1 Kingschapter 20
43 verses · Jeremiah, by tradition · 6th century BC · History
Meanwhile, by the word of the LORD, one of the sons of the prophets said to his companion, “Strike me, please!” But the man refused to strike him.
Introduction
Jeremiah, by tradition, History, 1 Kings Overview.
The writer of Kings is not named, and Jewish tradition gives the book to Jeremiah. Here he turns from Elijah back to the wars of the north. His first hearers lived under a foreign empire and knew what the terms of surrender cost a city. The chapter is war narrative with prophets at every turn, most of them unnamed. It shows God giving victory to a king He has already condemned, and it says why. Listen for how the enemy explains his defeat, and for the last scene, where a prophet disguises himself so that a king will pass sentence on himself.
Context
- Who
- Israelites facing the army that would dominate the region for the next century
- What
- An account of two Aramean attacks on Israel, Ahab's victories at Samaria and Aphek, and his release of Ben-hadad.
- Where
- Samaria under siege, the hill country around it, and the walled town of Aphek on the plain.
- When
- About 858 to 856 BC, two campaigns a year apart before the battle of Qarqar; the years are reckoned.
- Why
- To show that the LORD is God of the hills and the plains alike, and that sparing an enemy God had given over brought judgment.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Ahab and to two unnamed prophets, one who brings the word before each battle and one of the sons of the prophets who delivers the sentence at the end.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The time is the stretch between Carmel and Ramoth-gilead, and the two campaigns are separated by one turn of the year.
The places are Samaria, which Omri had founded as the northern capital, and Aphek, a walled town on ground the Arameans chose for its flatness.
The occasion is a siege and its terms. Ben-Hadad's first message claims the silver, the gold, the wives and the children, which were the standard terms of submission. The second says his servants will search the palace and every house themselves, which is occupation.
A first hearer knew how a coalition army worked, since the thirty-two kings were city rulers under a dominant king, each bringing a contingent.
He also knew the religious reasoning at verse 23, because assigning a god to its own terrain was a fixed principle of the old polytheism.
The surrender at verse 31 is a recognised ritual, sackcloth on the body and ropes on the head, the posture of a man offering himself as a slave to be spared. What Ben-Hadad buys his life with is a trade concession, the right to set up an Israelite market quarter in Damascus.
Significance
Twice in this chapter God gives victory to a king He has already condemned, and says why both times, that you will know that I am the LORD. The first hearers were shown mercy given for the sake of God's name.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The sting is in the last scene. Ahab treats a defeated enemy king as a business partner and calls him his brother, and a prophet tells him that the man he released will cost him his own life.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The corpus reads the second demand of the Aramean king as a demand for something other than treasure, and that reading turns the whole chapter. Rashi asks what is left to ask for once the silver, the gold, the wives and the children have already been conceded. He answers that the words mean "a treasure within a treasure, referring to the Torah Scroll", citing the psalm that calls the LORD's words more desirable than gold. He then explains why the king of Israel summons the elders before refusing: "for even though they worshiped idols, they honored the Torah." (Rashi on I Kings 20:6:1). From the Talmud at Sanhedrin he carries the reward given for that refusal. The note reads, "God therefore rewarded him with a reign of 22 years corresponding to the 22 letters of the Alef Beis with which the Torah is written." (Rashi on I Kings 20:6:1). The translation is The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, under CC-BY. A king the book judges worse than all before him is in this reading credited with one act, and the length of his reign is read as its wage.
The exchange of messages is read close to the idiom. The first demand Rashi glosses as a decree rather than a request (Rashi on I Kings 20:5:1). The boast about the dust of Samaria he renders from Targum Yonatan as the earth that sticks to the soles of the feet. Radak's alternative is that the word means fistfuls, and that the boast is about the size of the army (Rashi on I Kings 20:10:1). The answer sent back he explains as a rule about timing. A man arming himself for war should hold his tongue, "for he does not know whether or not he will be victorious." (Rashi on I Kings 20:11:1). The order given over the wine he reads as the order to set the siege engines against the city (Rashi on I Kings 20:12:1).
Two of Rashi's notes here tie this chapter to the ones on either side of it. The unnamed prophet who comes to the king he identifies as Micaiah the son of Imlah, pointing forward to the chapter where that name is spoken (Rashi on I Kings 20:13:1). The seven thousand counted in the muster he identifies with the seven thousand named at Horeb. He writes, "I say that they are the ones about whom it is stated", those whose knees had stayed unbent to Baal (Rashi on I Kings 20:15:1). The corpus therefore reads the campaign as fought by the remnant of the chapter before it, under a prophet named in the chapter after it. That is one reading of why this chapter stands between the two.
The rest is read as military detail. The young men of the provincial officers are the hostages, "for all the governors of the other nations would give their children into his custody" as a guarantee against revolt. Radak's alternative is that they were the sons of the king's own officers, raised at court (Rashi on I Kings 20:14:1). The enemy drinking at noon is drinking in the shelters they had made against the sun (Rashi on I Kings 20:16:1). The turn of the year Rashi renders from Targum Yonatan. He then explains it as the spring, when provisions stand in the fields for men and animals, and points to the same season in Samuel (Rashi on I Kings 20:22:1). The advice to replace the kings with governors he reads as a calculation about ambition, that men of low family will try harder to find favour (Rashi on I Kings 20:24:1). The promise that follows he reads as a challenge to watch and see (Rashi on I Kings 20:25:1).
