2 Samuelchapter 10
19 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the hips, and sent them away.
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 2 Samuel Overview.
This chapter starts with an act of kindness and ends with two nations beaten in the field. Its first hearers knew how envoys were to be treated and what it meant to shame a man in public. They also knew that a small kingdom which could not win alone could hire an army. The chapter sets the stage for the war during which the king's great sin will happen. Listen for the advice a young king takes from his counsellors, and for what Joab says to his brother before the battle.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who understood exactly how grave an insult to a beard was
- What
- The insult to David's envoys by the new king of Ammon, and Israel's victories over Ammon and the Aramean armies hired against it.
- Where
- The Ammonite capital of Rabbah east of the Jordan, the open ground before it, and Helam further north.
- When
- About 995 BC, in the years of David's wars; the chapter gives no date.
- Why
- To show the cost of false counsel and contempt, and to set the war at Rabbah that is the background of chapter 11.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Joab as much as to David. Joab was commander of the standing army and fought the first battle, and David took the field himself only for the second, at Helam.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The setting runs east and north. Rabbah stood on the upper Jabbok, the hired Aramean states of Beth-rehob, Zobah, Maacah and Tob lay north and north east, and Helam is east of the Jordan.
The occasion is ordinary diplomacy that went wrong. Sending a delegation to a new king on his father's death renewed the arrangement the fathers had made, and Hanun's counsellors read the embassy as a survey of the city's defences.
A first hearer knew that envoys were protected persons everywhere in the region, and that harming them was a declaration of war. He would also have read the insult as designed rather than crude. Half of each man's beard was shaved and the robes were cut away at the hip, so the men could not quietly grow the beard back even.
That is why David sends them to wait at Jericho. A border town for a few weeks was mercy compared with walking through the capital half shaved.
A first hearer also knew that a small kingdom which could not win alone bought an army, and that mercenary contracting between such kingdoms was routine. The parallel account at 1 Chronicles 19:6 puts the price at a thousand talents of silver.
Significance
The first lesson they heard was about counsel. Hanun listened to advisers who told him a funeral delegation was a spy mission, and the suspicion cost his kingdom its independence.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The second was Joab's line before the charge. Be strong, fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what is good in His sight. Duty is commanded and the outcome is left where it belongs.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The corpus for this chapter holds twenty-four commentary entries and twenty-eight rabbinic locators. Five entries carry English text under a licence that permits quotation, and all five are Rashi in the Metsudah translation, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY, cited below by ref alone. Radak stands at twelve further places, Metzudat David at five and Malbim at two, with no English version, so those nineteen are cited and never quoted.
Rashi supplies the history behind the kindness David says he owes. He brings a midrash of Rabbi Tanchuma. When David was fleeing from Saul he left his father, mother and brothers with the king of Moab. The king of Moab killed them, and one brother escaped to the Ammonite king (Rashi on II Samuel 10:2:1). On that reading the embassy to Ammon repays the shelter given to a survivor of David's own family, and it explains why the insult that follows is treated as grave.
The princes' answer Rashi reads through the law rather than through suspicion alone. He has them argue that Israel is forbidden to seek the peace of Ammon and Moab, so an embassy offering peace must be cover for something else (Rashi on II Samuel 10:3:1). Of the enemy commander named in the second campaign, he says the name is given because the man was mighty and powerful (Rashi on II Samuel 10:16:1). The rest of the chapter stands in the corpus as citation only, among them Radak on II Samuel 10:6:1, Metzudat David on II Samuel 10:9:1 and Malbim on II Samuel 10:13:1.
What the rabbis say
Twenty-eight locators stand on this chapter in the corpus, twenty-six from the Midrash and two from the Talmud, every one of them a locator without text. Joab's charge to his brother before the battle draws the most of them. Among them are Berakhot 32b:14, Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 5:12, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 47:27:6 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta, Additions to Seder Eliyahu Zuta, Mavo 8. The advance itself draws Bereshit Rabbah 93:6, Aggadat Bereshit 22:2, Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 7:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 150:2. The kindness of the Ammonite king draws Bamidbar Rabbah 21:5, Aggadat Bereshit 26:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 3:1, and the accession of his son draws Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 25:1. The gathering of the Aramean forces draws Midrash Shmuel 26:3 and Ein Yaakov, Sotah 8:5, and their defeat draws Sotah 42b:11.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Samuel 10:2:1, 10:3:1 and 10:16:1, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Radak, Radak on II Samuel 10:6:1 and eleven further places, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Samuel 10:9:1 and four further places, cited only; Malbim, Malbim on II Samuel 10:6:1 and 10:13:1, cited only; The Midrash and the Talmud on this chapter, Berakhot 32b:14; Bereshit Rabbah 93:6; Bamidbar Rabbah 21:5; Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 3:1; Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 25:1; Midrash Shmuel 26:3; Sotah 42b:11, as the corpus records them.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Half a beard and half a garment: kindness answered with insult
2 Samuel 10:1-2
the king of the Ammonites died: Hanun succeeds his father Nahash, and David sends comfort for the kindness the two kings once shared. He uses the same word he used two chapters earlier when he sought out Mephibosheth to show him kindness. One king's kindness is received as covenant loyalty; here it meets suspicion instead.
