Bible Strands
2 Samuel 10:4
So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the hips, and sent them away.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Hanun acts against David’s envoys immediately after his own princes warn him that the diplomatic mission conceals an espionage plot rather than expressing mourning. (Context: 2 Samuel 10:3)
The words — The narrative records וַ/יְגַלַּח (va/y.ga.Lach, "and he shaved") and חֲצִי (cha.Tzi, "half of") to document the precise, degrading mutilation of the servants’ beards.
The thread — This calculated humiliation echoes the deliberate shaming described in Jeremiah 41:5, where men arrive with shaved beards and torn garments as tokens of distress.
Why it lands — The text first reports the physical degradation of the envoys, then shows David ordering them to wait in Jericho until their beards regrow, demanding that political insult be met with disciplined patience rather than immediate retaliation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Wherefore Hanun took David’s servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 20:4 so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.
- Jeremiah 41:5 eighty men who had shaved off their beards, torn their garments, and cut themselves came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, carrying grain offerings and frankincense for the house of the LORD.
- 1 Chronicles 19:3 the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun, “Just because David has sent you comforters, do you really believe he is showing respect for your father? Have not his servants come to you to explore the land, spy it out, and overthrow it?”
- Isaiah 15:2 Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.
- Leviticus 19:27 You must not cut off the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.
- Psalms 109:4 In return for my love they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.
- Isaiah 47:2 Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.