Chronological
Chapter 20
Ahab’s Victory over the Arameans.[a] 1 Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, gathered together his entire army. He had thirty-two kings with him along with their horses and chariots. They went up and besieged Samaria, fighting against it.
2 He sent messengers into the city, to Ahab, the king of Israel, saying, “Thus says Ben-hadad: 3 ‘Your silver and your gold are mine, as are the best of your wives and your children.’ ” 4 The king of Israel answered, “O king, my lord, I and all that I own are yours.”
5 The messengers came again and said, “Thus says Ben-hadad: ‘I have sent to you demanding that you send me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children. 6 Around this time tomorrow, I will send my servants to you. They will search through your palace and the houses of your servants. They will take hold of whatever they like and carry it away.’ ”
7 The king of Israel summoned all of the elders of the land and said, “See how this man is looking for trouble. He sent a message to me seeking my wives, my children, my silver, and my gold, and I did not deny it to him.” 8 The elders and all of the people said to him, “Do not listen to him, do not agree!”
9 So he replied to the messengers of Ben-hadad, “Tell my lord, the king: ‘Your servant will do everything that you demanded the first time, but I cannot do this thing.’ ” The messengers went away and brought him the answer.
10 Then Ben-hadad sent to him, saying, “May the gods do this to me and more if there is enough dust remaining from Samaria to give a handful to each of those who follow me.”[b]
11 The king of Israel answered, “Say: ‘He who is putting on his armor should not boast like someone who is taking it off.’ ” 12 He heard this message while he and the kings were drinking in the tents and he said to his servants, “Get ready!” So they prepared to attack the city.
13 In the meantime, a prophet came to Ahab, the king of Israel, and said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Do you see this enormous mob? Behold, I will deliver them into your hands today so that you might know that I am the Lord.’ ” 14 Ahab said, “Who will do it?” He answered, “Thus says the Lord: ‘The young officers from the provinces.’ ” He asked, “Who should start the battle?” He answered, “You!”[c]
15 So he summoned the young officers from the provinces, and there were two hundred and thirty-two of them. Then he counted all of the Israelites there, and there were seven thousand.
16 They set out at noon when Ben-hadad and the thirty-two kings who were helping him were getting drunk in their tents. 17 The young officers from the provinces went out first. Ben-hadad sent out men who told him, “The men from Samaria are advancing.” 18 He said, “If they are coming out to make peace, take them alive, and even if they have come out to fight, take them alive.”
19 And so the young officers from the provinces came out from the city, and the army followed after them. 20 Each of them killed his opponent, and the Arameans fled away with Israel pursuing them. Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, escaped on a horse with some of his horsemen.
21 The king of Israel went out and defeated the horsemen and the chariots, and he killed a large number of the Arameans. 22 Afterwards, the prophet came to the king of Israel and said, “Go and strengthen yourself, and see what must be done, for next spring the king of Aram will attack you again.”
23 The servants of the king of Aram said to him, “Their gods are the gods of the hills. That is why they were stronger than we were. We should fight against them in the plain, and we will surely be stronger than they are. 24 Just do this, remove all of the kings from their command and replace them with the officers. 25 You must assemble an army as large as the army you lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot. Then we will be able to fight against them in the plain. We will certainly be stronger than they are.” He listened to their advice and followed it.
26 In the spring of the year, Ben-hadad assembled the Arameans and went to Aphek to fight against Israel. 27 When the Israelites were assembled and given provisions, they went out against them. The Israelites camped opposite them, and they looked like two little flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside.
28 The man of God arrived and spoke to the king of Israel, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘The Arameans think that the Lord is the God of the hills but not the God of the lowlands. I will therefore deliver this enormous army into your hands, and thus you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”
29 They camped opposite one another for seven days, and then on the seventh day they joined in battle. The Israelites killed one hundred thousand of the Aramean infantry in one day. 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.”[d]
33 The men were listening carefully and they quickly took up his refrain, “Ben-hadad is your brother!” He said, “Go and bring him here.” When Ben-hadad came out to him, he had him join him in the chariot.