Radak, Metzudat David and Malbim comment across the chapter as well. The corpus carries their refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand here cited and unquoted. The corpus holds Radak on I Kings 20:4:1, 20:9:1, 20:18:1, 20:19:1, 20:20:1, 20:21:1 and 20:23:1. It holds Metzudat David on I Kings 20:1:1, 20:7:1 and 20:17:1. It holds Malbim on I Kings 20:3:1 and 20:8:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-seven rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. The siege and the demands carry the first group, and several of them sit in the same Talmudic discussion Rashi draws on. On the first verse the corpus carries Esther Rabbah 1:5, with Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Miketz 11:2 set across the first to the eleventh. On the second it carries Sanhedrin 102b:10, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:75 across the second to the ninth, and on the eighth, where the elders tell the king to refuse, Sanhedrin 102b:12. On the third it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 29:1 and on the tenth, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 11:8:4.
The first campaign carries one locator each on four verses. Seder Olam Rabbah 20:2 stands on the thirteenth, where the prophet comes, and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 11:15 on the fifteenth, the muster. Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Noah 22 stands on the sixteenth and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 9:1 on the seventeenth. Three more stand on the twenty-first: Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shemot 26:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 29:2 and Shemot Rabbah 3:8.
The heaviest cluster in the chapter stands on the twenty-eighth verse, where the man of God answers the Aramean claim that the LORD is a god of the hills. Four of its eight are Eikhah Rabbah 1:41, Midrash Shmuel 24:8, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 5:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Emor 3:1. The other four are Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 33:1:22, Sifrei Devarim 342:6, Vayikra Rabbah 26:8 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 951:10. Three of those works are named for the man of God's title rather than for the battle, which is how the corpus files a verse about who God is. The seven days of facing armies carry three on the twenty-ninth. They are Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 31:6, Otzar Midrashim, Midrash Gadol u'Gedolah 18 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 18:1. The sackcloth and ropes of the defeated servants carry Otzar Midrashim, Midrash Shelosha v'Arba'ah 3:11 on the thirty-first.
The closing scene, where one of the sons of the prophets sets a trap for the king, carries the last run. On the thirty-fifth verse a prophet orders a man to strike him and the man refuses. The corpus carries five there: Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 10:4, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 10:7, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 18:19:2, Sanhedrin 89b:1 and Sifrei Devarim 177:1. Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 11:5:9 stands across the thirty-fifth to the forty-second. Those are the same places the corpus cites for the man of God and the old prophet earlier in this book. The two scenes are read together as one question about obeying a prophet's word. On the thirty-eighth, where the prophet disguises himself with a bandage, it carries Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 16:29:276. On the thirty-ninth it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Ki Tisa 6:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 11:1, and on the fortieth, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 11:7:1. On the forty-third, where the king goes home sullen and angry, it carries Shemot Rabbah 2:6. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Kings 20:5:1, 20:6:1, 20:10:1, 20:11:1, 20:12:1, 20:13:1, 20:14:1, 20:15:1, 20:16:1, 20:22:1, 20:24:1 and 20:25:1, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Kings 20:4:1, 20:9:1, 20:18:1, 20:19:1, 20:20:1, 20:21:1 and 20:23:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Kings 20:1:1, 20:7:1 and 20:17:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on I Kings 20:3:1 and 20:8:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-kings/20.json, the 37 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Let not him that girdeth on his armor boast as he that putteth it off
1 Kings 20:1-3
assembled his entire army: Ben-hadad's confederation of “thirty-two kings” recalls a Syria that David had once subdued and made tributary. Israel's apostasy under Ahab lets a broken enemy grow strong again. The siege opens with an unlimited demand for silver, gold, wives and children, framed as though Ahab's surrender were already settled.
1 Kings 20:1
“Ben-hadad, the king of Syria - Probably the son of the Ben-hadad who assisted Asa against Baasha (1Ki 15:18 note). Thirty and two kings with him - Not allies, but feudatories 1Ki 20:24. Damascus had in the reign of this Ben-hadad become the center of an important monarchy, which may not improbably have extended from the Euphrates to the northern border of Israel. The Assyrian inscriptions show that this country was about the period in question parcelled out into a multitude of petty kingdoms, the chief tribes who possessed it being the Hittites, the Hamathites, and the Syrians of Damascus.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Kings 20:1
“What the ground of the quarrel was we are not told; covetousness and ambition were the principle, which would never want some pretence or other. David in his time had quite subdued the Syrians and made them tributaries to Israel, but Israel's apostasy from God makes them formidable again.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
sent messengers into the city: Ben-hadad talks before he fights. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read his messages as boasts meant to frighten Ahab into giving up Samaria without a battle. The city stood on the hill Omri had bought and built at 1 Kings 16:24.
1 Kings 20:2
“Ben-hadad's object in these and other boastful menaces was to intimidate Ahab. But the weak sovereign began to show a little more spirit, as appears in his abandoning "my lord the king" for the single "tell him," and giving him a dry but sarcastic hint to glory no more till the victory is won.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The demand reaches past the treasury into the king's own household. John Gill notes that Ahab had other wives beside Jezebel. By 2 Kings 10:1 he also had seventy sons in Samaria.
