2 Samuel 10:7

_AND WHEN DAVID HEARD OF IT, HE SENT JOAB, AND ALL THE HOST OF THE MIGHTY MEN._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

6-14 They that are at war with the Son of David, not only give the provocation, but begin the war. God has forces to send against those that set his wrath at defiance, Isaiah 5:19, which will convince them that none ever hardened his heart against God, and prospered. Christ's soldiers should strengthen one another's hands in their spiritual warfare. Let nothing be wanting in us, whatever the success be. When we make conscience of doing our duty, we may, with satisfaction, leave the event with God, assuredly hoping for his salvation in his own way and time....

Verse 2 Samuel 10:7. _ALL THE HOST OF THE MIGHTY_] All his _worthies_, and the flower of his army....

This sufficiently indicates the greatness of the danger to Israel from this formidable league of Ammonites and Syrians....

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 WHEN DAVID HEARD OF [IT],.... Of the preparation made by the Ammonites to fight with him: HE SENT JOAB AND ALL THE HOST OF THE MIGHTY MEN: he sent out Joab his general, and an army under his command, consisting of men of strength, valour, and courage; or all the host and the mighty men, as Kimchi and Ben Melech, the famous mighty men mentioned in 2 Samuel 23:8; he did not think it advisable to wait for the Ammonites, but carried the war into their own country, and, instead of suffering them to invade his dominions, he invaded theirs....

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

Defeat of the Ammonites and their Syrian allies 6. _that they stank_ Lit. _that they had made themselves stink_: had brought themselves into evil odour, or, made themselves odious. Ancient history records many wars undertaken to avenge insults offered to ambassadors, whose persons have always been considered sacred by the law of nations: e.g. the war between Rome and Tarentum which led to the invasion of Italy by Pyrrhus. See also Cicero, _pro lege Manil._c. 5. _hired_ For a thousand talents of silver according to 1 Chronicles 19:6, a sum variously estimated at from £250,000 to £500,000. For other instances of the employment of mercenary troops see 2 Kings 7:6; 2 Chronicles 25:6

AND ALL THE HOST OF THE MIGHTY MEN— Which Houbigant renders _the chosen strength of the army; the flower of the troops._ Some understand thereby the worthies mentioned in the 23rd chapter. See Schmidt's Observations. The 94th Psalm is supposed to have been written upon this occasion....