Holy Bible

Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off. 1 Kings 20:11 Girding on the harness A. Raleigh, D. D. I. AS TO THE JUSTICE AND RECTITUDE OF OUR PLANS. It may give us with effect this plain teaching: that we ought to undertake nothing on our own responsibility which we cannot justify and defend. This great Syrian king is engaged in a wrong thing. He has no right to be here at the gates of Samaria — no more right than a man would have to thunder at his neighbour's door, and demand his neighbour's property. It may sometimes, for a wider good, be right to subdue a nation by force, and to annex it or absorb it. But this is not to be done simply at the prompting of ambition or tyrannical self-will. Reason sufficient must be given for it. An old author says, commenting on this passage, "Thus a great dog worrieth a less, only because he is bigger and stronger"; this, however, is hardly just to the great dog, which very seldom, in point of fact, does worry the less without considerable provocation. The point for us as individuals is: that rectitude should lie at the basis of all our express undertakings. There are many things in which we must act, but with greatly qualified and modified responsibility; and some of the finest questions in our moral life, and the most difficult of clear settlement, arise in connection with joint action. The servant is not the keeper of the master's conscience, although, of course, he is bound to keep his own, and never do what would be to him a wrong thing. The single member of a company, or government, or society, cannot be expected to charge himself with more than his own share of the joint responsibility, and must yield to the will or the majority for the accomplishments of common ends, or must withdraw. If each individual will must rule in everything, there could be no joint action. But all this makes it the more needful that in those matters in which our responsibility is sole, the things which we ourselves expressly initiate, control, or conduct, rightness should be the foundation and the prevailing element. We ought to be able to say concerning our schemes, plans, or endeavours: "This thing is the fruit of my thought, and I can justify it. This thing I have initiated, and I mean, if God will, to finish it, for it is right. This is the fulfilment of my heart's desire, and I am thankful for it." Live so, and you will not ever be in Ben-hadad's evil ease. II. A SPIRIT OF MODESTY, AND SELF-DISTRUST, AND FEAR. If at all times it be right and becoming in us to clothe ourselves with humility, surely that robe is particularly seemly at the beginning of our undertakings! We are dependent creatures, and when we are beginning what will require from us a great amount of strength, it is meet that we should look towards the Fountain-head of all the strengths. The mere "harness" of life is heavy to many a one. It is not always an easy matter to keep going on even from day to day — watching and waiting, and working by turns! Up at the hour, after a restful or a sleepless night! Ready at call during all the day! decisive in judgment at the opportune moment: Patient and disappointment or delays: And then to be ready to-morrow — and to-morrow — to go through the same strain of service! "Time and chance happeneth to all men." Life is full of cross-currents, and cross-roads, and cross-purposes; the unexpected is often that which comes. The looked-for is that which is delayed; and the right thing is broken to pieces; and the wrong thing holds on its way! III. But this kind of reflection may easily be pushed too far, so as to PARALYSE THE VERY NERVES OF ACTION IN A MAN, and hinder him, in fact, from ever girding on harness at all. Looking too much on the chances and uncertainties of life, one may come to the conclusion — and especially if he be of an unambitious, or indolent, or selfish habit — "Well, it hardly seems worth while to gird on the harness at all in anything that we can help. If all things happen alike to all — if chance is mistress of practical life — if capricious elements may control, direct, or thwart the purposes we form, and the plans we seek to effectuate — then we had better do nothing, or as little as we may — just enough to get quietly and not ignobly through. To sail right over the sea of life and battle with the storms may be a good thing to those who desire it — to those who are fitted for it. But if one can go coasting to the same destination, always taking the harbours and sheltered places when the storms arise, that will be better. At least, it will be better for us." No, no; this will not do. This is to restrict and degrade life, or at least to keep it from rising; and it has been made to rise. Gird on "the harness." Have something on hand worth doing; it is not to be believed that you can find nothing calling for and justifying your exertion. If it is not more, it will be less; and less may be done with so much zest and vigour, that it will seem more, and will really be more. Let us ask now if it be possible for any one to come to this modest, self-distrustful, resigned, and yet resolute state of mind about temporal things, about worldly chances, and fortunes, and family cares, who does not look at all beyond these things, and above them, to a higher world of duty and faith? No, it is not possible. Unless we have regard to the higher things we