34 Ben-hadad said to him, “I will give back the cities that my father took from your father. You can set up marketplaces in Damascus just like my father did in Samaria.” He answered, “I will release you on the basis of this covenant.” So he made a covenant with him and released him.
35 Ahab Is Condemned by a Prophet.[e] One of the sons of the prophets, inspired by the word of the Lord, said to his companion, “Please strike me,” but the man refused to strike him. 36 So he said to him, “You have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, so as soon as you leave me, you will be killed by a lion.” As soon as he left him, a lion found him and killed him.
37 The prophet found another man and said, “Please strike me.” So the man struck and wounded him. 38 The prophet left and waited for the king along the road, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes.
39 As the king passed by, he cried out to the king, “Your servant went out into the heat of the battle. A man came over and brought a man to me saying, ‘Guard this man. If he escapes, then you will pay a life for a life, or else you will have to pay a talent of silver.’ 40 While your servant was busy here and there, he disappeared.” The king of Israel said to him, “That will be your judgment; you have decided it for yourself.” 41 He quickly removed the bandage from his face, and the king of Israel recognized that he was one of the prophets. 42 He then said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have released from your hands a man whom I had designated for total destruction, your life will stand for his life, your people for his people.’ ” 43 The king of Israel, therefore, returned to his palace deeply troubled, and he arrived in Samaria.
Chapter 21
Naboth’s Vineyard. 1 After these things, it happened that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel near the palace of Ahab, the king of Samaria. 2 Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard so that I can use it as a vegetable garden since it is next to my palace. I will give you a better vineyard in its place, or if you prefer, I will pay you its worth in money.” 3 But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”
4 [f]So Ahab entered his palace furious that Naboth, the Jezreelite, had said to him, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” He laid down upon his bed and turned his face away, refusing to eat anything.
5 Jezebel his wife entered and said to him, “Why is your spirit so depressed that you refuse to eat anything?” 6 He said to her, “It is because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and I said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard in exchange for money, or, if you like, I will give you another vineyard for it.’ But he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’ ”
7 Jezebel, his wife, said to him, “Do you not reign over the kingdom of Israel? Get up and eat something. Cheer up, and I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”
8 So she wrote some letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal and sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who lived in Naboth’s city. 9 In the letters she wrote, “Proclaim a fast, and have Naboth sit in a prominent place among the people. 10 But place two sons of Belial opposite him to bear false witness, saying, ‘You blasphemed God and the king.’ Then carry him out and stone him to death.”
11 So the men in his city, the elders, and the nobles who lived in his city did what had been written in the letters that had been sent to them. 12 They proclaimed a fast and had Naboth sit in a prominent place among the people. 13 Two men then came in, sons of Belial, and they sat opposite him. The sons of Belial bore witness before the people saying, “Naboth blasphemed God and the king.” They carried him out of the city and they stoned him to death.
14 They then sent word to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned to death.” 15 As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Get up, and take possession of the vineyard that Naboth the Jezreelite refused to sell you. Naboth is no longer alive; he is dead.” 16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab got up and went down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it.
17 The word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 18 “Get up, and go down to meet Ahab, the king of Israel, who is in Samaria. He is now in the vineyard of Naboth. He had gone down there to take possession of it. 19 Then say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Have you killed someone to take possession of his property?” ’ Say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick up your blood as well.” ’ ”
20 Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy.” He answered, “I have found you because you have sold yourself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord: 21 ‘Behold, I will bring disaster down upon you. I will consume your descendants and I will cut off from Ahab all of those who pee against the wall, whether slave or free. 22 I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha, the son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin.’ 23 And of Jezebel the Lord says, ‘The dogs will devour Jezebel by the walls of Jezreel.’ 24 Those who belong to Ahab and who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.”
25 There was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel, his wife. 26 He was detestable in the way that he followed after idols, just as the Amorites had whom the Lord had cast out from before the Israelites.
27 When Ahab heard these things, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He lay in sackcloth, and went around in mourning. 28 The word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 29 “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster during his days. I will bring disaster upon his house during the days of his son.”
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