Chronological

Syrian-Israeli Conflicts: Ben-Hadad vs. Ahab of Israel

20 Ben-Hadad king of Aram gathered all of his army, and thirty-two kings were with him, and horses and chariots. He went up and laid siege against Samaria and fought with it. ² He sent messengers to the city to Ahab king of Israel. ³ He said to him, “Thus says Ben-Hadad: ‘Your silver and your gold are mine, and your women and your best sons are mine.’” ⁴ Then the king of Israel answered and said, “As your word, my master the king; I am yours, and all that is mine is yours.” ⁵ The messengers returned and said, “Thus says Ben-Hadad, saying, ‘I sent to you saying, “Your silver and gold are mine, and your women and your best sons you must give to me.” ⁶ So at this time tomorrow, I will send my servants to you that they might search your house and the houses of your servants. All the desire of your eyes they will lay hands on^[a] and take it away.’”

⁷ Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, “Please know and realize that this man is seeking trouble, for he sent to me for my women, my sons, my silver, and my gold, and I did not withhold anything from him.” ⁸ All of the elders and all of the people said to him, “Do not listen and do not consent.” ⁹ So he said to the messengers of Ben-Hadad, “Say to my lord the king, ‘All that you demanded from your servant at the first, I will do, but this thing I am not able to do.’” Then the messengers went and made a report to him.^{[b] 10} Then Ben-Hadad sent to him and said, “Thus may the gods do to me and thus may they add if the dust of Samaria is sufficient for the hollow of a hand for all of the people who are at my feet.” ¹¹ The king of Israel answered and said, “Tell him, ‘Let not him who girds on his armor boast as one who takes off his armor.’” ¹² It happened at the moment he heard this word, he and the kings were drinking in the tents.^[c] He said to his servants, “Get ready to attack.” So they got ready to attack the city.

¹³ Suddenly a certain prophet approached Ahab king of Israel and said, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Have you seen all this great crowd? Behold, I am giving it into your hand today, that you may know that I am Yahweh.’” ¹⁴ Ahab said, “By whom?” And he said, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘By the servants of the commanders of the provinces.’” He asked, “Who will begin the battle?” And he said, “You.” ¹⁵ So he mustered the servants of the commanders of the provinces, and there were two hundred and thirty-two. After them he mustered all of the army, all the sons of Israel, seven thousand.

¹⁶ They went out at noon while Ben-Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the tents, he and the thirty-two kings helping him. ¹⁷ Then the servants of the commanders of the provinces went out first, and Ben-Hadad sent, and they reported to him, saying, “Men have come out from Samaria.” ¹⁸ Then he said, “If they have come out for peace, seize them alive; and if they have come out for war, seize them alive.” ¹⁹ But these had come out from the city, the servants of the commanders of the provinces, and the army that was after them. ²⁰ Each man killed his man, and the Arameans fled, so Israel pursued them, but Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with cavalry. ²¹ The king of Israel went out and attacked the horses and the chariots and defeated Aram with a great blow.

²² Then the prophet came near to the king of Israel, and he said to him, “Go, strengthen yourself; consider well^[d] what you should do, for the king of Aram is coming against you at the turn of the year.”

²³ The servants of the king of Aram said to him, “Their gods are gods of the mountains, therefore they were stronger than we.^[e] Let us fight with them in the plain; surely we will be stronger than they. ²⁴ Do this thing: remove the kings each from his post, and put a governor in their place. ²⁵ You must muster an army for yourself as the army you have lost,^[f] and horses and chariots as the horses and chariots you lost, then we will fight them in the plain. Surely we will be stronger than they.” So he listened to their voice and did so.

²⁶ It happened at the turning of the year that Ben-Hadad mustered Aram and went up to Aphek for the war with Israel. ²⁷ The Israelites^[g] had been mustered and provisioned, and they went to engage them. The Israelites^[h] encamped opposite them as two flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the land. ²⁸ Then the man of God approached, and he spoke to the king of Israel, and he said, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Because Aram has said, “Yahweh is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys,”’ I will give all this great crowd into your hand that you may know that I am Yahweh.” ²⁹ These encamped opposite for seven days, and it happened on the seventh day that the battle began,^[i] and the Israelites^[j] killed the Arameans, one hundred thousand infantry in one day. ³⁰ Then those who remained fled to Aphek, to the city, and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who had remained, so Ben-Hadad fled and went to the innermost rooms of the city.

³¹ Then his servants said to him, “Please now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are kings of mercy. Let us now put sackcloth on around our waists and ropes on our heads. Then let us go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will let you live.”^{[k] 32} So they tied sackcloth around their waists and ropes on their heads. Then they went to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’” And he said, “Is my brother still alive?” ³³ The men took this as a good omen and they quickly accepted it as true from him, and they said, “Your brother Ben-Hadad lives.” So he said, “Go, get him.” Ben-Hadad came out to him, and Ahab pulled him up on the chariot. ³⁴ Ben-Hadad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I shall return. You may set up streets with stalls for yourself in Damascus just as my father set up in Samaria.” Then Ahab said, “On these terms^[l] I will let you go,” So he made a covenant with him and let him go.

