1 Kings
1 Kings 20
1Ben Hadad the king of Syria gathered all his army together; and there were thirty-two kings with him, with horses and chariots. He went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it. 2He sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, into the city, and said to him, “Ben Hadad says, 3‘Your silver and your gold is mine. Your wives also and your children, even the best, are mine.’ ”
4The king of Israel answered, “It is according to your saying, my lord, O king. I am yours, and all that I have.”
5The messengers came again, and said, “Ben Hadad says, ‘I sent indeed to you, saying, “You shall deliver me your silver, and your gold, and your wives, and your children; 6but I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they will search your house, and the houses of your servants; whatever is pleasant in your eyes, they will put it in their hand, and take it away.” ’ ”
7Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, “Please notice how this man seeks mischief; for he sent to me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I didn’t deny him.”
8All the elders and all the people said to him, “Don’t listen, and don’t consent.”
9Therefore he said to the messengers of Ben Hadad, “Tell my lord the king, ‘All that you sent for to your servant at the first I will do; but this thing I cannot do.’ ”
The messengers departed, and brought him back the message. 10Ben Hadad sent to him, and said, “The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria will be enough for handfuls for all the people who follow me.”
11The king of Israel answered, “Tell him, ‘Don’t let him who puts on his armor brag like he who takes it off.’ ”
12When Ben Hadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings, in the pavilions, he said to his servants, “Prepare to attack!” They prepared to attack the city.
13Behold, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel, and said, “Yahweh says, ‘Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.’ ”
14Ahab said, “By whom?”
He said, “Yahweh says, ‘By the young men of the princes of the provinces.’ ”
Then he said, “Who shall begin the battle?”
He answered, “You.”
15Then he mustered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two. After them, he mustered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand. 16They went out at noon. But Ben Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him. 17The young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Ben Hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, “Men are coming out from Samaria.”
18He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive.”
19So these went out of the city, the young men of the princes of the provinces, and the army which followed them. 20They each killed his man. The Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them. Ben Hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen. 21The king of Israel went out, and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter. 22The prophet came near to the king of Israel, and said to him, “Go, strengthen yourself, and mark, and see what you do; for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against you.”
23The servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their god is a god of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we. But let’s fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they. 24Do this thing: take the kings away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their place. 25Muster an army, like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot. We will fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they are.”
He listened to their voice, and did so. 26At the return of the year, Ben Hadad mustered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel. 27The children of Israel were mustered and given provisions, and went against them. The children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of young goats; but the Syrians filled the country. 28A man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, “Yahweh says, ‘Because the Syrians have said, “Yahweh is a god of the hills, but he is not a god of the valleys;” therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.’ ”
29They encamped opposite each other for seven days. So it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel killed one hundred thousand footmen of the Syrians in one day. 30But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left. Ben Hadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner room. 31His servants said to him, “See now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us put sackcloth on our bodies, and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Maybe he will save your life.”
32So they put sackcloth on their bodies and ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, “Your servant Ben Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’ ”
He said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
33Now the men observed diligently, and hurried to take this phrase; and they said, “Your brother Ben Hadad.”
Then he said, “Go, bring him.”
Then Ben Hadad came out to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot. 34Ben Hadad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will restore. You shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.”
“I”, said Ahab, “will let you go with this covenant.” So he made a covenant with him, and let him go.
35A certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow by Yahweh’s word, “Please strike me!”
The man refused to strike him. 36Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed Yahweh’s voice, behold, as soon as you have departed from me, a lion will kill you.” As soon as he had departed from him, a lion found him and killed him.
37Then he found another man, and said, “Please strike me.”
The man struck him and wounded him. 38So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with his headband over his eyes. 39As the king passed by, he cried to the king; and he said, “Your servant went out into the middle of the battle; and behold, a man came over, 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.’ 40As your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.”
The king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be. You yourself have decided it.”
