1 Kings 20

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Ben-hadad besieges Samaria

¹ Now Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered all his army; thirty-two kings were with him, with horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria and fought against it. ² And he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, ³ and said to him, "Thus says Ben-hadad: 'Your silver and your gold are mine; your wives also and your children, the best of them, are mine.'" ⁴ And the king of Israel answered and said, "As you say, my lord the king: I am yours, and all that I have." ⁵ Then the messengers came back and said, "Thus says Ben-hadad: 'I sent to you, saying, "You shall give me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children"; ⁶ but about this time tomorrow I will send my servants to you, and they will search your house and the houses of your servants, and whatever is precious in your eyes they will lay their hands on and take away.'"

⁷ Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, "Please take note and see how this man is seeking evil; for he sent to me for my wives and my children, and for my silver and my gold, and I did not refuse him." ⁸ And all the elders and all the people said to him, "Do not listen, and do not consent." ⁹ So he said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, "Tell my lord the king, 'All that you first sent for to your servant I will do, but this thing I cannot do.'" And the messengers departed and brought him word again. ¹⁰ Then Ben-hadad sent to him and said, "The gods do so to me and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me." ¹¹ And the king of Israel answered and said, "Tell him, 'Let not the one who puts on his armor boast like the one who takes it off.'" ¹² When Ben-hadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings, in the booths, he said to his servants, "Take your positions." And they took their positions against the city.

¹³ And see, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel and said, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Have you seen all this great multitude? See, I will give it into your hand today, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.'" ¹⁴ Ahab said, "By whom?" And he said, "Thus says Yahweh: 'By the young men of the governors of the provinces.'" Then he said, "Who shall begin the battle?" And he answered, "You." ¹⁵ Then he mustered the young men of the governors of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two; and after them he mustered all the people, all the children of Israel, seven thousand. ¹⁶ They went out at noon, while Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the booths, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who were helping him. ¹⁷ The young men of the governors of the provinces went out first. And Ben-hadad sent out men, and they told him, saying, "Men have come out from Samaria." ¹⁸ He said, "If they have come out for peace, take them alive; and if they have come out for war, take them alive." ¹⁹ So these went out of the city, the young men of the governors of the provinces, and the army that followed them. ²⁰ And each one struck down his man; and the Arameans fled, and Israel pursued them, but Ben-hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with horsemen. ²¹ And the king of Israel went out and struck the horses and the chariots, and struck the Arameans with a great slaughter.

The second battle, at Aphek

²² Then the prophet came near to the king of Israel and said to him, "Go, strengthen yourself, and consider and see what you must do, for at the turn of the year the king of Aram will come up against you."

²³ And the servants of the king of Aram said to him, "Their gods are gods of the hills; that is why they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. ²⁴ And do this: remove the kings, each from his place, and put governors in their place; ²⁵ and muster for yourself an army like the army that you have lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot. Then we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they." And he listened to their voice and did so.

²⁶ At the turn of the year Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. ²⁷ And the children of Israel were mustered and provisioned and went out against them; the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the land. ²⁸ Then a man of Elohim came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because the Arameans have said, "Yahweh is a god of the hills, but He is not a god of the valleys," therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.'" ²⁹ And they encamped opposite each other seven days. On the seventh day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel struck down of the Arameans one hundred thousand foot soldiers in one day. ³⁰ The rest fled to Aphek, into the city, and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left. Ben-hadad also fled and came into the city, into an inner room.

Ahab spares Ben-hadad

³¹ And his servants said to him, "See now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are kings who show lovingkindness. Let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will spare your life." ³² So they tied sackcloth on their loins and 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 took this as an omen, and they quickly caught at his word and said, "Your brother Ben-hadad!" And 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, "The cities that my father took from your father I will restore, and you may set up markets for yourself in Damascus, as my father set up in Samaria." "And I will let you go with this covenant." So he made a covenant with him and let him go.

A prophet condemns Ahab

³⁵ Now a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his companion by the word of Yahweh, "Strike me, please." But the man refused to strike him. ³⁶ Then he said to him, "Because you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, see, as soon as you have departed from me, a lion shall strike you down." And as soon as he had departed from him, a lion found him and struck him down. ³⁷ Then he found another man and said, "Strike me, please." And the man struck him, striking and wounding him. ³⁸ So the prophet departed and waited for the king by the road, and disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes. ³⁹ And as the king passed by, he cried out to the king and said, "Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and see, a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said, 'Guard this man; if by any means he is missing, then your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.' ⁴⁰ And while your servant was busy here and there, he was gone." And the king of Israel said to him, "So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it." ⁴¹ Then he hurried and took the bandage away from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him, that he was one of the prophets. ⁴² And he said to him, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.'" ⁴³ So the king of Israel went to his house sullen and angry, and came to Samaria.

Notes

• 20:1 "Ben-hadad" means "son of Hadad," the storm god worshiped in Damascus, and more than one king of Aram bore the name; whether this is the Ben-hadad of 15:18 or a later king of the same name is uncertain. The "thirty-two kings" were probably rulers of small cities and tribes allied with Damascus or subject to it. Samaria, Israel's capital, stood on a hill, which matters for what the Arameans say in verse 23.
• 20:11 The proverb is four words in Hebrew, literally "let not the one girding boast like the one ungirding": a man buckling on his armor before the battle should not boast like one taking it off after the victory. Ahab's short answer meets Ben-hadad's oath by the gods (verse 10), while the Aramean king is drinking in the booths (verses 12, 16).
• 20:28 In verse 23 the Arameans speak as worshipers of many gods, each the lord of its own territory: "their gods are gods of the hills," because Israel's capital and strength lay in the hill country. The Hebrew word is elohim, the word used for Israel's Elohim, but on their lips it means gods of their own kind, so "gods" and "a god" are written lowercase here (compare the Philistines in 1 Samuel 4:7-8), also where Yahweh repeats their words in order to answer them. He gives the victory in the plain at Aphek, "and you shall know that I am Yahweh," the refrain of the exodus, when Yahweh made Himself known to Israel and to Egypt alike (Exodus 6:7; 7:5).
• 20:34 The Aramean servants appeal to the name Israel's kings had for chesed (lovingkindness), the faithful kindness that keeps covenant; sackcloth and ropes were signs of humble surrender. "My brother" was the language kings used of a treaty partner (compare 9:13), and the men seize on it at once. "Markets" is literally "streets," quarters for a king's merchants in the other's capital. The closing words, "And I will let you go with this covenant," are Ahab's reply; the Hebrew passes from one speaker to the other without a new "he said." Ahab makes a covenant (berit) with the man Yahweh had given into his hand, and the next verses show what Yahweh thought of it.
• 20:35 "The sons of the prophets" are the companies of prophets who lived and served together, often around a leading prophet like Elijah or Elisha (2 Kings 2:3); this is the first time the expression appears. The prophet's request sounds strange, but it is "by the word of Yahweh," and his companion's refusal is judged as disobedience to Yahweh's voice, as with the man of Elohim from Judah (13:24). The wound prepares the disguise of verses 37-38.
• 20:42 "The man whom I had devoted to destruction" is literally "the man of My herem," the word for what is given over wholly to Yahweh, which in war meant destruction. Saul lost his kingdom for sparing Agag (1 Samuel 15:9, 23), and Ahab now hears that his life will answer for Ben-hadad's. As Nathan did with David (2 Samuel 12:1-7), the prophet lets the king pass sentence on himself (verse 40); the word comes true at Ramoth-gilead (22:34-35).

1 Kings 19 · 1 Kings 21

Open in the study app