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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Kings 20:1 - 20:1
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The First Victory. - 1Ki 20:1. Benhadad, the son of that Benhadad who had conquered several cities of Galilee in the reign of Baasha (1Ki 15:20), came up with a great army - there were thirty-two kings with him, with horses and chariots - and besieged Samaria. The thirty-two kings with him (×ִתֹּו) were vassals of Benhadad, rulers of different cities and the territory belonging to them, just as in Joshua's time almost every city of Canaan had its king; they were therefore bound to follow the army of Benhadad with their troops.
1Ki 20:2-7
During the siege Benhadad sent messengers into the city to Ahab with this demand: “Thy silver and thy gold are mine, and the best of thy wives and thy sons are mine;†and Ahab answered with pusillanimity: “According to thy word, my lord king, I and all that is mine are thine.†Benhadad was made still more audacious by this submissiveness, and sent messengers the second time with the following notice (1Ki 20:6): “Yea, if I send my servants to thee to-morrow at this time, and they search thy house and thy servants' houses, all that is the pleasure of thine eyes they will put into their hands and take.†×Ö´× ×›Ö´Ö¼×™ does not mean “only = certainly†here (Ewald, §356, b.), for there is neither a negative clause nor an oath, but ×Ö´× signifies if and ×›Ö´Ö¼×™ introduces the statement, as in 1Ki 20:5; so that it is only in the repetition of the ×›Ö´Ö¼×™ that the emphasis lies, which can be expressed by yea. The words of Ahab in 1Ki 20:9 show unquestionably that Benhadad demanded more the second time than the first. The words of the first demand, “Thy silver and thy gold,†etc., were ambiguous. According to 1Ki 20:5, Benhadad meant that Ahab should give him all this; and Ahab had probably understood him as meaning that he was to give him what he required, in order to purchase peace; but Benhadad had, no doubt, from the very first required an unconditional surrender at discretion. He expresses this very clearly in the second demand, since he announces to Ahab the plunder of his palace and also of the palaces of his nobles. כָּל־מַחְמַד ×¢Öµ× Ö¶×™×šÖ¸, all thy costly treasures. It was from this second demand that Ahab first perceived what Benhadad's intention had been; he therefore laid the matter before the elders of the land, i.e., the king's counsellors, 1Ki 20:7 : “Mark and see that this man seeketh evil,†i.e., that he is aiming at our ruin, since he is not contented with the first demand, which I did not refuse him.
1Ki 20:8-9
The elders and all the people, i.e., the citizens of Samaria. advised that his demand should not be granted. תֹ×מֶה ×•Ö°×œÖ¹× ×ַל־תִּשְ×מַע, “hearken not (to him), and thou wilt not be willing†(×•Ö°×œÖ¹× is stronger than ×ַל; yet compare Ewald, §350, a.); whereupon Ahab sent the messengers away with this answer, that he would submit to the first demand, but that the second he could not grant.
1Ki 20:10
Benhadad then attempted to overawe the weak-minded Ahab by strong threats, sending fresh messengers to threaten him with the destruction of the city, and confirming it by a solemn oath: “The gods do so to me - if the dust of Samaria should suffice for the hollow hands of all the people that are in my train.†The meaning of this threat was probably that he would reduce the city to ashes, so that scarcely a handful of dust should be left; for his army was so powerful and numerous, that the rubbish of the city would not suffice for every one to fill his hand.
1Ki 20:11
Ahab answered this loud boasting with the proverb: “Let not him that girdeth himself boast as he that looseneth the girdle,†equivalent to the Latin, ne triumphum canas ante victoriam.
1Ki 20:12
After this reply of Ahab, Benhadad gave command to attack the city, while he was drinking with his kings in the booths. סֻכֹּות are booths made of branches, twigs, and shrubs, such as are still erected in the East for kings and generals in the place of tents (vid., Rosenmüller, A. u. N. Morgenl. iii. pp. 198-9). שִׂימוּ: take your places against the city, sc. to storm it (for ×©Ö´×‚×™× in the sense of arranging the army for battle, see 1Sa 11:11 and Job 1:17); not οἰκοδομηÌσατε χαÌÏακα (lxx), or place the siege train.
1Ki 20:13-14
While the Syrians were preparing for the attack, a prophet came to Ahab and told him that Jehovah would deliver this great multitude (of the enemy) into his hand that day, “that thou mayest know that I am Jehovah,†and that through the retainers of the governors of the provinces (×”Ö·×žÖ°Ö¼×“Ö´×™× Ö¹×•×ª שָׂרֵי, who had fled to Samaria), i.e., by a small and weak host. In the appearance of the prophet in Samaria mentioned here and in 1Ki 20:28, 1Ki 20:35. there is no such irreconcilable contradiction to 1Ki 18:4, 1Ki 18:22, and 1Ki 19:10, as Thenius maintains; it simply shows that the persecution of the prophets by Jezebel had somewhat abated, and therefore Elijah's labour had not remained without fruit. מִי ×™Ö¶×ְסֹר ×”×, who shall open the battle? ×ָסַר answers to the German anfädeln (to string, unite; Eng. join battle - Tr.); cf. 2Ch 13:3.
1Ki 20:15-16
Ahab then mustered his fighting men: there were 232 servants of the provincial governors; and the rest of the people, all the children of Israel, i.e., the whole of the Israelitish fighting men that were in Samaria (הַחַיִל, 1Ki 20:19), amounted to 7000 men. And at noon, when Benhadad and his thirty-two auxiliary kings were intoxicated at a carousal in the booths (שִ×כֹּור שֹ×תֶה as in 1Ki 16:9), he ordered his men to advance, with the servants of the provincial governors taking the lead. The 7000 men are not to be regarded as the 7000 mentioned in 1Ki 19:18, who had not bowed their knee before Baal, as Rashi supposes, although the sameness in the numbers is apparently not accidental; but in both cases the number of the covenant people existing in Israel is indicated, though in 1Ki 19:18 and 7000 constitute the ÎµÌ“ÎºÎ»Î¿Î³Î·Ì of the true Israel, whereas in the verse before us they are merely the fighting men whom the Lord had left to Ahab for the defence of his kingdom.
1Ki 20:17-18
When Benhadad was informed of the advance of these fighting men, in his drunken arrogance he ordered them to be taken alive, whether they came with peaceable or hostile intent.
1Ki 20:19-21
But they - the servants of the governors at the head, and the rest of the army behind - smote every one his man, so that the Aramaeans fled, and Benhadad, pursued by the Israelites, escaped on a horse with some of the cavalry. וּפָּרָשִ××™× is in apposition to בֶּן־הֲדַד, “he escaped, and horsemen,†sc. escaped with him, i.e., some of the horsemen of his retinue, whilst the king of Israel, going out of the city, smote horses and chariots of the enemy, who were not prepared for this sally of the besieged, and completely defeated them.
1Ki 20:22
After this victory the prophet came to Ahab again, warning him to be upon his guard, for at the turn of the year, i.e., the next spring (see at 2Sa 11:1), the Syrian king would make war upon him once more.