UST 1 KI Chapter 20

◄ 1 KI 20 ► ║ ═ ©

20 Later, King Ben Hadad of Aram attacked the city of Samaria. He marched there with all of his soldiers and horses and chariots. Thirty-two kings who were subject to him brought their own soldiers. They all surrounded Samaria and began fighting to conquer it. 2 Ben Hadad sent messengers into the city to speak on his behalf to King Ahab. 3 The messengers told Ahab, “King Ben Hadad says, ‘You must give to me your silver and gold, as well as your most beautiful wives and finest children.’ ” 4 King Ahab responded to Ben Hadad, “I agree to do what you have demanded. I will give you anything you want, and I will become your subject.” 5 The messengers told that to Ben Hadad, and he sent them back with another message: “I sent you a message before saying that you had to give me your silver and gold and wives and children. 6 In addition to that, about this time tomorrow, I will send some of my officials to search your palace and the houses of your officials. You must allow them to claim anything valuable of yours and bring it to me.”

7 Then King Ahab summoned all the leaders of Israel. He told them, “It should be obvious that this man wants to destroy us. He sent me a message insisting that I must give him my wives and children and silver and gold, and I agreed to do that, but now he is making further unreasonable demands.” 8 The leaders said to him, “You must not agree to his demands.” The people who were in Samaria supported what the leaders said. 9 So Ahab told Ben Hadad’s messengers, “Tell the king that I still agree to give him the things that he first requested. But I do not agree to what he is now demanding further.” The messengers went back to King Ben Hadad and told him that. 10 Then Ben Hadad sent messengers back to Ahab. They told him on his behalf, “We will destroy your city completely. There will not be enough debris left for each of my soldiers to have a handful of it! If we do not do that, I ask the gods to destroy me completely and do other terrible things to me!” 11 King Ahab replied to the messengers, “Tell King Ben Hadad that someone who is putting on his armor in order to fight a battle should not boast like someone who is taking off his armor because he has won a battle.” 12 Ben Hadad was drinking wine with his subject kings in their headquarters when the messengers returned and told him what Ahab had said. He immediately ordered his soldiers to organize an attack against the city, and they marched out to attack it.

13 At that moment, a prophet came to King Ahab and said to him, “Here is a message from Yahweh for you. He says, ‘Do not be at all afraid of the large enemy army that you see! I will enable your army to defeat them today, and you will recognize that I, Yahweh, am the only true God.’ ” 14 Ahab asked, “Which of our soldiers will defeat them?” The prophet replied, “Yahweh says that the servants whom the district governors brought with them when they came here will defeat them.” The king asked, “Should I wait for the Arameans to attack us, or should I send those men out to attack them first?” The prophet replied, “Send those men out.” 15 So Ahab gathered the servants whom the district governors had brought with them. There were 232 of those young men. Then Ahab counted how many Israelite soldiers were in the city of Samaria. There were only 7,000 of them.

16 Those young mean started to attack at noon, while Ben Hadad and his 32 subject kings were drinking wine in their headquarters. They had already become drunk. 17 When those young soldiers began their attack, Ben Hadad realized something was happening and sent some soldiers to find out what it was. They returned and reported to him, “Some soldiers are approaching us from Samaria!” 18 He said, “If they are coming out to negotiate a surrender, take them prisoner. If they are coming out to fight with us, capture them alive.” 19 Those young Israelite soldiers came out of the city to attack the Aramean army, and the other soldiers in the Israelite army came out of the city after them. 20 Each of them killed the Aramean soldier who came to fight with him. When the rest of the Aramean army saw that, they ran away, and the rest of the Israelite army pursued them. King Ben Hadad had to escape by getting on a horse and fleeing with his soldiers who rode horses. 21 Then King Ahab came out of the city to lead the Israelite army. He and his soldiers destroyed the enemy horses and chariots, and they won a great victory over the Arameans.

22 Then that same prophet went to King Ahab and told him, “The king of Aram is going to attack you with his army again in the springtime of next year. So you must increase the size of your army and make careful preparations.” 23 After the Israelites defeated the Aramean army, Ben Hadad’s officials told him, “The gods that the Israelites worship are gods who live in the hills, and Samaria is built on a hill. That is why their soldiers were able to defeat us when we fought them there. But if we fight against them in the plains, we will certainly defeat them because their gods will not be able to help them there. 24 Here is something further that you should do. You should remove the 32 kings who have been commanding their own soldiers and replace them with trained military officers. 25 Then gather an army as large as the one that the Israelites defeated. Make sure that it has as many horses and chariots as the first army had. Then we will fight the Israelites in the plains, and we will certainly defeat them.” Ben Hadad decided that they were right, so he did what they suggested.

