David defeats the Ammonites and Syrians
10
📚And it came about after this that the king of the children of Ammon died and Hanun his son reigned in his stead. 2 📚Then David said, “I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness to me”. And David sent to comfort him through his servants about his father. And David’s servants came into the land of the children of Ammon. 10:2 We have no record of the kindness Nahash showed David. But this reveals a very good quality in David – gratitude.⚜
3 📚And the leaders of the children of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think that David is honouring your father, because he has sent comforters to you? Has not David sent his servants to you to explore the city, and to spy it out and to overthrow it?” 4 📚Wherefore Hanun took David’s servants and shaved off one half of their beards and cut off their cloaks in the middle at their hips, and sent them away.
5 📚When they told it to David, he sent someone to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, “Stay at Jericho until your beards are grown, and then return”.
6 📚And when the children of Ammon saw that they had become odious 📖 to David, the children of Ammon sent agents and hired the Syrians of Beth-Rehob and the Syrians of Zoba, twenty thousand foot soldiers, and a thousand men from king Maacah, and twelve thousand men from Ishtob.
7 📚And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the army of the mighty men. 8 📚And the children of Ammon came out and drew up battle lines at the entrance of the gate, and the Syrians of Zoba and of Rehob and Ishtob and Maacah were by themselves in the field.
9 📚When Joab saw that there were two battle fronts against him, in the front and in the rear, he selected some of all the choice men of Israel and put them in array against the Syrians, 10 and the rest of the people he put into the hands of his brother Abishai, so that he could put them in array against the children of Ammon. 11 📚And he said, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you help me, but if the children of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. 12 📚Be courageous, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the LORD 📖 do what seems good to him”.
13 📚And Joab and the people who were with him drew near to the battle against the Syrians, and they fled before him. 14 And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians had fled, then they also fled before Abishai and entered the city. So Joab returned from the children of Ammon and came to Jerusalem.
15 📚And when the Syrians saw that they were defeated before Israel, they gathered themselves together. 16 📚And Hadarezer sent men and brought the Syrians who were beyond the river 📖. And they came to Helam, and Shobach the captain of the host of Hadarezer was leading them.
17 📚And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed over the Jordan and came to Helam. And the Syrians set themselves in array against David and fought with him. 18 📚And the Syrians fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred charioteers of the Syrians and forty thousand horsemen, and struck down Shobach, the captain of their host, who died there.
10:18 In the parallel account in 1 Chron 19:18 the number of charioteers is recorded as seven thousand. This is one example of several differences in numbers between the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. There were no printing presses in those days or any sort of duplicating machines. Manuscripts had to be laboriously copied by hand. Although great care, really amazing care, was taken to copy accurately, minor copying errors were sometimes made. It was particularly easy to make mistakes in copying numbers. There is no doctrine of the Bible the least affected by any such mistakes in copying, and we can only marvel at the accuracy of the manuscripts as a whole which were transmitted over many centuries and copied again and again.⚜
19 📚And when all the kings who were subject to Hadarezer saw that they were defeated before Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subject to them. So the Syrians were afraid to help the children of Ammon any more.