King Hanun and the Ammonites realized that they had made David their enemy, so they paid nearly forty tons of silver to hire chariots and charioteers from Upper Mesopotamia and from the Syrian states of Maacah and Zobah. The thirty-two thousand chariots they hired and the army of the king of Maacah came and camped near Medeba. The Ammonites too came out from all their cities and got ready to fight.
Making a bad situation worse. Please help me, Lord, not to compound problems with bad decisions.
“Be strong and courageous! Let’s fight hard…”
May I ever be courageous, Father (Joshua 1:5-9). Be with me, please.
The Syrians realized that they had been defeated by the Israelites, so they brought troops from the Syrian states on the east side of the Euphrates River and placed them under the command of Shobach, commander of the army of King Hadadezer of Zobah.
Bad to worse again and clearly an attempt to save face. That can sometimes be an expensive proposition (Judges 12:1-6).
When the kings who were subject to Hadadezer realized that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became his subjects. The Syrians were never again willing to help the Ammonites.
The following spring, …Joab led out the army and invaded the land of Ammon… They besieged the city of Rabbah, attacked it, and destroyed it.
Foreseeable. Without the protection of the Syriens, Ammon was vulnerable. All this the consequence of a bad decision.
The following spring, at the time of the year when kings usually go to war, …King David, however, stayed in Jerusalem.
Not a word on David’s adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah (2 Samuel 11). Was the purpose of this book to whitewash David?