The King of Ammon died. His son, Hanun, was now king of Ammon. David wanted to send his condolences to Hanun because his father had been kind to him. So, he sent his servants to Ammon to do so.
But, the princes of Ammon spoke to the king and accused the servants of coming to spy out the land for David; so, they took the servants and cut off half their beard and cut their clothes in half and sent them back, ashamed. David gave them a leave of absence to stay at Jericho until their beards were grown out again.
Then David sent Joab and all of his mighty men to Ammon, who met them at the gates. The Syrians were in the fields around the city, and Joab new he was surrounded, so he chose his best men to do battle in the fields and then gave the rest to his brother Abishai to do battle with Ammon. Joab fought with the men in the fields, and he told his brother, "If you have any problems, I'll help you, and if I have any problems, you help me."
The people of Ammon, and the Syrians ran away from the battle, so David's men entered the city of Ammon. But, the Syrians were not happy with the end result, so they gathered more men at the river, and David gathered all of Israel together to go fight them. They defeated the Syrians that day, and all of the nations that were under Syria's control allied themselves with David.
The Syrians were too afraid to help Ammon any more after that.
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The lesson I got from this is that sometimes your kindnesses can be mistaken for contempt. When someone answers your kindness with contempt, stand your ground. The Lord will be on your side in any struggles you have to endure because of it.
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