War with the Ammonites

These were the honors that those who were left of Saul’s and Jonathan’s line received from David. About this time Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, who was a friend of David’s, died; and when his son Hanun had succeeded to the kingdom, David sent ambassadors to him to comfort him, urging him to bear his father’s death patiently and to expect that David would show him the same kindness he had shown his father. But the princes of the Ammonites took this message badly, and not as David’s kind intentions gave reason to take it. They stirred the king up to resent it, and said that David had sent men to spy out the country and its strength under a pretense of humanity and kindness. They further advised him to be on his guard and pay no attention to David’s words, or he would be deceived by him and so fall into a disaster beyond all comfort. So Hanun, the king of the Ammonites, thought that what the princes said was more likely than the truth would allow, and treated the ambassadors very harshly: he shaved off half of their beards and cut off half of their garments, and so sent his answer not in words but in deeds. When the king of Israel saw this, he was indignant, and made it plain that he would not overlook this insulting and outrageous treatment, but would make war on the Ammonites and avenge this wicked treatment of his ambassadors on their king. So that king’s close friends and commanders, understanding that they had broken their league and were liable to be punished for it, prepared for war. They also sent about seventy-five thousand pounds of silver to the Syrian king of Mesopotamia and urged him to become their ally for that pay, and Subas too. Now these kings had twenty thousand foot soldiers. They also hired the king of the country called Maacah, and a fourth king, named Ish-tob; and these two had twelve thousand armed men. [a]

But David was not dismayed at this alliance or at the forces of the Ammonites. Trusting in God, because he was going to war in a just cause, over the insulting treatment he had received, he at once sent Joab, the commander of his army, against them, and gave him the pick of his army. Joab pitched his camp by Rabbah, the capital of the Ammonites. At this the enemy came out and drew up their lines, not all together but in two bodies: the allies were drawn up in the plain by themselves, but the army of the Ammonites at the gates, facing the Hebrews. When Joab saw this, he met one stratagem with another. He chose out the hardiest part of his men and set them against the king of Syria and the kings who were with him, and gave the other part to his brother Abishai, telling him to set them against the Ammonites. He told him that if he saw the Syrians pressing him hard and getting the better of him, Abishai should turn his troops around and come to his help; and he said he would do the same for him if he saw him in similar trouble from the Ammonites. So he sent his brother ahead, urging him to fight bravely and with the eagerness that befits men who fear disgrace; and so he sent him off to fight the Ammonites, while he himself fell on the Syrians. And though they held out strongly for a while, Joab killed many of them and forced the rest to take flight. When the Ammonites saw this, and were afraid of Abishai and his army as well, they stayed no longer but followed their allies’ example and fled into the city. So Joab, having beaten the enemy in this way, returned with great joy to the king at Jerusalem. [f]

This defeat still did not move the Ammonites to keep quiet, or to acknowledge as superior those who were superior to them and stay still. Instead they sent to Chalaman, the king of the Syrians beyond the Euphrates, and hired him as an ally. He had Shobach as the commander of his army, with eighty thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand horsemen. When the king of the Hebrews learned that the Ammonites had again gathered so great an army together, he decided to make war on them no longer through his generals. He crossed the Jordan River himself with all his army, and when he met them he joined battle with them, overcame them, and killed about forty thousand of their foot soldiers and about seven thousand of their horsemen. He also wounded Shobach, the general of Chalaman’s forces, who died of that blow. The people of Mesopotamia, when the battle ended this way, surrendered to David and sent him presents; and at winter time he returned to Jerusalem. But at the beginning of spring he sent Joab, the commander of his army, to fight against the Ammonites. Joab overran their whole country and laid it waste, shut them up in their capital, Rabbah, and besieged them there. [h]