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1 Kings 22:3

in 1 Kings 22

who said to his servants, “Do you not know that Ramoth-gilead is ours, but we have failed to take it from the hand of the king of Aram?”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth-gilead is ours, and we are still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?

KJV

And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?

This verse in 1 Kings 22

Commentary

6 notes on this verse
By the terms of Ahab’s covenant with Ben-hadad, Ramoth in Gilead ought, long ere this, to have been restored 1Ki 20:34. Hence, the claim “is ours,” i. e., “it belongs to us of right though the Syrians still hold possession of it.”

This site's exposition

Ramoth in Gilead is ours

on 1 Kings 22:3-4

Ahab presses a claim on Ramoth-gilead, a city Ben-hadad's terms should have restored and never did, and Jehoshaphat answers with the formula of full alliance, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. The same sentence returns almost word for word at 2 Ki 3:7 when Jehoshaphat joins Jehoram against Moab, a partnership the house of David keeps making with the house of Omri.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

Is ours - Belongeth to us by right. both by God's donation, and by our last agreement with Ben-hadad, chap. xx, 34, which yet he refuseth to deliver up.
(And the king of Israel said unto his servants,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

But now he knows by experience, what he ought before to have considered, that as the kisses, so the promises, of an enemy are deceitful, and there is no confidence to be put in leagues extorted by distress. Benhadad is one of those princes that think themselves bound by their word no further and no longer than it is for their interest.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

Jos 21:38), on the site of the present Salt Lake, in the province of Belka. It lay within the territories of the Israelitish monarch, and was unjustly alienated; but whether it was one of the cities usurped by the first Ben-hadad, which his son had promised to restore, or was retained for some other reasons, the sacred historian has not mentioned.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וַיֹּ֤אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH5595305 times

  • מֶֽלֶךְ־[the] king of

    melekh-H44282525 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵל֙Israel

    yisraelH34782507 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H4135510 times

  • עֲבָדָ֔יוservants his

    ʾavadavH5650799 times

  • הַיְדַעְתֶּ֕ם¿ do you know

    hayda'temH3045945 times

  • כִּֽי־that

    ki-H35884482 times

  • לָ֖נוּ[belongs] to us

    lanu

  • רָמֹ֣תRamoth

    ramotH741822 times

  • גִּלְעָ֑דGilead

    giladH1568134 times

  • וַאֲנַ֣חְנוּand we

    vaanachnuH587120 times

  • מַחְשִׁ֔ים[are] inactive

    machshimH2814

  • מִקַּ֣חַתfrom taking

    mikachatH3947966 times

  • אֹתָ֔הּ<obj.> it

    ʾotahH85310935 times

  • מִיַּ֖דfrom [the] hand of

    miyadH30271618 times

  • מֶ֥לֶךְ[the] king of

    melekhH44282525 times

  • אֲרָֽם׃Aram

    ʾaramH758143 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Deuteronomy 4:43

    Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau belonging to the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead belonging to the Gadites, or Golan in Bashan belonging to the Manassites.

    it leads to

    • Joshua 20:8

      And beyond the Jordan, east of Jericho, they designated Bezer on the wilderness plateau from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 1 Chronicles 6:80

      And from the tribe of Gad they were given Ramoth in Gilead, Mahanaim,

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Judges 16:2

    When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded that place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They were quiet throughout the night, saying, “Let us wait…

    it leads to

    • Psalms 118:10–12

      All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

    • 1 Samuel 23:26

      Saul was proceeding along one side of the mountain, and David and his men along the other side. Even though David was hurrying to get away, Saul and his men were closing in on…

    • Acts 9:24

      but Saul learned of their plot. Day and night they watched the city gates in order to kill him.

  • Through

    1 Kings 4:13

    Ben-geber in Ramoth-gilead (the villages of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead belonged to him, as well as the region of Argob in Bashan with its sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);

    it leads to

    • Numbers 32:41

      Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, went and captured their villages and called them Havvoth-jair.

    • Deuteronomy 3:4

      At that time we captured all sixty of his cities. There was not a single city we failed to take—the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

  • Through

    Joshua 21:38

    And from the tribe of Gad they were given Ramoth in Gilead, a city of refuge for the manslayer, Mahanaim,

    it leads to

    • Genesis 32:2

      When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

Where this verse is studied

What the record shows

1 entry
  • Hadadezer — attested in contemporary inscriptionundisputed

    Shalmaneser III inscriptions; Melqart stele

    Biblical figure (King of Aram-Damascus, early 9th c.-844/842 BC) identified in extra-biblical epigraphy.

    Counterpoint: A king of Damascus named Adad-idri fought Assyria in these years, and the Bible names a king of Damascus called Ben-Hadad. Neither source makes the connection itself; treating them as the same man is a scholarly reconstruction, and 1 Kings 22 in fact leaves the Aramean king unnamed.

About 1 Kings

The Death of Ahab — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Death of Ahab — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); 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.