³ the Ammonite officials said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy?^[a] No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!”^[b]

⁴ So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved off half of each one’s beard. He cut the lower part of their robes off so that their buttocks were exposed,^[c] and then sent them away. ⁵ Messengers^[d] told David what had happened,^[e] so he sent them to the men who were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”