And when David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the host of the mighty men.
The verse records David sending Joab and all the host of the mighty men against a vast, formidable coalition of surrounding nations, and the conflict that followed brought the greatest wars and victories of his reign and the most extensive additions to his power. That hostile alliance was wholly unprovoked by him and sprang in reality from jealousy of his increasing power. The trouble began when Nahash king of the Ammonites died, after having shown kindness to David when David was a fugitive from Saul, and David sent ambassadors with sympathy to Nahash's son and successor Hanun to show kindness as his father had shown.
Hanun's counselors misconstrued the sympathy mission as a cover for spying to overthrow the city, asking whether David had sent comforters to honor his father or servants to search out the city, and Hanun treated the messengers as spies with scorn and insult. The Ammonites hated the true God and were bitter enemies of Israel who could not conceive of David's generous spirit, and when Satan controls minds he excites envy and suspicion that misconstrues the best intentions. Their earlier hatred had appeared half a century before when, by counselors' advice, Nahash demanded from besieged Jabesh-gilead the right to thrust out all their right eyes, a cruel design that the king of Israel foiled by rescuing the people. The Ammonites were permitted to carry out their evil purposes without restraint so that their real character might be revealed to David, for it was not God's will for Israel to league with that treacherous heathen people.
In ancient times as now, the office of ambassador was held sacred by universal law of nations with protection from violence or insult, and any indignity to it demanded prompt retaliation. Knowing the insult to Israel would be avenged, the Ammonites prepared for war by sending a thousand talents of silver to hire thirty-two thousand chariots with horsemen from Mesopotamia and Syria-maachah and Zobah, while the Ammonites themselves gathered from their cities to battle. In this way the inhabitants of the region between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean leagued with the Ammonites, so that the north and east of Canaan was encircled with armed foes banded to crush Israel, which is what David heard of and answered in the verse.
The verse records David sending Joab and all the host of the mighty men against a vast, formidable coalition of surrounding nations, and the conflict that followed brought the greatest wars and victories of his reign and the most extensive additions to his power. That hostile alliance was wholly unprovoked by him and sprang in reality from jealousy of his increasing power. The trouble began when Nahash king of the Ammonites died, after having shown kindness to David when David was a fugitive from Saul, and David sent ambassadors with sympathy to Nahash's son and successor Hanun to show kindness as his father had shown.
Hanun's counselors misconstrued the sympathy mission as a cover for spying to overthrow the city, asking whether David had sent comforters to honor his father or servants to search out the city, and Hanun treated the messengers as spies with scorn and insult. The Ammonites hated the true God and were bitter enemies of Israel who could not conceive of David's generous spirit, and when Satan controls minds he excites envy and suspicion that misconstrues the best intentions. Their earlier hatred had appeared half a century before when, by counselors' advice, Nahash demanded from besieged Jabesh-gilead the right to thrust out all their right eyes, a cruel design that the king of Israel foiled by rescuing the people. The Ammonites were permitted to carry out their evil purposes without restraint so that their real character might be revealed to David, for it was not God's will for Israel to league with that treacherous heathen people.
In ancient times as now, the office of ambassador was held sacred by universal law of nations with protection from violence or insult, and any indignity to it demanded prompt retaliation. Knowing the insult to Israel would be avenged, the Ammonites prepared for war by sending a thousand talents of silver to hire thirty-two thousand chariots with horsemen from Mesopotamia and Syria-maachah and Zobah, while the Ammonites themselves gathered from their cities to battle. In this way the inhabitants of the region between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean leagued with the Ammonites, so that the north and east of Canaan was encircled with armed foes banded to crush Israel, which is what David heard of and answered in the verse.