was God reminding David that he should be leading the army, a gentle reminder when one considers what happened a little later when he again stayed behind in his palace. David defeated the Syrians killing 700 chariot men and 40,000 horsemen. “And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subject to them. So, the Syrians were afraid to save the Ammonites anymore.” (v19)
