=2.= _sent messengers to comfort him_] A customary act of international courtesy; compare 2 Kings xx. 12. Its breach was resented. Thus in the Tell el-Amarna letters (x. 16) the king of Kardunias writes, “Should not my brother (i.e. the king of Egypt) have heard that I am sick? Why has he not comforted me? Why has he not sent his messenger, not looked into it?” (editor H. Winckler, p. 23). ³But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? are not his servants come unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land? =3.= _the land_] 2 Samuel x. 3, _the city_, i.e. Rabbah (see xx. 1). ⁴So Hanun took David’s servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away. =4.= _shaved them_] 2 Samuel x. 4, _shaved off the one half of their beards_. Of course a great insult; compare Isaiah l. 6. _cut off their garments_] Jewish ambassadors are represented on the Black Obelisk (a monument of Shalmaneser II, king of Assyria, now preserved in the British Museum) as wearing robes reaching to the feet; Hanun reduced ambassadors to the level of captives; compare Isaiah xx. 4. ⁵Then there went certain, and told David how the men were served. And he sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return. =5.= _Tarry at Jericho_] Thus (1) the feelings of the ambassadors would be spared, (2) the insult would be less widely known until it had been avenged. ⁶And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and out of Aram-maacah, and out of Zobah. =6.= _a thousand talents of silver_] A very large sum; for a hundred talents Amaziah hired a hundred thousand men (2 Chronicles xxv. 6). _chariots and horsemen_] The Israelite armies on the contrary consisted chiefly of infantry, the country being for the most part unsuitable for horses. _Mesopotamia_] Hebrew “Aram (Syria) of the two rivers” (compare Genesis xxiv. 10, Revised Version margin), i.e. probably the land between the Euphrates and the Chaboras. The Greeks used the term _Mesopotamia_ of a wider district, i.e. of the country between the Euphrates and the Tigris. This mention of Mesopotamia is probably premature, for in verse 16 the summons of Syrians from beyond the Euphrates is spoken of as a new thing. The corresponding expression in 2 Samuel x. 6 is _Beth-rehob_, a district which has not yet been identified. _Aram-maacah_] compare vii. 15, note; Deuteronomy iii. 14; Joshua xii. 5, xiii. 11. _Zobah_]. compare xviii. 3, note.