2. Samuel 10:12 Kommentar

This chapter gives us an account of a war David has with the Ammonites and the Syrians their allies, with the occasion and success of it. I. David sent a friendly embassy to Hanun king of the Ammonites (Sa2 10:1, Sa2 10:2). II. He, upon a base surmise that it was ill intended, abused David's ambassadors (Sa2 10:3, Sa2 10:4). III. David resenting it (Sa2 10:5), and the Ammonites prepared for war against him (Sa2 10:6). IV. David carried the war into their country, sent against them. Joab and Abishai, who addressed themselves to the battle with a great deal of conduct and bravery (Sa2 10:7-12). V. The Ammonites, and the Syrians their allies, were totally routed (Sa2 10:13, Sa2 10:14). VI. The forces of the Syrians, which rallied again, were a second time defeated (Sa2 10:15-19). Thus did David advance his own reputation for gratitude, in returning kindness, and for justice, in repaying injuries.

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 10 This chapter gives an account of the ill treatment of David's messengers to the king of Ammon, who were sent to condole the death of his father, and were basely used by him, which David resented, Sa2 10:1; which the Ammonites perceiving prepared for war, and got the Syrians to be confederates with them; of which David being informed, sent Joab and Abishai into their country, Sa2 10:6; who divided the army between them, and attacked the Ammonites and Syrians with great courage, and routed them both, and returned to Jerusalem, Sa2 10:9; after which the Syrians gathered together again to fight with David, who went out to meet them, and got an entire conquest over them, and made them servants to him, Sa2 10:15.

Be of good courage, and let us play the men,.... This Joab said, not only to encourage Abishai and himself, but in the hearing of the rest of the officers of the army, and of many of the people, to hearten them to the battle; who might be somewhat intimidated with the number of their enemies, and the position they were in, being before and behind them; and therefore he thought proper to make such a speech to them to animate them to light: for our people, and for the cities of our God; that the people of Israel might not be carried captive, and their cities spoiled and plundered; and instead of being cities where the people of God dwelt, and he was worshipped, would, if taken, become the habitations of idolatrous Heathens, and where temples would be erected to idols, and the worship of them; these were the arguments he used to engage them to fight manfully for their country, the liberties and religion of it: and the Lord do that which seemeth him good: tacitly suggesting that victory was of the Lord, and that it became them to do their part in fighting courageously, and leave the issue to the Lord, on whom alone success depended.

The king of Ammon being dead, David sends ambassadors to comfort his son Hanun, Sa2 10:1, Sa2 10:2. Hanun, misled by his courtiers, treats the messengers of David with great indignity, Sa2 10:3-5. The Ammonites, justly dreading David's resentment, send, and hire the Syrians to make war upon him, Sa2 10:6. Joab and Abishai meet them at the city of Medeba, and defeat them, Sa2 10:7-14. The Syrians collect another army, but are defeated by David with great slaughter, and make with him a separate peace, Sa2 10:15-19.

Be of good courage - This is a very fine military address, and is equal to any thing in ancient or modern times. Ye fight pro aris et focis; for every good, sacred and civil; for God, for your families, and for your country.

DAVID'S MESSENGERS, SENT TO COMFORT HANUN, ARE DISGRACEFULLY TREATED. (Sa2 10:1-5) Then said David, I will show kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness unto me--It is probable that this was the Nahash against whom Saul waged war at Jabesh-gilead (Sa1 11:11). David, on leaving Gath, where his life was exposed to danger, found an asylum with the king of Moab; and as Nahash, king of the Ammonites, was his nearest neighbor, it may be that during the feud between Saul and David, he, through enmity to the former, was kind and hospitable to David.

III. David's Reign in Its Decline - 2 Samuel 10-20 In the first half of David's reign he had strengthened and fortified the kingdom of Israel, both within and without, and exalted the covenant nation into a kingdom of God, before which all its enemies were obliged to bow; but in the second half a series of heavy judgments fell upon him and his house, which cast a deep shadow upon the glory of his reign. David had brought these judgments upon himself by his grievous sin with Bathsheba. The success of all his undertakings, and the strength of his government, which increased year by year, had made him feel so secure, that in the excitement of undisturbed prosperity, he allowed himself to be carried away by evil lusts, so as to stain his soul not only with adultery, but also with murder, and fell all the deeper because of the height to which his God had exalted him. This took place during the war with the Ammonites and Syrians, when Joab was besieging the capital of the Ammonites, after the defeat and subjugation of the Syrians (2 Samuel 10), and when David had remained behind in Jerusalem (Sa2 11:1). For this double sin, the adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah, the Lord announced as a punishment, that the sword should not depart from David's house, and that his wives should be openly violated; and notwithstanding the sincere sorrow and repentance of the king, when brought to see his sin, He not only caused the fruit of his sin, the child that was born of Bathsheba, to die (2 Samuel 12), but very soon afterwards allowed the threatened judgments to fall upon his house, inasmuch as Amnon, his first-born son, violated his half-sister Thamar, and was murdered in consequence by her own brother Absalom (2 Samuel 13), whereupon Absalom fled to his father-in-law at Geshur; and when at length the king restored him to favour (2 Samuel 14), he set on foot a rebellion, which nearly cost David his life and throne (2 Samuel 15-17:23). And even after Absalom himself was dead (2 Samuel 17:24-19:1), and David had been reinstated in his kingdom (2 Samuel 19:2-40), there arose the conspiracy set on foot by the Benjaminite Sheba, which was only stopped by the death of the chief conspirator, in the fortified city of Abel-Beth-Maachah (2 Samuel 19:41-20:26). The period and duration of these divine visitations are not stated; and all that we are able to determine from the different data as to time, given in Sa2 13:23, Sa2 13:38; Sa2 14:28; Sa2 15:7, when taken in connection with the supposed ages of the sons of David, is that Amnon's sin in the case of Thamar did not take place earlier than the twentieth year of David's reign, and the Absalom's rebellion broke out seven or eight years later. Consequently the assumption cannot be far from the truth, that the events described in this section occupied the whole time between the twentieth and thirtieth years of David's reign. We are prevented from placing it earlier, by the fact that Amnon was not born till after David became king over Judah, and therefore was probably about twenty years old when he violated his half-sister Thamar. At the same time it cannot be placed later than this, because Solomon was not born till about two years after David's adultery; and he must have been eighteen or twenty years old when he ascended the throne on the death of his father, after a reign of forty years and a half, since, according to Kg1 14:21, compared with Kg1 11:42, Kg1 11:43, he had a son a year old, named Rehoboam, at the time when he began to reign.