1 Kings 20

1. AND Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and 2 fought against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, into the city, and said 3 unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy 4 children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, It is accord- 5 ing to thy saying, my lord, O king; I am thine, and all that I have. And the messengers 6 came again, and said, Thus speaketh Ben-hadad, saying, I sent indeed unto thee, saying, 7 Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children; but I will 8 send my servants unto thee to-morrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and 9 the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they 10 shall put it in their hand, and take it away. Then the king of Israel called all the elders of 11 the land, and said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief: for he sent 12 unto me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I de- 13 nied him not. And all the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken thou not, neither 14 consent. Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Ben-hadad, Tell my lord the king, All 15 that thou didst send for to thy servant at the first I will do: but this thing I may not do. 16 And the messengers departed, and brought him word again. And Ben-hadad sent unto him, 17 and said, The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for 18 handfuls for all the people that follow me. And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell 19 him, Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast himself as he that putteth it off. And it 20 came to pass, when Ben-hadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings, in 21 the pavilions, that he said unto his servants, Set yourselves in array. And they set themselves 22 in array against the city. And, behold, a prophet came near unto Ahab king of Israel, and 23 said, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it 24 into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. And Ahab said, By 25 whom? And he said, Thus saith the LORD, By the young men of the princes of the provinces. 26 Then he said, Who shall begin the battle? And he answered, Thou. Then he mustered the 27 young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty two: and 28 after them he mustered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand. 29 And they went out at noon. But Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he 30 and the kings, the thirty and two kings that helped him. And the young men of the princes 31 of the provinces went out first; and Ben-hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, There 32 are men come out from Samaria. And he said, Whether they be come out for peace, take 33 them alive; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive. So these went out of the 34 city, the young men of the princes of the provinces, and the army which followed them.

20. And they slew every one his man; and the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them: and Ben- 21 hadad the king of Syria escaped on an horse with horsemen. And the king of Israel went 22 out, and smote the horses and chariots, and slew the Syrians with a great slaughter. And the prophet came near to the king of Israel, and said unto him, Go, strengthen thyself, and mark, and see what thou doest: for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee. 23 And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him, Their god is a god of the hills; there- fore they were stronger than we: but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we 24 shall be stronger than they. And do this thing; take the kings away, every man out of his 25 place, and put captains in their room: and number thee an army, like the army that thou hast lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot: and we will fight against them in the plain, and 26 surely we shall be stronger than they. And he hearkened unto their voice, and did so. And it came to pass at the return of the year, that Ben-hadad mustered the Syrians, and went up 27 to Aphek, to fight against Israel. And the children of Israel were mustered, and were vic- tualled, and went against them: and the children of Israel encamped before them like two 28 little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country. And a man of God came near and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is a god of the hills, but he is not a god of the valleys; therefore will I deliver all 29 this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD. And they encamped one over against the other seven days. And so it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand foot- 30 men in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand men that were left. And Ben-hadad fled, and came into the city, into an 31 inner chamber. And his servants said unto him, Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, we pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel: peradventure he will save thy 32 life. So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, Thy servant Ben-hadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he said, 33 Is he yet alive? he is my brother. Now the men observed diligently, and hastened to catch whether it were his mind; and they said, Thy brother Ben-hadad. Then he said, Go ye, bring him. Then Ben-hadad came forth to him; and he caused him to come up into the 34 chariot. And Ben-hadad said unto him, The cities which my father took from thy father I will restore; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Sama- ria. And I, said Ahab, will let thee go with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and let him go. 35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his fellow by the word of the 36 LORD, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to smite him. Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, 37 and slew him. Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man 38 smote him, smiting and wounding him. So the prophet departed, and waited for the king 39 by the way, and disguised himself with his headband over his eyes. And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and he said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of 40 silver. And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel 41 said unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it. And he hastened, and took the headband away from his eyes; and the king of Israel discerned him that he was of the 42 prophets. And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and 43 thy people for his people. And the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria.