2 Samuel 10:1
“The king - In marginal reference. Nahash, king, etc. The interval between the two events, not less than 50 years, and possibly more, is against his being the same as the Nahash of 1Sa 11:1-15. The Ammonites are almost always spoken of as the children of Ammon, from the name of their first ancestor Ben-ammi Gen 19:38. Hanun - The equivalent of the Carthaginian Hanno, from the same root as the Hebrew, Hananiah, Johanan, Hannah, etc. The same name appears in composition with Baal in Baal-Hanan, an Aramean king Gen 36:38-39.”
Barnes says the history nowhere records the kindness of Nahash to David. Clarke says it came when David was in Moab, next to the land of the Ammonites, from a king who hated Saul. Barnes adds a possible family tie at 17:25.
2 Samuel 10:2
“I will show kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash - We do not know exactly the nature or extent of the obligation which David was under to the king of the Ammonites; but it is likely that the Nahash here mentioned was the same who had attacked Jabesh-gilead, and whom Saul defeated: as David had taken refuge with the Moabites, (1Sa 22:3), and this was contiguous to the king of the Ammonites, his hatred to Saul might induce him to show particular kindness to David.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 10:2
“David sent - There had hitherto been friendship between David and him: and therefore the spoils of the children of Ammon are mentioned, chap. viii, 12, by way of anticipation, and with respect to the story here following.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 10:3-4
the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord: The princes read an act of respect as spying, and Hanun believes them. He shaves off half of each man's beard and cuts their garments, an insult in a culture where the beard was a man's honor. The outrage falls on the nation that sent them.
shaved off half of each man’s beard: Clarke says a man of the East swore by his beard and pledged it in weighty matters. Barnes says the Arabs held the cutting of a beard equal to flogging. Hanun sent the servants of David away as a mockery.
2 Samuel 10:4
“Shaved off the one half of their beards - The beard is held in high respect in the East: the possessor considers it his greatest ornament; often swears by it; and, in matters of great importance, pledges it. Nothing can be more secure than a pledge of this kind; its owner will redeem it at the hazard of his life. The beard was never cut off but in mourning, or as a sign of slavery.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
2 Samuel 10:4
“Shaved - To fasten this is a reproach upon them, and to make them ridiculous and contemptible. Cut off, &c. - This was worse than the former, because the Israelites wore no breeches, and so their nakedness was hereby uncovered.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 10:4
“Besides, a knowledge of the extraordinary respect and value which has always been attached, and the gross insult that is implied in any indignity offered, to the beard in the East, will account for the shame which the deputies felt, and the determined spirit of revenge which burst out in all Israel on learning the outrage.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Samuel 10:5-6
David sends messengers to meet the men and tells them, “Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown back”. The Ammonites, knowing “they had become a stench to David”, do not wait for his answer. They hire thirty-three thousand Arameans from four places, turning an insult into a coalition war.
2 Samuel 10:5
“Tarry at Jericho - This city had not been rebuilt since the time of Joshua; but there were, no doubt, many cottages still remaining, and larger dwellings also, but the walls had not been repaired. As it must have been comparatively a private place, it was proper for these men to tarry in, as they would not be exposed to public notice.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 10:5
“The Jews wore their beards long, reckoning it an honour to appear aged and grave; and therefore it was not fit that persons of their rank and figure should appear at court unlike their neighbours.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joab and Abishai back to back against two armies
they had become a stench to David: A stench is the Hebrew figure for a people made hateful, the figure of Genesis 34:30, as Adam Clarke notes. Tob was the land where Jephthah fled. Albert Barnes reads the thousand men of Maacah as the mark of a small state.
