Commentaria in II Regum (II Samuelis)
Chapter 10. Synopsis of the Chapter
Hanon, king of Ammon, mutilates David’s ambassadors in their garments and beards; David avenges this injury by war, and through Joab routs the king with the Syrians: the king, verse 15, having called in Adarezer, renews the war; but is again beaten by David, more than before.
1. And it came to pass after this, that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanon his son reigned in his stead. 2. And David said: I will shew kindness to Hanon the son of Naas, as his father shewed kindness to me. So David sent to comfort him by his servants for the death of his father. And when David’s servants were come into the land of the children of Ammon, 3. The princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanon their lord: Thinkest thou that David, to honour thy father, hath sent comforters to thee, and not rather that to search and spy into the city, and overthrow it, David hath sent his servants to thee? 4. Wherefore Hanon took the servants of David, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut away half of their garments even to the buttocks, and sent them away.
5. And when this was told David, he sent to meet them (for the men were put to a great shame), and David ordered them: Stay at Jericho till your beards be grown, and then return. 6. And the children of Ammon seeing that they had done an injury to David, sent and hired the Syrians of Rohob, and the Syrians of Soba, twenty thousand footmen, and of the king of Maacha a thousand men, and of Istob twelve thousand men. 7. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the army of the warriors. 8. And the children of Ammon came out, and set the army in array before the entrance of the gate: but the Syrians of Soba, and of Rohob, and Istob, and Maacha, were apart in the field. 9. Joab therefore seeing that the battle was prepared against him both before and behind, chose out of all the chosen men of Israel, and set them in array against the Syrians: 10. And the rest of the people he delivered to Abisai his brother, who set them in array against the children of Ammon. 11. And Joab said: If the Syrians be too strong for me, thou shalt help me: but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, I will help thee. 12. Be of good courage, and let us fight for our people, and the city of our God: and the Lord will do that which is good in his sight. 13. And Joab and the people that were with him began the fight against the Syrians: and they immediately fled from before him. 14. And the children of Ammon seeing that the Syrians were fled, fled also themselves before Abisai, and entered into the city: and Joab returned from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem. 15. And the Syrians seeing that they were fallen before Israel, gathered themselves together. 16. And Adarezer sent and brought out the Syrians that were beyond the river, and brought their army: and Sobach the captain of the host of Adarezer was their leader. 17. And when this was told David, he gathered together all Israel, and passed over the Jordan, and came to Helam: and the Syrians put themselves in array against David, and fought against him. 18. And the Syrians fled before Israel: and David slew of the Syrians the men of seven hundred chariots, and forty thousand horsemen: and Sobach the captain of the army he wounded, and he died presently. 19. And all the kings that were auxiliaries to Adarezer, seeing that they were overcome by Israel, were afraid, and fled, fifty and eight thousand, before Israel. And they made peace with Israel, and served them: and the Syrians were afraid to help the children of Ammon any more.
2. AS HIS FATHER (Naas) SHEWED KINDNESS TO ME—when he kindly received and protected me, a fugitive from Saul. This deed is not narrated in Scripture, but from tradition St. Jerome in the Traditions relates it (whom Angelomus, Abulensis, the Gloss, Lyranus, Sanchez and others follow): “When David fled from the face of Achis king of Geth, he came to Naas king of Ammon, who shewed him kindness, bestowing on him many goods. From Naas, then, he came into the cave of Odollam, where his father and mother and all his house came to him. Thence he came to Moab, and left his father and mother and all his house with him.” Lyranus brings other solutions of the Rabbis, especially of R. Solomon; but they are fictions, as Abulensis shows.
4. AND SHAVED OFF THE ONE HALF OF THEIR BEARDS.—In 1 Paralipomenon chap. 19, verse 4, it is added: “He made them bald, and shaved them, and cut away their tunics.” This was therefore a threefold ignominy, which Hanon, against the law of nations, inflicted on David’s ambassadors sent to him to console him. The first was the making bald of the head; the second the shaving not of the whole beard but of half, in mockery. The third the cutting of the long garments, reaching to the feet (in the manner of the Orientals), up to the buttocks, and so the baring of the buttocks. For the Hebrew laymen did not use breeches, except the priests: all which things at that time were very foul, ignominious and infamous, especially among the Hebrews; because God had commanded them “not to shave the head nor the beard,” Leviticus 21:5; and the Ammonites knew this, as neighbours of the Hebrews, and therefore to their greater disgrace among their own people inflicted on them this insolence, nay among all nations it is shameful to pluck the beard. Hence that saying: “Thou pluckest the beard of a dead lion;” that is, thou insultest the dead.