1-43. The invasions of Israel by the Syrians and their results. The insertion of this chap- ter, which contains an account of two invasions of Israel by the hosts of Syria and of the utter defeat of the latter, constitutes a break in the history of Elijah, which has occupied the his- torian up to the end of chap. 19, and which is resumed with chap. 21. The insertion of this twentieth chapter in this place is apparently due to the compiler of these records, who seems to have adopted this arrangement as the more chronological. Hammond.

This chapter contains the history of two invasions of the kingdom of Ahab by Benhadad, king of Syria, and of his defeat on both occasions by the Israelites under the special intervention of the Lord, who, grievously as He had been offended, still has pity for the seed of Abraham, will try them longer yet, and will not yet give them over to utter misery and ruin. He, therefore, unasked, interferes by His prophets, and encourages the king and people by exhortations and promises. We hear nothing of Baal in these transactions. Their holiday god was of no use to them in time of trouble; and Ahab himself had of late seen too many proofs of the Lord’s power, not to know that whatever He promised He was able to perform, and to follow in a spirit of becoming submission the instructions he received. Still there is throughout the narrative a sort of cheerlessness, arising from the want of that spontaneous reference to the Lord and thankfulness to Him, which plays like a sunbeam over the history of public transactions of equal or even lesser moment in the time of devout kings. Kitto.—This chapter proclaims that neither any people nor its rulers can forget God with impunity; that disregard of His laws is sure to bring down His judgments; that the purgatory of nations is in this life present; that while the individual awaits a judgment to come, the community is judged now, by sword and famine and pestilence; by invasion and defeat; by loss of fame and territory; by bad harvests and crippled trade. Corporate bodies and communities may “have no conscience,” but they will prove sooner or later, as Assyria and Babylon, as Medes and Persians, as Greeks and Romans, as Russia and Turkey have proved, that “verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth” (Ps. 58:11). Hammond.

13. The Israelites had their directions from an inspired prophet, one of the prophets of the Lord whom Ahab had hated and persecuted: And behold, a prophet, even one, drew near to the king of Israel; so it may be read. Behold and wonder, that God should send a prophet with a kind and gracious message to so wicked a prince as Ahab was; but he did it. 1. For his people Israel’s sake, who, though wickedly degenerated, were the seed of Abraham his friend and Jacob his chosen, the children of the covenant and not yet cast off. 2. That He might magnify His mercy in doing good to one so evil and unthankful; might either bring him to repentance or leave him the more inexcusable. 3. That He might mortify the pride of Benhadad and check his insolence; Ahab’s idolatry shall be punished hereafter, but Benhadad’s haughtiness shall be chastised now. H.

For years past the prophets have been proscribed, hunted, harried to death. Yet in his darkest hour, when other refuge fails him, Ahab finds a prophet at his side. God bears no grudges. It is sufficient to give us a claim upon His help that we are helpless. “Who can wonder enough at this unweariable mercy of God? After the fire and rain fetched miraculously from heaven, Ahab had promised much, performed nothing, yet God will again bless and solicit him with victory; one of those prophets whom he persecuted shall comfort his dejection with the news of deliverance and triumph.” This act of grace should have proved that the Lord was God, and that the prophet was His messenger. It is not in man to act thus. “Thou shalt know that I am the Lord.” “Not for thy righteousness or the uprightness of thine heart dost thou go in to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations,” etc. (De. 9:4, 5). The drought, the fire, the great rain, none of these had convinced the king and queen. Will deliverance from the jaws of death move them? Will they believe in a God of battles? Will they recognize His finger in a superhuman victory? Hammond.

The persevering condescension and forbearance of God toward Ahab are truly marvellous, and all for the purpose of causing him to know that the God of Israel was indeed the true God, or Jehovah. It all proved to him but the savor of death unto death; and the signal victory but aggravated the condemnation of him who still persisted in his wickedness. T. C.

16-20. The Syrian king was still at his cups, when the watchmen reported that men were coming out of the city; on which, with quiet indifference, which seems characteristic of his arrogant temper, or might be the effect of his wine, he simply directed that they should be taken alive, whether they came for peace or for war. He probably wished to learn from them the state of the city and the intentions of Ahab; but the direction, given without any questions as to their numbers, indicates the most sovereign indifference to any force that Samaria could set forth. The young men had no mind to be taken. On the contrary, they smote right and left, and presently laid prostrate those who had stood against them. This, with the sight of the seven thousand behind coming out of the gates to take part in the fray, struck the Syrian host with a sudden panic, and they fled with all their might, the arrogant king himself being not the hindmost, for he hastened away on a fleet horse. This was the Lord’s doing; but we do not hear of any thanksgiving or sacrifices offered to Him in gratitude for help to which they had such little claim. Kitto.