26 In the spring of the following year, Ben Hadad gathered his soldiers and marched with them to the city of Aphek to fight against the Israelite army. 27 Then Ahab assembled the Israelite army and gave it food and equipment. The Israelite soldiers marched out to fight the Aramean soldiers, and they set up their tents opposite them. Compared with the great size of the Aramean army, which spread all over the countryside, the Israelite camp seemed like two small flocks of goats. 28 A prophet came to King Ahab and told him, “Here is a message from Yahweh for you. He says, ‘The Arameans are saying that I am a god who lives in the hills, and so I will not be able to help you if they fight you in a valley. I am going to prove that they are wrong by enabling your soldiers to defeat their huge army here in this valley. Then you will recognize that I, Yahweh, am the only true God.’ ” 29 The two armies remained in their camps opposite each other for seven days. Then, on the seventh day, they started fighting. The Israelite army defeated the Arameans, and that day they killed 100,000 of their soldiers. 30 The other Aramean soldiers ran away into the city of Aphek. But the wall of the city collapsed and killed 27,000 more of them. Ben Hadad also escaped into the city and hid in the back room of a house.

31 His officials came to him and said, “We have heard that the kings of Israel act mercifully. So allow us to go to King Ahab and plead for mercy. We will wrap rough cloth around our waists to show humility and ropes on our heads to indicate that we will be his slaves. If we do that, perhaps he will not kill you.” 32 The king permitted them to do that, so they wrapped rough cloth around their waists and put ropes on their heads and went to speak with King Ahab. They said to him, “Your subject Ben Hadad begs you not to kill him.” Ahab replied, “Is he still alive? He does not need to be my subject, he is my brother, another king like me.” 33 Ben Hadad’s officials were listening carefully to Ahab, and when he said “brother,” they quickly repeated that word. They said, “Yes, your brother, your fellow king Ben Hadad.” Ahab said, “Go and bring him to me.” So they went and got him, and when Ben Hadad arrived, Ahab invited him to sit in his chariot with him. 34 Ben Hadad told Ahab, “I will give back to you the Israelite cities that my father’s army captured when your father was king. And I will allow you to set up market areas for your merchants in Damascus, just as my father set up market areas for his merchants in Samaria.” Ahab replied, “If you make a treaty to do those things, I will allow you to go home.” So Ben Hadad made a treaty with Ahab, and Ahab allowed him to go home.

35 There was a man who was part of a group of young prophets in training. He told another young prophet in the group, “Yahweh has told me to have someone hit me hardand injure me. So please do that.” But that man refused to hit him. 36 So the first prophet said to him, “Because you refused to do what Yahweh told you to do, as soon as you leave me, a lion will kill you.” And as soon as that man left, a lion suddenly came and killed him. 37 Then the prophet went to another prophet and told him, “Hit me hard, please!” So that man hit him very hard and injured him. 38 Then the prophet went and waited by the side of the road for King Ahab to come by. He put a bandage over his eyes so that the king would recognize him. 39 As the king was going by, the prophet called out to him. He said, “Your Majesty, I was fighting in the battle against the Arameans, and one of them wounded me so that I could not fight any longer. So another Israelite soldier brought me an important Aramean soldier whom he had captured. He told me, ‘Guard this man! If he escapes by any means, you will deserve to die, and you will have to pay me 33 kilograms of silver to save your life!’ 40 But while I was busy doing other things, the man escaped!” King Ahab said to him, “I judge that you should suffer one of the punishments you described. It is clear from your own testimony that you deserve punishment.” 41 Then the prophet immediately took off the bandage that was covering his eyes, and King Ahab recognized him. He knew that he was one of the prophets. 42 The prophet told him, “Here is a message from Yahweh for you. He says, ‘I wanted you to kill Ben Hadad, but even though he was your prisoner and you could have done that, you let him go. As a result, you are going to die instead of him, and many of your people are going to die instead of his people.’ ” 43 Then King Ahab continued back to Samaria. He was angry and depressed when he got home.

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UST 1 KI Chapter 20

UST 1 KI Chapter 20