Half Beard/Full War. Why?

I Chronicles.19:4

In a world of wars ruled by men with big beards, honor is a big deal, the beard represents power, messing with it means trouble, and leads to more wars.

The Hebrew word “Zakan’ is the root for both ‘beard’ and ‘elder’. It’s about more than hair - it’s about honor.

Back in the Bible, just like in some nations and communities today, to be a man, and an elder, was to be with a beard, the bigger the better — and to have half the beard shaved by force — was a disgrace to the nation.

Is that why the half shaved beards of the humiliated ambassadors of Jerusalem prompted a bitter war that is described in today’s chapter?

Although there’s likely more to this than this bizarre beard backstory - it is repeated in two different biblical sources, almost verbatim.

It’s a tragedy when diplomacy not only fails but backfires, becoming a matter of national honor and pride. But the beard story here may be covering much more than exposed chins and wounded pride.

King David sends a delegation to Hanun, the new King of Amon, to the east of the Jordan river, offering condolences for the old king’s death. But the advisors of the young new king suspect the delegates are actually spies and send them back to Jerusalem with a special mark of disgrace

וַיִּקַּ֨ח חָנ֜וּן אֶת־עַבְדֵ֤י דָוִיד֙ וַֽיְגַלְּחֵ֔ם וַיִּכְרֹ֧ת אֶת־מַדְוֵיהֶ֛ם בַּחֵ֖צִי עַד־הַמִּפְשָׂעָ֑ה וַֽיְשַׁלְּחֵֽם׃

So Hanun seized David’s courtiers, shaved them, and cut away half of their garments up to the private parts, and sent them off.

I Chronicles.19:4

Humiliated, with half their beards and body hair displayed, these half naked men cross the river back to Judea, and find shelter in Jericho until their hair grows back.

In the meanwhile David declares an angry war.

The Ammonites turn to the Aarameans in the north for help, and extra weapons.

The first fight finds David’s army defeated but by the next round, even with two fronts, his soldiers win and take over the territories to the east. Both nations are defeated and David’s kingdom doubles in size.

Both here and in 2 Samuel, the story about the conquest of the eastern side of the Jordan river is divided into two separate chapters. Why?

A close reading of these chapters uncovers different attitudes. In the first account, both in Samuel and in Chronicles, the war is waged by David, the triumph is celebrated, and the conquest is ideal and intentional. But in the second chapter, in both books, the war is not proactive but reactive.

It’s about those beards.

According to this chapter, there was no plan to annex the eastern bank of the Jordan. It was a result of the war that David didn’t begin. Or did he? What are we not being told here?

The conquest of the eastern side of the TransJordan area was apparently a matter of controversy.

Some saw it as the liberation of ancestral homeland territory and viewed the entire area as part of the Promised Land. But others saw it as a region external to the Land of Israel, and described the victory as one that was imposed upon David.

By framing war as reactive, the Chronicler makes David’s territorial moves morally acceptable—even righteous.

So was it about the beards or was that a cover story that with time became the reason for the rage and a cover story for the conquest? Historians argue and biblical readers can still scratch heads, pull at beards, roll eyes and wonder -- what are the reasons, real and raw, for wars? What stories are we told when below the surface the reasons may be more complex or actually quite simple?

We can just hope that this time around, diplomacy will have much more success and that the present and future lives of the descendants of the Judeans, Ammonites, Aramaeans and all other people on both sides of the Jordan river can be spared disgrace and dishonor, devastating loss and devouring greed.

Peace, please prevail.

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