1 Some time later, the king of the Ammon people-group died, and his son Hanun became their king. 2 David said to himself, “I will act kindly toward Hanun, like his father acted kindly toward me.” So David sent some messengers to Hanun to tell him that David was sorry that Hanun's father had died.

When those messengers arrived in the Ammon area, 3 the leaders of the Ammon people-group said to Hanun, “Do you think that it is to honor your father that King David has sent these men to say that he is sorry that you father died? [RHQ] That is not true! He has sent them here to look around the city to determine how his army can conquer us!” 4 Hanun believed what they said; so he commanded some soldiers to seize David's messengers and insult them by shaving off one side of each man's beard, and by cutting off the lower part of their robes, with the result that their buttocks could be seen, and then they sent the messengers away.

5 The men were very humiliated/ashamed, so they did not want to return home. When David found out about what had happened, he sent someone to tell those messengers to stay at Jericho until their beards had grown again, and after that to return to Jerusalem.

6 Then the leaders of the Ammon people-group realized that they had caused David become very angry [IDI]. So they sent some men to hire/pay some soldiers from other nearby areas to help defend them. They hired 20,000 soldiers from Beth-Rehob and Zobah cities in Syria, and 12,000 soldiers from the Tob region, and 1,000 soldiers from the army of the king of Maacah region.

7 When David heard about that, he sent Joab with all of the army that Joab commanded, to fight against them. 8 The army of the Ammon people-group marched out and ◄stood in their positions/arranged themselves for battle► at the entrance to their capital city, Rabbah. The other soldiers from Syria and Tob and Maacah stood by themselves ◄in their positions/arranged themselves for battle► in the nearby fields.

9 When Joab saw that enemy soldiers were going to attack his soldiers from the front and from the rear, he chose some of the best Israeli soldiers, and told them to stand in positions in front of the army of Syria. 10 He appointed his brother Abishai to be the commander of all the other soldiers, and he told them to ◄stand in their positions/arrange themselves► in front of the army of the Ammon people-group. 11 Then he said, “If you see that the army of Syria is defeating my army, your men must come and help us. But if we see that the army of the Ammon people-group is defeating your army, we will come and help you. 12 Be courageous, and fight hard [IDI] to defend our people and the cities where we worship our God. I will pray/request that Yahweh do what he desires.”

13 So Joab and his army advanced to attack the army of Syria, and the soldiers from Syria ran away from them. 14 And when the soldiers of the Ammon people-group saw that the soldiers from Syria were running away, they also started to run away from Abishai and his army, and they retreated back into the city. Then Joab's army turned away from fighting against the army of the Ammon people-group, and Joab's army returned to Jerusalem.

15 After the leaders of the army of Syria saw that the Israeli army had defeated them, they gathered all their troops together. 16  Their king, Hadadezer, summoned the soldiers of Syria who lived on the east side of the Euphrates River. They gathered at Helam city. Their commander was Shobach.

17 When David heard about that, he gathered all the Israeli soldiers, and they crossed the Jordan River and marched to Helam. There, the army of Syria ◄took their positions/arranged themselves for battle►, and the battle started. 18 But the soldiers of Syria ran away from the Israeli soldiers. David and his army killed 700 of their soldiers who drove chariots and 40,000 of their soldiers who rode on horses. They also wounded Shobach, their commander, and he died there. 19 When all the kings who had been ruled by Hadadezer realized that they had been defeated by the Israeli army, they made peace with the Israelis and agreed to accept David to be their king. So the army of Syria was afraid to help the army of the Ammon people-group any more.