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1 Kings 20:30-32
New Catholic Bible
1 Kings 20:30-32
New Catholic Bible
30 The rest of them escaped into the city of Aphek, but a wall collapsed upon twenty-seven thousand of the survivors.
Ben-hadad fled into the city and hid in an inner room. 31 His servants said to him, “Behold, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us put sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life.” 32 So they put sackcloth around their waists and they put ropes around their heads and they went out to the king of Israel and said, “Ben-hadad said, ‘Please let me live.’ ” He answered, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”[a]
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- 1 Kings 20:32 The reputation of the Hebrew kings for mercy is immediately confirmed by what happens. Sackcloth (Hebrew, sak, a bristly cloth) the same as “the cilice,” from Latin, cilicium, a name given by the Romans. The word was derived from Cilicia, in Asia Minor, the best known of the places where the cloth was made.