41He hurried, and took the headband away from his eyes; and the king of Israel recognized that he was one of the prophets. 42He said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life will take the place of his life, and your people take the place of his people.’ ”
43The king of Israel went to his house sullen and angry, and came to Samaria.
Commentary
No commentary on this chapter yet.
What others are saying
5 commentators · 100 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry4
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
Here is, I. The threatening descent which Ben-hadad made upon Ahab's kingdom, and the siege he laid to Samaria, his royal city, Kg1 20:1. What the ground of the quarrel was we are not told; covetousness and ambition were the principle, which would never want…
The treaty between the besiegers and the besieged being broken off abruptly, we have here an account of the battle that ensued immediately. I. The Syrians, the besiegers, had their directions from a drunken king, who gave orders over his cups, as he was…
We have here an account of another successful campaign which Ahab, by divine aid, made against the Syrians, in which he gave them a greater defeat than in the former. Strange! Ahab idolatrous and yet victorious, a persecutor and yet a conqueror! God has wise…
John Gill43
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
And Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together,.... This was Benhadad the second, the son of that Benhadad, to whom Asa sent to help him against Baasha, 1 Kings 15:18. and there were thirty and two kings with him; these were heads of families…
And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, into the city,.... Who there remained, and attempted not to go forth and meet him, and stop his progress, though he must have passed great part of his dominions to come to Samaria: and said unto him, thus saith…
Thy silver and thy gold is mine,.... Not of right, but reckoning it as good as in his hands, Ahab not being able to resist him: and thy wives also; for it seems he had more than Jezebel: and thy children; which were many, for he had no less than seventy sons…
Adam Clarke29
The linguist of this set. Expect Hebrew and Greek word study, oriental custom, and geography — and an Arminian reading of grace and free will where Gill or Henry would read election. Note one real divergence: Clarke denied the eternal sonship of Christ, a position most of the tradition rejects, so read him closely on the person of Christ.
Why this voice is here: Where you want to know what a word actually says, Clarke is the one who will tell you — with the caveat above on Christ’s sonship.
Ben-hadad - Several MSS., and some early printed editions, have Ben-hadar, or the son of Hadar, as the Septuagint. He is supposed to be the same whom Asa stirred up against the king of Israel, Kg1 15:18; or, as others, his son or grandson. Thirty and two…
I am thine, and all that I have - He probably hoped by this humiliation to soften this barbarous king, and perhaps to get better conditions.
Whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes - It is not easy to discern in what this second requisition differed from the first; for surely his silver, gold, wives, and children, were among his most pleasant or desirable things. Jarchi supposes that it was the book…
Keil & Delitzsch15
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
The First Victory. - Kg1 20:1. Benhadad, the son of that Benhadad who had conquered several cities of Galilee in the reign of Baasha (Kg1 15:20), came up with a great army - there were thirty-two kings with him, with horses and chariots - and besieged…
The Second Victory. - Kg1 20:23, Kg1 20:24. The servants (ministers) of Benhadad persuaded their lord to enter upon a fresh campaign, attributing the defeat they had sustained to two causes, which could be set aside, viz., to the supposed nature of the gods…
With the new year (see Kg1 20:22) Benhadad advanced to Aphek again to fight against Israel. Aphek is neither the city of that name in the tribe of Asher (Jos 19:30 and Jos 13:4), nor that on the mountains of Judah (Jos 15:53), but the city in the plain of…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown9
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
Thus said Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine--To this message sent him during the siege, Ahab returned a tame and submissive answer, probably thinking it meant no more than an exaction of tribute. But the demand was repeated with greater insolence…
as he was drinking, he and the kings in the pavilions--booths made of branches of trees and brushwood; which were reared for kings in the camp, as they still are for Turkish pashas or agas in their expeditions [KEIL]. Set yourselves in array--Invest the city.
THE SYRIANS ARE SLAIN. (Kg1 20:13-20) behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab--Though the king and people of Israel had highly offended Him, God had not utterly cast them off. He still cherished designs of mercy towards them, and here, though unasked, gave…
World English Bible — Public domain