22. I hear not of either the public thanksgiving or amendment of Ahab. Neither danger nor victory can change him from himself. Benhadad and he, though enemies, agree in unrepentance; the one is no more moved with mercy than the other with judgment. Neither is God any changeling in His proceedings toward both. His judgment shall still follow the Syrian; His mercy, Israel: mercy both in forewarning and redelivering Ahab; judgment in overthrowing Benhadad. The prophet of God comes again, and both foretells the intended rencounter of the Syrian and advises the care and preparation of Israel; “Go, strengthen thyself, and mark, and see what thou doest; for, at the return of the year, the king of Syria will come up against thee.” God purposeth the deliverance of Israel; yet may not they neglect their fortifications. The merciful intentions of God toward them may not make them careless. The industry and courage of the Israelites fall within the decree of their victory. Bp. II.

34. Benhadad, full of gratitude at this wholly unexpected leniency, suggested the terms he was willing to offer as the price of his freedom. He would restore the frontier towns taken from Omri by his father, Benhadad I., thus disabling himself from future invasion by the same route, and would grant Ahab the privilege his father had enjoyed in Samaria, of building streets and squares in his capital of Damascus, for his commercial and political convenience (verses 33, 34). Ahab, elated by this unlooked-for change of fortune, rashly accepted the terms, and permitted the departure of his royal prisoner without requiring any pledge of the fulfilment of his engagement. Such an act was a gross-political blunder no less than a heinous theoretical offence. The enemy of Jehovah had been delivered into his hand under His curse (verse 42). To let him go was to be unfaithful to the commission under which he reigned. Anon.

It was not clemency, it was culpable weakness to send this overbearing despot, who had already cost Israel so dear, to send him to his home, there to renew his plots against the people of God. As well might the magistrate compassionate the burglar or the garotter, and instead of shutting him up in prison, send him into the streets to be the plague of society. The king, like the magistrate, is trustee for the commonwealth. He has no right to gratify his benevolent instincts at the expense of the community. Still less right had the theocratic king, the representative of Heaven, to liberate a tyrant whom God had manifestly given into his hands. “Charity cannot excuse disobedience.” He had proved Benhadad twice, yet he asks for no material guarantees. He neither consults nor remembers his deliverer. Hammond.

35. Blasphemy hath escaped too well. Ahab hath at once peace with Benhadad, war with God. God proclaims it by His herald, one of the sons of the prophets; not yet in His own form, but disguised, both in fashion and complaint. Bp. II.—The wounding, we may be quite sure, and the tragical circumstances connected therewith, are essential parts of the parable this prophet had to act, of the lesson he had to teach. Now the great lesson he had to convey, not to the king alone, but to the prophetic order and to the whole country, the lesson most necessary in that lawless age, was that of implicit, unquestioning obedience to the Divine law. Ahab had just transgressed that law. He had “let go a man whom God had appointed to utter destruction;” he had heaped honors on the oppressor of his country, and in gratifying benevolent impulses had ignored the will and counsel of God. No doubt it seemed to him, as it has seemed to others since, that he had acted with rare magnanimity, and that his generosity in that age, an age which showed no mercy to the fallen, was unexampled. But he must be taught that he has no right to be generous at the expense of others; that God’s will must be done. He is taught this by the prophetic word (verse 42), but much more effectively by the actions which preceded it. A prophet required to smite a brother prophet, and that for no apparent reason, would no doubt find it repugnant to his feelings to do so. But the prophet who refused to do this, who followed his benevolent impulses in preference to the word of the Lord, died for his sin—died by the visitation of God. What a lesson was this to king and prophets and people! Hammond.

