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The king of Ammon died. His son Hanun became the next king after him. 2 David thought, ‘I'm going to be kind to Hanun. His father Nahash was kind to me.’ So David sent messengers to Hanun. He wanted them to tell Hanun how sad he was that Hanun's father had died. David's messengers went to the land of Ammon. 3 The Ammonite commanders spoke to their master Hanun. They said, ‘David has sent messengers to tell you he is sad. They say he wants to honour your father. But the real reason they've come is to look the city over. They want to destroy it.’ 4 So Hanun grabbed David's messengers. He shaved off half of each man's beard. He cut their clothes off just below the waist and left them half naked. Then he sent them away.
5 David was told about it. So he sent messengers to his men because they were filled with shame. King David said to them, ‘Stay at Jericho until your beards grow out again. Then come back here.’
6 The Ammonites realised that what they had done had made David very angry with them. So they hired 20,000 Aramean soldiers who were on foot. The soldiers came from Beth Rehob and Zobah. The Ammonites also hired the king of Maakah and 1,000 men. And they hired 12,000 men from Tob.
7 David heard about it. So he sent Joab out with the entire army of Israel's fighting men. 8 The Ammonites marched out. They took up their battle positions at the entrance of their city gate. The Arameans of Zobah and Rehob gathered their troops together in the open country. So did the men of Tob and Maakah.
9 Joab saw that there were lines of soldiers in front of him and behind him. So he chose some of the best troops in Israel. He sent them to march out against the Arameans. 10 He put the rest of the men under the command of his brother Abishai. Joab sent them to march out against the Ammonites. 11 He said, ‘Suppose the Arameans are too strong for me. Then you must come and help me. But suppose the Ammonites are too strong for you. Then I'll come and help you. 12 Be strong. Let's be brave as we fight for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what he thinks is best.’
13 Then Joab and the troops with him marched out to attack the Arameans. They ran away from him. 14 The Ammonites realised that the Arameans were running away. So they ran away from Abishai. They went inside the city. After Joab had fought against the Ammonites, he went back to Jerusalem.
15 The Arameans saw that they had been driven away by Israel. So they brought their troops together. 16 Hadadezer had some Arameans brought from east of the River Euphrates. They went to Helam under the command of Shobak. He was the commander of Hadadezer's army.
17 David was told about it. So he gathered the whole army of Israel together. They went across the River Jordan to Helam. The Arameans lined up their soldiers to go to war against David. They began to fight against him. 18 But then they ran away from Israel. David killed 700 of their chariot riders. He killed 40,000 of their soldiers who were on foot. He also struck down Shobak, the commander of their army. Shobak died there. 19 All the kings who were under the rule of Hadadezer saw that Israel had won the battle over them. So they made a peace treaty with the Israelites. They were brought under Israel's rule.
After that, the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.
7:1–10:19 David wanted to build a house for the ark of the covenant. The ark had been kept in the holy tent. The tent had moved from place to place with the Israelites since they left Egypt. The ark was a sign of God's presence on earth. Through the ark, God had moved from place to place with his people. He did this so that they could trust that he was with them. God didn't want David to build a house for him. Instead, God promised to build a royal house for David. This was a way of talking about how David's family line would be Israel's rulers. The sons born after him would be Israel's kings. One of David's sons would build a house for God. That house was the temple. God promised to be like a father to the kings in David's family line. This meant that there would always be someone from David's family line who ruled as king. Many years later, people understood that this was a prophecy about Jesus. David was surprised and amazed at God's promises to him. He understood that these promises were a covenant. God's covenant with David would last for ever. David's heart was full of thanks. He trusted that God would do what he said he would do. God also promised to give David and the Israelites peace and rest from their enemies. This happened as David won battles over the people groups around the Israelites. The Israelites finally lived in all the land that God had promised to give Abraham. David did what was fair and right and led the Israelites as a faithful shepherd. One example of this is how he treated Jonathan's son Mephibosheth. He made sure that Mephibosheth received all the land that had belonged to Saul. He made sure that Mephibosheth always had what he needed. In this way David was faithful to Jonathan's covenant of friendship with him (1 Samuel 23:16–18).