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This material here is repeated from II Samuel 10.
Chapter 19 records again for us David's war with the Ammonites, descendants of Lot and his daughter and the Syrians, recorded also in II Sam. Ch. 10.
When Nahash, King of Ammon died, his son, Hanun, became King. David vowed to show kindness toward the boy because his father had shown kindness toward him. To do this, David sent messengers to Hanun to comfort him in his loss. When the messengers arrived, Hanun was advised to send them back home as they probably were spies so he had them shaved, the worst of all insults to a Jew, and their garments cut off up to the buttocks and them sent them away. When word of this got to David he sent a servant to tell the messengers to remain at Jericho and not return to Jerusalem until their beards had grown back.
When the people of Ammon saw how angry this had made David, they became afraid and sent people to Mesopotamia to hire chariots and horsemen. When David heard of this he sent Joab and his army to attack Ammon. In the meantime the Ammonites were joined by the Syrians to ward off the attack of the Israelites. When Joab saw this he split his forces and placed his best men in an attack on the Syrians and the rest of his men were put under his brother, Abishai who went out against the Ammonites. When the Syrians saw the Israelites approaching they fled and when the Ammonites saw the Syrians fleeing, they fled.
When David heard that the Syrians had fled he mustered his forces and went after them. In the ensueing battle, David 7,000 men who fought in chariots and 40,000 foot soldiers. When the King of Syria heard of his defeat he made peace with David and the Syrians became David's servants.
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