1 *Chronicles 19

₁King Nahash of the Ammonites died and his son Hanun became king after him. ₂David thought Nahash had been his friend, and he also wanted to be a friend of his son Hanun. Then David sent officials to Hanun and told him that he was sad that his father had died.

But when David's officials came into the land of the Ammonites to tell Hanun that David was also sad with him, ₃the leaders of the Ammonites said to Hanun: ‘Why do you think these officials have come to us? Don't think that they have come because David respected your father and he wants to say he feels sad with you. No, we think he has sent his officials to look at our land to make plans and see where they can attack this town and destroy it.’ ₄Then Hanun took the officials of David and he told his people to shave off their beards. He also cut off their clothes at their hips and then he let them go. ₅The men went away but they were humiliated. When they told David what had happened to his men, he sent people to meet them and to tell them to stay in Jericho until their beards had grown longer again before they came back home.

₆The Ammonites knew that David was very angry with them and Hanun and the Ammonites paid 1 000 talents of silver to hire men on war-chariots and horses to help them fight. He hired men from the Aramean people from Mesopotamia and Arameans from the towns of Zobah and Maakah. ₇The Ammonites hired 32 000 war-chariots and they also paid the king of Maakah and his men to come and help them. The king of Maakah and his men came and they put up their tents near the town of Medeba. The Ammonites also came out of their towns to go to war.

₈When they told David about this, he sent Joab and all his men. They were all good soldiers. ₉The Ammonites came out of their town and they were standing in front of the gate of their town. They were ready to fight. The soldiers of the kings who had come to help them were standing in the field. ₁₀Joab saw that he would have to fight the war in 2 places. He chose the best soldiers of Israel and he told them to fight against the Arameans. ₁₁He told the other men to go with his brother Abishai. They had to fight against the Ammonites. ₁₂Joab said to Abishai: ‘If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you must come and help me, and if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will come and help you. ₁₃You must be brave and we will also be brave and we will fight hard for our people and for the towns of our God. It will happen as the Lord wants.’

₁₄Joab and his men started to fight against the Arameans and the Arameans fled before him. ₁₅When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they also fled from Abishai and they went into their own town. Joab then went back to Jerusalem.

₁₆When the Arameans saw that the Israelites had defeated them, they sent messages to call the Arameans who lived on the other side of the Euphrates River. The chief of Hadadezer's army was Shophak. He led their soldiers. ₁₇They told David about this and he called all the men of Israel together. He went over the Jordan River and when he came to the Arameans, he prepared to start the war and the Arameans came to fight against him. ₁₈But the Arameans fled and ran away from David. David killed the men on 7 000 war-chariots and 40 000 soldiers. They also killed Shophak, the chief of the army. ₁₉Hadadezer also ruled over a few other kings and when they saw that the Israelites had won the war, they made peace with David. David then ruled over the Arameans from that time. The Arameans did not want to help the Ammonites again.