2 Samuel 10:6
“The children of Ammon saw that they stank - That is, that their conduct rendered them abominable. This is the Hebrew mode of expressing such a feeling. See Gen 34:30. The Syrians of Bethrehob - This place was situated at the extremity of the valley between Libanus and Anti-libanus. The Syrians of Zoba were subject to Hadadezer. Maacah was in the vicinity of Mount Hermon, beyond Jordan, in the Trachonitis. Ish-tob - This was probably the same with Tob, to which Jephthah fled from the cruelty of his brethren. It was situated in the land of Gilead.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 10:7-8
David sent Joab and the entire army of mighty men: David answers with the whole army rather than more diplomacy, sending Joab and “the entire army of mighty men”. The Ammonites draw up at the entrance of the city gate while the Arameans stand apart in the open country. Barnes places the Aramean camp near Medeba, from 1 Chronicles 19:7.
2 Samuel 10:7
“And when David heard of it,.... Of the preparation made by the Ammonites to fight with him: he sent Joab and all the host of the mighty men: he sent out Joab his general, and an army under his command, consisting of men of strength, valour, and courage; or all the host and the mighty men, as Kimchi and Ben Melech, the famous mighty men mentioned in 2Sa 23:8; he did not think it advisable to wait for the Ammonites, but carried the war into their own country, and, instead of suffering them to invade his dominions, he invaded theirs.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 10:7
“Those that are at war with the Son of David not only give the provocation, but begin the war; for he waits to be gracious, but they strengthen themselves against him, and therefore, if they turn not, he will whet his sword, Ps. vii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
at the entrance of the city gate: Clarke takes the city here as Medeba, from 1 Chronicles 19:7. Barnes says Medeba passed from Sihon to Reuben. He places the open country on the plain below the hill of the city, where the Arameans stood by themselves.
2 Samuel 10:8
“Came out - From their city, Rabbah Deu 3:11, Deu 3:15 or 20 miles from Medeba, where 1Ch 19:7 the Syrian army was encamped. Medeba (modern Madeba) was taken from Sihon Num 21:30, and fell to Reuben Jos 13:9, Jos 13:16; in the reign of Ahaz it seems to have returned to Moab Isa 15:2, and in the time of the Maccabees to the Amorites (1 Macc. 9:36, 37). In church history it was a bishop’s see. In the field - i. e. in the plain below the round rocky hill on which the city stood.”
2 Samuel 10:9-11
When Joab saw the battle lines before him and behind him: Joab divides the army: he takes the best men of Israel against the Arameans and gives the rest to his brother Abishai against the Ammonites. His order binds the two forces: if the Arameans are too strong, “then you will come to my rescue”, and the same the other way.
2 Samuel 10:9
“The two armies of the Ammonites and the Syrians were drawn up facing one another; the Ammonites supported by the city Rabbah behind them; the Syrians in great force, with numerous chariots able to manoeuvre in the plain in front of Medeba. If Joab advanced against either, he would have the other in his rear.”
under the command of his brother Abishai: John Gill calls Abishai a very valiant man, second in command under his brother. Abishai drew his half of the army up in line, rank and file, to face the Ammonites at the gate. Each brother now led one army.
2 Samuel 10:10
“And the rest of the people he delivered into the hands of Abishai his brother,.... Who was a commander under him, and a very valiant man; and thus, as his enemy had two armies, he divided his into two parts, that he might the better attack them: that he might put them in array against the children of Ammon: draw them up in a line, place them rank and file to meet the children of Ammon, and give them battle.”
Gill says the need would show when troops gave way before the Arameans or the Ammonites, or by a signal the brothers agreed. The one holding his ground was to send part of his army to the rescue. Each army guarded the back of the other.
2 Samuel 10:11
“And he said, if the Syrians be too strong for me,.... Which he might perceive by Joab's forces giving way, or by some signal agreed on between them then thou shall help me; detach a part of his army to his support and assistance: but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee; in the same manner.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 10:11
“Christ's soldiers should thus strengthen one another's hands in their spiritual warfare. The strong must succour and help the weak. Those that through grace are conquerors over temptation must counsel, and comfort, and pray for, those that are tempted.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Be strong and let us fight bravely: Joab's charge holds courage: “Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and for the cities of our God”. It closes in surrender: “May the LORD do what is good in His sight”. Eli speaks the same surrender at 1 Samuel 3:18, and David at 15:26.
2 Samuel 10:12
“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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 10:13-14
Joab and his troops advanced to fight the Arameans: Joab routs the Arameans, and when the Ammonites see their hired strength break, they flee before Abishai. Joab returns to Jerusalem without besieging Rabbah, and John Gill gives the season as the reason. The next chapter opens “In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war”.
they too fled before Abishai: Matthew Henry notes that the Ammonites fled into the city without a blow, a temptation for any army with walls at its back. Albert Barnes explains Joab's return by the strength of Rabbah. He adds that the Arameans were still too strong to risk a long siege.
