First Book of Kings 20

¹ Ben-hadad king of Aram[*a] mustered his whole army – thirty-two kings were with him, and horses and chariots – and went up to lay siege to Samaria and storm it.

² He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel to tell him,

³ ‘Thus says Ben-hadad, “Your silver and gold are mine; you may keep your wives and children”.’

⁴ “The king of Israel replied, ‘As you command, my lord king. Myself and all I have are yours.’

⁵ But the messengers came back and said, ‘Ben-hadad says this, “I sent you this order: Hand over your silver and your gold, your wives and your children.

⁶ Count on it that this time tomorrow I will send my servants to search your house and your servants’ houses and lay hands on all they fancy and take it away.”‘

⁷ The king of Israel summoned all the elders of the land and said, ‘You can see clearly how this man intends to ruin us. He now claims my wives and my children, although I have not refused him my silver and my gold.’

⁸ All the elders and all the people said, ‘Take no notice. Do not consent’.

⁹ So he gave this answer to Ben-hadad’s messengers, ‘Say to my lord the king, “All you first required of your servant I will do, but this I cannot do”‘. And the messengers went back with the answer.

¹⁰ Ben-hadad then sent him the following message, ‘May the gods do this to me and more if there are enough handfuls of rubble in Samaria for all the people in my following’.

¹¹ But the king of Israel returned this answer, ‘The proverb says: The man who puts on his armour is not the one who can boast, but the man who takes it off’.

¹² When Ben-hadad heard this message – he was under the awnings drinking with the kings – he gave orders to his servants, ‘Take post!’ And they took up their positions against the city.

¹³ A prophet then arrived, looking for Ahab king of Israel. ‘Yahweh says this’ he said. ‘You have seen this mighty army? This very day I will deliver it into your hands, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.’

¹⁴ ‘By whose means?’ asked Ahab. The prophet replied, ‘Yahweh says this, “By means of the young soldiers of the district governors”‘. ‘Who is to open the attack?’ Ahab asked. ‘Yourself’ the prophet answered.

¹⁵ So Ahab inspected the young soldiers of the district governors: there were two hundred and thirty-two. After these he reviewed the whole army, all the Israelites: there were seven thousand.

¹⁶ They made a sortie at midday, when Ben-hadad was drinking himself senseless under the awnings, he and the thirty-two kings who were his allies.

¹⁷ The young soldiers of the district governors led the sortie. Ben-hadad was informed, ‘Some men have come out of Samaria’.

¹⁸ He said, ‘If they have come out for peace, take them alive; if they have come out for war, take them alive too’.

¹⁹ So they made a sortie from the town, the young soldiers of the district governors and behind them the army,

²⁰ and each struck down his man. Aram took to flight and Israel pursued; Ben-hadad king of Aram escaped on a chariot horse.

²¹ Then the king of Israel came out, capturing horses and chariots and inflicting a great defeat on Aram.

²² The prophet went up to the king of Israel. ‘Come,’ he said to him ‘take courage and think carefully what you should do, for at the turn of the year the king of Aram will march against you.’

²³ The servants of the king of Aram said to him, ‘Their god is a god of the mountains; that is why they have proved stronger than us. But if we fight them on level ground, we will certainly beat them.

²⁴ This is what you must do: remove all these kings from their posts and appoint commanders instead.

²⁵ You, for your part, must recruit an army as large as the one that deserted you, with as many horses and as many chariots; then if we fight them on level ground, we will certainly beat them.’ He listened to their advice and acted accordingly.

²⁶ At the turn of the year, Ben-hadad mustered the Aramaeans and went up to Aphek to fight Israel.

²⁷ The Israelites had also mustered, and marched out to meet them. Encamped opposite them, the Israelites looked like two herds of goats, whereas the Aramaeans filled the countryside.

²⁸ The man of God accosted the king of Israel. ‘Yahweh says this’ he said. ‘”Since Aram has said that Yahweh is a god of the mountains and not a god of the plains, I will put all this mighty host into your power, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.”‘

²⁹ For seven days they were encamped opposite each other. On the seventh day battle was joined and the Israelites slaughtered the Aramaeans, a hundred thousand foot soldiers[*b] in one day.

³⁰ The rest fled to Aphek, into the town itself, but the walls fell down on the twenty-seven thousand who remained. Now Ben-hadad had fled and taken refuge within the town in an inner room.

³¹ ‘Look,’ his servants said to him ‘we have heard that the kings of Israel are merciful kings. Let us put sackcloth round our waists and ropes on our heads and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will spare your life.’

³² So they wrapped sackcloth round their waists and put ropes on their heads and went to the king of Israel, and said, ‘Your servant Ben-hadad says, “Spare my life”‘. ‘So he is still alive?’ he answered. ‘He is my brother.'[*c]

³³ The men took this for a good omen and quickly seized on his words. ‘Yes,’ they said ‘Ben-hadad is your brother.’ Ahab said, ‘Go and fetch him’. Then Ben-hadad came out to him and Ahab made him get up into his chariot.

³⁴ Ben-hadad said, ‘I will restore the towns my father took from your father and you may set up bazaars for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria. Myself, by the terms of this treaty, you will set free.’ So Ahab made a treaty with him and let him go free.

³⁵ At Yahweh’s order a member of the brotherhood of prophets said to a companion of his, ‘Strike me’, but the man refused to strike him.

³⁶ So he said to him, ‘Since you have disobeyed the order of Yahweh, the very moment you leave me a lion will kill you’. And no sooner had he left him than he met a lion, which killed him.

³⁷ The prophet then went to find another man and said, ‘Strike me’, and the man struck him and wounded him.

³⁸ The prophet then went and stood waiting for the king on the road, disguising himself with his headband over his eyes.

³⁸ As the king passed, he called out to him, ‘Your servant was making his way to where the fight was thickest when someone left the fighting to bring a man to me, and said, “Guard this man; if he is found missing, your life will pay for his, or else you will have to pay one talent of silver”.

⁴⁰ But while your servant was busy with one thing and another, the man disappeared.’ The king of Israel said, ‘That is your sentence, then. You have pronounced it yourself.’

⁴¹ At this the man quickly pulled off the headband covering his eyes, and the king of Israel recognised him as one of the prophets.[*d]

⁴² He said to the king, ‘Yahweh says this, “Since you have let the man escape who was under my ban, your life will pay for his, your people for his people”‘.

⁴³ And off went the king of Israel, gloomy and out of temper, on his way back to Samaria.