1After this, Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, died, and his son became king in his place.
2David thought, "I will be kind to Hanun, Nahash's son, because his father was kind to me." So David sent messengers to comfort Hanun after his father's death. David's servants went to the land of the Ammonites to Hanun, to comfort him.
3But the Ammonite leaders said to Hanun, "Do you really believe David is honoring your father by sending these comforters? Haven't his servants come to explore, overthrow, and spy out the land?"
4So Hanun captured David's servants, shaved off half their beards, cut off their robes in the middle at their buttocks, and sent them away.
5When some people told David how the men had been treated, he sent someone to meet them, because the men were extremely ashamed. The king said, "Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown back, then return."
6When the Ammonites realized they had made themselves hated by David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent 1,000 talents of silver to pay for chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, Aram-maacah, and Zobah.
7They hired 32,000 chariots, and the king of Maacah with his troops came and set up camp near Medeba. The Ammonites gathered from their cities and came to battle.
8When David heard about it, he sent Joab with all the mighty warriors of the army.
9The Ammonites came out and prepared for battle at the city gate. The kings who had come to help were by themselves in the open field.
10When Joab saw that he was being attacked from both in front and behind, he chose some of Israel's best men and positioned them to fight the Arameans (Syrians).
11He put the rest of the troops under the command of his brother Abishai, and they prepared to fight the Ammonites.
12Joab said, "If the Arameans are too strong for me, you must help me. But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will help you.
13Be brave, and let us fight with courage for our people and for the cities of our God. May Yahweh do what he thinks is best."
14So Joab and his men advanced to attack the Arameans, and the Arameans ran away from them.
15When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they also ran away from Abishai, Joab's brother, and went back into their city. Then Joab returned to Jerusalem.
16When the Arameans (Syrians) saw that Israel had defeated them, they sent messengers and called for the Arameans who were beyond the Euphrates River, led by Shophach, the commander of Hadadezer's army.
17David was told about this, so he gathered all of Israel, crossed the Jordan River, went to them, and lined up for battle against them. When David had prepared his army to fight the Arameans, they fought against him.
18The Syrians ran away from Israel. David killed seven thousand Syrian men who drove chariots and forty thousand foot soldiers. He also killed Shophach, the captain of their army.
19When Hadadezer's servants saw that Israel had defeated them, they made peace with David and became his servants. The Syrians no longer helped the people of Ammon.