1 Kings 20:3
“Thy silver and thy gold is mine,.... Not of right, but reckoning it as good as in his hands, Ahab not being able to resist him: and thy wives also; for it seems he had more than Jezebel: and thy children; which were many, for he had no less than seventy sons, 2Ki 10:1, even the goodliest are mine: some aggravate this, as if his view was to commit the unnatural sin with his male children, when in his possession.”
1 Kings 20:4-6
Ahab surrenders outright, hoping submission will buy peace, but Ben-hadad's second message shows that yielding to an unjust demand invites a larger one. The first request asked for what Ahab might have handed over as tribute. The second sends servants to search every house and carry off whatever pleases them.
1 Kings 20:4
“And the king of Israel answered and said, my lord, O king,.... So he said to Benhadad's messengers, representing him, as acknowledging his sovereignty over him: according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have: which he understood of holding all that he had of him, by giving him homage, and paying him tribute; not that he was to deliver all his substance, and especially his wives and children, into his hands.”
Ben-hadad restates his first message to fix its meaning. John Gill reads Ahab as having heard it as a vassal's terms, a yearly tribute paid to keep his goods. The envoys now make plain that the goods themselves were claimed.
1 Kings 20:5
“And the messengers came again,.... From Benhadad: and said, thus speaketh Benhadad, saying, although I have sent unto thee, saying: at the first message: thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children; into his possession, and not as Ahab understood it, that he should be his vassal, and pay a yearly tribute for his quiet enjoyment of them; yet even this he would not now abide by, growing still more haughty upon the mean submission of Ahab, as by what follows.”
search your palace and the houses: Adam Clarke saw little difference from the first demand. He records the guess of the Jewish commentator Jarchi that Ben-hadad wanted the book of the law. Clarke reads the search of the palace and every house as the sack of the whole city.
1 Kings 20:6
“Whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes - It is not easy to discern in what this second requisition differed from the first; for surely his silver, gold, wives, and children, were among his most pleasant or desirable things. Jarchi supposes that it was the book of the law of the Lord which Ben-hadad meant, and of which he intended to deprive Israel. It is however evident that Ben-hadad meant to sack the whole city, and after having taken the royal treasures and the wives and children of the king, to deliver up the whole to be pillaged by his soldiers.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 20:7-9
summoned all the elders of the land: Ahab calls the elders of the land and lays the second demand before them. Their answer is unanimous, “Do not listen to him or consent to his terms”. He still stands by the surrender of verse 4, a half-measure that leaves Ben-hadad free to call it treachery.
1 Kings 20:7
“Seeketh mischief - Though he pretended peace, upon these terms propounded, it is apparent by those additional demands, that he intends nothing less than our utter ruin.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
And the elders and the people: The people join the elders, so the whole city of Samaria stands behind the refusal of the king. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown mark this as the point where Ahab began to show some spirit. His next answer to Ben-hadad is firmer.
1 Kings 20:8
“And all the elders and all the people said unto him,.... They were unanimous in their advice: hearken not unto him, nor consent; promising, no doubt, that they would stand by him.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 20:8
“The people” had no distinct place in the ordinary Jewish or Israelite constitution; but they were accustomed to signify their approbation or disapprobation of the decisions of the elders by acclamations or complaints (Jos 9:18; Jdg 11:11, etc.).
1 Kings 20:8
“Hearken not unto him - The elders had every thing at stake, and they chose rather to make a desperate defense than tamely to yield to such degrading and ruinous conditions.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ahab still calls Ben-hadad my lord the king and himself your servant. Two verses later the courtesy is gone, and his reply opens with a bare order to tell him. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see a king finding his nerve.
1 Kings 20:9
“I must not give what is none of my own." It was a mortification to Ben-hadad that even such an abject spirit as Ahab's durst deny him; yet it should seem, by his manner of expressing himself, that he durst not have done it if his people had not animated him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 20:10-11
if enough dust remains of Samaria: Ben-hadad swears by his own gods that not “enough dust remains of Samaria for each of my men to have a handful”. Ahab answers with a proverb, “The one putting on his armor should not boast like one taking it off”. What the proverb warns against follows within the chapter.
1 Kings 20:10
“If the dust of Samaria shall suffice - This is variously understood. Jonathan translates thus: “If the dust of Shomeron shall be sufficient for the soles of the feet of the people that shall accompany me;” i.e., I shall bring such an army that there will scarcely be room for them to stand in Samaria and its vicinity.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Charles Spurgeon notes that trading insults before battle was the custom of warring kings in that age. Adam Clarke cites the Aramaic Targum of Jonathan: the man going down to battle should wait to boast until he comes back a victor. The boast of verse 10 now has its answer.
1 Kings 20:11
“Let not him that girdeth on - This was no doubt a proverbial mode of expression. Jonathan translates, “Tell him, Let not him who girds himself and goes down to the battle, boast as he who has conquered and returned from it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 20:11
“THESE two kings were about to proceed to war and they irritated one another by insulting messages. That was the custom of all combatants in the old heathen times. They seemed to delight in stinging each other and exciting each other's worst passions before they commenced the battle. Let it not be so among us. If we have to contend for the Truth of God let us endeavor to do it in the kindest spirit.”
