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David's Messenger's Shamefully Treated
v. 1. Now it came to pass after this, the exact time not being given, but supposedly soon after the wars just described, that Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon died, the same one who had been defeated by Saul, 1 Samuel 11, but had somehow lived in friendship with David, and his son reigned in his stead.
v. 2. And David said, either in his councilor in deliberating the matter with himself, I will show kindness unto Hanun, the son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me, at some time during David's exile, while Saul was seeking his life. And David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father, to express the cordial sympathy of a neighboring ruler, as custom required. So the servants of David, his official ambassadors, came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanun to comfort him, to transmit David's message of condolence to him.
v. 3. But the princes of the children of Ammon, the king's chief advisers, said to Hanun, Thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father, the emphasis being upon this honoring, the sincerity of which the courtiers questioned, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? Are not his servants come unto thee for to search and to overthrow and to spy out the land? They falsely ascribed such base motives to David and to his ambassadors, as though they were making this visit merely a pretext, their real object being a careful examination of the city and its fortifications, for the purpose of taking it.
v. 4. Wherefore Hanun took David's servants, although they were his personal representatives, and shaved them, that is, the one side of their beard, a mocking disfigurement, 2Sa_10:4, and cut off their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks, and sent them away, thus heaping one of the grossest insults upon them which the Oriental mind can conceive of.
v. 5. Then there went certain and told David how the men were served, for they themselves were too deeply disgraced to appear in public. And he sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, Jericho being the first city on the west side of the river to be reached by them, and then return, namely, to Jerusalem; for it was only then that they could with propriety return to court. Many a person has been seriously harmed in his good name by the foolish suspicions cast upon him by evil-thinking men.