1Kings, chapter 20, comments

 

1Kings 20:1 ¶  And Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. 2  And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Benhadad, 3  Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. 4  And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have. 5  And the messengers came again, and said, Thus speaketh Benhadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children; 6  Yet I will send my servants unto thee to morrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away. 7  Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief: for he sent unto me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I denied him not. 8  And all the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken not unto him, nor consent. 9  Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Benhadad, Tell my lord the king, All that thou didst send for to thy servant at the first I will do: but this thing I may not do. And the messengers departed, and brought him word again. 10  And Benhadad sent unto him, and said, The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me. 11  And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.

Benhadad, king of Syria, along with lesser kings allied with him makes war on Israel and king Ahab. The statement that 32 kings join with him shows us that kings could be ruling over a much smaller area than we typically think from watching Hollywood movies and reading fiction. As I pointed out in Genesis a king might have been no more powerful than a mayor of a small town today except in his ability to lead men to war and kill people. These city-states, as they were, would have had their own gods and perhaps even a king who was political and a king who was responsible for religious rites as I pointed out in my comments on Genesis, chapter 14.

Benhadad, in his presumption, demands that Ahab not only impoverish himself and his kingdom but to give up his family as well. Now here is where a line is crossed. It is one thing to acknowledge that a greater king has sovereignty over you in saying that all you have belongs to him but it is not expected that you must surrender all that you have and essentially your kingdom to the greater king. Ahab is given no choice but to resist and take a stand, as evil as he is. In verse 11 Ahab gives a classic answer that echoes through the ages when even in a street brawl today when someone brags about how his opponent is doomed and the presumed weaker opponent says defiantly, “you still got it to do!” or, “stop selling tickets, just run the show.” Benhadad would do better to wait until he had won to do his bragging. Benhadad’s pride will not serve him well. Men of power like Hitler or the leaders of Imperial Japan in World War Two can be quite shocked to see themselves lose a powerful army and see their countries destroyed.

Siege warfare was not uncommon in the ancient and medieval worlds from the Trojan War to the Siege of Jerusalem in 1099 and was often resolved by negotiation when the defeated would pay what was demanded in order to achieve a better outcome upon surrender with many sieges, however, ending in total conquest and the blood of the besieged painting the ruins of a once important city scarlet. What was being demanded here, though, was too much to accept. Ahab’s army will sally forth to attack their besieger, another fairly common tactic in historical siege warfare.

A siege may have caused the Black Plague that devastated Europe when the Mongols besieged the Genoese trading port of Kaffa in the Crimea in 1347. They catapulted their own dead, dead of the plague, over the walls into the city. Escaping merchants took the infestation back to the Italian peninsula and from there it spread, according to some historians and historical writers.

1Kings 20:12 ¶  And it came to pass, when Benhadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings in the pavilions, that he said unto his servants, Set yourselves in array. And they set themselves in array against the city. 13  And, behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. 14  And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, Thus saith the LORD, Even by the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he said, Who shall order the battle? And he answered, Thou. 15  Then he numbered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty two: and after them he numbered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand. 16  And they went out at noon. But Benhadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty and two kings that helped him. 17  And the young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Benhadad sent out, and they told him, saying, There are men come out of Samaria. 18  And he said, Whether they be come out for peace, take them alive; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive. 19  So these young men of the princes of the provinces came out of the city, and the army which followed them. 20  And they slew every one his man: and the Syrians fled; and Israel pursued them: and Benhadad the king of Syria escaped on an horse with the horsemen. 21  And the king of Israel went out, and smote the horses and chariots, and slew the Syrians with a great slaughter.

God has granted to Ahab a great slaughter and overwhelming victory over King Benhadad of Syria whose goal was the capture of Ahab and his household and army. Ussher said this took place around 900BC.

Sallying forth to attack your besieger was a well-used tactic in Ancient and Medieval warfare. It was at times successful as here. Ahab is outnumbered but with God’s promise he succeeds against his bitter enemy.

1Kings 20:22 ¶  And the prophet came to the king of Israel, and said unto him, Go, strengthen thyself, and mark, and see what thou doest: for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee. 23  And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him, Their gods are gods of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. 24  And do this thing, Take the kings away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their rooms: 25  And number thee an army, like the army that thou hast lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot: and we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. And he hearkened unto their voice, and did so. 26  And it came to pass at the return of the year, that Benhadad numbered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel. 27  And the children of Israel were numbered, and were all present, and went against them: and the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country. 28  And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 29  And they pitched one over against the other seven days. And so it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined: and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day. 30  But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and there a wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left. And Benhadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner chamber.

This campaign is an outright disaster for the Syrian king and his mercenary allies. Lest you get too bent out of shape by the numbers of the dead here and the disaster that befell the survivors when the walls of Aphek collapsed keep in mind that historians discounted the dead lying at the Battle of Towton in England’s Wars of the Roses in 1461. Modern historians didn’t believe that the numbers of dead reported by historians of that time could be possible until they excavated the site and reported in the book Blood Red Roses that the older chronicles were correct and that indeed, 30,000 rather than 5,000 could have died. We are talking about large numbers of the dead.

1Kings 20:31 ¶  And his servants said unto him, Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel: peradventure he will save thy life. 32  So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, Thy servant Benhadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he said, Is he yet alive? he is my brother. 33  Now the men did diligently observe whether any thing would come from him, and did hastily catch it: and they said, Thy brother Benhadad. Then he said, Go ye, bring him. Then Benhadad came forth to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot. 34  And Benhadad said unto him, The cities, which my father took from thy father, I will restore; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab, I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away. 35  And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbour in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to smite him. 36  Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him. 37  Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man smote him, so that in smiting he wounded him. 38  So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with ashes upon his face. 39  And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and he said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver. 40  And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it. 41  And he hasted, and took the ashes away from his face; and the king of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets. 42  And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people. 43  And the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria.

Ahab’s mercy for Benhadad is not pleasing to God and, to me, shows a disdain for his own people who suffering, fought, and died. It is as if kings are a different race and will show mercy to each other regardless of the damage done to their subjects. In other words, it’s a class arrogance thing, but that is my opinion. But this is an evil ruler dealing with someone, also evil, on his level.