Ben Hadad and Ahab Go To War

20 Ben Hadad was king of Aram. He gathered together all of his army. There were 32 kings with him. They had horses and chariots.* They attacked Samaria and fought against it. ²The king sent messengers into the city to King Ahab of Israel. ³This was the message, “Ben Hadad says, ‘You must give me your silver and gold. You must also give me your wives and children.’” ⁴The king of Israel answered, “King, my master. I agree that I belong to you now. And everything I have belongs to you.” ⁵Then the messengers came back to Ahab. They said, “Ben Hadad says, ‘I told you before that you must give me all of your silver and gold and your wives and children. ⁶Tomorrow I am sending my men to search through your house and through the houses of your officials. You should give my men all of your valuables, and they will bring those things back to me.’” ⁷So King Ahab called a meeting of all the elders (leaders) of his country. Ahab said, “Look, Ben Hadad is looking for trouble. First he told me that I must give him my wives, my children, my silver and my gold. I agreed to give those things to him. {And now he wants to take everything.}” ⁸But the elders (leaders) and all the people said, “Don’t obey him. Don’t do what he says.” ⁹So Ahab sent a message to Ben Hadad. Ahab said, “I will do what you said at first. But I cannot obey your second command.” King Ben Hadad’s men carried the message to the king. ¹⁰Then they came back with another message from Ben Hadad. The message said, “I will completely destroy Samaria. I promise that there will be nothing left of that city! There won’t be enough of that city left for my men to find any souvenirs* to take home. May God destroy me if I don’t do this!” ¹¹King Ahab answered, “Tell Ben Hadad that the man who puts on his armor should not boast as much as the man who {lives long enough to} take it off.” ¹²King Ben Hadad was drinking in his tent with the other rulers. At that time the messengers came and gave him the message from King Ahab. King Ben Hadad commanded his men to prepare to attack the city. So the men moved into their places for the battle. ¹³At the same time, a prophet went to King Ahab. The prophet said, “King Ahab, the Lord says to you, ‘Do you see that big army? I, the Lord, will allow you to defeat that army today. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” ¹⁴Ahab said, “Who will you use to defeat them?” The prophet answered, “The Lord says, ‘The young helpers of the government officials.’” Then the king asked, “Who should command the main army?” The prophet answered, “You will.” ¹⁵So Ahab gathered the young helpers of the government officials. There were 232 of these young men. Then the king called together the army of Israel. The total number was 7,000. ¹⁶At noon, King Ben Hadad and the 32 kings helping him were drinking and becoming drunk in their tents. At this time, King Ahab’s attack began. ¹⁷The young helpers attacked first. King Ben Hadad’s men told him that soldiers had come out of Samaria. ¹⁸So Ben Hadad said, “They might be coming to fight. Or they might be coming to ask for peace. Capture them alive.” ¹⁹The young men of King Ahab were leading the attack. The army of Israel was following them. ²⁰But each man of Israel killed the man that came against him. So the men from Aram began to run away. The army of Israel chased them. King Ben Hadad escaped on a horse from one of the chariots.* ²¹King Ahab led the army and took all horses and chariots from the army of Aram. So King Ahab caused a great defeat of the Aramean army. ²²Then the prophet went to King Ahab and said, “The king of Aram, Ben Hadad, will come to fight against you again next spring. So you should go home now and make your army stronger. And make careful plans to defend against him.”