Allegorically, Hanon represents the Jews, who in the passion plucked Christ’s cheeks, Isaias 50:6.
Tropologically, Hanon is the devil, who from time to time shaves the beard of those who wish to do good, that is, takes away their fortitude; for the beard is a symbol of manliness and fortitude. Hear Eucherius: “As Hanon, so also the devil, prince of this world, has been wont to disfigure many religious and preachers through creeping vices. Who, while he lays bare their hidden evils in open and shameful and perpetrated lust, leaves them, as with their garments cut off to the buttocks, naked of the dignity of chastity; and reveals before the eyes of men the foul deeds which he himself had persuaded. And while he snatches away their former fortitude, he shaves, as it were, the beard. Whom nevertheless the true David, our Lord and Saviour, with merciful regard, does not exclude through penance from forgiveness, and bids them remain in Jericho, that is, under the anathema of penance, and the reproach of their betters; until by satisfaction they receive again the spiritual sacraments and the fortitude of mind which they had lost by sin, and so at last be able to stand in his sight.” All this word for word Angelomus transcribed from Eucherius (more truly Bede), and adds: “But Christ avenges the injury of his own, since he not only confounds his adversaries now by the victory of his saints, but also in the last judgment will by a just sentence deliver them to be tormented in everlasting fires.”
9 and 10. HE SET THEM IN ARRAY AGAINST THE SYRIANS: AND THE REST OF THE PEOPLE HE DELIVERED TO ABISAI HIS BROTHER, WHO SET THEM IN ARRAY AGAINST THE CHILDREN OF AMMON.—Joab showed in this division of the army remarkable skill in war. For generals, when they see themselves beset in front and rear, divide their forces, and oppose one part to the enemy in front, the other to those who threaten from behind. For the same soldiers cannot fight in front and behind; for if they yield to the enemy in front, they will be cut down by the enemy who press on the rear. Again, that he chose the bravest soldiers, with whom he attacked and at once laid low the Syrians; for these being overthrown, the other line of the Ammonites, which Abisai the brother of Joab was pressing, fled. Judas Machabeus did the same, nay the Gentiles also, as Scipio, Hannibal, Alexander, &c.; and above the rest Claudius Nero, Roman consul, who, set against Hannibal, when he heard that Hasdrubal was coming with a new army of 56 thousand to join the forces of his brother Hannibal, secretly and very swiftly, Hannibal not knowing, set out with a picked band of his men, joined the camp of Livius Salinator his fellow-consul, and so attacking Hasdrubal unexpectedly, cut him down with his 56 thousand, and returning as victor threw the head of the slain before the outposts of his brother Hannibal, and so stunned and shocked him that he said it was all over with the fortune of Carthage, and drew himself into the farthest corner of Italy among the Bruttii, as Livy narrates, decade 3, at the end of book VII.
18. AND DAVID SLEW OF THE SYRIANS THE MEN OF SEVEN HUNDRED CHARIOTS, AND FORTY THOUSAND HORSEMEN.—Thou wilt say: in 1 Paralipomenon chap. 19, verse 18, more are numbered, for it reads thus: “And David slew of the Syrians seven thousand chariots and forty thousand footmen.” I answer, the book of Paralipomenon, as is clear from the name, supplies what is omitted in the books of Kings, and explains more clearly what is said there more obscurely. Therefore, where it is said here that the men of seven hundred chariots were slain, understand soldiers fighting from chariots: for soldiers are slain, not chariots; hence the book of Paralipomenon confirms this, saying: “He slew seven thousand chariots,” that is, seven thousand soldiers fighting from chariots. There were therefore seven hundred chariots, but seven thousand soldiers; for each chariot contained ten soldiers. Moreover besides the forty thousand “horsemen” which the book of Kings has, the book of Paralipomenon adds forty thousand “footmen;” so that in all, both of footmen and horsemen, 80 thousand were slain, besides seven thousand fighting from chariots. So Abulensis, Sanchez, Serarius and others. Finally Josephus asserts that this Ammonite war ended at the beginning of winter.