1 Chronicles 19:5

f Ammon, 1Chr 19:1, 1Chr 19:2. He treats the messengers with great incivility, 1Chr 19:3, 1Chr 19:4. David is exasperated, but condoles with the degraded messengers, 1Chr 19:5. The Ammonites prepare for war, and hire thirty-two thousand chariots, and besiege Medeba, 1Chr 19:6, 1Chr 19:7. David sends Joab to attack them; he defeats the Syrians and Ammonites, 1Chr 19:8-15. The discomfited Syrians recruit their army, and invade David's territories beyond Jordan; he attacks them, kills Shophach their general, seven thousand charioteers, and forty thousand of their infantry, 1Chr 19:16-18. The Syrians abandon the Ammonites and make a separate peace with David, 1Chr 19:19. Verse 1 Now it came to pass - See the same history, 2Sam 10:1 (note), etc., and the notes there. Verse 4 And cut off their garments in the midst - Usque ad eorum, pudenda. So the Targum, Jarchi, and others; leaving exposed what nature and decency require to be concealed. See on 2Sam 10:4 (note). Verse 6 Chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia - These are not mentioned in the parallel place in Samuel; probably they did not arrive till the Ammonites and their other allies were defeated by the Israelites in the first battle. Verse 7 Thirty and two thousand - The whole number mentioned in Samuel is, Syrians, of Beth-rehob, and of Zoba, twenty thousand; of King Maacah, one thousand; of Ish-tob, twelve thousand; in all thirty-three thousand. Of chariots or cavalry there is no mention. These could not have been the whole army. Verse 13 Be of good courage - See the note on 2Sam 10:12. Verse 18 Forty thousand footmen - See this number accounted for in the note on 2Sam 10:18 (note). Verse 19 They made peace with David, and became his servants - See on 2Sam 10:19 (note), and the concluding note in that place; and see for omissions in Chronicles, the preface to these books. Introduction

Ill Usage of David's Servants. ( b. c. 1037.) 1 Now it came to pass after this, that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his stead. 2 And David said, I will shew kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father shewed kindness to me. And David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. So the servants of David came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanun, to comfort him. 3 But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? are not his servants come unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land? 4 Wherefore Hanun took David's servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks, and sent them away. 5 Then there went certain, and told David how the men were served. And he sent to meet them: for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return. Let us here observe, 1. That is becomes good people to be neighbourly, and especially to be grateful. David will pay respect to Hanun because he is his neighbour; and religion teaches us to be civil and obliging to all, to honour all men, and to be ready to do all offices of kindness to those we live among; nor must difference in religion be any obstruction to this. But, besides this, David remembered the kindness which his father showed to him. Those that have received kindness must return it as they have ability and opportunity: those that have received it from the parents must return it to the children when they are gone. 2. That, as saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, 1 Sam. xxiv. 13 . The vile person will speak villany, and the instruments of the churl will be evil, to destroy those with lying words that speak right, Isa. xxxii. 6, 7 . Those that are base, and design ill themselves, are apt to be jealous and to suspect ill of others without cause. Hanun's servant suggested that David's ambassadors came as spies, as if so great and mighty a man as David needed to do so mean a thing (if he had any design upon the Ammonites, he could effect it by open force, and had no occasion for any fraudulent practices), or as if a man of such virtue and honour would do so base a thing. Yet Hanun hearkened to the suggestion, and, against the law of nations, treated David's ambassadors villainously. 3. Masters ought to protect their servants, and with the greatest tenderness to concern themselves for them if they come by any loss or damage in their service. David did so for his ambassadors, v. 5 . Christ will do so for his ministers; and let all masters thus give unto their servants that which is just and equal.