1 Kings 20:12-13
while he and the kings were drinking: An unnamed prophet brings a promise: “I will deliver it into your hand this very day, and you will know that I am the LORD”. The same formula runs through the plagues of Exodus. Here it is spoken over a king who asked for no sign.
1 Kings 20:12
“In the pavilions - This word comes from papilio, a butterfly, because tents, when pitched or spread out, resembled such animals; partly because of the mode of their expansion, and partly because of the manner in which they were painted. Set yourselves in array - The original word, שימו simu, which we translate by this long periphrasis, is probably a military term for Begin the attack, Invest the city, Every man to his post, or some such like expression.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Young men of the provinces rout a drunken camp
a prophet approached Ahab king of Israel: The prophet goes unnamed, and Albert Barnes records the rabbinic guess that he was Micaiah of 22:8. Matthew Henry reads so kind a message to so wicked a king as grace shown for Israel's sake, the seed of Abraham. Barnes reckons the army at more than 130,000.
1 Kings 20:13
“Behold, and wonder, that God should send a prophet with a kind and gracious message to so wicked a prince as Ahab was; but he did it, (1.) For his people Israel's sake, who, though wickedly degenerated, were the seed of Abraham his friend and Jacob his chosen, the children of the covenant, and not yet cast off.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 20:13
“This glorious victory, won so easily, and with such a paltry force opposed to overwhelming numbers, was granted that Ahab and his people might know (1Ki 20:13) that God is the Lord. But we do not read of this acknowledgment being made, or of any sacrifices being offered in token of their national gratitude.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 20:13
“The rabbinical commentators conjecture that this prophet was Micaiah, the son of Imlah, who is mentioned below 1Ki 22:8. Hast thou seen all this great multitude? - The boast of Ben-hadad 1Ki 20:10, was not without a basis of truth; his force seems to have exceeded 130, 000 (compare 1Ki 20:25, 1Ki 20:29-30). In his wars with the Assyrians we find him sometimes at the head of 100, 000 men.”
1 Kings 20:14-15
God names the instrument: “the young officers”, 232 men, with 7,000 more behind them. Ahab asks “Who will start the battle?”, and the prophet answers “You will”. Matthew Henry notes that the seven thousand match the number of 19:18, though he says they were likely not the same men.
1 Kings 20:14
“By the young men of the princes of the provinces - These were probably some chosen persons out of the militia of different districts, raised by the princes of the provinces; the same as we would call lord-lieutenants of counties.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
assembled the young officers of the district: Albert Barnes finds 7,000 a small force for so populous a land, set beside the armies of 2 Chronicles 13:3 and 17:14-18. He suggests the attack came suddenly and the long siege had thinned Samaria's garrison. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call it a paltry force.
1 Kings 20:15
“Seven thousand - Considering how populous Palestine was in the time of the earlier Israelite kings (see 2Ch 13:3; 2Ch 14:8; 2Ch 17:14-18), the smallness of this number is somewhat surprising. If the reading be sound, we must suppose, first, that Ben-hadad’s attack was very sudden, and that Ahab had no time to collect forces from distant parts of the country; and secondly, that during the long siege the garrison of Samaria had been greatly reduced, until it now did not exceed 7,000 men fit for service.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 20:15
“It is observable that it is the same number with theirs that he not bowed the knee to Baal ( ch. xix. 18 ), though, it is likely, not the same men. The issue was accordingly.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 20:16-18
in their tents getting drunk: Ben-hadad and “the 32 kings allied with him were in their tents getting drunk”, a contempt Barnes compares to Belshazzar's feast before Babylon fell. Told that men are coming out of Samaria, Ben-hadad orders them taken alive whether they come for peace or war.
young officers of the district governors marched: The young officers lead the march, as the prophet ordered at verse 14. Albert Barnes prefers the Greek Septuagint reading here, where the scouts send word to the king of Aram. Their report names the city: Samaria.
1 Kings 20:17
Ben-hadad sent out, and they told him - The Septuagint has a better reading: “they sent and told the king of Syria.”
John Gill notes that seizing men who came out to talk peace broke the custom of nations, which kept envoys safe. Ben-hadad gives one order for both cases. Gill reads the order as the voice of a king sure of an easy capture.
1 Kings 20:18
“And he said, whether they be come out for peace,.... To propose terms of peace: take them alive; make them prisoners, which was contrary to the laws of nations: or whether they be come out for war, take them alive; he made no doubt of their being easily taken; but he would not have them be put to death, that he might examine them, and know the state of things in Samaria, and what Ahab intended to do, that he might take his measures accordingly.”
1 Kings 20:19-21
with the army behind them: The young officers march out “with the army behind them”, and an army led by thirty-two kings breaks and runs. Matthew Henry asks where the boast of verse 10 has gone. The victory answers the prophet's word of verse 13 without any battle plan from Ahab.
1 Kings 20:19
“So these young men of the princes of the provinces came out of the city,.... First, as before observed, and marched forwards towards the Syrian camp: and the army which followed them; consisting of 7000 men.”
each one struck down his opponent: John Gill reckons the Aramean dead at 7,232, one for each Israelite who marched out. The Arameans flee and Israel gives chase. Ben-hadad escapes on horseback, and the Aramaic Targum, as Gill records it, gives him two pairs of horsemen as guards.
