1 Kings 20:3
in 1 Kings 20saying, “This is what Ben-hadad says: ‘Your silver and gold are mine, and your best wives and children are mine!’”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine.
KJV
Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine.
⋯
This verse in 1 Kings 20
Commentary
6 notes on this verseThy 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.
This site's exposition
assembled his entire army
on 1 Kings 20:1-3
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.
This site's exposition
Your silver and gold are mine
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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
"All shall be mine, without exception." 2. Ahab's poor spirit sends Ben-hadad a very disgraceful submission. It is general indeed (he cannot mention particulars in his surrender with so much pleasure as Ben-hadad did in his demand), but it is effectual: I am thine, and all that I have,
Ahab, encouraged by a prophet, overthrows him twice, ver. 13-30. Makes a covenant with him, ver. 31-34. Is reproved and threatened by a prophet, ver. 35-43.
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-31/35-anchored-1-12
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כַּסְפְּךָ֥ | kaspekha | silver your | H3701 → | 403 times |
| וּֽזְהָבְךָ֖ | uzehavekha | and gold your | H2091 → | 389 times |
| לִֽי־ | li- | [belongs] to me | ||
| ה֑וּא | hu' | it | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| וְנָשֶׁ֧יךָ | venasheikha | and wives your | H802 → | 781 times |
| וּבָנֶ֛יךָ | uvaneikha | and children your | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| הַטּוֹבִ֖ים | hatovim | <the> good | H2896 → | 538 times |
| לִי־ | li- | [belong] to me | ||
| הֵֽם׃ | hem | they | H1992 → | 553 times |
כַּסְפְּךָ֥silver your
kaspekhaH3701 →403 times
וּֽזְהָבְךָ֖and gold your
uzehavekhaH2091 →389 times
לִֽי־[belongs] to me
li-
ה֑וּאit
hu'H1931 →1879 times
וְנָשֶׁ֧יךָand wives your
venasheikhaH802 →781 times
וּבָנֶ֛יךָand children your
uvaneikhaH1121 →4930 times
הַטּוֹבִ֖ים<the> good
hatovimH2896 →538 times
לִי־[belong] to me
li-
הֵֽם׃they
hemH1992 →553 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 15:9The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’
it leads to
- Judges 5:30
‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil—a girl or two for each warrior, a plunder of dyed garments for Sisera, the spoil of embroidered garments for the neck of the looter?’
- Exodus 14:5
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.”
- Isaiah 53:12
Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the…
- Luke 11:22
But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted, and then he divides up his plunder.
- Isaiah 36:20
Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
- Judges 5:30
About 1 Kings
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.