2 Samuel 10

₁Later the king of the Ammonites, Nahash, died and his son Hanun became king after him. ₂David said: ‘Hanun's father was my friend. I want to be a friend of Hanun, son of Nahash.’ Then David sent officials to Hanun saying that he felt sorry because his father had died. But when the officials of David came into the land of the Ammonites, ₃the leaders of the Ammonites asked their master Hanun: ‘Why do you think these officials have come to us? Do you think David respected your father and sent people to say that he feels sorry for you? No, we think he sent his officials to come and spy and to see how they can attack the town and destroy it.’

₄Then Hanun took David's officials and cut off half of their beards. He also cut off their clothes so that they were not covered below the hips. Then he let them go. ₅The men felt very humiliated. When they told David what had happened to the men, he sent other men to meet them and to tell them to stay in Jericho until their beards had grown, because the men felt very ashamed.

₆The Ammonites saw that David was angry with them and they hired other soldiers to come and help them. They hired 20 000 Aramean soldiers from Beth-Rehob and Zobah and 1 000 soldiers from the king of Maakah and 12 000 men from Tob. ₇When they told David about it, he sent Joab with all his men. They were all good soldiers. ₈The Ammonites came out and they stood at the gate of their town. The Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maakah were standing in the field away from the Ammonites. ₉Joab saw that he would have to fight at 2 places. He took the best men of Israel to fight the Arameans. ₁₀He told the other men to go with his brother Abishai to fight the Ammonites. ₁₁Joab said to Abishai: ‘If the Arameans are stronger than I am, you must come and help me, and if the Ammonites are stronger than you, I will come and help you. ₁₂You must be brave and fight hard for our nation and for the towns of our God. The Lord will do what He wants to do.’

₁₃Joab and his men started to fight the Arameans and the Arameans fled from him. ₁₄When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they also ran away from Abishai and they went into their town. Joab then stopped making war_against the Ammonites and he went back to Jerusalem. ₁₅When the Arameans saw that the Israelites had defeated them, they all came together. ₁₆Hadadezer also called the Arameans on the other side of the Euphrates River. They came together at the town of Helam. The chief of Hadadezer's army was Shobak who was leading them.

₁₇They told David and he called all the men of Israel together. He went over the Jordan River to Helam. The Arameans then started to fight against David. ₁₈But the Arameans ran away from the Israelites. David killed 700 men on war-chariots and 40 000 men on horses. Shobak, the chief of their army, also died. ₁₉Before the war, Hadadezer had ruled over a few kings and when they saw that the Israelites had defeated Hadadezer, they made peace with the Israelites and the Israelites ruled over them. The Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites again.