Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Prayer for Protection^[a]

The Second Syrian Attack

²³ King Benhadad's officials said to him, “The gods of Israel are mountain gods, and that is why the Israelites defeated us. But we will certainly defeat them if we fight them in the plains. ²⁴ Now, remove the thirty-two rulers from their commands and replace them with field commanders. ²⁵ Then call up an army as large as the one that deserted you, with the same number of horses and chariots. We will fight the Israelites in the plains, and this time we will defeat them.”

King Benhadad agreed and followed their advice. ²⁶ The following spring he called up his men and marched with them to the city of Aphek to attack the Israelites. ²⁷ The Israelites were called up and equipped; they marched out and camped in two groups facing the Syrians. The Israelites looked like two small flocks of goats compared to the Syrians, who spread out over the countryside.

²⁸ A prophet went to King Ahab and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Syrians say that I am a god of the hills and not of the plains, I will give you victory over their huge army, and you and your people will know that I am the Lord.’”

²⁹ For seven days the Syrians and the Israelites stayed in their camps, facing each other. On the seventh day they started fighting, and the Israelites killed a hundred thousand Syrians. ³⁰ The survivors fled into the city of Aphek, where the city walls fell on twenty-seven thousand of them.

Benhadad also escaped into the city and took refuge in the back room of a house. ³¹ His officials went to him and said, “We have heard that the Israelite kings are merciful. Give us permission to go to the king of Israel with sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our necks, and maybe he will spare your life.” ³² So they wrapped sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their necks, went to Ahab and said, “Your servant Benhadad pleads with you for his life.”

Ahab answered, “Is he still alive? Good! He's like a brother to me!”

³³ Benhadad's officials were watching for a good sign, and when Ahab said “brother,” they took it up at once, and said, “As you say, Benhadad is your brother!”

“Bring him to me,” Ahab ordered. When Benhadad arrived, Ahab invited him to get in the chariot with him. ³⁴ Benhadad said to him, “I will restore to you the towns my father took from your father, and you may set up a commercial center for yourself in Damascus, just as my father did in Samaria.”

Ahab replied, “On these terms, then, I will set you free.” He made a treaty with him and let him go.

God's Mercy on Israel

11 ^(A)I ask, then: Did God reject his own people? Certainly not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. ² God has not rejected his people, whom he chose from the beginning. You know what the scripture says in the passage where Elijah pleads with God against Israel: ^3 (B)“Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me.” ^4 (C)What answer did God give him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not worshiped the false god Baal.” ⁵ It is the same way now: there is a small number left of those whom God has chosen because of his grace. ⁶ His choice is based on his grace, not on what they have done. For if God's choice were based on what people do, then his grace would not be real grace.

⁷ What then? The people of Israel did not find what they were looking for. It was only the small group that God chose who found it; the rest grew deaf to God's call. ^8 (D)As the scripture says, “God made their minds and hearts dull; to this very day they cannot see or hear.” ^9 (E)And David says,