The king of Ammonites died and David sends a delegation to the new king, Hanun, to express sympathy for the death of his father.
The Ammonite commanders advise Hanun that the men are spies sent by David so that David could take their city. From the long list of conquered places, this perspective might be understandable. Their actions, however, are not. They have half of the beard of each man and cut off their garments at the butt. This greatly humiliates David’s emissaries.
This is not the way to avoid a war with a regional powerhouse. In fact, they have to hire 20,000 Aramean mercenaries to prepare for war.
David tells the emissaries to wait in Jericho until their beards have grown back. (side note – Joshua lay a heavy curse on Jericho after it was destroyed. He cursed anyone that lived there again. So, I guess Joshua’s curse did not have a lasting impact)
David sends Joab and the army. During the battle, the Aramean mercenaries flee and the Ammonites decide to hole up in their city.
Joab goes back to David who decides to go with his army after the Aramean homeland. There, they defeat the Arameans who then become subjects to David. After this, the Arameans did not help the Ammonites again.
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