⁴² The prophet said to him, “This is what the Lord says: Because you have spared the man I said must be destroyed,^[a] now you must die in his place, and your people will die instead of his people.”

³¹ Meanwhile, the king of Aram had issued these orders to his thirty-two chariot commanders: “Attack only the king of Israel. Don’t bother with anyone else!” ³² So when the Aramean chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat in his royal robes, they went after him. “There is the king of Israel!” they shouted. But when Jehoshaphat called out, ³³ the chariot commanders realized he was not the king of Israel, and they stopped chasing him.

³⁴ An Aramean soldier, however, randomly shot an arrow at the Israelite troops and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. “Turn the horses^[a] and get me out of here!” Ahab groaned to the driver of his chariot. “I’m badly wounded!”

³⁵ The battle raged all that day, and the king remained propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. The blood from his wound ran down to the floor of his chariot, and as evening arrived he died. ³⁶ Just as the sun was setting, the cry ran through his troops: “We’re done for! Run for your lives!”

³⁷ So the king died, and his body was taken to Samaria and buried there.

³³ An Aramean soldier, however, randomly shot an arrow at the Israelite troops and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. “Turn the horses^[a] and get me out of here!” Ahab groaned to the driver of the chariot. “I’m badly wounded!”

³⁴ The battle raged all that day, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot facing the Arameans. In the evening, just as the sun was setting, he died.

³⁹ As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him, “Sir, I was in the thick of battle, and suddenly a man brought me a prisoner. He said, ‘Guard this man; if for any reason he gets away, you will either die or pay a fine of seventy-five pounds^[a] of silver!’

¹² “What’s the matter, my lord?” Hazael asked him.

Elisha replied, “I know the terrible things you will do to the people of Israel. You will burn their fortified cities, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women!”

Ben-Hadad Besieges Samaria

²⁴ Some time later, however, King Ben-hadad of Aram mustered his entire army and besieged Samaria.

³⁴ Ben-hadad told him, “I will give back the towns my father took from your father, and you may establish places of trade in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.”

Then Ahab said, “I will release you under these conditions.” So they made a new treaty, and Ben-hadad was set free.

⁹ Saul and his men spared Agag’s life and kept the best of the sheep and goats, the cattle, the fat calves, and the lambs—everything, in fact, that appealed to them. They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality.

The Lord Rejects Saul

¹⁰ Then the Lord said to Samuel, ¹¹ “I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has not been loyal to me and has refused to obey my command.” Samuel was so deeply moved when he heard this that he cried out to the Lord all night.