comforters unto thee? are not his servants come unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land? 4So Hanun took David's servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away. 5Then there went certain, and told David how the men were served. And he sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return. 6And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and out of Aram-maacah, and out of Zobah. 7So they hired them thirty and two thousand chariots, and the king of Maacah
3. the land] 2 Sam. x. 3, the city, i.e. Rabbah (see xx. 1).
4. shaved them] 2 Sam. x. 4, shaved off the one half of their beards. Of course a great insult; cp. Is. l. 6.
cut off their garments] Jewish ambassadors are represented on the Black Obelisk (a monument of Shalmaneser II, king of Assyria, now preserved in the British Museum) as wearing robes reaching to the feet; Hanun reduced ambassadors to the level of captives; cp. Is. xx. 4.
5. Tarry at Jericho] Thus (1) the feelings of the ambassadors would be spared, (2) the insult would be less widely known until it had been avenged.
6. a thousand talents of silver] A very large sum; for a hundred talents Amaziah hired a hundred thousand men (2 Chr. xxv. 6).
chariots and horsemen] The Israelite armies on the contrary consisted chiefly of infantry, the country being for the most part unsuitable for horses.
Mesopotamia] Heb. "Aram (Syria) of the two rivers" (cp. Gen. xxiv. 10, R.V. mg.), i.e. probably the land between the Euphrates and the Chaboras. The Greeks used the term Mesopotamia of a wider district, i.e. of the country between the Euphrates and the Tigris. This mention of Mesopotamia is probably premature, for in ver. 16 the summons of Syrians from beyond the Euphrates is spoken of as a new thing. The corresponding expression in 2 Sam. x. 6 is Beth-rehob, a district which has not yet been identified.
Aram-maacah] Cp. vii. 15, note; Deut. iii. 14; Josh. xii. 5, xiii. 11.
Zobah]. Cp. xviii. 3, note.
7. thirty and two thousand chariots] Cp. 2 Sam. x. 6, which reckons the army (including Maacah) at 33,000, of whom 20,000 are expressly described as footmen. The word "chariots" may have slipped in from ver. 6 instead of "men" or may be an intentional alteration, magnifying the war.