cannot walk steadily among the lower. Vessels larger and smaller are every day leaving England for east and west, north and south. Would you say to the captain of one of these: "Now, you must attend to your own business. Do not trouble yourself with things too high for you — with magnetic poles, and heavenly bodies-look simply to your ship and get her quick to port"? Yes, but how could he, without chart or compass, or sight of sun or star? The higher always rules the lower; the most stupid, mechanical people in the world cannot do the commonest work, without trusting, although perhaps quite unconsciously and ignorantly, to the great certainties of the heavens, to the things which are stable as the throne of God. ( A. Raleigh, D. D. ) Putting on the armour A. Maclaren, D. D. I. THE GENERAL VIEW OF LIFE THAT IS IMPLIED IN THIS SAYING. There is nothing that the bulk of people are more unwilling to do than steadily to think about what life is as a whole, and in its deepest aspects is. And that disinclination is strong, as I suppose, in the average young man or young woman. That comes, plainly enough, from the very blessings of your stage of life. Physical, unworn health, a blessed inexperience of failures and limitations, the sense of undeveloped power within you, the natural buoyancy of early days, all tend to make you rather live by impulse than by reflection. There are some of us to whom, so far as we have thought at all, life presents itself mainly as a shop, a place where we are to buy and sell, and get gain, and use our evenings, after the day's work is over, for such recreation as suits us. But whilst there are many other noble metaphors under which we can set forth the essential character of this.mysterious, tremendous life of ours, I do not know that there is one that ought to appal slumbering heroism, which lies in every human soul, and the enthusiasms which unless you in your youth cherish you will be beggared indeed in your manhood, than this picture of my text suggests. After an, life is meant to be one long conflict. Even upon the lower levels of life that is so. No man learns a science or a trade without having to fight for it. But high above these lower levels there is the one on which we all are called to walk — the high level of duty — and no man does what his conscience tells him, or refrains from that which his conscience sternly forbids, without having to fight for it. We are in the lists compelled to draw the sword. You are a soldier, whether you will or not, and life is a fight, whether you understand the conditions or no. II. NOTE THE BOASTFUL TEMPER WHICH IS SURE TO BE BEATEN. No doubt there is something inspiring in the spectacle of the young warrior standing there, chafing at the lists, eagerly pulling on his gauntlets, and fitting on his helmet, and longing to be in the thick of the fight. No doubt, there is something in your early days which makes such buoyant hopes and anticipations of success natural, and which gives you, as a great gift, that expectation of victory. So I ask, have you ever estimated, are you now estimating rightly, what it is that you have to fight for? To make yourselves pure, wise, strong, self-governing, Christlike men, such as God would have you to be. That is not a small thing for a man to set himself to do. Have you considered the forces that are arrayed against you? "What act is all its thought had been?" Hand and brain are never paired. There is always a gap between the conception and its realisation. The painter stands before his canvas, and, while others may see beauty in it, he only sees what a small fragment of the radiant vision that floated before his eye his hand has been able to preserve. Have you realised how different it is to dream things and to do them? In our dreams we are, as it were, working in vacuo. When we come to acts, the atmosphere has a resistance. It is easy to imagine ourselves victorious in circumstances where things are all going rightly, and are blending according to our own desires, but when we come to the grim world, where there are things that resist, and people are not plastic, it is a very different matter. I suppose that our colleges are full of students who are going to far outstrip their professors, that every life-school has a dozen lads who have just begun to handle easel and brush, that are going to put Raphael in the shade. I suppose that every lawyer's office has a budding Lord Chancellor or two in it. All us old people, whose deficiencies and limitations you see so clearly, had the same dreams, impossible as it may appear to you, fifty years ago. We were going to be the men, and wisdom was going to die with us, and you see what we have made of it. You will not do much better. Have you ever taken stock honestly of your own resources? You are not old enough to remember, as some of us do, the delirious enthusiasm with which, in the last Franco-German war, the emperor and the troops left Paris, and how, as the trains steamed out of the station, shouts were raised, "A Berlin!" Ay! and they never got further than Sedan, and there an emperor and an army were captured. Go into the fight bragging and you will come out of it beaten. III. NOTE THE CONFIDENCE WHICH IS NOT BOASTING. If there is nothing more to be said about the fight than has been already said, that is the conclusion. "Let us eat and drink," not only for