1 Chronicles 19:4

1Ch 19:4 Wherefore Hanun took David’s servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks, and sent them away.

Ver. 4. And shaved them.] Sic legatos Davidis deturpans illudit, {a} Popish priests say they do therefore shave their beards, lest while they drink Christ’s blood out of the chalice, any drop thereof should hang upon their beards. Oh, shameful superstition!

Hard by their buttocks.] This is check to the fashion mongers of our time, saith Piscator; who wear their clothes so close, and cloaks so short, that they cover not their buttocks.

{a} Piscator.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To put them to shame and villainy, whereas the ambassadors ought to have been honored: and because the Jews used to wear side garments and beards, they thus disfigured them, to make them odious to others.

They shaved off the half of their beards, 2 Sam. 10:4.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

shaved them--not completely, but only the half of their face. This disrespect to the beard, and indecent exposure of their persons by their clothes being cut off from the girdle downwards, was the grossest indignity to which Jews, in common with all Orientals, could be subjected. No wonder that the men were ashamed to appear in public--that the king recommended them to remain in seclusion on the border till the mark of their disgrace had disappeared--and then they might, with propriety, return to the court.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 4. And cut off their garments in the midst] Usque ad eorum, pudenda. So the Targum, Jarchi, and others; leaving exposed what nature and decency require to be concealed. See on 2Sa 10:4.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(4) Shaved them—i.e., the half of their beards (Samuel).

Hard by their buttocks.—Literally, unto the extremities. The chronicler has substituted a more decorous term for the one which appears in Samuel.

Cut off their garments.—To look like captives (Isa_20:4).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. shaved them] 2Sa_10:4, shaved off the one half of iheir beards. Of course a great insult; cp. Isa_50:6.

cut off their garments] Jewish ambassadors are represented on the Black Obelisk (a monument of Shalmaneser II, king of Assyria, now preserved in the British Museum) as wearing robes reaching to the feet; Hanun reduced ambassadors to the level of captives; cp. Isa_20:4.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

From. Hebrew, "in the midst, above the thighs:" exposing them to derision. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The classical scholar will not fail to be reminded, so far as the shaving here spoken of is concerned, of the account contained in Herodotus, 2:121. The parallel place makes the resemblance close, in that it tells us that "one-half of their beards" was shaved. To shave them was an affront to their customs, dignity, and religion: to shave them half added mockery; and to cut off half their garments completed the tale of ignominious and contemptuous insult. (Isa_20:4) The beard was held almost in reverence by Easterns.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So Hanun seized

Hanun did not do this personally, but ordered his men to do it. AT: "So Hanun's men seized" (See: Metonymy)

their garments

"their clothes"

he sent to meet with them

"David sent some messengers to encourage them"

deeply ashamed

In this idiom, shame is described as deep to show that it has greatly affected them. AT: "very ashamed" (See: Idiom)

The king

This refers to David.

then return

"then return to Jerusalem"

translationWords

seize

shame

Jericho

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

their garments - Heb. מַדְוֵיהֶם, like (Lev. 6:3): “The priest shall put on his linen garment (מִדּוֹ).”

in half up to their groin - Heb. הַמִפְשָׂעָה, up to their private parts, both front and back, and in Samuel (II 10:4): “שְׁתוֹתֵיהֶם, their private parts,” like (Isa. 20:4): “... with their private parts (שֵׁת) bared, the shame of Egypt.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.