Day 95: 1 Kings 20-22

Wars with Aram, Naboth’s Vineyard, and the Death of Ahab

1 KINGS 20

1 Ben Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army together; and there were thirty-two kings with him, with horses and chariots. He went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it.

2 He sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said to him, “Ben Hadad says, 3 ‘Your silver and your gold is mine. Your wives also and your children, even the best, are mine.’”

4 The king of Israel answered, “It is according to your saying, my lord, O king. I am yours, and all that I have.”

5 The messengers came again, and said, “Ben Hadad says, ‘Although I have sent to you, saying, “You shall deliver me your silver, your gold, your wives, and your children,” 6 yet I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they will search your house and the houses of your servants. Whatever is pleasant in your eyes, they will put it in their hand, and take it away.’”

7 Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, “Please notice and see how this man seeks mischief; for he sent to me for my wives, my children, my silver, and my gold; and I didn’t deny him.”

8 All the elders and all the people said to him, “Don’t listen, neither consent.”

9 Therefore he said to Ben Hadad’s messengers, “Tell my lord the king, ‘All that you first demanded of your servant I will do; but this thing I can’t do.’” The messengers departed, and brought him word again.

10 Ben Hadad sent to him, and said, “The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria will be enough for handfuls for all the people who follow me.”

11 The king of Israel answered, “Tell him, ‘Don’t let him who puts on his armor boast like him who takes it off.’”

12 When Ben Hadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings, in the pavilions, he said to his servants, “Prepare to attack!” They prepared to attack the city.

13 Behold, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel, and said, “Yahweh says, ‘Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.’”

14 Ahab said, “By whom?”

He said, “Yahweh says, ‘By the young men of the princes of the provinces.’”

Then he said, “Who shall begin the battle?”

He answered, “You.”

15 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.

16 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.

17 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.”

18 He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive.”

19 So these went out of the city, the young men of the princes of the provinces, and the army which followed them.

20 They each killed his man. The Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them. Ben Hadad king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen.

21 The king of Israel went out, and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.

22 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.”

23 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’s fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they.”

24 Do this thing: take the kings away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their place.

25 Muster an army like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot; and we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they.” He listened to their voice, and did so.

26 At the return of the year, Ben Hadad mustered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.

27 The children of Israel were mustered and supplied, and went against them. The children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country.

28 A man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, “Yahweh says, ‘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.’”

29 They encamped opposite one another seven days. On the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel killed one hundred thousand Syrian footmen in one day.

30 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.

31 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. Perhaps he will save your life.”

32 So they dressed in sackcloth on their bodies, and put 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.”

33 Now the men diligently observed whether anything would come from him, and quickly picked it up, 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.

34 Ben Hadad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will restore; and 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.

35 A certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow by Yahweh’s word, “Please strike me!”

The man refused to strike him.

36 Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed Yahweh’s voice, behold, as soon as you have departed from me, a lion will kill you.” As soon as he had departed from him, a lion found him, and killed him.

37 Then he found another man, and said, “Please strike me.”

The man struck him, smiting and wounding him.

38 So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with his headband over his eyes.

39 As the king passed by, he cried to the king; and he said, “Your servant went out into the middle 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 is missing, then your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’

40 As your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.”

The king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be. You yourself have decided it.”

41 He hurried and took the headband away from his eyes; and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets.

42 He said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘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.’”

43 The king of Israel went to his house sullen and angry, and came to Samaria.

1 KINGS 21

1 After these things, Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.

2 Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near my house; and I will give you for it a better vineyard than it. Or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money.”

3 Naboth said to Ahab, “May Yahweh forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you!”

4 Ahab came into his house sullen and angry because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” He laid himself down on his bed, turned away his face, and would eat no bread.

5 But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, “Why is your spirit so sad that you eat no bread?”

6 He said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it.’ He answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’”

7 Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, eat bread, and let your heart be merry. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

8 So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, who lived with Naboth.

9 She wrote in the letters, saying, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.

10 Set two men, base fellows, before him, and let them testify against him, saying, ‘You cursed God and the king!’ Then carry him out, and stone him to death.”

11 The men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, according to that which was written in the letters which she had sent to them.

12 They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.

13 The two men, the base fellows, came in and sat before him. The base fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king!” Then they carried him out of the city, and stoned him to death with stones.

14 Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned, and is dead.”

15 When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.”

16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

17 Yahweh’s word came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

18 “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it.

19 You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours.”’”

20 Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, my enemy?”

He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in Yahweh’s sight.”

21 “Behold, I will bring evil on you, and will utterly sweep you away…”

27 When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his flesh, fasted, lay in sackcloth, and went softly.

28 Yahweh’s word came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

29 “See how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son’s days.”

1 KINGS 22

1 They continued three years without war between Syria and Israel.

2 In the third year, Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel.

3 The king of Israel said to his servants, “Don’t you know that Ramoth Gilead is ours, and we sit still and don’t take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?”

4 He said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead?”

Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

5 Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for Yahweh’s word.”

6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?”

They said, “Go up; for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.”

7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Isn’t there here a prophet of Yahweh besides, that we may inquire of him?”

8 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he doesn’t prophesy good concerning me, but evil.”

Jehoshaphat said, “Don’t let the king say so.”

13 The messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, “Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one mouth. Please let your word be like the word of one of them.”

14 Micaiah said, “As Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that I will speak.”

17 He said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd.”

29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead.

30 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into the battle; but you put on your robes.”

34 A certain man drew his bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of the armor.

37 So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.

38 They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, according to Yahweh’s word.

41 Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah.

51 Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel.

Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.