1 Kings 20:15-37

¹⁵So Ahab called up the 232 young officers of the district commanders, and assembled the 7,000 soldiers that made up Israel's army.

¹⁶They left at noon while Ben-hadad and the thirty-two kings with him were busy getting drunk in their tents.

¹⁷The young officers of the district commanders took the lead. The scouts Ben-hadad had sent out came and reported to him, “Enemy soldiers are advancing from Samaria.”

¹⁸“If they're coming in peace, take them alive,” he ordered. “If they're coming to attack, take them alive.”

¹⁹The young officers of the district commanders advanced from the city, followed by the army.

²⁰Each man killed his opponent, and the Arameans ran away. The Israelites chased them, but Ben-hadad, king of Aram, escaped on horseback with his cavalry.

²¹Then the king of Israel came out and attacked the horses and chariots. He inflicted a great defeat on the Arameans.

²²Later on the prophet came to the king of Israel and told him, “Go and reinforce your defenses, and check what you need to do, because in the spring the king of Aram will come and attack you again.”

²³In the meantime the king of Aram's officers told him, “Their gods are gods of the mountains. That's why they could defeat us. But if we fight them in the lowlands, we can beat them.

²⁴You should do this: remove each of the kings from their positions and replace them with commanders.

²⁵You also have to raise another army to replace the one you lost—horse for horse, chariot for chariot. Then we can fight them in the lowlands and we will definitely beat them.” Ben-hadad listened to their advice and did as they said.

²⁶When spring came Ben-hadad called up the Aramean army and went to attack Israel at Aphek.

²⁷The Israelite army was also called up and provided with supplies. They went to confront the Arameans. But when the Israelites set up their camp opposite the enemy they looked like couple of flocks of goats in comparison with the Aramean army that filled the whole land.

²⁸Then the man of God came to the king of Israel and said, “This is what the Lord says: Because the Arameans have said, ‘The Lord is only a god of the mountains and not of the valleys,’ I will make you victorious over the whole of this massive army. Then you will be convinced that I am the Lord.”

²⁹The armies camped opposite each other for seven days. On the seventh day the battle took place. The Israelites killed 100,000 of the Aramean infantry in one day.

³⁰The rest ran away to the town of Aphek, where a wall collapsed on 27,000 of those that remained. Ben-hadad also ran to the town and hid in an inside room.

³¹Ben-hadad's officers said to him, “Look, we've heard that the Israelite kings are merciful. Let's surrender to the king of Israel, wearing sackcloth around our waists and ropes on our heads. Maybe he will let you live.”

³²So wearing sackcloth around their waists and ropes on their heads, they went and surrendered to the king of Israel, and told him, “Your servant Ben-hadad asks, ‘Please let me live.’” The king replied “Is he still alive? I think of him as my brother.”

³³The men thought this was a good sign and they immediately took the king at his word, saying, “Yes, Ben-hahad is your brother.” “Go and fetch him!” said the king. So Ben-hadad came out of hiding and surrendered to Ahab, who pulled him up into his chariot.

³⁴Ben-hadad said to him, “I will return the towns my father took from your father, and you can organize your own places for trade in Damascus, like my father did in Samaria.” “By making this agreement I set you free,” Ahab replied. He made a treaty with Ben-hadad and let him go.

³⁵Following a message he received from the Lord, one of the sons of the prophets said to his colleague, “Please hit me.” But the man refused to hit him.

³⁶So the prophet told him, “Since you have not done what the Lord said, once you leave me a lion is going to kill you.” When the man left, a lion came and killed him.

³⁷The prophet found another man and said, “Please hit me!” So the man hit him, wounding him.