to-morrow we die, but "for to-day we are sure to be beaten." But I have only been speaking about this self-distrust as preliminary to what is the main thing that I desire to urge upon you now, and it is this: You do not need to be beaten. There is no room for boasting, but there is room for absolute confidence. "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." That was not the boast of a man putting on the harness, but the calm utterance of the conquering Christ when He was putting it off. He has conquered that you may conquer. There is possible a triumph which is not boasting for him who puts off the harness. The war-worn soldier has little heart for boasting, but he may be able to say, "I have not been beaten." The best of us, when we come to the end, will have to recognise in retrospect failures, deficiencies, palterings with evil, yieldings to temptation, sins of many sorts, that will take all boasting out of our heads. But, whilst that is so, there is sometimes granted to the man that has been faithful in his adherence to Jesus Christ gleam of sunshine at eventide which foretells Heaven's welcome and "well done" before it is uttered. ( A. Maclaren, D. D. ) Confirmation D. J. Vaughan, M. A. Such was the reply of Ahab, King of Israel, to the vain-glorious boast of Ben-hadad, King of Syria: "The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall Suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me." "Tell him," Ahab said, "Let not him that girdeth on his harness" — that is, his armour — "boast himself as he that putteth it off." And the result, as you will see from the history, was, that Ben hadad suffered two disgraceful and disastrous defeats, and was compelled to sue for mercy from the king whom he had so insolently challenged. Ahab's reply, however, was simply a proverb — a homely, pithy proverb of the day, admitting of a thousand applications. 1. There is a certain self-confidence, which is natural to youth, and which sits not ungracefully upon it. It has been cleverly said, "that conceit is a young man's capital." A young man has to learn by actual trial what he can do, and what he cannot do; and he requires a certain amount of self-confidence to give him the necessary courage to experiment with his untried powers, until he knows what direction they must take. As Carlyle says, in his quaint forcible way, "The painfullest feeling is that of your own feebleness: ever, as Milton says, to be weak is the true misery. And yet of your strength there is and can be no clear feeling, save by what you have prospered in, by what you have done. Between vague wavering capability and fixed indubitable performance, what a difference! A certain inarticulate self-consciousness dwells dimly in us; which only our works can render articulate and decisively discernible. Our works are the mirror wherein the spirit first sees its natural lineaments. Hence, too, the folly of that impossible precept, Know thyself; till it be translated into this partially possible one, Know what thou canst work at." For the same reason, youth is the time of criticism. We all know how unsparingly, how unmercifully, the young criticise the proceedings of their elders. The excuse for it is, that they are trying to see or feel their way to action; and they have a keen eye, therefore, and a sharp tongue, for the actions of those around them, upon whom the weight of the world's work is for the time being falling. As they get under the yoke themselves, this criticising, censorious temper will leave them. 2. One of the great poets of Greece has a saying to the effect, that the reverses of life are sometimes so terrible, that it is impossible to pronounce upon any life, in the way of estimate of its happiness or its misery, until the end is reached. History, both sacred and profane, enforces this lesson with a thousand examples testifying to its truth. Even the noblest lives are often crossed and barred with bands of shadow, nay, of darkness. Think of Abraham; think of David; each falling, in a moment of weakness and temptation, to a point of shame and infamy, in which the true self was lost in the false. And when we pass from the pages of the Bible to the pages of common history, or to our own experience of life, it may well exclude all boasting to mark how hard the actors in life's busy and varied scene have ever found, and do still find, it to maintain a uniformly lofty level of thought and speech and action. Think of the great Frenchman, Bossuet; of our own great Englishman, Bacon. When such men go wrong, men so gifted and so good, we may well tremble for ourselves. Some of us, who are getting on in life, know what it is, perhaps, to come across letters of twenty or thirty or forty years ago, written by ourselves, or by dear friends and relatives, at a time when our own lives were entirely unformed, and when what was then our future was, in anticipation, as little like as it could well be to what has since become our past. Each stage of life shades, as a general rule, by such imperceptible degrees into the next stage, that it needs an experience of this kind to bring home to our minds the strange uncertainty and the curious waywardness of the future, which lies before the young. 