Ben Hadad Attacks Again

²³King Ben Hadad’s officers said to him, “The gods of Israel are mountain gods. We fought in a mountain area. So the people of Israel won. So let’s fight them on the flat land. Then we will win. ²⁴This is what you should do. Don’t allow the 32 kings to command the armies. Let the commanders lead their armies. ²⁵“Now you gather an army like the army that was destroyed. Gather horses and chariots like that army. Then let’s fight the Israelites on flat land. Then we will win.” Ben Hadad followed their advice. He did what they said. ²⁶So in the spring, Ben Hadad gathered the people of Aram. He went to Aphek to fight against Israel. ²⁷The Israelites also prepared for war. The people of Israel went to fight the army of Aram. They made their camp opposite the camp of Aram. Compared to the enemy, Israel looked like two small flocks of goats, but the Aramean soldiers covered the whole area. ²⁸A man of God* came to the king of Israel with this message: “The Lord said, ‘{The people of} Aram said that I, the Lord, am God of the mountains. They think that I am not also the God of the valleys. So I will allow you to defeat this big army. Then you will know that I am the Lord {in every place}!’” ²⁹The armies were camped across from each other for seven days. On the seventh day the battle began. The Israelites killed 100,000 soldiers of Aram in one day. ³⁰The survivors ran away to the city of Aphek. The wall of the city fell on 27,000 of those soldiers. Ben Hadad also ran away to the city. He hid in a room. ³¹His servants said to him, “We heard that the kings of Israel are merciful. Let’s dress in rough cloth with ropes on our heads.* Then let’s go to the king of Israel. Maybe he will let us live.” ³²They dressed in rough cloth with ropes on their heads.* They came to the king of Israel. They said, “Your servant, Ben Hadad, says, ‘Please let me live.’” Ahab said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”* ³³Ben Hadad’s men wanted King Ahab to say something to show that he would not kill King Ben Hadad. When Ahab called Ben Hadad his brother, the advisers quickly said, “Yes! Ben Hadad is your brother.” Ahab said, “Bring him to me.” So Ben Hadad came to King Ahab. King Ahab asked him to get in the chariot with him. ³⁴Ben Hadad said to him, “Ahab, I will give you the towns that my father took from your father. And you can put shops in Damascus, like my father did in Samaria.” Ahab answered, “If you agree to this, then I will allow you to go free.” So the two kings made a peace agreement. Then King Ahab let King Ben Hadad go free.

A Prophet Speaks Against Ahab

³⁵One of the prophets told another prophet, “Hit me!” He said that because the Lord had commanded it. But the other prophet refused to hit him. ³⁶So the first prophet said, “You did not obey the Lord’s command. So a lion will kill you when you leave this place.” The second prophet left that place and a lion killed him. ³⁷The first prophet went to another man and said, “Hit me!” This man hit him and hurt the prophet. ³⁸So the prophet wrapped his face with a cloth. This way, no person could see who he was. The prophet went and waited for the king by the road. ³⁹The king came by and the prophet said to him, “I went to fight in the battle. One of our men brought an enemy soldier to me. The man said, ‘Guard this man. If he runs away, then you will have to give your life in his place. Or you will have to pay a fine of 75 pounds* of silver.’ ⁴⁰But I became busy doing other things. So the man ran away.” The king of Israel answered, “{You have said that you are guilty of letting the soldier escape.} So you know the answer. You must do what the man said.” ⁴¹Then the prophet took the cloth from his face. The king of Israel saw him and knew that he was one of the prophets. ⁴²Then the prophet said to the king, “The Lord says to you, ‘You set free the man that I said should die. So you will take his place—you will die! And your people will take the enemies’ place—your people will die!’” ⁴³Then the king went back home to Samaria. He was worried and upset.

chariot(s) A small wagon used in war. souvenirs Things that help people remember places they have been. Literally, the Hebrew has, “handfuls of dust.” chariot(s) A small wagon used in war. man of God Another name for a prophet. rough cloth … heads This showed they were being humble and that they wanted to surrender. brother People that signed peace agreements often called each other “brother.” It was like they became one family. 75 pounds Or “34kg.” Literally, “a talent.”

