1 Kings 20:1-21

Ahab Defeats the Syrians

20¹ Now Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got all his army together, and thirty-two kings with him, and horses and carriages of war; he went up and made war on Samaria, shutting it in. ² And he sent representatives into the town to Ahab, king of Israel; ³ And they said to him, Ben-hadad says, Your silver and your gold are mine; and your wives and children are mine. ⁴ And the king of Israel sent him an answer saying, As you say, my lord king, I am yours with all I have. ⁵ Then the representatives came back again, and said, These are the words of Ben-hadad: I sent to you saying, Give up to me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children; ⁶ But I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, to make a search through your house and the houses of your people, and everything which is pleasing in your eyes they will take away in their hands. ⁷ Then the king of Israel sent for all the responsible men of the land, and said, Now will you take note and see the evil purpose of this man: he sent for my wives and my children, my silver and my gold, and I did not keep them back. ⁸ And all the responsible men and the people said to him, Do not give attention to him or do what he says. ⁹ So he said to the representatives of Ben-hadad, Say to my lord the king, All the orders you sent the first time I will do; but this thing I may not do. And the representatives went back with this answer. ¹⁰ Then Ben-hadad sent to him, saying, May the gods' punishment be on me if there is enough of the dust of Samaria for all the people at my feet to take some in their hands. ¹¹ And the king of Israel said in answer, Say to him, The time for loud talk is not when a man is putting on his arms, but when he is taking them off.

¹² Now when this answer was given to Ben-hadad, he was drinking with the kings in the tents, and he said to his men, Take up your positions. So they put themselves in position for attacking the town. ¹³ Then a prophet came up to Ahab, king of Israel, and said, The Lord says, Have you seen all this great army? See, I will give it into your hands today, and you will see that I am the Lord. ¹⁴ And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, The Lord says, By the servants of the chiefs who are over the divisions of the land. Then he said, By whom is the fighting to be started? And he made answer, By you. ¹⁵ Then he got together the servants of all the chiefs who were over the divisions of the land, two hundred and thirty-two of them; and after them, he got together all the people, all the children of Israel, seven thousand. ¹⁶ And in the middle of the day they went out. But Ben-hadad was drinking in the tents with the thirty-two kings who were helping him. ¹⁷ And the servants of the chiefs who were over the divisions of the land went forward first; and when Ben-hadad sent out, they gave him the news, saying, Men have come out from Samaria. ¹⁸ And he said, If they have come out for peace, take them living, and if they have come out for war, take them living. ¹⁹ So the servants of the chiefs of the divisions of the land went out of the town, with the army coming after them. ²⁰ And every one of them put his man to death, and the Aramaeans went in flight with Israel after them; and Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got away safely on a horse with his horsemen. ²¹ And the king of Israel went out and took the horses and the war-carriages, and made great destruction among the Aramaeans.