1 Kings 20 - Introduction
_AHAB DEFEATS BEN-HADAD, KING OF SYRIA, WITH A GREAT SLAUGHTER, IN TWO BATTLES; HE SPARES BEN-HADAD, AND IS ON THAT ACCOUNT SEVERELY REPROVED BY A PROPHET._ _Before Christ 901._... [ Continue Reading ]
_AHAB DEFEATS BEN-HADAD, KING OF SYRIA, WITH A GREAT SLAUGHTER, IN TWO BATTLES; HE SPARES BEN-HADAD, AND IS ON THAT ACCOUNT SEVERELY REPROVED BY A PROPHET._ _Before Christ 901._... [ Continue Reading ]
SET YOURSELVES IN ARRAY, &C.— _Draw near; and they drew near to the city._ Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD THERE CAME A PROPHET— The Scripture nowhere informs us who this prophet was. It is something extraordinary, that during this whole war with Ben-hadad, neither Elijah nor Elisha, the two principal prophets of Israel, should appear; though other prophets, whereof there seems to have been a cons... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN BY THE YOUNG MEN OF THE PRINCES OF THE PROVINCES— _By the help of the servants, which the princes of the provinces have._ Houbigant, The Hebrew word נערי _naari_ has some ambiguity in it, and may signify either the _sons_ or the _servants_ of the princes of the provinces. It was by these young... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR GODS ARE GODS OF THE HILLS— See Numbers 23:27 and Virgil, En. viii. ver. 698, &c. Bishop Warburton observes, that when Ben-hadad, whose forces consisted of chariots and horsemen, had warred with ill success against the king of Israel, his ministers, in a council of war, delivered their advice... [ Continue Reading ]
THE REST FLED TO APHEK, &C— _Aphek_ was situated in Libanus upon the river Adonis, between Heliopolis and Biblos, and in all probability was the same which Lucas speaks of, as swallowed up in a lake of mount Libanus, about nine miles in circumference, wherein there are several houses, all entire, to... [ Continue Reading ]
LET US—PUT SACKCLOTH ON OUR LOINS, AND ROPES, &C.— The approaching persons, _with a sword hanging to the neck,_ is, in the East, thought to be a very humble and submissive manner of coming before them. So William of Tyre, describing the great solemnity and humiliation with which the governor of Egyp... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT MAKE STREETS FOR THEE IN DAMASCUS, &C.— Ben-hadad, received to mercy, and treated with respect, promised upon this occasion to restore to the kingdom of Israel the cities that his father had taken from it. _And thou shalt make,_ said he, _streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in... [ Continue Reading ]
A CERTAIN MAN—SAID UNTO HIS NEIGHBOUR IN THE WORD OF THE LORD, SMITE ME, &C.— _Said—by the command of the Lord,_ &c. Houbigant. The prophets, as we have before observed, both in their parabolical speeches and symbolical actions, are to be considered as persons of a singular character. See ch. 1 King... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH ASHES UPON HIS FACE— Houbigant reads, _with a bandage;—he had his eyes covered with a bandage._ Several of the versions render it _with a veil._ See 1 Kings 20:41.... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SAITH THE LORD, BECAUSE THOU HAST LET GO, &C.— The offence which God threatens to punish thus severely in Ahab, consisted in his suffering such a blasphemer as Ben-hadad to go unpunished, which was contrary to an express law, Leviticus 24:16. If it should be urged, that this was nothing to Ben-... [ Continue Reading ]