³⁵ A certain man from the sons of the prophets said to his fellow countryman, “By the word of Yahweh, please strike me.” But the man refused to strike him.

³⁶ He said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, look, as you now are going from me, a lion will kill you.” When he went from beside him, the lion found him and killed him. ³⁷ Then he found another man and said, “Strike me, please,” so the man struck him sharply and wounded him. ³⁸ Then the prophet went and waited^[m] for the king along the road and disguised himself with a^[n] headband over his eyes. ³⁹ As the king was passing by, he called to the king and said, “Your servant went out in the thick of the battle, and suddenly a man turned and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man. If by any means he should be missed, it will be your life in his place, or you shall pay a talent of silver.’ ⁴⁰ It happened that your servant was busy here and there,^[o] and he disappeared.”^[p] Then the king said to him, “Your own judgment has been determined.” ⁴¹ He quickly removed the headband from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him, that he was from the prophets. ⁴² He said to him, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Because you have let the man I devoted for destruction go from your hand, your life shall be in place of his life and your people in place of his people.’” ⁴³ Then the king of Israel went to his house, sullen and angry, and he came to Samaria.

The Vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite

21 It happened after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. ² Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard that it may be mine for a garden of vegetable plants, because it is near, beside my house, and I will give to you a better vineyard in place of it. If it is better in your eyes, I will give you the money of its price.” ³ Naboth said to Ahab, “Far be it from me from Yahweh that I should give the inheritance of my ancestors^[q] to you.” ⁴ Then Ahab went to his house, sullen and angry because of the word that Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him when he had said, “I will not give to you the inheritance of my ancestors.”^[r] So he lay on his bed, turned away his face, and would not eat any food.

⁵ Then Jezebel his wife came to him, and she said to him, “What is this, that your spirit is sullen and you are not eating food?” ⁶ Then he said to her, “When I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and asked him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or it you prefer, I will give you a vineyard in place of it,’ he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” ⁷ Jezebel his wife said to him, “Now, you rule^[s] over Israel. Get up, eat food, and let your heart be cheerful.^[t] I myself will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

⁸ So she wrote letters in the name of Ahab and sealed them with his seal. She sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who were dwelling with Naboth in his city. ⁹ She had written in the letters, saying, “Call a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people. ¹⁰ Seat two men, scoundrels,^[u] opposite him. Let them witness against him saying, ‘You cursed God and the king.’ Then you shall bring him out and stone him so that he dies.” ¹¹ The men of his city and the elders and nobles who were living in his city did according to what Jezebel had sent to them, as was written in the letters which she had sent to them. ¹² They called a fast, and they seated Naboth at the head of the people. ¹³ Then the two men, scoundrels,^[v] came, sat opposite him, and the scoundrels^[w] witnessed against Naboth before the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king,” so they brought him outside of the city and stoned him with stones, and he died.

¹⁴ They sent to Jezebel saying, “Naboth has been stoned, and he is dead.” ¹⁵ It happened at the moment Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and died, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Get up, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite which he had refused to give to you for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” ¹⁶ When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it.

Elijah Responds to Ahab

¹⁷ The word of Yahweh came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ¹⁸ “Arise, go down to meet Ahab the king of Israel who is in Samaria. Look in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession of it. ¹⁹ You shall say to him, ‘Thus says Yahweh: “Have you committed murder and also taken possession?”’ You shall also say to him, ‘Thus says Yahweh: “In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will also lick your blood.”’”

²⁰ Then Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, my enemy?” He said, “I have found you because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of Yahweh. ²¹ ‘Look, I am bringing disaster on you, and I will sweep away after you. I will cut off for Ahab every male^[x] in Israel, bond 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 made me angry^[y] and have caused Israel to sin.’ ²³ Moreover, concerning Jezebel, Yahweh has said, ‘The dogs will eat Jezebel in the outer rampart of Jezreel.’ ²⁴ The one who dies for Ahab in the city, the dogs will eat; the one who dies in the open country, the birds of heaven will eat.”

²⁵ Truly, there was no one like Ahab who had sold himself by doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh, whose wife Jezebel urged him on. ²⁶ Also, he acted very abominably by going after idols like all the Amorites had done whom Yahweh had driven out from before the Israelites.”^[z]

²⁷ When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth over his flesh, fasted, lay in the sackcloth, and went about dejectedly. ²⁸ Then the word of Yahweh 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 disaster in his days. I will bring the disaster on his house in the days of his son.”