David Defeats the Ammonites
1In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. 2David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.
When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites, 3the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Hasn’t David sent them to you only to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?” 4So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.
5When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.”
6When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maakah with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob.
7On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. 8The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance of their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maakah were by themselves in the open country.
9Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. 10He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother and deployed them against the Ammonites. 11Joab said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to come to my rescue; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to rescue you. 12Be strong, and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his sight.”
13Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him. 14When the Ammonites realized that the Arameans were fleeing, they fled before Abishai and went inside the city. So Joab returned from fighting the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.
15After the Arameans saw that they had been routed by Israel, they regrouped. 16Hadadezer had Arameans brought from beyond the Euphrates River; they went to Helam, with Shobak the commander of Hadadezer’s army leading them.
17When David was told of this, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan and went to Helam. The Arameans formed their battle lines to meet David and fought against him. 18But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers.10:18 Some Septuagint manuscripts (see also 1 Chron. 19:18); Hebrew horsemen He also struck down Shobak the commander of their army, and he died there. 19When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with the Israelites and became subject to them.
So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.
以色列人戰勝亞捫人
1後來，亞捫王死了，他兒子哈嫩繼位。 2大衛說：「我要恩待拿轄的兒子哈嫩，就像他父親曾經恩待我一樣。」他便派臣僕去安慰喪父的哈嫩。大衛的臣僕來到亞捫境內， 3亞捫的官長卻對哈嫩說：「大衛派人來安慰你，你以為他是來弔唁你父親嗎？他派臣僕來見你，不過是要探聽虛實，想摧毀這城。」 4哈嫩便把大衛的臣僕抓起來，剃去他們一半鬍鬚，從臀部割去他們下半身的衣服，然後放走他們。 5消息傳到大衛那裡，他就派人去迎接他們，因為他們倍受羞辱。王告訴他們留在耶利哥，等鬍鬚長好了再回來。
6亞捫人知道得罪了大衛，便派人到伯·利合和瑣巴招募了兩萬名亞蘭步兵、瑪迦王的一千人和一萬二千名陀伯人。 7大衛聽見消息後，就派約押率領全體勇士出戰。 8亞捫人在城門前列陣，瑣巴和利合的亞蘭人、陀伯人以及瑪迦人在郊野列陣。 9約押見自己腹背受敵，就從以色列軍中挑選一些精兵列陣迎戰亞蘭人， 10把餘下的軍兵交給他的兄弟亞比篩帶領，列陣迎戰亞捫人。
11他對亞比篩說：「倘若我勝不過亞蘭人，你便過來支援我；倘若你勝不過亞捫人，我便過去支援你。 12你要剛強，我們要為我們的人民和我們上帝的城邑奮勇作戰。願耶和華成全祂自己的旨意！」
13於是，約押率領軍兵進攻亞蘭人，亞蘭人敗逃。 14亞捫人見亞蘭人敗逃，便也從亞比篩面前逃回城去。約押就離開亞捫人，回師耶路撒冷。
15亞蘭人見自己敗給以色列人，便再次聚集起來。 16哈大底謝派人把幼發拉底河那邊的亞蘭人調到希蘭來，由他的將軍朔法率領。 17大衛聽到消息後，就召集以色列全軍，渡過約旦河，來到希蘭。亞蘭人列陣迎戰大衛， 18結果又在以色列人面前敗逃。大衛殺了七百名戰車兵、四萬騎兵，還殺了他們的將軍朔法。 19哈大底謝屬下的諸王見自己敗給以色列人，便向以色列人求和，臣服於他們。從此，亞蘭人不敢再支援亞捫人了。
