Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 161
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S am u el – K I N G S
149
Some time after this, King Nahash of the Ammonites died, and his son
Hanun became king. David said, “I am going to show loyalty to Hanun just
as his father, Nahash, was always loyal to me.” So David sent ambassadors
to express sympathy to Hanun about his father’s death.
But when David’s ambassadors arrived in the land of Ammon, the Am
monite commanders said to Hanun, their master, “Do you really think
these men are coming here to honor your father? No! David has sent them
to spy out the city so they can come in and conquer it!” So Hanun seized
David’s ambassadors and shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their
robes at the buttocks, and sent them back to David in shame.
When David heard what had happened, he sent messengers to tell the
men, “Stay at Jericho until your beards grow out, and then come back.” For
they felt deep shame because of their appearance.
When the people of Ammon realized how seriously they had angered
David, they sent and hired 20,000 Aramean foot soldiers from the lands of
Beth-rehob and Zobah, 1,000 from the king of Maacah, and 12,000 from
the land of Tob. When David heard about this, he sent Joab and all his
warriors to fight them. The Ammonite troops came out and drew up their
battle lines at the entrance of the city gate, while the Arameans from Zobah
and Rehob and the men from Tob and Maacah positioned themselves to
fight in the open fields.
When Joab saw that he would have to fight on both the front and the
rear, he chose some of Israel’s elite troops and placed them under his personal command to fight the Arameans in the fields. He left the rest of the
army under the command of his brother Abishai, who was to attack the
Ammonites. “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then come over and
help me,” Joab told his brother. “And if the Ammonites are too strong for
you, I will come and help you. Be courageous! Let us fight bravely for our
people and the cities of our God. May the Lord’s will be done.”
When Joab and his troops attacked, the Arameans began to run away.
And when the Ammonites saw the Arameans running, they ran from
Abishai and retreated into the city. After the battle was over, Joab returned
to Jerusalem.
The Arameans now realized that they were no match for Israel. So when
they regrouped, they were joined by additional Aramean troops summoned by Hadadezer from the other side of the Euphrates River. These
troops arrived at Helam under the command of Shobach, the commander
of Hadadezer’s forces.
When Dav id heard what was happening, he mobilized all Israel,
crossed the Jordan River, and led the army to Helam. The Arameans
positioned themselves in battle formation and fought against Dav id.
But again the Arameans fled from the Israelites. This time David’s forces