1 Kings 20:20
“And they slew everyone his man,.... The Syrian army, or at least a body of men detached from them, met them, opposed them, and fought them, and they slew of them 7232 men; as many as they themselves were: and the Syrians fled; not expecting such a rebuff: and Israel pursued them; to make some further advantage of their victory: and Benhadad the king of Syria escaped on an horse, with the horsemen; with two couple of horsemen, as the Targum; with these to guard him he galloped away as fast as he could for his life.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 20:20
“Now where are the silver and gold he demanded of Ahab? Where are the handfuls of Samaria's dust? Those that are most secure are commonly least courageous.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
attacked the horses and chariots: The king of Israel now leads a second wave against the Aramean chariots. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the victory was given so Ahab would know the LORD, yet no thanks or sacrifice is recorded after it. Aram rebuilds this chariot force at verse 25.
1 Kings 20:21
“28 And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the L ORD , Because the Syrians have said, The L ORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the L ORD .”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
God of the hills: and of the valleys too
1 Kings 20:22-23
The prophet returns and warns Ahab that Aram will come again in the spring. “Their gods are gods of the hills”, they say, so a battle on the plain should favor Aram's horses and chariots. Barnes notes that the old polytheism bound each people's god to its own ground.
1 Kings 20:22
“God had decreed the end, but Ahab must use the means, else he tempts God: "Help thyself, strengthen thyself, and God will help and strengthen thee." The enemies of God's Israel are restless in their malice, and, though they may take some breathing-time for themselves, yet they are still breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the church.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 20:22
“Go, strengthen thyself ... - That is, “collect troops, raise fortifications, obtain allies ... take all the measures thou canst to increase thy military strength. Be not rash, but consider well every step ... for a great danger is impending.” At the return of the year - i. e., “When the season for military operations again comes round.” The wars of the Oriental monarchs at this time, like those of early Rome, were almost always of the nature of annual incursions into the territories of their neighbors, begun in spring and terminating in early autumn.”
John Wesley finds policy inside the superstition. Aram's strength lay in horses and chariots, which fight best on level ground. Albert Barnes sets beside it the Assyrian boast about the gods of the nations at 2 Kings 18:33-35.
1 Kings 20:23
“Their gods are gods of the hills - The local power and influence of deities was a fixed principle of the ancient polytheism. Each country was considered to have its own gods; and wars were regarded as being to a great extent struggles between the gods of the nations engaged in them. This is apparent throughout the Assyrian inscriptions. Compare also 2Ki 18:33-35; 2Ki 19:12. The present passage gives an unusual modification of this view.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 20:23
“In the plain - Wherein there was not only superstition, but policy; because the Syrians excelled the Israelites in horses, which are most serviceable in plain ground.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 20:24-25
Dismiss all the kings from their positions: Aram answers with tactics. The servants tell Ben-hadad to “Dismiss all the kings from their positions”, then to rebuild the army “horse for horse and chariot for chariot”. Matthew Henry notes how quickly Aram refits after so great a loss, a sign of how rich and populous the kingdom was.
1 Kings 20:24
“Captains - That is, experienced soldiers of his own subjects, who would faithfully obey the commands of the general (to which the kings would not so readily yield) and use their utmost skill and valour for their own interest and advancement.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 20:24
“Let every man be employed in that which he is brought up to and used to, and preferred to that which he is fit for. Syria, it seems, was rich and populous, when it could furnish recruits sufficient, after so great a defeat, horse for horse, chariot for chariot.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The new army is built to fight on the ground the servants chose at verse 23. Matthew Henry reads the plan as sound soldiering, each man set to the work he was trained for. At 22:31 Aram still fields thirty-two chariot commanders.
1 Kings 20:26-27
went up to Aphek: Ben-hadad musters Syria again and marches to Aphek. Israel's whole muster, two hundred and thirty two and seven thousand, is described as “two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside”. The disproportion is stated plainly, so the outcome cannot be read as a matter of numbers.
1 Kings 20:26
“Ben-hadad numbered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek - There were several towns of this name; see the notes on Jos 12:18. It is supposed that the town mentioned here was situated in Libanus, upon the river Adonis, between Heliopolis and Biblos.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
like two small flocks of goats: The Hebrew word behind small flocks occurs nowhere else in Scripture. Albert Barnes takes it to mean simply flocks, and he notes that the Greek Septuagint reads two flocks of goats. The Israelites also gathered supplies, so this was a full campaign.
1 Kings 20:27
“Were all present - The marginal rendering is adopted by almost all critics. Like two little flocks of kids - The word translated “little flocks” does not occur elsewhere in Scripture. It seems to mean simply “flocks.” Compare the Septuagint, who render ὡσεί δύο ποίμνια αἰγῶν hōsei duo poimnia aigōn.”
1 Kings 20:28-29
the man of God approached the king of Israel: The man of God ties the victory to the ground itself. Because the Arameans think “the LORD is a god of the hills and not of the valleys”, He will deliver the whole army to Israel. On the seventh day Israel strikes down a hundred thousand foot soldiers.