Naboth’s Field of Grapes

21 King Ahab’s palace* was in the city of Samaria. Near the palace there was a field of grapes. A man named Naboth owned this field. He was from Jezreel. ²One day Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your field. I want to make it a vegetable garden. Your field is near my palace. I will give you a better grape field in its place. Or, if you prefer, I will pay you its value in money.” ³Naboth answered, “I will never give my land to you. This land belongs to my family.” ⁴So Ahab went home. He was angry and upset at Naboth. He did not like the things that man from Jezreel said. (Naboth had said, “I will not give you my family’s land.”) Ahab lay down on his bed. He turned his face away and refused to eat. ⁵Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, went to him. Jezebel said to him, “Why are you upset? Why do you refuse to eat?” ⁶Ahab answered, “I asked Naboth, the man from Jezreel, to give me his field. I told him that I would pay him the full price. Or if he preferred, I would give him another field. But Naboth refused to give his field to me.” ⁷Jezebel answered, “But you are the king over Israel! Get out of your bed. Eat something and you will feel better. I will get Naboth’s field for you.” ⁸Then Jezebel wrote some letters. She signed Ahab’s name to the letters. She used Ahab’s own seal to seal the letters. Then she sent them to the elders (leaders) and important men who lived in the same town as Naboth. ⁹This is what the letter said: Announce that there will be a day of fasting when the people will eat nothing. Then call all the people of the town together for a meeting. At the meeting, we will talk about Naboth. ¹⁰Find some men that will tell lies about Naboth. Those people should say that they heard Naboth speak against the king and against God. Then take Naboth out of the city and kill him with rocks. ¹¹So the elders (leaders) and important men of Jezreel obeyed that command. ¹²The leaders announced that there would be a day when all the people would eat nothing. On that day they called all the people together for a meeting. They put Naboth in a special place before the people. ¹³Then two men told the people that they heard Naboth speak against God and against the king. So the people carried Naboth out of the city. Then they killed him with rocks. ¹⁴Then the leaders sent a message to Jezebel. The message said: “Naboth has been killed.” ¹⁵When Jezebel heard this, she said to Ahab, “Naboth is dead. Now you can go and take the field that you wanted.” ¹⁶So Ahab went to the field of grapes and took it for his own. ¹⁷At this time the Lord spoke to Elijah. (Elijah was the prophet from Tishbe.) {The Lord said,} ¹⁸“Go to King Ahab in Samaria. Ahab will be at Naboth’s field of grapes. He is there to take the field as his own. ¹⁹Tell Ahab that I, the Lord, say to him, ‘Ahab! You killed the man Naboth. Now you are taking his land. So I tell you this! In the same place that Naboth died, you will also die. The dogs that licked Naboth’s blood will lick your blood in the same place!’” ²⁰So Elijah went to Ahab. Ahab saw Elijah and said, “You have found me again. You are always against me.” Elijah answered, “Yes, I found you again. You have always used your life for sinning against the Lord. ²¹So the Lord says to you, ‘I will destroy you. I will kill you and every male in your family. ²²Your family will be the same as the family of King Jeroboam son of Nebat. And your family will become like the family of King Baasha. Both of these families were completely destroyed. I will do this to you because you have made me angry. You have caused the people of Israel to sin.’ ²³And the Lord also says, ‘Dogs will eat the body of your wife Jezebel in the city of Jezreel. ²⁴Any person in your family that dies in the city will be eaten by dogs. Any person that dies in the fields, will be eaten by birds.’” ²⁵There is no other person that has done so many wrong things or sinned so much as Ahab. His wife Jezebel caused him to do those things. ²⁶Ahab did a very bad sin and worshiped those blocks of wood (idols). This was the same thing that the Amorite people did. And the Lord took the land from them and gave it to the people of Israel. ²⁷After Elijah finished speaking, Ahab was very sad. He tore his clothes to show that he was sad. Then he put on special clothes of sadness. Ahab refused to eat. He slept in those special clothes. Ahab was very sad and upset. ²⁸The Lord said to Elijah the prophet, ²⁹“I see that Ahab has become humble before me. So, I will not cause the trouble to come to him during his life. I will wait until his son is king. Then I will cause the trouble to come to Ahab’s family.”

palace A large house for the king and his family.