3. Very different views may be taken, and, as a matter of fact, are taken, upon the subject of the ordinance of confirmation. We all know that it is not a sacrament, not an ordinance of Christ's own appointment, but, simply, an ecclesiastical ordinance; and, as such, one that must justify itself by actual trial. I am asking you, in the interest of the young, to consider the initial principles, which they ought to take with them into the conduct of life. And I value confirmation for this, more than for anything else, that it explains so clearly what those principles are, and brings them home to us so forcibly. It should never be forgotten that confirmation loses the greatest part of its meaning if it is postponed until late on in life. It was intended to meet the young at the very threshold of adult life; just when the first "years of discretion" were beginning to come, freighted with many an anxious thought, to them. And whenever in after years such thoughts come to us, it is well for us to go back to our confirmation, and to welcome its deep yet simple teaching upon the great ruling principles of the conduct of life. Again and again we ask ourselves, not merely at the outset of mature life, but in its onward course, "What am I to God? What am I to the world of men around me?" Let us think for a moment what solid and direct answers the ordinance of confirmation returns to these momentous questions. Our answer, if we will but think of our confirmation and its meaning, is ready at once: "I am the child of God; I am a member of the one great household and family of God; I have a work to do in the world for God, a place to fill, to His glory, and to the good of my fellow-men, who are all co-members with me in the same great world-wide and time-wide family and household." Time-wide and world-wide, do I say? Nay, rather eternity itself is the true measure of this universal family of God, whose sacred bond death itself is powerless to dissolve. 4. More particularly I would commend to you, one and all, the thoughts which confirmation teaches us to associate with our work in life and our place in life. Both in the Old Testament and in the New, we find the imposition of hands closely connected with a consecration to a particular work, or office, or function. ( D. J. Vaughan, M. A. ) Girding on the harness I. THERE IS IN THOSE WHO NEWLY PUT ON THEIR ARMOUR A GREAT TENDENCY TO BOAST. 1. This is not at all remarkable, because, first, it is the nature of all men more or less to boast. Human nature is both poor and proud. 2. Those who gird on the harness are the more apt to be proud, because they often mistake their intentions for accomplishments. 3. It sometimes happens to the young beginner that he mistakes the formation of his ideal for the attainment of it. He has sketched on paper the figure that is to be wrought out of the block of marble. There it is. Will not that make a beautiful statue? Already he congratulates himself that it stands before him on its pedestal. But it is a very different thing — the forming the idea in one's mind and the realising of it. 4. Boasting in putting on the harness sometimes arises from the notion that we shall avoid the faults of others. We ought to do so, and we think we shall. 5. We also forget when we start in the battle of life that there is a great deal in novelty, and that novelty wears off. II. THOSE WHO PUT ON THE HARNESS HAVE GOOD REASON TO REFRAIN FROM BOASTING. 1. They have good reason not to boast if they remember what the very harness, or armour, itself is meant for. What do you want armour for at all? Because you are weak; because you are in danger. 2. Again, it will be well to refrain from boasting, for your harness which you are putting on is meant for use. You are not dressing yourself out that you may be a thing of beauty. 3. You must not boast, again, because if you look at your harness you will see that it has joints in it. You think your armour fits so well, do you? Ah, so thought that man who, nevertheless, died by an arrow which found its way into his heart between the joints of his array. 4. You ought not to boast of your harness, because there are suits of armour which are good for nothing. There is armour about in the world, and some of it the brightest that was ever seen, which is utterly worthless. 5. We should not boast when we put on our armour, because, after all, armour and weapons are of little use except to strong men. The old coats of mail were so heavy that they needed a man of a strong constitution even to wear them, much more to fight in them. It was not the armour that was wanted so much as the strong man who could sit upright under the weight. Think, too, of the sword, the great two-handed sword which the old warriors used; we have looked at one, and said, "Is that the sword with which battles were won?" Yes, sir, but you want to see the arm which wielded it, or you see nothing. 6. We may not boast in our harness, because if it be of the right sort, and if it be well jointed, yet we have received it as a gift of charity. Most valiant warrior, not one single ring of your mall is your own. O Sir Knight with the red cross, no part of your array belongs to you by any fights but those of free gift. The infinite charity of God has given you all you have. III. HE WHO GIRDS ON HIS HARNESS HAS SOMETHING ELSE TO DO BESIDES BOASTING. 