Lives of Scripture

Hanun became king of Ammon after the death of his father Nahash, who had shown King David kindness (2 Samuel 10:1-2). David sent servants to console Hanun and honor Nahash's memory, but Hanun's princes warned him that David's men were spies sent "to search the city, to spy it out, and to overthrow it" (10:3). Believing them, Hanun seized David's servants, shaved off half of each man's beard, cut their garments off at the hips, and sent them away in humiliation (10:4) -- a calculated insult in the ancient Near East, where a shaved beard signified disgrace. David, hearing his men were "greatly humiliated," told them to stay at Jericho until their beards grew back before returning (10:5). Realizing they had made themselves "odious" to David, the Ammonites hired Aramean mercenaries to fight alongside them, provoking a full-scale war (10:6). Joab and the Israelite army defeated the combined Ammonite-Aramean forces, and David personally led the final campaign that captured Rabbah, the Ammonite capital, taking Hanun's crown and the city's spoil (2 Samuel 12:29-31; 1 Chronicles 19:1-19; 20:1-3). Hanun's rash decision, built on bad counsel and unfounded suspicion, cost his kingdom dearly and stands as a cautionary account of diplomacy broken by pride and poor judgment.