King James Version › 1 Kings › 20

1 Kings

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1 And Ben­hadad the king of Syr­ia gath­ered all his host to­geth­er: and there were thir­ty and two kings with him, and hors­es, and char­i­ots: and he went up and be­sieged Samaria, and warred against it. 2 And he sent mes­sen­gers to Ahab king of Is­rael into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben­hadad, 3 Thy sil­ver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy chil­dren, even the goodli­est, are mine. 4 And the king of Is­rael an­swered and said, My lord, O king, ac­cord­ing to thy say­ing, I am thine, and all that I have. 5 And the mes­sen­gers came again, and said, Thus speaketh Ben­hadad, say­ing, Al­though I have sent unto thee, say­ing, Thou shalt de­liv­er me thy sil­ver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy chil­dren; 6 Yet I will send my ser­vants unto thee to mor­row about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the hous­es of thy ser­vants; and it shall be, that what­so­ev­er is pleas­ant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away. 7 Then the king of Is­rael called all the el­ders of the land, and said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mis­chief: for he sent unto me for my wives, and for my chil­dren, and for my sil­ver, and for my gold; and I de­nied him not. 8 And all the el­ders and all the peo­ple said unto him, Hear­ken not un­to him, nor con­sent. 9 Where­fore he said unto the mes­sen­gers of Ben­hadad, Tell my lord the king, All that thou didst send for to thy ser­vant at the first I will do: but this thing I may not do. And the mes­sen­gers de­part­ed, and brought him word again. 10 And Ben­hadad sent unto him, and said, The gods do so unto me, and more al­so, if the dust of Samaria shall suf­fice for hand­fuls for all the peo­ple that fol­low me. 11 And the king of Is­rael an­swered and said, Tell him, Let not him that gird­eth on his harness boast him­self as he that put­teth it off. 12 And it came to pass, when Benhadad heard this mes­sage, as he was drink­ing, he and the kings in the pavil­ions, that he said unto his ser­vants, Set y­our­selves in array. And they set them­selves in array against the city. 13 And, be­hold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Is­rael, say­ing, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou seen all this great mul­ti­tude? be­hold, I will de­liv­er it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. 14 And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, Thus saith the LORD, Even by the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he said, Who shall or­der the bat­tle? And he an­swered, Thou. 15 Then he num­bered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hun­dred and thir­ty two: and af­ter them he num­bered all the peo­ple, even all the chil­dren of Is­rael, being sev­en thou­sand. 16 And they went out at noon. But Ben­hadad was drink­ing him­self drunk in the pavil­ions, he and the kings, the thir­ty and two kings that helped him. 17 And the young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Ben­hadad sent out, and they told him, say­ing, There are men come out of Samaria. 18 And he said, Whether they be come out for peace, take them alive; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive. 19 So these young men of the princes of the provinces came out of the city, and the army which fol­lowed them. 20 And they slew ev­ery one his man: and the Syr­i­ans fled; and Is­rael pur­sued them: and Ben­hadad the king of Syr­ia es­caped on an horse with the horse­men. 21 And the king of Is­rael went out, and smote the hors­es and char­i­ots, and slew the Syr­i­ans with a great slaugh­ter. 22 And the prophet came to the king of Is­rael, and said unto him, Go, strength­en thy­self, and mark, and see what thou doest: for at the re­turn of the year the king of Syr­ia will come up against thee. 23 And the ser­vants of the king of Syr­ia said unto him, Their gods are gods of the hills; there­fore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and sure­ly we shall be stronger than they. 24 And do this thing, Take the kings away, ev­ery man out of his place, and put cap­tains in their rooms: 25 And num­ber thee an army, like the army that thou hast lost, horse for horse, and char­i­ot for char­i­ot: and we will fight against them in the plain, and sure­ly we shall be stronger than they. And he hear­kened unto their voice, and did so. 26 And it came to pass at the re­turn of the year, that Ben­hadad num­bered the Syr­i­ans, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Is­rael. 27 And the chil­dren of Is­rael were num­bered, and were all pre­sent, and went against them: and the chil­dren of Is­rael pitched be­fore them like two lit­tle flocks of kids; but the Syr­i­ans filled the coun­try. 28 And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Is­rael, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Be­cause the Syr­i­ans have said, The LORD 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 LORD. 29 And they pitched one over against the oth­er sev­en days. And so it was, that in the sev­enth day the bat­tle was joined: and the chil­dren of Is­rael slew of the Syr­i­ans an hun­dred thou­sand foot­men in one day. 30 But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and there a wall fell upon twen­ty and sev­en thou­sand of the men that were left. And Ben­hadad fled, and came into the city, into an in­ner cham­ber. 31 And his ser­vants said unto him, Be­hold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Is­rael are mer­ci­ful kings: let us, I pray thee, put sack­cloth on our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Is­rael: per­ad­ven­ture he will save thy life. 32 So they gird­ed sack­cloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Is­rael, and said, Thy ser­vant Ben­hadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he said, Is he yet alive? he is my broth­er. 33 Now the men did dili­gent­ly ob­serve whether any thing would come from him, and did hasti­ly catch it: and they said, Thy broth­er Ben­hadad. Then he said, Go ye, bring him. Then Ben­hadad came forth to him; and he caused him to come up into the char­i­ot. 34 And Benhadad said unto him, The cities, which my fa­ther took from thy fa­ther, I will re­store; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Dam­as­cus, as my fa­ther made in Samaria. Then ­said Ahab, I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away. 35 And a cer­tain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neigh­bour in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man re­fused to smite him. 36 Then said he unto him, Be­cause thou hast not obeyed the voice of the LORD, be­hold, as soon as thou art de­part­ed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was de­part­ed from him, a lion found him, and slew him. 37 Then he found an­oth­er man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man smote him, so that in smit­ing he wound­ed him. 38 So the prophet de­part­ed, and wait­ed for the king by the way, and dis­guised him­self with ash­es upon his face. 39 And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and he said, Thy ser­vant went out into the midst of the bat­tle; and, be­hold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be miss­ing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a tal­ent of sil­ver. 40 And as thy ser­vant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Is­rael said unto him, So shall thy judg­ment be; thy­self hast de­cid­ed it. 41 And he hast­ed, and took the ash­es away from his face; and the king of Is­rael dis­cerned him that he was of the prophets. 42 And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Be­cause thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I ap­point­ed to ut­ter de­struc­tion, there­fore thy life shall go for his life, and thy peo­ple for his peo­ple. 43 And the king of Is­rael went to his house heavy and dis­pleased, and came to Samaria.