Add parallel Print Page Options

David and the Ammonites

10 Later the king of the Ammonites died and his son Hanun succeeded him.[a] David said, “I will express my loyalty[b] to Hanun son of Nahash just as his father was loyal[c] to me.” So David sent his servants with a message expressing sympathy over his father’s death.[d] When David’s servants entered the land of the Ammonites, the Ammonite officials said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy?[e] No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!”[f]

So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved off half of each one’s beard. He cut the lower part of their robes off so that their buttocks were exposed,[g] and then sent them away. Messengers[h] told David what had happened,[i] so he sent them to the men who were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 10:1 tn Heb “reigned in his place.”
  2. 2 Samuel 10:2 tn Heb “do loyalty.”
  3. 2 Samuel 10:2 tn Heb “did loyalty.”
  4. 2 Samuel 10:2 tn Heb “and David sent to console him by the hand of his servants concerning his father.”
  5. 2 Samuel 10:3 tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”
  6. 2 Samuel 10:3 tn Heb “Is it not to explore the city and to spy on it and to overthrow it [that] David has sent his servants to you?”
  7. 2 Samuel 10:4 tn Heb “and he cut their robes in the middle unto their buttocks.”
  8. 2 Samuel 10:5 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the messengers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  9. 2 Samuel 10:5 tn The words “what had happened” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

Subjugation of Ammon and Aram(A)

10 Sometime later, the Ammonite king died and his son Hanun succeeded him as king, so David told himself, “I will be loyal to Nahash’s son Hanun, since in his loyalty his father showed gracious love to me.” So David sent a delegation[a] to Hanun to console him about his loss of[b] his father.

But when David’s delegation arrived in Ammonite territory, the Ammonite officials asked their lord Hanun, “Do you think that because David has sent a delegation of consolers to you that he is honoring your father? His delegation has arrived intending to search, scout the land, and then overthrow it, hasn’t it?” So Hanun arrested David’s delegation, shaved off half of their beards, cut off their clothes at the waist line, and sent them away in disgrace.[c]

When David had been informed about the incident,[d] he sent word[e] to them, since the men had been deeply humiliated. The king told them, “Stay at Jericho until your beards have grown back, and then return.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 10:2 Lit. sent by the hand of his servants
  2. 2 Samuel 10:2 The Heb. lacks his loss of
  3. 2 Samuel 10:4 The Heb. lacks in disgrace
  4. 2 Samuel 10:5 The Heb. lacks about the incident
  5. 2 Samuel 10:5 The Heb. lacks word