1 Kings 20:28
“God would not do it because Ahab had praised God or prayed to him (we do not read that he did either), but because the Syrians had blasphemed God, and had said, He is the God of the hills and not of the valleys; therefore God will do it in his own vindication, and to preserve the honour of his own name.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 20:28
“Thus the saints go up to the Lord, the wicked go down to sin; the saints are on the mountains, the guilty in the valleys. "For he is the God of the mountains and not the God of the valleys." Those who dwelt in the houses of the plain where God does not dwell could not have the house of God within them, for this is the house that God sought from them so that they might build up themselves and rear within themselves the temple of God from living stones of faith.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · LETTER 80patristic
1 Kings 20:28
“THE Syrians had been defeated by the Israelites whom they despised. This victory had been achieved by so small a number of men over so vast a host that the Syrians were driven to the conclusion that there was something supernatural about it and they ascribed their defeat to the God of Israel. They were right in doing so. Brothers and Sisters, let not these heathen shame us!”
For seven days the armies camped: Adam Clarke calls the hundred thousand foot soldiers an enormous number. He adds that the Hebrew manuscripts and the ancient versions give no other reading. The battle came on the seventh day, as the victory at Jericho did in Joshua 6.
1 Kings 20:29
“Slew a hundred thousand footmen in one day - This number is enormous; but the MSS. and versions give no various reading.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 20:30-31
the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand: The survivors flee into Aphek, where “the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the remaining men”. His servants then appeal to what they have heard of Israel's kings: “the kings of the house of Israel are merciful”. They plan to go out in sackcloth and beg for his life.
1 Kings 20:30
“A wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand - From the first view of this text it would appear that when the Syrians fled to Aphek, and shut themselves within the walls, the Israelites immediately brought all hands, and sapped the walls, in consequence of which a large portion fell, and buried twenty-seven thousand men. But perhaps the hand of God was more immediately in this disaster; probably a burning wind is meant. See at the end of the chapter, 1Ki 20:43 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 20:30
“The wall - Or, the walls (the singular number, for the plural) of the city; in which they were now fortifying themselves. This might possibly happen thro' natural causes; but most probably, was effected by the mighty power of God, sending some earthquake, or violent storm which threw down the walls upon them; or doing this by the ministry of angels.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 20:30
“Ben-hadad succeeded in extricating himself, and, with his attendants, sought concealment in the city, fleeing from chamber to chamber; or, as some think it, an inner chamber, that is, a harem; but seeing no ultimate means of escape, he was advised to throw himself on the tender mercies of the Israelitish monarch.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Sackcloth, ropes, and a treaty with a doomed king
kings of the house of Israel are merciful: Albert Barnes takes the ropes as ropes around the neck, a sign that the wearers put their lives in Ahab's hands. Charles Spurgeon found no merciful act of Israel's kings recorded in Scripture. He judged the kings around them fiercer still.
1 Kings 20:31
“ALTHOUGH the manners and customs of warfare were exceedingly rough and cruel in those primitive ages, yet it appears that the kings of Israel gained a name for being merciful. I do not find recorded in Scripture any particularly merciful acts of theirs and I should conclude that the kings of other countries must have been very ferocious, if the kings of Israel were at all merciful.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 20:31
“It was an honour to the kings of Israel to be thus represented, as indeed every Israelite is then dressed as becomes him when he puts on bowels of mercies. "They are merciful kings, therefore we may hope to find mercy upon our submission." This encouragement poor sinners have to repent and humble themselves before God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 20:31
“And ropes upon our heads - “Ropes about our necks” is probably meant. They, as it were, put their lives at Ahab’s disposal, who, if he pleased, might hang them at once.”
1 Kings 20:32-34
Ben-hadad's servants come in sackcloth with ropes around their heads, and Ahab's first words give them their opening: “Is he still alive? He is my brother”. At verse 42 this is “the man I had devoted to destruction”, the shape of Saul sparing Agag.
1 Kings 20:32
“Thy servant Ben-hadad - See the vicissitude of human affairs! A little before he was the haughtiest of all tyrants, and Ahab calls him his lord; now, so much is he humbled, that he will be glad to be reputed Ahab’s slave!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 20:32
“Their voluntary attitude and language of submission flattered the pride of Ahab, who, little concerned about the dishonor done to the God of Israel by the Syrian king, and thinking of nothing but victory, paraded his clemency, called the vanquished king "his brother," invited him to sit in the royal chariot, and dismissed him with a covenant of peace.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
quickly grasped at this word: Albert Barnes pictures the envoys watching every word Ahab spoke. The moment he said brother, they seized it and repeated it, so the king could hardly take it back. A seat in the royal chariot sealed the new standing of the defeated king.
1 Kings 20:33
“The meaning of this verse is that the men from the first moment of their arrival were on the watch to note what Ahab would say; and the moment he let fall the expression “He is my brother,” they caught it up and repeated it, fixing him to it, as it were, and preventing his retreat.”
set up your own marketplaces in Damascus: Adam Clarke explains the marketplaces as streets set apart where foreign merchants could store and sell their goods. Ben-hadad offers Israel the trading rights his father had held in Samaria. Ahab trades a sentence of death for a commercial treaty.
