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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 2 Samuel 10:1 - 10:5
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David's Servants Shamefully Treated
v. 1. And it came to pass after this that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanun, his son, reigned in his stead.
v. 2. Then said David, I will show kindness unto Hanun, the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness unto me. Nahash had been defeated by Saul at Jabesh, 1 Samuel 11, but had maintained a friendly attitude toward David, probably also by rendering him some form of assistance during the years of his persecution. And David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants for his father, he dispatched an embassy to express his sympathy at the bereavement of Hanun. And David's servants came in to the land of the children of Ammon, as David supposed, to a nation friendly to Israel under his reign.
v. 3. And the princes of the children of Ammon said unto Hanun, their lord, Thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father, literally, "Is David in thine eyes an honorer of thy father," that he hath sent comforters unto thee? Hath not David rather sent his servants unto thee to search the city, and to spy it out, and to overthrow it? The suggestion that the messengers of David were spies was made with the purpose of causing Hanun to adopt a hostile attitude toward David which would be a challenge to war, for the Ammonites now felt themselves strong enough again to try conclusions with Israel.
v. 4. Wherefore Hanun, listening to the counsel of his princes, especially as this implied a criticism of his carelessness, took David's servants and shaved off the one half of their beards, the one side, one of the grossest insults that can be offered an Oriental, who considers his beard the sign of manly dignity and freedom, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, thus exposing them before the eyes of all men, and sent them away, heaped with this double insult and disgrace.
v. 5. When they told it unto David, when the news of this shameful treatment came to him, he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed, disgrace had been heaped upon them; and the king said, Tarry at Jericho, the district where that city had formerly stood, until your beards be grown, and then return. He himself did not want to witness their shame. To seek occasion for wars, to provoke quarrels, is a great wrong, which has often been punished by the Lord with great severity.