Ben-Hadad’s defeat at Samaria
20
📚And Ben-Hadad 📖, the king of Syria, gathered all his army together, and there were thirty-two kings with him, and horses and chariots; and he went up and besieged Samaria and made war against it. 2 📚And he sent messengers to Ahab, king of Israel, into the city, and said to him, “Thus says Ben-Hadad: 3 📚Your silver and your gold are mine. Also your most beautiful wives and children are mine”.4 📚And the king of Israel answered and said, “My lord, O king, in accordance with your word, I am yours, and all that I have”.
20:4 Ahab saw no hope of victory.⚜
5 And the messengers came again and said, “Thus speaks Ben-Hadad, saying, I have sent men to you, saying, ‘You must hand over to me your silver and your gold and your wives and your children.’ 6 📚So I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they will search your house, and the houses of your servants; and it shall be that whatever is desirable in your eyes, they will lay hands on it and take it away”.
20:6 A further demand which would have meant a complete surrender of the city.⚜
7 📚Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, “Please observe and see how this man is looking for trouble; for he sent men to me for my wives and for my children, and for my silver and for my gold; and I did not refuse him”.
8 And all the elders and all the people said to him, “Do not listen to him or agree”.
9 Therefore he said to the messengers of Ben-Hadad, “Tell my lord the king, All that you sent for to your servant at first I will do, but this thing I am not able to do”. And the messengers departed and brought word back to him.
10 📚And Ben-Hadad sent to him, and said, “The gods do harm to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria is enough for handfuls for all the people who follow me”.
11 📚And the king of Israel answered and said, “Tell him, ‘The one who puts on his armour should not boast like the one who takes it off.’ ”
12 📚And it came about, when Ben-Hadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings in the tents, that he said to his servants, “Set yourselves in array”. And they set themselves in array against the city.
13 📚And then a prophet came to Ahab, king of Israel, saying, “Thus says the LORD 📖: ‘Have you seen all this great multitude? Look, I will deliver it into your hands today, and you will know 📖 that I am the LORD.’ ”
14 📚And Ahab said, “By whom?” And he said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘By the young men of the rulers of the provinces.’ ” Then he said, “Who should begin the battle?” And he answered, “You”.
15 📚Then he counted the young men of the rulers of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two. And after them he counted all the people, all the children of Israel. There were seven thousand.
20:15 Ahab was willing to follow God’s instructions if it meant victory in battle, but not if it required him to repent and change his way of living.⚜
16 📚And they went out at noon. But Ben-Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the tents, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who were helping him. 17 📚And the young men of the rulers of the provinces went out first. And Ben-Hadad sent out observers, and they told him, saying, “Men have come out of Samaria”.
18 📚And he said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive”.
19 So these young men of the rulers of the provinces came out of the city, with the army which followed them. 20 📚And each one of them killed his man; and the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them; and Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, escaped on a horse with the horsemen. 21 📚And the king of Israel went out, and attacked the horses and chariots and killed the Syrians in a great slaughter.
22 📚And the prophet came to the king of Israel, and said to him, “Go, strengthen yourself, and observe and watch what you do; for at the turn of the year the king of Syria will come up against you”.
20:22 Ahab was given a year to prepare, also to repent and seek God if he would. Alas, he did not.⚜
23 📚And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hills 📖, therefore they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them on the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they. 24 📚And do this thing: remove each one of the kings from his position, and put captains in their place, 25 📚and recruit an army for yourself, like the army that you lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot; and we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they”. And he listened to their voice and did so.
26 📚And this occurred at the turn of the year: Ben-Hadad recruited the Syrians, and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. 27 📚And the children of Israel were counted, and were all present, and went against them, and the children of Israel camped before them like two little flocks of young goats; but the Syrians filled the countryside.
28 📚And a man of God 📖 came and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hands, and you will know 📖 that I am the LORD.’ ”
29 📚And they camped opposite one another seven days. And it happened that on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel killed a hundred thousand foot soldiers of the Syrians in one day. 30 📚But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city, and there a wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the men who were left. And Ben-Hadad fled and came into the city, into an inner room.
31 📚And his servants said to him, “Look now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us wrap sackcloth 📖 around our waists, and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will save your life”.
32 📚So they wrapped sackcloth around their waists, and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant 📖 Ben-Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’ ” And he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother”.
33 📚Now the men were watching carefully whether any sign would come from him, and quickly caught it, and they said, “Your brother Ben-Hadad”. Then he said, “Go, bring him”. Then Ben-Hadad came out to him; and he had him come up into the chariot.
34 📚And Ben-Hadad said to him, “I will give back the cities which my father took from your father. And you can make market streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria”. Then Ahab said, “I will send you away with this treaty”. So he made a treaty with him, and sent him away.
20:34 Ahab had no understanding of God’s Word, or the reason why God had given him victory. For his own ends he entered into a covenant with the evil Ben-Hadad, an alliance which was to cause the people of Israel further suffering.⚜
God’s message to Ahab
35 📚And a certain man of the sons of the prophets 📖 said to his neighbour at the word of the LORD, “Please strike me”. And the man refused to strike him.
36 📚Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, look, as soon as you have gone away from me, a lion will kill you”. And as soon as he went away from him, a lion found him and killed him.
20:36 Presumably it was clear to both men that God was speaking and that the one was consciously disobedient. Compare 1 Kings 13:23-24.⚜
37 📚Then he found another man and said, “Please strike me”. And the man struck him, striking and wounding him. 38 📚So the prophet left and waited for the king by the road, and disguised himself with ashes on his face. 39 📚And when the king passed by, he called out to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the middle of the battle, and, see, a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man. If for any reason he is missing, then it will be your life for his life, or else 📖 you must pay a talent 📖 of silver.’ 40 📚And as your servant was busy here and there, the prisoner disappeared”. And the king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be. You yourself have decided it”.
41 📚And he quickly took the ashes from his face, and the king of Israel recognized him, that he was one of the prophets. 42 📚And he said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have let a man whom I had appointed to utter destruction go out of your hand, your life will go for his life, and your people for his people.’ ”
20:42 God had delivered Ben-Hadad to Ahab, not that he might make a treaty with him, but that he might destroy an enemy of Israel. Ahab’s act appears kind and merciful, but actually was merely weakness, and an attempt to gain personal advantage. And he did not seek God about it. God knows when to show mercy, and when to severely punish.⚜
43 📚And the king of Israel went to his house sullen and angry, and came to Samaria.