1 Chronicles 19:1-11

David’s Campaign against the Ammonites

19:1 Later King Nahash of the Ammonites died and his son succeeded him. 19:2 David said, “I will express my loyalty ¹  to Hanun son of Nahash, for his father was loyal ²  to me.” So David sent messengers to express his sympathy over his father’s death. ³  When David’s servants entered Ammonite territory to visit Hanun and express the king’s sympathy, ⁴  19:3 the Ammonite officials said to Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy? ⁵  No, his servants have come to you so they can get information and spy out the land!” ⁶  19:4 So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved their beards off. ⁷  He cut off the lower part of their robes so that their buttocks were exposed ⁸  and then sent them away. 19:5 Messengers ⁹  came and told David what had happened to the men, so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho ¹⁰  until your beards grow again; then you may come back.”

19:6 When the Ammonites realized that David was disgusted with them, ¹¹  Hanun and the Ammonites sent 1,000 talents ¹²  of silver to hire chariots and charioteers from Aram Naharaim, Aram Maacah, and Zobah. ¹³  19:7 They hired 32,000 chariots, along with the king of Maacah and his army, who came and camped in front of Medeba. The Ammonites also assembled from their cities and marched out to do battle.

19:8 When David heard the news, he sent Joab and the entire army to meet them. ¹⁴  19:9 The Ammonites marched out and were deployed for battle at the entrance to the city, while the kings who had come were by themselves in the field. 19:10 When Joab saw that the battle would be fought on two fronts, he chose some of Israel’s best men and deployed them against the Arameans. ¹⁵  19:11 He put his brother Abishai in charge of the rest of the army and they were deployed against the Ammonites.

[19:2]  ¹ tn Heb “do loyalty.”

[19:2]  ² tn Heb “did loyalty.”

[19:2]  ³ tn Heb “to console him concerning his father.”

[19:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the servants of David came to the land of the sons of Ammon to Hanun to console him.”

[19:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”

[19:3]  ⁶ tc Heb “Is it not to explore and to overturn and to spy out the land (that) his servants have come to you?” The Hebrew term לַהֲפֹךְ (lahafakh, “to overturn”) seems misplaced in the sequence. Some emend the form to לַחְפֹּר (lakhpor, “to spy out”). The sequence of three infinitives may be a conflation of alternative readings.

[19:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “shaved them.” See v. 5.

[19:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he cut their robes in the middle unto the buttocks.”

[19:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “they.” The logical referent, though not specified in the Hebrew text, has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:5]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[19:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “that they were a stench [i.e., disgusting] with David.”

[19:6]  ¹² tn The Hebrew word כִּכַּר (kikar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or, by extension, to a standard unit of weight. According to the older (Babylonian) standard the “talent” weighed 130 lbs. (58.9 kg), but later this was lowered to 108.3 lbs. (49.1 kg). More recent research suggests the “light” standard talent was 67.3 lbs. (30.6 kg). Using this as the standard for calculation, the Ammonites hired chariots and charioteers for about 33.7 tons (30,600 kg) of silver.

[19:6]  ¹³ tn The parallel text of 2 Sam 10:6 has “Aram Beth Rehob and Aram Zobah.”

[19:8]  ¹⁴ tn The words “the news” and “to meet them” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.

[19:10]  ¹⁵ tc The parallel text of 2 Sam 10:10 has “the Ammonites” in place of “the Arameans” here.