2 Samuel 10--David Defeats Ammon and Syria

2 Samuel 10
English Standard Version

David Defeats Ammon and Syria
10 After this the king of the Ammonites died, and Hanun his son reigned in his place. 2 And David said, “I will deal loyally with Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father dealt loyally with me.” So David sent by his servants to console him concerning his father. And David's servants came into the land of the Ammonites. 3 But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think, because David has sent comforters to you, that he is honoring your father? Has not David sent his servants to you to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it?” 4 So Hanun took David's servants and shaved off half the beard of each and cut off their garments in the middle, at their hips, and sent them away. 5 When it was told David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, “Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return.”

6 When the Ammonites saw that they had become a stench to David, the Ammonites sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 foot soldiers, and the king of Maacah with 1,000 men, and the men of Tob, 12,000 men. 7 And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of the mighty men. 8 And the Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the gate, and the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the open country.

9 When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the best men of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians. 10 The rest of his men he put in the charge of Abishai his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites. 11 And he said, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. 12 Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.” 13 So Joab and the people who were with him drew near to battle against the Syrians, and they fled before him. 14 And when the Ammonites saw that the Syrians fled, they likewise fled before Abishai and entered the city. Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.

​15 But when the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered themselves together. 16 And Hadadezer sent and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the Euphrates. They came to Helam, with Shobach the commander of the army of Hadadezer at their head. 17 And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to Helam. The Syrians arrayed themselves against David and fought with him. 18 And the Syrians fled before Israel, and David killed of the Syrians the men of 700 chariots, and 40,000 horsemen, and wounded Shobach the commander of their army, so that he died there. 19 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.

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We haven't heard much about the Ammonites for a long time.  The last time they were in 1 Samuel 14 where they were included in the list of enemies that King Saul fought against.  The king of Ammon died leaving his son, Hanun, in charge.  Apparently the father had been one of the countries that had subjugated himself to David, and David sends messengers to Hanun planning to deal loyally with him because of the loyal relations Hanun's father had had with David.  However, when David's messengers got there, the young princes of the Ammonites gave foolish advice to their new king and whispered in his ear that David's messengers were not there to comfort him in his time of loss and grieving, nor to honor his father, but instead they were there to take advantage of the situation and David had sent them as spies into the land to search out everything and learn how to overthrow his cities and his kingdom.  I would note here that this is likely projection of the evil intents that would be in their own hearts if the roles were reversed.

Hanun mistreated David's servents who were there as messengers by cutting off half of their beards and cutting their robes in half at the hip (probably so that their nakedness was exposed), and he sen them away.  When word reached David of what happened, then David told these servants to remain in the town of Jericho until their beards had a chance to grow back (so that could have been quite a long time).

The Ammonites saw that David's attitude towards them had changed and that they were now like a stench to David, so they became afraid of David and tried to hire the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 foot soldiers, and the king of Maacah with 1,000 men, and the men of Tob, 12,000 men to be mercenaries for them.  They hoped these would be enough to help protect them or at least to dissuade David from attacking them, but this posturing only made things worse and made David know that he had to attack them and subjugate them by force (which hasn't had to be done since the early part of King Saul's rule).  The Syrians used all their regular forces to protect their city gates and these mercenaries were hired to make their battle lines in the open country so that David would have to get through them to get to the Ammonite cities.

When David saw the Ammonites arrayed for battle along with the Syrians they had hired as mercenaries, there was no alternative but for him to command Joab to prepare for battle as well.  Joab commanded a group of elite soldiers, the cream of the crop so to speak, and Joab entrusted command of all the regular forces to his brother Abishai.  They split into two groups each vowing to be reinforcements for one another as needed if the Ammonites proved to be too strong for either group by themselves.  When Joab and his men approached the front lines, the Syrian mercenaries fled before him.  The Ammonites saw this and then they too fled because they knew they were defeated without the assistance of their Syrian mercenaries, so they fled from Abishai and took shelter in their walled cities where they could close and bar the gates.

Thinking the battle was over, Joab and the army returned to Jerusalem, but the king of Syria was greatly embarrassed by this defeat that his soldiers had suffered (even though they were only serving as mercenaries for another country), and he decided to marshal all of his regular forces and reserves to march against Israel.  David hears of this and the armies of Israel crossed the Jordan River to meet them in battle at a place called Halam.

The LORD gave David a great victory there that day allowing the Israelites to kill the men of 700 chariots (essentially the mechanized infantry/tanks of that day), 40,000 horsemen, and they wounded the commander of the Syrian army named Shobach so that he died there.  This was a loss that Syria would not easily recover from.  The king of Syria saw they had been defeated by Israel and he made a peace treaty with them and Syria was subjugated and became servants of Israel, and the Syrians would no longer come to the aid of the Ammonites if they called for aid.

On the heals of this amazing battle though is going to come David greatest moral defeat, for it will be in the next chapter that we will see David send the army out to battle against the Ammonites in the spring time (when the kings usually go to war with one another), but he will stay home.  If only he had gone to war with his men like a king should have done, the sin between David and Bathsheba may never have happened and he almost certainly would not have murdered Uriah the Hittite by proxy (using Joab and the army to murder him).  We'll talk about that next time and when we get to Nathan's rebuke in chapter 12, we will probably also look at Psalm 51 along with it so that we can see David's repentant heart (for that is another place where we see the gospel since all these sins David commits in chapter 11 were high-handed sins of rebellion for which no sacrifice could be made--death was the only option under the Law for those who committed such iniquity).