1 Kings 20:34
“Thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus - It appears that it was customary for foreigners to have a place assigned to them, particularly in maritime towns, where they might deposit and vend their merchandise. This was the very origin of European settlements in Asiatic countries: “The people gave an inch to those strangers; and in consequence they took an ell.” Under the pretense of strengthening the place where they kept their wares, to prevent depredations, they built forts, and soon gave laws to their entertainers.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Busy here and there, and the man was gone
1 Kings 20:35-36
sons of the prophets: One of “the sons of the prophets”, a title Barnes notes appears here for the first time in Scripture, tells his companion to strike him. The man refuses, and a lion kills him. Matthew Henry sets him beside the disobedient prophet of chapter 13, also killed by a lion.
1 Kings 20:35
“Smite me--This prophet is supposed (1Ki 20:8) to have been Micaiah. The refusal of his neighbor to smite the prophet was manifestly wrong, as it was a withholding of necessary aid to a prophet in the discharge of a duty to which he had been called by God, and it was severely punished [1Ki 20:36], as a beacon to warn others (see on 1Ki 13:2-24).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Matthew Henry reads the lion as a message to Ahab. A man who spared a friend was killed, and a king who spared the enemy of the LORD stood under a heavier sentence. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call the death a warning beacon.
1 Kings 20:36
“This was intended, not only to show, in general, how provoking disobedience is ( Col. iii. 6 ), but to intimate to Ahab (who no doubt was told the story) that if a good prophet were thus punished for sparing his friend and God's, when God said, Smite, of much sorer punishment should a wicked king be thought worthy, who spared his enemy and God's, when God said, Smite.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 20:37-38
Then the prophet found another man: A second man is willing to strike. The wounded prophet waits for the king by the road, “disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes”. Wesley notes the wound is meant to be visible, since the device depends on Ahab seeing a beaten, anonymous soldier rather than a known prophet.
1 Kings 20:37
“He fetched blood with the blow, probably in his face. Wounded as he was, and disguised with ashes that he might not be known to be a prophet, he made his application to the king in a story wherein he charged himself with such a crime as the king was now guilty of in sparing Ben-hadad, and waited for the king's judgment upon it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes: The Berean reads a bandage over his eyes, where older versions have ashes on his face. Adam Clarke records the proposal of Houbigant that the Hebrew word meant a bandage, one letter away from the word for ashes. The disguise kept the king from knowing the prophet.
1 Kings 20:38
“Disguised himself with ashes upon his face - It does not immediately appear how putting ashes upon his face could disguise him. Instead of אפר apher, dust, Houbigant conjectures that it should be אפד aphad, a fillet or bandage. It is only the corner of the last letter which makes the difference; for the ד daleth and ר resh are nearly the same, only the shoulder of the former is square, the latter round.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 20:39-40
marched out into the middle of the battle: The disguised prophet tells Ahab a soldier's story. When he says the captive slipped away while he was “busy here and there”, Ahab pronounces the sentence himself: “So shall your judgment be”. Wesley calls the device a parable, the usual way of teaching in the East.
1 Kings 20:39
“He said - This relation is a parable; an usual way of instruction in the eastern parts, and most fit for this occasion wherein an obscure prophet was to speak to a great king; impatient of a down-right reproof, and exceeding partial in his own cause.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
your servant was busy here and there: The trap works the way Nathan's parable worked on David at 2 Samuel 12:1-7. John Gill notes that the soldier had agreed to the terms, so the king holds him to them. Ahab has now judged his own case.
1 Kings 20:40
“And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone,.... Employed in one thing or another relative to the battle, his prisoner committed to his care made his escape: and the king of Israel said unto him, so shall thy judgment be, thyself hast decided it; the sentence was plain and open against him, that either he must die or pay the money, for he himself had agreed to it.”
1 Kings 20:41-42
recognized him as one of the prophets: The prophet removes the bandage from his eyes, and Ahab recognizes him “as one of the prophets”. Then the parable turns on the king, as the LORD says, “your life will be exchanged for his life”. Clarke notes the sentence is carried out at Ramoth-gilead in chapter 22.
1 Kings 20:41
“And he hasted, and took away the ashes from his face,.... Took off the linen cloth from his eyes, unveiled or unmasked himself: and the king of Israel discerned him, that he was of the prophets; he knew him again, having seen him once or twice before; otherwise there could be nothing in his face that could discover him to be a prophet, rather he was to be known by his habit.”
the man I had devoted to destruction: Devoted to destruction renders the Hebrew herem, the ban that gave a thing wholly to God. John Wesley names Ahab's sin as sparing a blasphemer of the LORD, against the law of Leviticus 24:16. Aram had mocked the LORD as a god of the hills.
1 Kings 20:42
“Thy life shall go for his life - This was fulfilled at the battle of Ramoth-gilead, where he was slain by the Syrians; see 1Ki 22:34, 1Ki 22:35.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 20:42
“Thy life - "What was the great sin of Ahab in this action, for which God so severely punisheth him?" The great dishonour hereby done to God, in suffering so horrid a blasphemer, to go unpunished, which was contrary to an express law, Lev. xxiv, 16.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Sullen and angry: Ahab goes home in the mood the text names, “Sullen and angry”. Barnes distinguishes the mood from repentance, sullen anger at the sentence. The victories that opened the chapter close on a king who has twice heard “I am the LORD” and answered neither time with worship.