1. You have, first, to see that you get all the pieces of your armour on. Look ye well to it that ye "take to yourselves the whole armour of God." 2. Young warrior, beginning with so much hope, I can recommend you to spend your time in gratitude. Bless God for making you what you are, for calling you out from a sinful world, for making you a soldier of the Cross. Boasting is excluded, for grace reigns. 3. You want every hour for prayer. If ever we ought to pray it surely is when we are newly entered upon the Christian life. 4. Remember, young soldier, that you are bound to use your time in learning obedience, looking to your Captain and Commander, as the handmaid looks to her mistress. 5. You have no space for boasting, for your fullest attention will be wanted to maintain watchfulness. You have just put on your harness. The devil will speedily discover that! He will pay his respects to you very soon! As soon as he sees a new soldier of the Cross enlisted, he takes a fresh arrow from his quiver, makes it sharp, dips it in gall, and fits it to his string. "I will try this youngster," saith he, and before long a fiery dart flies noiseless through the air. 6. The young warrior may not boast, for he will want all the faith he has, and all the strength of God also, to keep him from de. spondency. IV. THOSE WHO GIRD ON THE HARNESS CERTAINLY OUGHT:NOT TO GLORY, FOR THOSE WHO ARE PUTTING IT OFF FIND NOTHING TO BOAST OF. The Christian man never ungirds his harness in this life; still we may say that the brother is putting it off when there is but a step betwixt him and death in the course of nature. Now, how do you find Christians of that kind when you have attended their dying beds, if you have had the privilege of doing so? Did you ever find a Christian stayed up with pillows in his bed boasting of what he had done? When Augustus, the Roman emperor, was dying, he asked those who were around him whether he had acted well his part; and they said, "Yes." Then he said, "Clap me as I go off the stage." Did you ever hear a Christian say that? I remember Addison, about whose Christianity little can be said, asked others to "come and see how a Christian could die," but it was a very unchristian thing to do, for forgiven sinners should never make exhibitions of themselves in that fashion. Certainly I never saw dying Christians boastful. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) The war of life David MacEwan, D. D. These are the words of Ahab, and, so far as we know, the only wise thing he ever spoke. The saying was probably not his own, but a proverb common in his time. As a warning to Ben-hadad the words proved true, but Ahab's own conduct in going up to Ramoth-Gilead where he perished, showed a strange forgetfulness of his own saying. I. WE HAVE ALL A BATTLE TO FIGHT. We all know what is meant by "the battle of life," but that of the Christian is inward and spiritual — a battle within a battle. Conversion to Christ brings at once peace and warfare. Our peace with God means war with the world, the devil, and the flesh. II. WE HAVE ALL "A HARNESS" TO PUT ON. As the enemies we fight are spiritual so must be our armour. Some prefer an ostentatious profession, pride of intellect, and the weapons of human learning and science "falsely so called," but experience proves their insufficiency. The Divine armour must be "put on," we must take hold and keep hold of it, other. wise it is of no avail. III. WE HAVE ALL A LESSON OF HUMILITY AND PATIENCE TO LEARN IN CONNECTION WITH THIS WARFARE. Young converts are apt to think they have gained the victory when they are only commencing the conflict. They are in danger from a mistaken idea of the liveliness of their religious feelings, from an imperfect knowledge of the deceitfulness of their own hearts, and from a limited perception of where their great strength lies. We must learn to depend less and less on ourselves and more and more on Christ. ( David MacEwan, D. D. ) Ben-hadad: Boastful beginnings and bitter endings Fredk. Hastings. I. A GOOD START DOES NOT GUARANTEE A RIGHT ENDING. The good start is not to be despised, but it is not everything. There are many who, out of defeat, have carved victory. Those very men might have been ruined by premature success, or might have fostered an overweening confidence which would have been disastrous. Those who are conquered by first repulses are weak, but those who gird on their harness again and again, who clutch the sword all the more grimly as they are crowded upon by numbers, are among the noblest of earth's sons. Without boasting they dare to go down to the battle to brave death; yea, and to drive it into the enemy's ranks. When returned they ungird themselves, they rest and recount their dangers with humility. Ben-hadad found that to boast and begin was not everything. Yet we find many to-day who think that if they can only make a stars in anything they will be sure to succeed. They boast of what they will do and can do. Again, a man thinks that if he can only get a start in business he is sure to make it pay. Hence, he may borrow money at a high rate of interest, may incur heavy responsibilities by the purchase of goods, in fitting up of premises, in advertising, in engaging assistance, and he feels sure that customers will patronise him. We see the same thing illustrated in the spiritual sphere as well as the commercial. What sort of armour are you buckling on? What principles are you taking with you? Are you going in your own strength into the battle of life? Such questions we might ask. You