2 Samuel 10:14
“And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled,.... In whom they put great confidence: then they fled also before Abishai; without engaging at all with him, as it seems: and entered into the city; out of which they came, either Rabbah or Medeba, for their safety: so Joab returned from the children of Ammon; did not stay to lay siege to their city, the season of the year not being proper for it, winter drawing near; see 2Sa 11:1, and came to Jerusalem; in triumph, to report to David the victory he had obtained.”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Samuel 10:14
“Joab returned - The great strength of Rabbah made it hopeless to take it by assault, and the Syrians were not sufficiently broken 2Sa 10:15 to make it safe to undertake a regular siege.”
2 Samuel 10:14
“The Syrians were first routed by Joab, and then the Ammonites by Abishai; the Ammonites seem not to have fought at all, but, upon the retreat of the Syrians, to have fled into the city. It is a temptation to soldiers to fly when they have a city at their backs to fly to. It is one thing when men may either fight or fly and another thing when they must either fight or die.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hadadezer sues for peace; Syria helps Ammon no more
2 Samuel 10:15-16
they regrouped: One defeat does not end the war. The Syrians, smitten before Israel, gather themselves again, and Hadarezer draws in reinforcements from beyond the Euphrates, forces he had not needed against Israel. Gill and Clarke both note this is the same Hadarezer David had already struck at 2 Samuel 8:3.
2 Samuel 10:15
“And when the Syrians saw that they were smitten before Israel,.... Considered it in their minds, and conversed with one another about it, and fearing what would be the consequence of it: they gathered themselves together; not only the forces got together again, that fled before Joab, but all the kings of Syria united their forces together, as appears from 2Sa 10:19; supposing that David would avenge himself on them for assisting the Ammonites against him; and therefore judged it advisable to raise a large army, that they might be in a condition to receive him.”
Hadadezer sent messengers to bring more Arameans: Albert Barnes calls Helam a place now unknown. The Latin Vulgate reads the word as their army came, and Josephus made Helam a king beyond the Euphrates. John Gill takes it as the place where the Aramean forces gathered.
2 Samuel 10:16
“The Syrians that were beyond the river - That is, the Euphrates. Hadarezer - This is the same that was overthrown by David, 2Sa 8:3 and there called Hadadezer; which is the reading here of about thirty of Kennicott’s and De Rossi’s MSS. But the ר resh and ד daleth are easily interchanged.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 10:16
“Hadarezer sent and brought out the Syrians that were beyond the river--This prince had enjoyed a breathing time after his defeat (2Sa 8:3). But alarmed at the increasing power and greatness of David, as well as being an ally of the Ammonites, he levied a vast army not only in Syria, but in Mesopotamia, to invade the Hebrew kingdom.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Samuel 10:17-19
he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan, and went to Helam: This time David takes the field himself, crosses the Jordan and meets the Arameans at Helam. Every king subject to Hadadezer now makes peace with Israel, and the Arameans are “afraid to help the Ammonites anymore”. Wesley sets the outcome beside the Euphrates border promised to Abraham at Genesis 15:18.
2 Samuel 10:17
“And when it was told David,.... What preparations the Syrians were making to fight him, and where they were: he gathered all Israel together; all the fighting men in the country: and passed over Jordan, and came to Helam: which, according to Bunting (b), was twenty miles from Jerusalem.”
seven hundred charioteers: 1 Chronicles 19:18 gives seven thousand charioteers where this verse gives seven hundred. Barnes prefers seven hundred and traces the difference to numbers written as letters. Henry joins the two, seven thousand men for seven hundred chariots.
2 Samuel 10:18
“Seven Hundred chariots - and forty thousand Horsemen - In the parallel place, 1Ch 19:18, it is said, David slew of the Syrians Seven Thousand men, which fought in chariots. It is difficult to ascertain the right number in this and similar places.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
they made peace with Israel: Clarke says each king made peace alone and paid tribute. Barnes measures the strength of Israel by the kings who had been subject to Hadadezer. Clarke counts eight wars David had won, and here the book turns toward his fall.
2 Samuel 10:19
“And served them - And thus at length was fulfilled the promise made to Abraham, and repeated to Joshua, that the borders of Israel should extend as far as the river Euphrates.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 10:19
“Servants to Hadarezer - This gives us an idea of the great power of Hadarezer, and consequently of the strength of Israel in David’s victorious reign.”
How this psalm is built
The form: A campaign narrative in two rounds, an insult at the start and a treaty at the close, as 10 classes it.
