Shaved beards and bared buttocks

2 Samuel 10:1–5 ¹ and 1 Chronicles 19:1–5 tell of an incident between David, king of Israel, and Hanun, the newly crowned king of the Ammonites. David, who had been on good terms with Hanun’s father, and most likely had been in a covenant relationship with him, sent some emissaries ² to express David’s condolences to Hanun over the loss of his father, which was what a treaty partner was expected to do. ³ However, Hanun, suspecting that David’s emissaries were actually spies, responded as follows, according to 2 Samuel 10:4: “Hanun took David’s emissaries, shaved half of their beards ⁴ and cut their garments in half up to their buttocks, ⁵ and sent them away.” The narrator tells of David’s response in v.5: “When David was told, he sent men to meet them, for the men were very ashamed. ⁶ And the king said: ‘Stay in Jericho until your beards grow back; and then return.’ ” The result of this breech in diplomacy, described in the rest of the chapter, was a war between David and the Ammonites.