Discovery Box2 Samuel 10:1-5 
Context10:1 Later the king of the Ammonites died and his son Hanun succeeded him. 1 10:2 David said, “I will express my loyalty 2 to Hanun son of Nahash just as his father was loyal 3 to me.” So David sent his servants with a message expressing sympathy over his father’s death. 4 When David’s servants entered the land of the Ammonites, 10:3 the Ammonite officials said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy? 5 No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!” 6
10:4 So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved off half of each one’s beard. He cut the lower part of their robes off so that their buttocks were exposed, 7 and then sent them away. 10:5 Messengers 8 told David what had happened, 9 so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho 10 until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”
1 tn Heb “reigned in his place.”
2 tn Heb “do loyalty.”
3 tn Heb “did loyalty.”
4 tn Heb “and David sent to console him by the hand of his servants concerning his father.”
5 tn Heb “Is David honoring your father in your eyes when he sends to you ones consoling?”
6 tn Heb “Is it not to explore the city and to spy on it and to overthrow it [that] David has sent his servants to you?”
7 tn Heb “and he cut their robes in the middle unto their buttocks.”
8 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the messengers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn The words “what had happened” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
10 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
