And Hanun took David's servants, and had them shaved, and their raiment cut off in the midst, as far as the hip, and sent them away.
David sent men to comfort a newly crowned king, and they came home half-shaved and half-clothed. Here kindness meets public humiliation. Two questions follow: why did suspicion turn so fast into outrage, and what happens to a nation that treats goodwill this way?
One writer starts further back, with the men who refused to believe David meant well.
In 1 Chronicles 19, however, we see that there were those who distrusted David's generosity. The Ammonites could not understand why David would show kindness to Hanun, the son of Nahash, just because his father had shown kindness to him. So the princes of Ammon decided it was only a political trick — a way to spy out the land and then overthrow it. They proposed an act of the greatest contempt toward David's servants. But this only brought the most terrible punishment down on themselves.
This was not rough handling. It was planned shaming, aimed at the official messengers of a king.
No one could treat a king's ambassadors more shamefully. They had to walk back through Hanun's country dishonoured, half naked, mocked, and turned into a joke. Is it surprising that they were "greatly ashamed"?
In Israel the beard was not a matter of fashion. The law itself guarded it.
The Israelites always grew their beards and prized them. The law forbade them to "mar the edges" of their beards (Leviticus 19:27), and a priest must not shave off the corner of his beard as a sign of mourning (Leviticus 21:5). King Hanun did them a deep dishonour when he spoiled the beards of David's ambassadors.
David sent his servants with nothing but comfort, and they carried his name with it.
He does not send him presents, or riches, or honours, but something better beyond measure: comfort. He sends it by the hand of his servants. To welcome these servants was to welcome David himself.
The same writer sees this pattern wherever people carry a message about Christ.
The world has more confidence in the opinion of its counsellors than in the message of Christ. These counsellors will do anything to turn aside from the gospel those of their followers who show any inclination at all to receive it. The distance between distrust and insult is shorter than we might suspect.
One writer weighs Hanun's act against his father's, and marks the place where the shamed men waited.
Hanun, showing a milder form of his father's contempt, takes from David's ambassadors half their beards and half their clothes. At Jericho, the place of the world's judgment, they must wait till they have recovered their dignity as men: so they return.
This one act set the rest of the chapter in motion.
The last message of grace — and how little Hanun suspected that it was the last — was refused. The consequence is a terrible judgment. It begins in this chapter and continues in the chapters that follow. It is a judgment without pity, brought on by anger at the insult done to grace.
Commentators differ on whether David should have sent the embassy at all. One writer reads it as pure kindness. Another reads the friendship itself as a wrong step that God then turned to His own ends.
To receive gifts and homage from the king of Hamath was according to God, but to keep up a friendship with the Ammonite went against His word... God steps in for the sake of His own name. Hanun and his princes suspect David's friendly offers and reject them, and this becomes the occasion for God to carry out His judgment on Israel's enemies.
- Kindness sent. David's men carried comfort, not demands; to welcome them was to welcome the king himself.
- Kindness suspected. Ammon's princes could not believe the kindness was real, so they called it spying. Distrust comes before the insult.
- Kindness insulted. Cutting the beard and the robes shamed an ambassador as deeply as anything could — Israel's law guarded the beard.
- Shame repaired. David stationed his humiliated men at Jericho until their dignity as men had returned.
- Insult answered. A refused message of grace brought judgment without pity. Commentators differ only on whether the embassy should have gone at all.
And [certain] went and told David concerning the men; and he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Abide at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.
David had sent messengers to comfort Hanun of Ammon after his father died. Hanun humiliated them instead, and verse 5 shows David's answer: he goes out to meet his shamed men and sends them to Jericho to recover.
Shaving off half a man's beard and cutting his robe off at the hips struck at the honour of men who carried a king's word.
This was the most shameful treatment anyone could give to the ambassadors of a king. They had to pass through Hanun's land dishonoured, half naked, mocked, and made a laughing-stock. Is it surprising that they were "greatly ashamed"?
David's men carried no gifts to Hanun. They carried comfort to a son whose father had died.
David knew the needs of Hanun's heart. He knew how to replace sorrow with feelings of kindness and joy. He does not send him presents, or riches, or honours. He sends what is far better: consolation. He sends it by the hand of his servants, and to receive these servants was to receive David himself.
Hanun's advisers did not believe the offer was genuine. That suspicion cost them dearly.
In 1 Chronicles 19 we see that there were those who distrusted David's generosity. The Ammonites could not understand why David would show kindness to Hanun, the son of Nahash, just because Nahash had once shown kindness to David. So the princes of Ammon thought it was only a political move to spy out the land and overthrow it. They suggested an act of the greatest contempt towards David's servants. This only brought the most severe retribution on themselves.
David gives his men a place to wait and a point at which the waiting ends.
At Jericho, the place of the world's judgment, they must wait until they have recovered their dignity as men. Then they return.
David's first recorded move after the insult was care for his men, not a war plan.
When David heard this he first gave the men a break at Jericho until their beards grew. The account says nothing about how David himself answered this insult against him and against Israel. It also records no move by David to attack Ammon before Ammon began preparing for battle.
One writer takes the wait at Jericho as a picture of our own time.
The Lord sent His ambassadors to men worse than the Ammonites; and how were they treated? Now Jew and Gentile alike reject the kindness of God our Saviour. But for these rejecters, as for the Ammonites then, a day of vengeance is coming; that day is fixed, known only to God. There is a waiting, a delay; but there is a limit. David told the men to wait at Jericho until their beards were grown. The Lord is now waiting until the appointed time, and His patience is salvation. But judgment, severe and certain, is coming.
Commentators differ here. Some see only kindness in what David did. Others see God clearing up the damage of a friendship David should never have formed.
The Lord had preserved him from his open enemies. Now we see how He delivers him from the consequences of his own errors. The occasion is the death of Nahash, and David's sending messengers to comfort his son. To receive presents and homage from the king of Hamath was according to God. But to keep up friendly dealings with the Ammonite was against His word. God steps in for His own name's sake, and the suspicions of Hanun and his princes, who rejected David's friendly offers, become the occasion for God's judgment on Israel's enemies.
- Sent. The men carried comfort, not gifts, and to receive them was to receive David himself.
- Shamed. Half a beard and a cut robe shamed a king's ambassador as deeply as anything could. No wonder the men were greatly ashamed.
- Sheltered. David's first response was not war but care: Jericho, until his men recovered their dignity as men.
- Set term. The waiting had an end date — a picture of God's present patience, which is real but limited.
- Settled. Ammon despised David's kindness, and severe retribution came back on them.