Deeper Commentary
1Ch 19:1 It happened after this, that Nahash the king of the children
of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his place-
"After this" can signal a change of subject rather than being
chronologically significant. The same phrase is used in 1 Chron. 18:1, although
the preceding chapter refers to events after and not before that time.
1Ch 19:2 David said, I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash,
because his father showed kindness to me. So David sent messengers to
comfort him concerning his father. David’s servants came into the land of
the children of Ammon to Hanun, to comfort him-
This continues the theme discussed on 2 Sam. 9:1, where the same phrase
is used. David was proactively seeking to show grace to all and sundry. It
was as if he was looking for an excuse to show grace by saying that Nahash
king of the Ammonites had been kind to David; for Saul and David had had
conflict with them (2 Sam. 8:12). But he fails to maintain that intensity;
for when his grace is now abused, he reacts very harshly. Whereas when he
abused God's grace, e.g. over Bathsheba, God was gentle with him. We note
that he likewise shows grace to Shimei, and then finally asks Solomon to
ensure that Shimei is slain. It is one thing to show grace or forgiveness in
a moment, but to maintain that position long term, or when it is abused and
rejected, is far harder. But that is what imitating God's grace is all about
it.
1Ch 19:3 But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Do you
think that David honours your father, in that he has sent comforters to you?
Haven’t his servants come to you to search, to overthrow, and to spy out the
land?-
Again, as with Mephibosheth's struggle to believe David's grace, these
men couldn't believe David's grace, just as struggle to believe that of
the Lord Jesus. Their logic is presented here as being exactly that of
Joab in his angry, suspicious interpretation of Abner's visit to David (2
Sam. 3:24,25). Joab was wrong in his interpretation, and so were these
princes. It is quite a theme of the historical records that kings are
badly advised by their courtiers. We think also of Rehoboam's advisers.
Perhaps this is to highlight how the only true interpretation of events
and advice for action comes from God and not men.
David sent messengers to Nabal meaning well to him, and they were
rudely rebuffed, resulting in his anger which only Abigail’s grace and
wisdom saved him from (1 Sam. 25). And yet the same situation repeated in
its essence when he sent messengers to Hanun who were likewise
misinterpreted and rebuffed (2 Sam. 10:3). Again, David got angry- but
there was no Abigail to restrain him, and he did get into an impossible
fight… from which by grace God delivered him. Could it not be that David
failed to learn from his previous experience…? Circumstances repeat within
our lives and between our lives and those of others in Biblical history;
that we might learn the lessons and take comfort from the scriptures, that
man is not alone.
1Ch 19:4 So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved them, cut off their
garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away-
2 Sam. 10:4 says that half their beards were shaved. Having a beard was then seen as a sign of being a free man; to have a
half shaved beard was a sign of servanthood. Doing this was a direct
provocation and effective declaration of war, claiming the Hebrews were
their servants.
1Ch 19:5 Then there went certain persons and told David how the men were
served. He sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. The king
said, Stay at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return-
We note David's ability to be very sensitive to the situation of
others. And yet the same man shed blood abundantly, took no care for the
feelings of Michal and Paltiel when he split their marriage up, let alone
cared for Uriah... And yet this is the strange mixture of spirituality and
unspirituality which we experience in ourselves and in others all the
time.
1Ch 19:6 When the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves
odious to David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent one thousand talents
of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and out
of Arammaacah, and out of Zobah-
For "thousand" see on 1 Chron. 18:4. This fearsome confederacy was all
part of God's purpose, for the subsequent victories resulted in these
smaller kings becoming subservient to David (see on 2 Sam. 10:19). And
this is how God uses our worst crises, ultimately towards our blessing. 2
Sam. 23:36 speaks of a Syrian man from Zobah being one of David's loyalest
men. Igal would have been a Syrian from Zobah, perhaps one of the
soldiers who fought against David (2 Sam. 10:6) and then converted to him.
The Gittites who followed David were likewise Philistines from Gath who
were once his enemies but converted to his God, and devoted themselves
zealously to Him. This is an incredible witness to the power of Yahweh to
convert, because such willing defections of individuals to the people and
God of their enemies, and being zealously committed to Him, was unheard of
in their society.
