BRAGADAYJAH 932
David’s offer of friendship rebuffed.
In course of time the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son
Hanun succeeded him. And king David decided to show kindness to Hanun because
Hanun’s father had shown kindness to him. So after his farther died, David sent
a messengers to Hanun to offer him condolence.
But on their arrival Hanun’s princes persuaded him that David’s messengers
were not there to offer condolence but rather to spy out the land with a view
toward invading it. So heeding the advice of his princes, Hanun took David’s
messengers and shaved one side of their beard and cut off their garments to
expose their buttocks and sent them back to David; and when the report of the
treatment of his servants reached David, he sent messengers to them to tell
them not to return until their beards had re-grown as the messengers were made
to feel shame by the loss of their beards. Realizing that their actions greatly
offended David, the children of Ammon hired twenty thousand footmen together
with a thousand men of the king of Maacah and twelve thousands of the king of
Ishtob. And when David heard of it, he
sent Joab to lead the host of his mighty men against the children of Ammon and
their allies. And the children of Ammon came out in battle array against the
host of Israel. And in the course of the
battle the allies of the Ammonites fled before Joab; and when the children of
Ammon saw that their allies had fled, they also fled; and Joab returned to
Jerusalem.
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