42. Therefore thy life shall go for his.** If it be asked, Wherein lay Ahab’s great offence, for which God threatens to punish him so severely? the answer is, That it consisted in suffering so horrid a blasphemer as Benhadad was to go unpunished, which was contrary to an express law (Lev. 24 : 16), that extended not to those only that were born in the land, but to strangers likewise. God had delivered him into Ahab’s hands for his blasphemy, as he had promised (verse 28), and therefore this act of Providence, compared with the law, did plainly intimate that he was appointed by God for destruction; but so far was Ahab from punishing him as he deserved that he treats him like a friend and a brother, dismisses him upon easy terms, and takes his bare word for the performance, without the least care for the reparation of God’s honor. Stackhouse.

It corresponds to the case of Agag, whom Saul spared, but whom Samuel slew. The Lord had appointed this man to “utter destruction;” and Ahab knew it. He was to be taught to know, in avenging justice, the greatness of that God he had blasphemed; and the power of the state he ruled was to be so broken as to render it incapable of giving further trouble to Israel. All these public duties Ahab had neglected to gratify a private sentiment; and doubtless from a sympathy with idolatry, which it ill became a king of Israel to show. It was in this that he offended; and his offence was great. To view it rightly, we must look to the misery thereafter caused Israel by the very power which he threw away this opportunity of rendering harmless; and with peculiar intensity must we regard the fact that a few years after Ahab met his death in battle with the very king he thus befriended, and under the orders of that king to his soldiers to aim their weapons exclusively against the life of the man who had spared his own. Kitto.

It is to be remembered, first, that Ahab was not free to do as he liked in this matter. His victories had been won, not by his prowess, by the skill of his generals or the valor of his soldiers, but by the power of God alone. The war was God’s war; it was begun and continued, and should therefore have been ended, in Him. When even the details of the attack had been ordered of God (verse 14), surely He should have been consulted as to the disposal of the prisoners. But Ahab, who had himself played so craven a part (verses 21, 31), and had contributed nothing to these great and unhoped-for victories, nevertheless arrogated to himself their fruits, and thereby ignored and dishonored God. Secondly, if he had so little regard for his own private interests as to liberate such a man as Benhadad, he ought, as trustee for the peace and welfare of Israel, to have acted differently. The demand of verse 6 should have revealed to him the character of the man he had to deal with. And lastly, he was acting in defiance of all the principles and precedents of the Old Testament dispensation. The king was the authorized dispenser of rewards and punishments, not only to wicked subjects but to aggressive nations. It was his duty to mete out to them the measure they had served to Israel. And the precedents were all in favor of putting such wretches as this Benhadad to the sword (Josh. 10 : 26; Judges 7 : 25; 1 Sam. 15 : 33). If he had been the first oppressor who fell into the hands of Israel, Ahab might have had some excuse. But with the fate of Agag, of Adonibezek, of Oreb and Zeeb, in his memory, he ought at any rate to have paused and asked counsel of God before taking Benhadad into his chariot and sending him away with a covenant of peace, to reappear at no distant period on the scene as the scourge of the Lord’s people. Hammond.

A personal fact is not indistinctly suggested by the allegory of the prophet. The soul’s life is the forfeit of its neglect of an offered salvation through life-long absorption in this and that object of desire and pursuit. That is all. Busy—busy—busy—here and there! That is the epitaph of many a lost soul! Busy here and there, and the life entrusted to me, the life upon which my life was staked, gone—gone forever! Busy, here and there, gathering, not wasting, using, not abusing mental gifts, business talents, mechanical skill, mother-love, graceful accomplishments, learning, wealth, position and influence, yet the true life, to which all these gifts and gains are designed to be subsidiary and helpful, gone, escaped forever! To this consciousness of life neglected, of Christ rejected, of an eternal future forgotten and disregarded, and to this experience, must come at length every living man, every living woman, who is busied life-long exclusively with these best concerns of earth. And when that consciousness and experience are realized at the judgment of the great day, the confirming voice of God’s condemnation shall sound within the long-busy soul itself. “Thyself hast decided it,” was the self-condemning sentence of Ahab when the fiat of Jehovah had gone forth for his destruction. And thus self-adjusted and self-condemned shall be every world-busy but God-rejecting man! B.