1Ch 19:7 So they hired for themselves thirty-two thousand chariots, and the
king of Maacah and his people, who came and encamped before Medeba. The
children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities, and came
to battle-
Numbers 32 describes how Reuben and Gad didn't want to venture West of
Jordan, but wished to just wave goodbye to their brethren and settle on
the land which looked good for their cattle on the East banks of Jordan.
They asked permission to make booths for their cattle and towns for their
children. God eventually agreed and made a compromise with them- but He
repeats their words back to them in a different order. They were to make
towns for their children, and booths for their cattle (Num. 32:16 cp. 24).
Their order was cattle and kids; God's desire was kids then cattle. And
time and again one sees the same nexus of thought playing itself out-
people put their cattle, their materialism, before their children. And God
wants it the other way around. Working mothers, late working fathers, kids
in day care from babyhood- all so the family can live here and not there,
have this car rather than that one, holiday here rather than stay at home,
have the latest toys and gadgets... all, of course, in the name of 'for
the sake of the kids'; when it's actually cattle before kids.
Interestingly, the names of the towns which Reuben and Gad built, the
territory they so desired, only occur in later Scripture in the context of
their being part of Gentile territories (Is. 15:4; 16:8-9; Jer. 48:2, 45;
1 Chron. 19:7). So they never ultimately kept hold of that for which they
sacrificed the promised inheritance of Canaan. God in His total love and
grace was willing to go along with their weakness- He compromised, as it
were, by saying they could have that coveted territory if they helped
their brethren totally inherit their possessions West of Jordan. Ultimately
this never happened, as not all the Canaanite territory was possessed; yet
still God allowed Reuben and Gad to have their part of the deal which they
never fully kept. And there's great grace in the way that Dt. 3:19 records
God saying to them at this time: "I know that you have much cattle". God
knew their weakness. He knew they'd never even seen the wonders of the
promised land, which was far more fertile than the land East of Jordan.
But He went along with them, so much did He thirst for relationship with
them. And so it is with our cattle-before-kids materialism. God may not
cast us off because of it in itself. His grace and love is too strong for
that. But by permitting us the compromise, we find ourselves in a far
harder situation and a path which long term won't lead to permanent
inheritance of the promised land, just as it didn't for Reuben and Gad.
1Ch 19:8 When David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the army of
the mighty men-
We wonder why David didn't go himself, although he does personally
lead the army to the even greater battle with the Syrians which this one
provoked. Perhaps this is to prepare us for the statement in 2 Sam. 11:1
that David's remaining in Jerusalem led to his sin with Bathsheba. And we
wonder whether that relationship had not already started at this time,
with Uriah away at the front so much.
1Ch 19:9 The children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the
gate of the city. The kings who had come were by themselves in the field-
2 Sam. 10:8 adds: "The children of Ammon came out, and put the battle
in array at the entrance of the gate: and the Syrians of Zobah and of
Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field".
"By themselves" could mean that they had planned to combine with the
Ammonite forces at Medeba (1 Chron. 19:7), about 20 miles from Rabbah of
the Ammonites. It seems Joab marched at top speed to engage with them
before the Ammonites and Syrians met up with each other as one large
force. The Ammonites assembled their battle lines at the entrance to
Rabbah, but it seems they didn't engage with the Israelites. They were
waiting for the Syrians to arrive and combine their forces. When Joab
makes the Syrians flee, the Ammonites fled back into their city gate.
1Ch 19:10 Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and
behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array
against the Syrians-
He saw the Syrians as a greater strength than the Ammonites. He
placed himself between the two armies before they had time to join up with
each other. This meant the Israelites would be sandwiched between them. It
was a daring but dangerous move, which could easily have led to the
annihilation of the entire Israelite army.
1Ch 19:11 The rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai his
brother; and they put themselves in array against the children of Ammon-
That Joab took the most dangerous part of the engagement speaks much
of his bravery. But as we will note on :13, bravery and passing mention of
God are not the same as faith and true wisdom.
1Ch 19:12 He said-
The idea is, that he planned or thought. The Bible continually
stresses that the thought is the word spoken. And the essence of Biblical
spirituality is upon the heart, the thinking.
If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you are to help me; but
if the children of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will help you-
This is playing on the name "Hadadezer" (:16), which means 'Helped
['ezer'] by Hadad', the sun god. We might have preferred to see Joab
alluding to Yahweh being their help; but instead he thinks of help in
terms of human strength.
