1 Chroniques 19

War with the Ammonites

¹Some time after this, Nahash king of the Ammonites died, and his son became king in his place. ²David said, “I will show faithful love to Hanun son of Nahash, because his father showed faithful love to me.” So David sent messengers to console Hanun over the death of his father. And David’s officials came to Hanun in the land of the Ammonites to console him. ³But the Ammonite officials said to Hanun, “Do you really think David is honoring your father by sending men to comfort you? Have his officials not come to you to explore, to overthrow, and to spy out the land?”

⁴So Hanun seized David’s officials, shaved them, cut their garments off in the middle at the buttocks, and sent them on their way. ⁵When people came and told David what had happened to the men, he sent messengers to meet them, because the men were deeply ashamed. The king said, “Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown back, and then come home.” ⁶When the Ammonites saw that they had made themselves hateful to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent about 37 tons of silver to hire chariots and horsemen from Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah and Zobah.^{a 7}They hired 32,000 chariots and the king of Maacah with his army, and these came and camped near Medeba. The Ammonites also gathered from their cities and came out to fight.^b

⁸When David heard about this, he sent out Joab with the whole army of warriors. ⁹The Ammonites marched out and formed their battle line at the city entrance, while the kings who had come took a separate position in the open country. ¹⁰Joab saw that the battle lines faced him both in front and behind. So he picked some of Israel’s best troops and lined them up against the Arameans. ¹¹He put the rest of the troops under the command of his brother Abishai, and they lined up against the Ammonites. ¹²Joab said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, you must come to my rescue. But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will rescue you. ¹³Be strong! Let us show courage for the sake of our people and the cities of our God. And may the LORD do what seems good to him.” ¹⁴Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and the Arameans fled from him. ¹⁵When the Ammonites saw the Arameans flee, they also fled from Joab’s brother Abishai and withdrew into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.

The Arameans are defeated

¹⁶When the Arameans saw that they had been beaten by Israel, they sent messengers and brought out the Arameans who were beyond the Euphrates River, with Shophach, the commander of Hadadezer’s army, at their head. ¹⁷When David was told, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan, came up to them, and formed his lines against them. David drew up his army for battle against the Arameans, and they fought with him. ¹⁸But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed 7,000 of their charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers. He also put to death Shophach, the commander of their army.^{c 19}When those who were subject to Hadadezer saw that Israel had defeated them, they made peace with David and became his subjects. After this the Arameans were not willing to give the Ammonites any more help.