A Joab takes the chosen men against the Arameans in the open field
2 Samuel 10:9
B Abishai takes the rest against the Ammonites at the city gate
2 Samuel 10:10
X Whichever of us is pressed harder, the other comes to the rescue
2 Samuel 10:11
B′ The Ammonites see the Arameans flee and withdraw into the city before Abishai
2 Samuel 10:14
A′ Joab advances and the Arameans flee before him
2 Samuel 10:13
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The kindness offered twice and answered twice | David uses the same word at 10:2 that he used at 9:1 and 9:3, kindness owed for a kindness received. Chapter 9 shows that word received as covenant loyalty, and chapter 10 shows it read as espionage. The two chapters put the same act beside two answers.This site's published exposition of 2 Samuel 10, The published note on 10:1 to 10:2, which sets the word beside its use two chapters earlier. | 2 Samuel 9:1, 2 Samuel 10:2 |
| The two fronts and the two commanders | Joab finds one army before him and another behind him at 10:9, and answers by splitting his own force in two. He takes the chosen men against the Arameans and gives the rest to Abishai against Ammon, with a standing pact that whichever side breaks first is relieved by the other. The rout then runs the pairing backwards, Arameans first and Ammon after.John Gill and Matthew Henry, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, and Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Samuel 10:9 to 10:11, as this site's published exposition note on those verses reports them. | 2 Samuel 10:9, 2 Samuel 10:10, 2 Samuel 10:11, 2 Samuel 10:13, 2 Samuel 10:14 |
| Courage commanded and the outcome surrendered | Joab's charge at 10:12 holds two things in one breath, an order to fight bravely for the people and the cities of God, and the handing of the result to the LORD. This site's published exposition note reads the same surrender in nearly the same words at 1 Samuel 3:18 in Eli's mouth and at 2 Samuel 15:26 in David's. Adam Clarke calls the address equal to any military speech of ancient or modern times.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 2 Samuel 10:12, quoted in the store's pull_quotes pool at 45 words. | 2 Samuel 10:12, 1 Samuel 3:18, 2 Samuel 15:26 |
| The hired armies counted | Verse 6 lists the coalition by unit and price, twenty thousand Aramean foot from Beth-rehob and Zobah, a thousand from the king of Maacah, and twelve thousand from Tob. The chapter states the numbers because it wants the reader to see a force bought rather than raised. | 2 Samuel 10:6 |
The historical value
10 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter names places a map can carry. Beth-rehob and Zobah are Aramean states north of Israel, Maacah and Tob lie east and north east of the Jordan, and Helam stands east of the river where David crosses to fight the second battle.
Albert Barnes places the Aramean camp near Medeba, some twenty miles from the Ammonite capital, and reads 10:12 as evidence that the relief of Medeba was one of the objects in view. On his reading the cities of our God in Joab's charge are Israelite towns in Reubenite territory then under threat.
This site's published dossier for the book carries the Tel Dan Stele and the Mesha Stele in its archaeology section as the two finds that bear on the house of David by name. Neither one names this campaign, and the chapter's own events stand on the text alone.
The textual point
The parallel account stands at 1 Chronicles 19, and the two records differ in their numbers. The Berean text here reads seven hundred charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers at 10:18, and Chronicles reads seven thousand charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers at 1 Chronicles 19:18. A student comparing the two should read them side by side and see that the difference sits in the first figure.
John Gill and Adam Clarke both identify the Hadadezer of 10:16 with the king David had already struck at 8:3, so the second muster is a defeated king trying to reverse an older defeat.
The New Testament's use
The New Testament does not quote this chapter. Its one line with a long afterlife is Joab's at 10:12, which the church has used as a soldier's prayer. The store's published exposition note ties that line to Eli at 1 Samuel 3:18 and to David at 2 Samuel 15:26.
The pattern the chapter sets
The war begins because a young king believes his counsellors over the evidence in front of him. It ends with every king who had served Hadadezer making peace with Israel, so the coalition hired at 10:6 is gone by 10:19. John Wesley reads that outcome against the border promised to Abraham and repeated to Joshua, and holds that Israel's frontier stood further out after this war than before it.
Keep studying
People and groups1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 2 Samuel 10:19, as this site's published exposition note on verses 17 to 19 reports him; This site's published exposition of 2 Samuel 10, src/lib/reader, the published notes on 10:1 to 10:2 and on 10:17 to 10:19, which run the chapter from the embassy to the submission of Hadadezer's vassals and This site's published exposition of 2 Samuel 10 and 12, The published notes on 10:13 to 10:14 and on 12:26 to 12:28, which carry the siege from Joab's withdrawal before winter to the taking of the city of waters.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.