Bible Commentaries
2 Samuel 10

Verses 1-19

Chapter 10

It came to pass after this, that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanun his son reigned in his stead. And David, upon hearing the death of the king, sent certain of his men [Emissaries, actually] unto Hanun to express David's condolences. [And to just sort of greet them in David's name, and express David's sorrow and all for the death of his father.] Now some of his counselors said, Do you think that David is really just trying to show kindness to you? Listen, these guys are actual spies, and they've come to spy out the weakness of the land, and the next thing you know, David's gonna be attacking you. So Hanun took these emissaries that had been sent by David and he cut off [or shaved] half of their beards, and cut off their skirts exposing their backsides, and sent them away. Well the guys were extremely embarrassed, and humiliated. And so David heard of what had been done to them and he said, You guys just wait down at the city of Jericho until your beards grow back again, and then come on back into the city. But over in Ammon [Which of course is the present day, Ammon, the capital of Jordan, they heard of how these men were not allowed back into Jerusalem until their beards grew back and so forth. So they feared an immediate attack by David,] and so they sent to Syria and hired from Syria twenty thousand mercenaries to come and to help them fight against David. So when David heard that they had hired the Syrian mercenaries and others to fight against him, he sent his armies against the Ammonites and as they came to battle, Joab saw that the Syrians were coming from the north joining with them. So Joab said to his brother Abishai, We'll divide our forces in half. I'll take on the Syrians, you take on the Ammonites, and if they start to overcome you, then I'll come and help you. If the Syrians start to overcome me, you come and help me. [But be valiant, be strong. In fact, his words I thought were very interesting in verse twelve.] Be of good courage, let us play the man for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the Lord do that which seemeth him good. And so Joab came to the Syrians: and the Syrians began to fall back before Joab. When the Ammonites saw that the Syrians were retreating, they too began to retreat ( 2 Samuel 10:1-14 ).

And the men of Israel gained a tremendous victory over the forces of Hadarezer, over the Ammonites, and over the Syrians in that battle. "