1    ^noteSome time afterwards the king of the Ammonites died and was succeeded by his son Hanun. 2   David said, ‘I must keep up the same loyal friendship with Hanun son of Nahash as his father showed me’, and he sent a mission to condole with him on the death of his father. 3   But when David's envoys entered the country of the Ammonites, the Ammonite princes said to Hanun their lord, ‘Do you suppose David means to do honour to your father when he sends you his condolences? These men of his are spies whom he has sent to find out how to overthrow the city.’ 4   So Hanun took David's servants, and he shaved off half their beards, cut off half their garments up to the buttocks, and dismissed them. 5   When David heard how they had been treated, he sent to meet them, for they were deeply humiliated, and ordered them to wait in Jericho and not to return until their beards had grown again. 6   The Ammonites knew that they had fallen into bad odour with David, so they hired the Aramaeans of Beth-rehob and of Zobah to come to their help with twenty thousand infantry; they also hired the king of Maacah with a thousand men, and twelve thousand men from Tob. 7   When David heard of it, he sent out Joab and all the fighting men. 8   The Ammonites came and took up their position at the entrance to the city, while the Aramaeans of Zobah and of Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah took up theirs in the open country. 9   When Joab saw that he was threatened both front and rear, he detailed some picked Israelite troops and drew them up facing the Aramaeans. 10   The rest of his forces he put under his brother Abishai, who took up a position facing the Ammonites. 11   ‘If the Aramaeans prove too strong for me,’ he said, ‘you must come to my relief; and if the Ammonites prove too strong for you, I will come to yours. 12   Courage! Let us fight bravely for our people and for the cities ^note of our God. And the Lord's will be done.’ 13   But when Joab and his men came to close quarters with the Aramaeans, they put them to flight; 14   and when the Ammonites saw them in flight, they too fled before Abishai and entered the city. Then Joab returned from the battle against the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem. 15   The Aramaeans saw that they had been worsted by Israel; but they rallied their forces, 16   and Hadadezer sent to summon other Aramaeans from the Great Bend of the Euphrates, and they advanced to Helam under Shobach, commander of Hadadezer's army. 17   Their movement was reported to David, who immediately mustered all the forces of Israel, crossed the Jordan and advanced to meet them at Helam. There the Aramaeans took up positions facing David and engaged him, 18    but were put to flight by Israel. David slew seven hundred Aramaeans in chariots

David king in Jerusalem and forty thousand horsemen, mortally wounding Shobach, who died on the field. 19   When all the vassal kings of Hadadezer saw that they had been worsted by Israel, they sued for peace and submitted to the Israelites. The Aramaeans never dared help the Ammonites again.

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