1 Kings 20:11-32

¹¹King Ahab replied to the messengers, “Tell King Ben-Hadad that a soldier who is putting on his armor preparing to fight a battle MTY should not boast at that time; he should wait until after he wins the battle.”

¹²Ben-Hadad heard that message while he and the other rulers were drinking wine in their temporary shelters. He told his men to prepare to attack MTY the city. So his men did that.

¹³At that moment, a prophet came to King Ahab and said to him, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘ Do not be at all afraid RHQ of the large enemy army that you see! I will enable your army to defeat them today, and you will know that it is I, Yahweh, who have the power to do what I say that I will do.’”

¹⁴Ahab asked, “What group of our army will defeat them?” The prophet replied, “The young soldiers who are commanded by the district governors will do it.” The king asked, “Who should lead the attack?” The prophet replied, “You should!”

¹⁵So Ahab gathered the young soldiers who were commanded by the district governors. There were 232 of those men. Then he also summoned all the Israeli army. There were only 7,000 soldiers.

¹⁶They started to attack at noon, while Ben-Hadad and the other rulers were getting drunk in their temporary shelters.

¹⁷The young soldiers advanced first. Some scouts who had been sent out by Ben-Hadad reported to him, “There are men coming out of Samaria city”!

¹⁸He said, “It does not matter whether they are coming to fight against us or to ask for peace. Capture them, but do not kill them

¹⁹The young Israeli soldiers went out of the city to attack the Syrian army, and the other soldiers in the Israeli army followed them.

²⁰Each Israeli soldier killed a Syrian soldier. The rest of the Syrian army then ran away, and the Israeli soldiers pursued them. But King Ben-Hadad escaped riding his horse, along with some other men riding horses.

²¹Then the king of Israel went out of the city, and he and his soldiers captured all the other Syrian horses and chariots, and also killed a large number of Syrian soldiers.

²²Then that same prophet went to King Ahab and said to him, “Go back and prepare your soldiers, and think carefully about what will be necessary for you to do, because the king of Syria with attack with his army again in the springtime of next year.”

²³After the Syrian army was defeated, Ben-Hadad's officials said to him, “The gods that the Israelis worship are gods who live in the hills. Samaria is built on a hill, and that is why their soldiers were able to defeat us. But if we fight against them in the plains/lowlands, we certainly will be able to defeat them.

²⁴So, this is what you should do: You must remove the 32 kings who are leading your troops and replace them with army commanders.

²⁵Then gather an army like the army that was defeated. Gather an army that has as many horses and chariots as the first army had. Then we will fight the Israelis in the plains/lowlands, and we will surely defeat them.” Ben-Hadad agreed with them, and he did what they suggested.

²⁶In the spring of the following year, he gathered his soldiers and marched with them to Aphek city east of Galilee Lake, to fight against the Israeli army.

²⁷The Israeli army was also gathered together, and they were equipped with the things that they needed for the battle. Then they marched out and formed two groups facing the Syrian army. Their army was very small; they resembled two small flocks of goats, whereas the Syrian army was very large and spread all over the countryside.

²⁸A prophet came to King Ahab and said to him, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘The Syrians say that I am a god who lives in the hills, and that I am not a god who lives in the valleys. So I will show that they are wrong by enabling your men to defeat this huge army IDM in the valley, and you will know that I, Yahweh, have done it.’”

²⁹The two armies stayed in their tents for seven days, in groups that faced each other. Then, on the seventh day, they started fighting. The Israeli army killed 100,000 Syrian soldiers.

³⁰The other Syrian soldiers ran away into Aphek City. Then the wall of the city collapsed and killed 27,000 more Syrian soldiers. Ben-Hadad also escaped into the city, and hid in the back room of a house.

³¹His officials went to him and said, “We have heard a report that the Israelis act mercifully. So allow us to go to the king of Israel, wearing coarse sacks around our waists and ropes on our heads/necks to indicate that we will be his slaves. Perhaps if we do that, he will allow you to remain alive.”

³²The king permitted them to do that, so they wrapped coarse sacks around their waists and put ropes on their heads/necks, and they went to the king of Israel and said to him, “Ben-Hadad, who greatly respects you, says, ‘Please do not kill me.’” Ahab replied, “Is he still alive? He is like a brother to me!”