1 Kings 20:21-23

Amplified Bible

²¹The king of Israel went out and struck [the riders of] the horses and chariots, and killed the Arameans in a great slaughter.

²²Then the prophet approached the king of Israel and said to him, “Go, strengthen yourself and observe and see what you have to do; for at the first of next year the king of Aram (Syria) will come up against you.”

²³Now the servants of the king of Aram said to him, “Israel’s ^[a]god is a ^[b]god of the hills; that is why they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they.

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Footnotes

1 Kings 20:23 Or gods are gods.
1 Kings 20:23 In polytheistic religions it was common for gods to be associated with particular topological regions or natural events (like rain or lightning). The thinking evidently was that supernatural beings must control the many aspects of nature, and that man could gain some control over nature by acknowledging and appeasing these beings. The Arameans (Syrians) may have associated the God of Israel with Mt. Sinai; and instead of realizing that they needed to appeal to the one true God who favored Israel, they imagined that God did not control the plains and valleys (cf v 28), and that Israel could be defeated there by superior numbers.