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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>1 Kings 20 WEB</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/1_kings/20.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/1_kings/20-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">WEB</a> > 1 Kings 20</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../1_kings/19.htm" title="1 Kings 19">◄</a> 1 Kings 20 <a href="../1_kings/21.htm" title="1 Kings 21">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">World English Bible</div><div class="chap"><p class="hdg">Ahab's Wars with Syria</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Ben Hadad the king of Syria gathered all his army together; and there were thirty-two kings with him, and horses and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>He sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, into the city, and said to him, "Thus says Ben Hadad, <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>'Your silver and your gold is mine. Your wives also and your children, even the best, are mine.'" <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>The king of Israel answered, "It is according to your saying, my lord, O king. I am yours, and all that I have." <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>The messengers came again, and said, "Ben Hadad says, 'I sent indeed to you, saying, "You shall deliver me your silver, and your gold, and your wives, and your children; <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>but I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they shall search your house, and the houses of your servants; and it shall be, that whatever is pleasant in your eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away."'"</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, "Please notice how this man seeks mischief; for he sent to me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I didn't deny him." <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>All the elders and all the people said to him, "Don't listen, neither consent." <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>Therefore he said to the messengers of Ben Hadad, "Tell my lord the king, 'All that you sent for to your servant at the first I will do; but this thing I cannot do.'" The messengers departed, and brought him back the message. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>Ben Hadad sent to him, and said, "The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me." <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>The king of Israel answered, "Tell him, 'Don't let him who puts on his armor brag like he who takes it off.'" <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>It happened, when Ben Hadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings, in the pavilions, that he said to his servants, "Prepare to attack!" They prepared to attack the city.</p> <p class="hdg">Ahab Defeats Ben-Hadad</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>Behold, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel, and said, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand this day; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.'" <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>Ahab said, "By whom?" He said, "Thus says Yahweh, 'By the young men of the princes of the provinces.'" Then he said, "Who shall begin the battle?" He answered, "You." <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>Then he mustered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two. After them, he mustered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>They went out at noon. But Ben Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>The young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Ben Hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, "Men are coming out from Samaria." <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>He said, "If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive."</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>So these went out of the city, the young men of the princes of the provinces, and the army which followed them. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>They each killed his man. The Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them. Ben Hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>The king of Israel went out, and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>The prophet came near to the king of Israel, and said to him, "Go, strengthen yourself, and mark, and see what you do; for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against you."</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>The servants of the king of Syria said to him, "Their god is a god 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. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>Do this thing: take the kings away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their place. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>Muster an army, like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot. We will fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than them." He listened to their voice, and did so.</p> <p class="hdg">Another War with Ben-Hadad</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>It happened at the return of the year, that Ben Hadad mustered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>The children of Israel were mustered, and were provisioned, and went against them. The children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of young goats; but the Syrians filled the country. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>A man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Because the Syrians have said, "Yahweh is a god of the hills, but he is not a god of the valleys;" therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.'" <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>They encamped one over against the other seven days. So it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel killed one hundred thousand footmen of the Syrians in one day. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left. Ben Hadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner room.</p> <p class="hdg">Ahab Spares Ben-Hadad</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>His servants said to him, "See now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us put sackcloth on our bodies, and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Maybe he will save your life." <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>So they put sackcloth on their bodies and ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, "Your servant Ben Hadad says, 'Please let me live.'" He said, "Is he still alive? He is my brother." <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>Now the men observed diligently, and hurried to take this phrase; and they said, "Your brother Ben Hadad." Then he said, "Go, bring him." Then Ben Hadad came out to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>Ben Hadad said to him, "The cities which my father took from your father I will restore. You shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria." "I," said Ahab, "will let you go with this covenant." So he made a covenant with him, and let him go.</p> <p class="hdg">A Prophet Reproves Ahab</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-35.htm"><b>35</b></a></span>A certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow by the word of Yahweh, "Please strike me!" The man refused to strike him. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-36.htm"><b>36</b></a></span>Then he said to him, "Because you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, behold, as soon as you are departed from me, a lion shall kill you." As soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and killed him. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-37.htm"><b>37</b></a></span>Then he found another man, and said, "Please strike me." The man struck him, smiting and wounding him. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-38.htm"><b>38</b></a></span>So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with his headband over his eyes. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-39.htm"><b>39</b></a></span>As the king passed by, he cried to the king; and he said, "Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man to me, and said, 'Guard this man! If by any means he be missing, then your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.' <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-40.htm"><b>40</b></a></span>As your servant was busy here and there, he was gone." The king of Israel said to him, "So your judgment shall be; yourself have decided it." <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-41.htm"><b>41</b></a></span>He hurried, and took the headband away from his eyes; and the king of Israel recognized that he was of the prophets. <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-42.htm"><b>42</b></a></span>He said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.'" <span class="reftext"><a href="/1_kings/20-43.htm"><b>43</b></a></span>The king of Israel went to his house sullen and angry, and came to Samaria.</p></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">The World English Bible is a 1997 revision of the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible, first published in 1901. It is in the Public Domain. Please feel free to copy and distribute it freely. Thank you to Michael Paul Johnson for making this work available. 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