2 Samuel 10:1-5
New English Translation
David and the Ammonites
10 Later the king of the Ammonites died and his son Hanun succeeded him.[a] 2 David said, “I will express my loyalty[b] to Hanun son of Nahash just as his father was loyal[c] to me.” So David sent his servants with a message expressing sympathy over his father’s death.[d] When David’s servants entered the land of the Ammonites, 3 the Ammonite officials said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy?[e] No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!”[f]
4 So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved off half of each one’s beard. He cut the lower part of their robes off so that their buttocks were exposed,[g] and then sent them away. 5 Messengers[h] told David what had happened,[i] so he sent them to the men who were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2 Samuel 10:1 tn Heb “reigned in his place.”
- 2 Samuel 10:2 tn Heb “do loyalty.”
- 2 Samuel 10:2 tn Heb “did loyalty.”
- 2 Samuel 10:2 tn Heb “and David sent to console him by the hand of his servants concerning his father.”
- 2 Samuel 10:3 tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”
- 2 Samuel 10:3 tn Heb “Is it not to explore the city and to spy on it and to overthrow it [that] David has sent his servants to you?”
- 2 Samuel 10:4 tn Heb “and he cut their robes in the middle unto their buttocks.”
- 2 Samuel 10:5 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the messengers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- 2 Samuel 10:5 tn The words “what had happened” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
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