1Ch 19:13 Be courageous, and let us be strong for our people, and for the
cities of our God. May Yahweh do that which seems good to Him-
As explained on :10, this was a very daring maneuver by Joab. We
wonder whether he had real faith in Yahweh, or whether his words here
express fatalism rather than faith. There is a significant difference, and
often what appears to be faith can be mere fatalism.
We ask ourselves whether this was faith or fatalism. Joseph held
no grudge against his brethren, and would not be vindictive to them,
because he understood something of predestination: “You meant
evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). And
because he understood that God’s good intentions were worked out through
the evil intentions of others, Joseph was content to leave all in God’s
hands, and on this basis he assures his brothers that given his
understanding of this ‘predestination’, he wouldn’t hit back at them for
what they’d done to him. The Lord spoke of the coming of His ‘hour’ of
death as if it were somehow predestined of the Father. But His
appreciation of this didn’t lead to a mere fatalism, but rather to a
heightened sense of the importance of obedience, of playing His part in
the Father’s drama to the best of His ability (Jn. 7:6,8; 12:23,27). Joab
likewise may have had the same understanding, and this bred not fatalism
but rather a zealous attempt to fight for the Lord, which God blessed with
victory.
1Ch 19:14 So Joab and the people who were with him drew near before the
Syrians to the battle; and they fled before him-
So often the Israelite victories were humanly speaking achieved by
surprise attack from an unexpected angle, using unexpected and unusual
tactics. It could be that this was due to Divine guidance, telling them to
do what was unusual and against secular wisdom. For this is always God's
path to victory, thereby demonstrating that victory and success are of His
grace rather than human strength.
1Ch 19:15 When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians had fled, they
likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. Then
Joab came to Jerusalem-
We get the impression that Abishai didn't attack the Ammonites; the
Syrians fled when Joab attacked them, and the Ammonites withdrew into
Rabbah when they saw that.
1Ch 19:16 When the Syrians saw that they were defeated by Israel, they
sent messengers, and drew forth the Syrians who were beyond the River,
with Shophach the captain of the army of Hadadezer at their head-
They were mercenaries, and the fact they had failed to achieve what
Ammon hoped for didn't require them to fight again. They did so, it seems,
because of wounded pride. And this again (as noted on :13) is a feature of
God's amazing victories. The pride of Gentile armies is brought down by
smaller armies of Israelites using unusual, unexpected tactics because
they were guided by Yahweh. Always pride is presented as the great
weakness of man. To gather soldiers from beyond the river Euphrates was a huge effort;
and now the best general, as they thought, was placed over them. And it
all arose from hurt pride and the desire by all means to defeat Israel in
vengeance for Joab and his small army putting their army to flight
previously, when they had been paid money to defeat Israel.
1Ch 19:17 It was told David; and he gathered all Israel together, passed
over the Jordan and came on them, and set the battle in array against
them. So when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians, they
fought with him-
The parallel is drawn between the Syrians coming from the other side
of the Euphrates (:16) led by Shobach, and David and his men coming from
the other side of the Jordan.
1Ch 19:18 The Syrians fled before Israel; and David killed of the Syrians
seven thousand charioteers, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach
the captain of the army-
There are apparently different numbers given in 2 Sam. 8:4; 10:18 and 1
Chron. 19:18. I see no real problem here once we appreciate that the
Hebrew word "thousand" used when giving numbers like this rarely means
1,000 as a number. It is also translated regiment, brigade, family,
squadron etc. And to Israelites looking at the Syrian army, it could be
described in various ways. There many regiments, families, groups,
squadrons, but these subdivisions of an ancient army are all called a
"thousand". Depending how one looks at the army and its subdivisions. A
modern army would be subdivided into two to four corps, a corps has at
least two divisions or legions, a division has two four brigades or
regiments, a brigade has two or more regiments, a regiment has two
or more battalions, a battalion has a number of companies, a company has
a number of platoons, a platoon has a number of squads or fire teams. The
problem is that the Hebrew Bible uses the same word for all such military
subdivisions, and it is translated "thousand" in many Bibles. Hence the
apparently contradictory numbers.
1Ch 19:19 When the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were defeated by
Israel, they made peace with David, and served him. From then on, the
Syrians would not help the children of Ammon-
This meant that the smaller kings like Tob, Rehob and Maacah now paid
tribute to David rather than to Hadadezer.
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