2 Samuel 10:3

_AND THE PRINCES OF THE CHILDREN OF AMMON SAID UNTO HANUN THEIR LORD, THINKEST THOU THAT DAVID DOTH_ _ AND THE PRINCES OF THE CHILDREN OF AMMON SAID UNTO HANUN THEIR LORD, THINKEST THOU THAT DAVID DOTH HONOUR 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 princes of the children of Ammon unto Hanun. Their suspicion was not warranted either by any overt act or by a cherished design of David: it must have originated in their knowledge of the denunciations of God's law against them (Deuteronomy 23:3), and of David's policy in stedfastly adhering to it....

1-5 Nahash had been an enemy to Israel, yet had showed kindness to David. David therefore resolves gratefully to return it. If a Pharisee gives alms in pride, though God will not reward it, yet he that receives the alms ought to return thanks for it. Those who bear ill-will to their neighbours, are resolved not to believe that their neighbours bear any good-will to them. There is nothing so well meant, but it may be ill interpreted, and is wont to be so, by men who love nobody but themselves. The best men must not think it strange if they are thus misrepresented. Charity thinketh no evil. According to the usages of those days and countries, Hanun treated David's ambassadors in the most contemptuous manner. David showed much concern for his servants. Let us learn not to lay unjust reproaches to heart; they will wear off, and turn only to the shame of those who utter or do them; while the...

Verse 2 Samuel 10:3. _THINKEST THOU THAT DAVID DOTH HONOUR THY FATHER_] It has been a matter of just complaint through all the history of mankind, that there is little sincerity in courts. Courtiers, especially, are suspicious of each other, and often mislead their sovereigns. They feel themselves to be insincere, and suspect others to be so too....

THE PRINCES ... - Compare Rehoboam’s advisers 1 Kings 12:10. It is not improbable that David’s severe treatment of Moab 2 Samuel 8:2 was in part the cause of the fear of the Ammonites that a similar treatment was in store for themselves....

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 10:1 THE KING OF THE CHILDREN OF AMMON DIED. This war is very briefly referred to in 2 Samuel 8:12; but we have now entered upon a narrative, the interest of which is altogether unlike all that has gone before. There we saw David crowned with earthly glory, and made the monarch of a vast empire; he is also a prophet, and, as such, not only restores, but enriches and enlarges, the worship of the sanctuary; and, as prophet and king, he becomes not only the type, but the ancestor of the Messiah. In this narrative he is a sinner, punished with terrible, though merited, severity, and must henceforth walk humbly and sorrowfully as a penitent before God. From...

AND THE PRINCES OF THE CHILDREN OF AMMON SAID TO HANUN THEIR LORD,.... His nobles and prime ministers, the courtiers that were about him: THINKEST THOU THAT DAVID DOTH HONOUR THY FATHER, THAT HE HATH SENT COMFORTERS UNTO THEE? could he imagine that David was sincere, and that he really meant to do honour to the memory of his father, and comfort him under the loss of him, by sending his ambassadors to him on such an errand? there was no reason, they thought, to believe this, since an Israelite was forbidden to seek their peace and prosperity, or ask of it, nor might Ammonite enter into their congregation unto the tenth generation, Deuteronomy 23:3; and indeed some have thought that David did not do a right thing in sending this embassy, and was justly requited; but it is certain he acted according to the laws of friendship, and was cordial and sincere in what he did,

7. THE WAR WITH AMMON AND THE SYRIANS CHAPTER 10 _ 1. David and Hanun (2 Samuel 10:1)_ 2. Ammon and the Syrians smitten (2 Samuel 10:6) The chapter with the war against Ammon and the Syrians is the prelude to the great sin of David. While Joab is carrying on the siege of Rabbah, the last city of the Ammonites, David, no doubt flushed with the great victory and prosperity, remained in his house and committed his awful sin. The war with Ammon originated through the insults which Hanun the King of Ammon had heaped upon David's ambassadors. David wanted to show kindness also to Hanun as his father Nahash had shown kindness to David. We have no record of this kindness. In this endeavour David did certainly not follow the right course, for Ammon was an enemy, and while Nahash

2 SAMUEL 10. WAR WITH THE AMMONITES AND THE SYRIANS (J). 2 Samuel 10:1. The king of Ammon insults David's ambassadors. [J. G. Frazer (_Taboo and the Perils of the Soul,_ p. 273) connects Hanun's action with the well-known belief that to get possession of the hair of a person is to have him in one's power. He supposes that Hanun, distrusting David's designs and desirous to have some guarantee of peace, thought he secured this by retaining half the beards and garments He quotes as a parallel the treatment of a traitor by two Moabite Arabs who shaved completely one side of his head and his moustache on the other, and set him at liberty. A. S. P.] 2 SAMUEL 10:6. The Ammonites hire mercenaries from the Syrian states; Joab takes command of the general levy of Israel and the standi

SEARCH. explore. THE CITY. Some codices, with one early printed edition, read "the land". Compare 1 Chronicles 19:3....

David's ambassadors insulted by the Ammonites 1. _And it came to pass after this_ On this formula of transition see note on ch. 2 Samuel 8:1. _the king of the children of Ammon_ Forty years at least had passed since the events of 1 Samuel 11, so that this Nahash was probably the son or grandson of the king defeated by Saul at Jabesh. On the Ammonites see note on 1 Samuel 11:1. _Hanun_ This name is identical with the Phoenician _Hanno_, which appears so frequently in Carthaginian history. In Greek both take the form Ἄννων (_Annon_)....