1 Kings 20:23-43

Good News Translation

The Second Syrian Attack

²³ King Benhadad's officials said to him, “The gods of Israel are mountain gods, and that is why the Israelites defeated us. But we will certainly defeat them if we fight them in the plains. ²⁴ Now, remove the thirty-two rulers from their commands and replace them with field commanders. ²⁵ Then call up an army as large as the one that deserted you, with the same number of horses and chariots. We will fight the Israelites in the plains, and this time we will defeat them.”

King Benhadad agreed and followed their advice. ²⁶ The following spring he called up his men and marched with them to the city of Aphek to attack the Israelites. ²⁷ The Israelites were called up and equipped; they marched out and camped in two groups facing the Syrians. The Israelites looked like two small flocks of goats compared to the Syrians, who spread out over the countryside.

²⁸ A prophet went to King Ahab and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Syrians say that I am a god of the hills and not of the plains, I will give you victory over their huge army, and you and your people will know that I am the Lord.’”

²⁹ For seven days the Syrians and the Israelites stayed in their camps, facing each other. On the seventh day they started fighting, and the Israelites killed a hundred thousand Syrians. ³⁰ The survivors fled into the city of Aphek, where the city walls fell on twenty-seven thousand of them.

Benhadad also escaped into the city and took refuge in the back room of a house. ³¹ His officials went to him and said, “We have heard that the Israelite kings are merciful. Give us permission to go to the king of Israel with sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our necks, and maybe he will spare your life.” ³² So they wrapped sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their necks, went to Ahab and said, “Your servant Benhadad pleads with you for his life.”

Ahab answered, “Is he still alive? Good! He's like a brother to me!”

³³ Benhadad's officials were watching for a good sign, and when Ahab said “brother,” they took it up at once, and said, “As you say, Benhadad is your brother!”

“Bring him to me,” Ahab ordered. When Benhadad arrived, Ahab invited him to get in the chariot with him. ³⁴ Benhadad said to him, “I will restore to you the towns my father took from your father, and you may set up a commercial center for yourself in Damascus, just as my father did in Samaria.”

Ahab replied, “On these terms, then, I will set you free.” He made a treaty with him and let him go.

A Prophet Condemns Ahab

³⁵ At the Lord's command a member of a group of prophets ordered a fellow prophet to hit him. But he refused, ^36 (A)so he said to him, “Because you have disobeyed the Lord's command, a lion will kill you as soon as you leave me.” And as soon as he left, a lion came along and killed him.

³⁷ Then this same prophet went to another man and said, “Hit me!” This man did so; he hit him a hard blow and hurt him. ³⁸ The prophet bandaged his face with a cloth, to disguise himself, and went and stood by the road, waiting for the king of Israel to pass. ³⁹ As the king was passing by, the prophet called out to him and said, “Your Majesty, I was fighting in the battle when a soldier brought a captured enemy to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if he escapes, you will pay for it with your life or else pay a fine of three thousand pieces of silver.’ ⁴⁰ But I got busy with other things, and the man escaped.”

The king answered, “You have pronounced your own sentence, and you will have to pay the penalty.”

⁴¹ The prophet tore the cloth from his face, and at once the king recognized him as one of the prophets. ⁴² The prophet then said to the king, “This is the word of the Lord: ‘Because you allowed the man to escape whom I had ordered to be killed, you will pay for it with your life, and your army will be destroyed for letting his army escape.’”

⁴³ The king went back home to Samaria, worried and depressed.