BEN-HADAD, THE KING OF SYRIA - Probably the son of the Ben-hadad who assisted Asa against Baasha (1 Kings 15:18 note). THIRTY AND TWO KINGS WITH HIM - Not allies, but feudatories 1 Kings 20:24. Damascus had in the reign of this Ben-hadad become the center of an important monarchy, which may not imp... [ Continue Reading ]
It may be supposed that a considerable time had passed in the siege, that the city had been reduced to an extremity, and that ambassadors had been sent by Ahab to ask terms of peace short of absolute surrender, before Ben-hadad would make such a demand. He would expect and intend his demand to be re... [ Continue Reading ]
Ben-hadad, disappointed by Ahab’s consent to an indignity which he had thought no monarch could submit to, proceeds to put a fresh construction on his former demands.... [ Continue Reading ]
The political institution of a Council of elders (Exodus 3:16, etc.), which had belonged to the undivided nation from the sojourn in Egypt downward, had therefore been continued among the ten tribes after their separation, and still held an important place in the system of Government. The Council wa... [ Continue Reading ]
“The people” had no distinct place in the ordinary Jewish or Israelite constitution; but they were accustomed to signify their approbation or disapprobation of the decisions of the elders by acclamations or complaints (Joshua 9:18; Judges 11:11, etc.).... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THE DUST OF SAMARIA SHALL SUFFICE FOR HANDFULS ... - In its general sense this phrase is undoubtedly a boast that the number of Ben-hadad’s troops was such as to make resistance vain and foolish. We may parallel it with the saying of the Trachinian at Thermopylae, that the Persian arrows would da... [ Continue Reading ]
Ahab’s reply has the air of a proverb, with which Orientals always love to answer a foe.... [ Continue Reading ]
PAVILIONS - “Booths” (Genesis 33:17 margin; Leviticus 23:42; Jonah 4:5). The term seems to be properly applied to a stationary “booth” or “hut,” as distinguished from a moveable “tent.” On military expeditions, and especially in the case of a siege, such “huts” were naturally constructed to shelter... [ Continue Reading ]
The rabbinical commentators conjecture that this prophet was Micaiah, the son of Imlah, who is mentioned below 1 Kings 22:8. HAST THOU SEEN ALL THIS GREAT MULTITUDE? - The boast of Ben-hadad 1 Kings 20:10, was not without a basis of truth; his force seems to have exceeded 130, 000 (compare 1 Kings... [ Continue Reading ]
The “princes of the provinces” are the governors of districts, many of whom may have fled to the capital, as the hostile army advanced through Galilee and northern Samaria. The “young men” are their attendants, youths unaccustomed to war. WHO SHALL ORDER THE BATTLE? - i. e., “Who shal join battle,... [ Continue Reading ]
SEVEN THOUSAND - Considering how populous Palestine was in the time of the earlier Israelite kings (see 2 Chronicles 13:3; 2 Chronicles 14:8; 2 Chronicles 17:14), the smallness of this number is somewhat surprising. If the reading be sound, we must suppose, first, that Ben-hadad’s attack was very su... [ Continue Reading ]
DRINKING HIMSELF DRUNK - Ben-hadad meant probably to mark his utter contempt of his foe. Compare the contempt of Belshazzar Daniel 5:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEN-HADAD SENT OUT, AND THEY TOLD HIM - The Septuagint has a better reading: “they sent and told the king of Syria.”... [ Continue Reading ]
GO, STRENGTHEN THYSELF ... - That is, “collect troops, raise fortifications, obtain allies ... take all the measures thou canst to increase thy military strength. Be not rash, but consider well every step ... for a great danger is impending.” AT THE RETURN OF THE YEAR - i. e., “When the season for m... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR GODS ARE GODS OF THE HILLS - The local power and influence of deities was a fixed principle of the ancient polytheism. Each country was considered to have its own gods; and wars were regarded as being to a great extent struggles between the gods of the nations engaged in them. This is apparent... [ Continue Reading ]
The Syrian chiefs evidently thought that want of unity had weakened their army. They therefore proposed the deposition of the kings, and the substitution, in their place, of Syrian governors: not “captains.” The term used always denotes a civil office.... [ Continue Reading ]
APHEK - There were several places of this name in Palestine (see the marginal reference). This Aphek has been almost certainly identified with the modern Fik, a large village on the present high road from Damascus to Nablous and Jersalem. The expression “went up to Aphek” is appropriate, for Fik, th... [ Continue Reading ]
WERE ALL PRESENT - The marginal rendering is adopted by almost all critics. LIKE TWO LITTLE FLOCKS OF KIDS - The word translated “little flocks” does not occur elsewhere in Scripture. It seems to mean simply “flocks.” Compare the Septuagint, who render ὡσεί δύο ποίμνια αἰγῶν _hōsei_ _duo_ _p... [ Continue Reading ]
A MAN OF GOD - Evidently not the prophet who had spoken to Ahab the year before 1 Kings 20:13, 1 Kings 20:22. He probably dwelt in the neighborhood of Samaria. Now that Ahab and his army had marched out into the Trans-Jordanic territory, another prophet, a native probably of that region, announced G... [ Continue Reading ]
A WALL - “The wall,” i. e., the wall of the town. We may suppose a terrific earthquake during the siege of the place, while the Syrians were manning the defenses in full force, which threw down the wall where they were most thickly crowded upon it, and buried them in its ruins. Ben-hadad fled from t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ROPES UPON OUR HEADS - “Ropes about our necks” is probably meant. They, as it were, put their lives at Ahab’s disposal, who, if he pleased, might hang them at once.... [ Continue Reading ]
Ben-hadad is now as humble as Ahab had been a year before 1 Kings 20:9. He professes himself the mere “slave” of his conqueror.... [ Continue Reading ]
The meaning of this verse is that the men from the first moment of their arrival were on the watch to note what Ahab would say; and the moment he let fall the expression “He is my brother,” they caught it up and repeated it, fixing him to it, as it were, and preventing his retreat. By the Oriental l... [ Continue Reading ]
Ben-hadad, secure of his life, suggests terms of peace as the price of his freedom. He will restore to Ahab the Israelite cities taken from Omri by his father, among which Ramoth Gilead was probably the most important 1 Kings 22:3; and he will allow Ahab the privilege of making for himself “streets,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS - The expression occurs here for the first time. It signifies (marginal references), the schools or colleges of prophets which existed in several of the Israelite, and probably of the Jewish, towns, where young men were regularly educated for the prophetical office. These “s... [ Continue Reading ]
ASHES - Rather, “a bandage” (and in 1 Kings 20:41). The object of the wound and bandage was double. Partly, it was to prevent Ahab from recognizing the prophet’s face; partly, to induce him to believe that the man had really been engaged in the recent war.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WAS OF THE PROPHETS - Josephus and others conjecture that this prophet was Micaiah, the son of Imlah (but compare 1 Kings 20:13 note).... [ Continue Reading ]
A MAN WHOM I APPOINTED TO UTTER DESTRUCTION - or to חרם _chērem_, i. e., a man on whom My curse had been laid (Leviticus 27:28 note).... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAVY AND DISPLEASED - Rather, “sullen and angry” (and so marginal reference), not repentant, as after Elijah’s warning 1 Kings 21:27 - not acknowledging the justice of his sentence - but full of sullenness and suppressed anger.... [ Continue Reading ]