have girded on the harness. You intend to make the best of life. You have no desire to find yourself crushed and defeated. You say you will not be beaten, that however others may have missed their mark, you mean to gain a real success. Well, and what shall be the character of the success. Shall it be transient or permanent; worldly or spiritual? Will you simply live for self and the present, or for truth, righteousness, Christ and eternity? II. IN EVERY UNDERTAKING THERE ARE UNANTICIPATED DIFFICULTIES OFTEN MILITATING AGAINST SUCCESS. In striving for a livelihood there are difficulties. Others crowd us out. Fortune is no kind mistress tumbling always her gifts unearned into the lap of the indolent and thoughtless. Competency is not generally gained without assiduity and care. Honour comes not naturally to the unprincipled, nor do laurels usually deck the brows of the lazy. Eminence is not reached by the emasculate. A general wins not the battle, saves not his country, without some risk and difficulty. Long voyages, toilsome marches over dreary desert, or rocky mountains, harassing dangers, shortness of provisions, the attacks of disease, the desertion of the trusted, the changing of plans, sharp conflicts and heavy losses, lie in his path and must be taken into account. III. OUR GREATEST DIFFICULTY IN THE BATTLE OF LIFE MAY COME FROM SOME LITTLE TILING WHICH IS ACCOUNTED AS UNWORTHY OF NOTICE. Some trifling bit of steel is loose, or buckle unfastened. It is said that the Germans beat the French in their last campaign because the soldiers were better shod. The heavy boots of the Germans protected the men, enabling them to bear the cold and wet better and to march longer. This was not all, but it was one of the things that had not been calculated upon by their opponents. So our defeat in life and failure in spiritual steadfastness may come from some apparently trifling cause, something we even affect to despise. The temptations that beset us may be apparently trifling, but they may nevertheless cause our ruin. IV. THE GREATEST DANGERS IN THE BATTLE OF LIFE ARE OFTEN THE SUBTLEST AND MOST CUNNINGLY CONCEALED. Young Christians are sometimes deceived because at this day it seems much easier to be a Christian than it was formerly. True, no dungeon yawns now for the persecuted; no Smithfield smokes now for the saintly; no cold act of uniformity drives to foreign inhospitable climes, or Armada invades our liberties. Other means are taken to check vital Christianity. It is sometimes strangled by proprieties and slain by prosperity. Christians are not now so anxious as formerly to keep far off from the practices of the world. In many things they act very questionably. Like children, who seem to delight in walking along the side of a precipice and seeing who can go nearest the dangerous edge without slipping over, so many Christians walk as near to the customs of the world as they can without, as they think, endangering their salvation. This practice spreads. Its effect is most prejudicial. When the late American war was ragtag, I was told, by one who had had to endure the horrors of a frightful military prison, that canisters filled with fragments of clothing taken from the bodies of those who had died of yellow-fever or of small-pox were shot into the camp, in the hope that some fragment might spread infection to the enemies' ranks. Whether there be any truth in the report or not, at any rate it illustrates the fact that there are many subtle temptations that are thrown into our souls that enervate and hinder our final triumph vouch more surely than those that are open. Hence our need to remember that it is not the guiding and starting but the ending and "putting off" that is of the highest importance. V. The warning given to Ben-hadad is as applicable to THOSE WHO HAVE LIVED CONSISTENTLY FOR YEARS as to the young men just starting. If we have fought through a long day unwounded, we must not be elated. The arrow might lay us low even as the battle is just closing. Many a soldier has perished by strong shots fired after the bugle of the enemy has sounded a retreat. So it might be with some who seem strongest in Christian faith. VI. THE SPIRIT OF BOASTFULNESS IS DANGEROUSLY LIABLE TO GROW UPON THOSE WHO INDULGE IT. Ben-hadad's first invasion had but a poor ending, spite of his boasting. He who had been flushed with past successes, who with his generals and men were given up to revelry and drunkenness, had to flee. While all are carousing in their tents, Israelitish hosts are dashing into the battle and dealing deadly blows on the helmets of their adversaries. Even with this check to his boasting, Ben-hadad learned nothing. On the contrary, he only needed revenge and repeated the following year his invasion. Again he was repulsed. Again he had to flee. Look to the ending then. Pleasures, business, life must end. We must all put off the harness of this mortal life. Oh that we may put on immortality! Believe in Him, trust in His sacrifices, trust in His love, His help, and His presence. Begin life with Him and end it with Him. Charge any sin or temptation that besets you with the same earnestness that the Scots Greys showed when they dashed against the columns of Napoleon the First, making him exclaim, "How terrible are these Greys!" Let there be no hesitancy in our blow when we strike at any sin in ourselves or the world. Then, when as good soldiers we reach the city of our God, we shall have a welcome that will make us forget every weary march, every painful wound, and every bitter sorrow. ( Fredk. Hastings. ) Overrating oneself T. De Witt Talmage. All up and down history we see such too early boasting. Soult, thy Marshal of France, was so certain that he would conquer th

