CHAPTER XIX

David sends a congratulatory message to Hanun, king of Ammon, 1, 2. He treats the messengers with great incivility, 3, 4. David is exasperated, but condoles with the degraded messengers, 5. The Ammonites prepare for war, and hire thirty-two thousand chariots, and besiege Medeba, 6, 7. David sends Joab to attack them; he defeats the Syrians and Ammonites, 8-15. The discomfited Syrians recruit their army, and invade David's territories beyond Jordan; he attacks them, kills Shophach their general, seven thousand charioteers, and forty thousand of their infantry, 16-18. The Syrians abandon the Ammonites and make a separate peace with David, 19.

NOTES ON CHAP. XIX

Verse 1. Now it came to pass] See the same history, 2 Sam. x. 1, &c., and the notes there.

Verse 4. And cut off their garments in the midst] Usque ad eorum, pudenda. So the Targum, Jarchi, and others; leaving exposed what nature and decency require to be concealed. See on 2 Sam. x. 4.

Verse 6. Chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia] These are not mentioned in the parallel place in Samuel; probably they did not arrive till the Ammonites and their other allies were defeated by the Israelites in the first battle.

Verse 7. Thirty and two thousand] The whole number mentioned in Sam. is, Syrians, of Beth-rehob, and of Zoba, twenty thousand; of King Maacah, one thousand; of Ish-tob, twelve thousand; in all thirty-three thousand. Of chariots or cavalry there is no mention. These could not have been the whole army.

Verse 13. Be of good courage] See the note on 2 Sam. x. 12.

Verse 18. Forty thousand footmen] See this number accounted for in the note on 2 Sam. x. 18.