1 Kings 20:43
“And the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased,.... With the prophet for what he had said, and with himself for what he had done in letting Benhadad go; the Targum is, he was "troubled and grieved,'' not so much for the sin he had committed, as for the punishment of it on him and his people: and came to Samaria; with a heavy heart, for the message of the prophet had spoiled the joy of his victory.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 20:43
“Heavy and displeased - Rather, “sullen and angry” (and so marginal reference), not repentant, as after Elijah’s warning 1Ki 21:27 - not acknowledging the justice of his sentence - but full of sullenness and suppressed anger.”
How this psalm is built
The form: A regnal war narrative carrying two battle accounts and a prophetic parable, set inside the era of the alternating kings rather than the Elijah cycle, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| And you will know that I am the LORD | The clause closes the prophet's word before the first battle at verse 13 and the man of God's word before the second at verse 28. It is the formula that runs through the plagues of Exodus, and here it is spoken over a king who has asked for no sign. The chapter states the purpose of each victory before the victory happens, twice, in the same words.John Wesley and Matthew Henry, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, and Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Kings 20:13. | 1 Kings 20:13, 1 Kings 20:28 |
| My lord the king, and then my brother | Ahab calls Ben-hadad my lord the king at verse 4, when the city is under siege and he is offering his own surrender. He calls the same man my brother at verse 32, after two victories, and brings him up into his chariot. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the second word as a king flattered by submission and thinking of the honour of the moment. The two terms mark where Ahab stood at each end of the chapter.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Kings 20:32. | 1 Kings 20:4, 1 Kings 20:32 |
| The numbers counted out on both sides | This chapter counts more exactly than any other in the Elijah section. There are thirty-two kings at verse 1, and two hundred and thirty-two young officers with seven thousand behind them at verse 15. A hundred thousand foot soldiers fall in one day at verse 29, and twenty-seven thousand go under the wall at Aphek at verse 30. The muster is called two small flocks of goats against a countryside at verse 27. The disproportion is stated rather than softened.John Gill and Matthew Henry, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, and Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Kings 20:27. | 1 Kings 20:1, 1 Kings 20:15, 1 Kings 20:27, 1 Kings 20:29, 1 Kings 20:30 |
| A king spared in place of the devoted enemy | The sentence at verse 42 uses the language of a man appointed to destruction, which is the language of the ban. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown and Adam Clarke both set Ahab releasing Ben-hadad beside Saul sparing Agag in 1 Samuel 15, the same shape twice over. In both accounts a king keeps alive the enemy the LORD had marked, and in both the sentence falls on the king who spared him.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, and Adam Clarke, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, and Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Kings 20:42. | 1 Kings 20:34, 1 Kings 20:42 |
| The parable that makes the king sentence himself | A wounded and bandaged man stops the king on the road and tells him a soldier's story about a prisoner who slipped away. Ahab pronounces the verdict at verse 40 before he knows he is the defendant, and the bandage comes off at verse 41. John Wesley calls the device a parable, the usual way of instruction in the east and the only way an obscure prophet could reach a king too proud for a direct rebuke. Nathan had used the same method on David.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 1 Kings 20:39. | 1 Kings 20:39, 1 Kings 20:40, 1 Kings 20:41, 1 Kings 20:42 |
The debated concept
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
The first question is what brought the wall down at Aphek. John Wesley reads the collapse on twenty-seven thousand men as possibly the work of a storm or an earthquake sent by God. Adam Clarke allows a more ordinary military cause, since a wall under a fleeing army and a siege can fall without anything further. The text states the number and the fall and leaves the means unsaid, and the page keeps both readings.
The second is the seven thousand at verse 15. The figure is the same as the seven thousand of 19:18 who had not bowed to Baal, and the two verses stand seventy verses apart in the same book. Matthew Henry marks the match and is careful to say they are likely not the same men. The page carries the observation with his caution attached, since the text draws no line between them.
The third is what Ahab's mood at verse 43 amounts to. Albert Barnes distinguishes the sullen anger of a man who has heard a sentence from the sackcloth Ahab will put on after Elijah's rebuke in the next chapter. The distinction matters because the next chapter turns on whether Ahab's grief is repentance, and Barnes holds that this one is not.
The divine connection
The purpose clause is the chapter's spine. Twice God gives victory to a king He has already condemned, and twice the word says the reason before the battle, that you will know that I am the LORD. Matthew Henry stresses that the second victory comes because the Arameans blasphemed rather than because Ahab prayed or offered sacrifice.
The instrument is chosen to leave no room for another account. Two hundred and thirty-two young officers begin the fight, Ahab is told to order the battle himself rather than a general, and Israel's whole muster is described as two small flocks of goats. Aram had meanwhile rebuilt horse for horse and chariot for chariot on a plan of its own.
The chapter closes by naming the price. Ahab releases the one man the LORD had marked, and the sentence is that his life will answer for that life. Adam Clarke notes that the sentence is carried out exactly at Ramoth-gilead two chapters later.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Kings 20:11; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Kings 20:1; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Kings 20:34 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Kings 20:28.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1193: “Girding on the Harness” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.