2 Samuel 10:5
When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed: and the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return. When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed: and the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.
David had sent ambassadors in sympathy to Hanun son of Nahash after the death of Nahash, to repay kindness that Nahash had shown to David in a time of distress. Hanun, acting on the advice of his counselors, misread the generous mission as spying to search out the city and overthrow it, and treated the messengers as spies with scorn and insult. The misjudgment grew from hatred of Israel and the true God, inability to conceive of a generous spirit, remembrance of how Israel had foiled Nahash's cruel demand against Jabesh-gilead involving the right eyes of its people, and the way evil influence stirs envy and suspicion to misconstrue the best intentions. The insult was grave because the office of ambassador is sacred by universal law of nations, protected from personal violence and insult, so any indignity offered to a sovereign's representative demands prompt retaliation.
The verse records David's compassionate response to the humiliation of his men, sending to meet them because they were greatly shamed and directing them to remain at Jericho until their beards had grown and then return. God permitted the Ammonites to carry out the evil purposes of their hearts without restraint in order to reveal their real treacherous character, for it was not His will that Israel should league with them. Knowing they had made themselves odious to David and that the insult would surely be avenged, the Ammonites gathered a formidable coalition from Mesopotamia and Syria to battle Israel.