Benson Commentary 1 Kings 20:1 And Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. 1 Kings 20:1 . Gathered all his host — To war against Israel: wherein his design was to enlarge the conquest which his father had made; but God’s design was to punish Israel for their apostacy and idolatry. There were thirty and two kings with him — Petty kings, such as were in Canaan in Joshua’s time, who indeed were no more than governors of cities or small territories: these were either subject or tributary to Ben-hadad, or hired by him. He were up and besieged Samaria — He did not actually besiege it; for his army was routed before he could do it. But the sense is, He went up in order to besiege it. 1 Kings 20:2 And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Benhadad, 1 Kings 20:3 Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. 1 Kings 20:3-4 . Thy silver and thy gold is mine — I challenge them as my own, and expect to have them forthwith delivered, if thou expect peace with me. The king said, My lord, O king, I am thine — I do so far comply with thy demand, that I will own thee for my lord, and myself for thy vassal, and will hold my wives, and children, and estate, as by thy favour, and with an acknowledgment. 1 Kings 20:4 And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have. 1 Kings 20:5 And the messengers came again, and said, Thus speaketh Benhadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children; 1 Kings 20:5-6 . Thus speaketh Ben-hadad, saying, &c. — Although I before demanded not only the dominion of thy treasures, and wives, and children, as thou mayest seem to understand me; but also the actual possession of them, wherewith I would then have been contented: yet now I will not accept of those terms, but, together with thy royal treasures, I expect all the treasures of thy servants or subjects; nor will I wait till thou deliver them to me; but I will send my servants into the city, and they shall search out and take away all thou art fond of, and this to prevent fraud and delay; and then I will grant thee a peace. 1 Kings 20:6 Yet I will send my servants unto thee to morrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away. 1 Kings 20:7 Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief: for he sent unto me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I denied him not. 1 Kings 20:7 . The king called all the elders — Whose counsel and concurrence he now desires in his distress. See how this man seeketh mischief — Though he pretended peace upon these terms propounded, it is apparent, by those additional demands, that he intends nothing less than our utter ruin. I denied not — I granted his demands in the sense before mentioned. In this Ahab showed some sparks of virtue remaining in him; in that while Ben-hadad desired only what he had in his own disposal, that is, all his private goods, he complied with his demands; but when all the people and the public good was concerned, he would do nothing without their consent. 1 Kings 20:8 And all the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken not unto him , nor consent. 1 Kings 20:9 Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Benhadad, Tell my lord the king, All that thou didst send for to thy servant at the first I will do: but this thing I may not do. And the messengers departed, and brought him word again. 1 Kings 20:9-11 . This thing I may not do — If I would do it, I cannot; because my people will not suffer it. If the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls, &c. — If I do not assault thy city with so potent and numerous an army, as shall turn it all into a heap of dust, and shall be sufficient to carry it all away, though every soldier take but one handful of it. See the like boast, 2 Samuel 17:13 . The king of Israel said, Let not him that girdeth, &c. — Do not triumph before the victory, for the events of war are uncertain. 1 Kings 20:10 And Benhadad sent unto him, and said, The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me. 1 Kings 20:11 And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him , Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off. 1 Kings 20:12 And it came to pass, when Benhadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings in the pavilions, that he said unto his servants, Set yourselves in array . And they set themselves in array against the city. 1 Kings 20:13 And, behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. 1 Kings 20:13 . And, behold there came a prophet unto Ahab — One of those, probably, that had been hid, but was now commanded of God to appear and carry a message to Ahab; which the prophet did not fear to do, as he brought him such good news as those which follow. Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou seen this great multitude, &c.? — God, though forsaken and neglected by Ahab, prevents him with his gracious promise of help; that Ahab and the idolatrous Israelites might hereby be fully convinced, or left without excuse; that Ben-hadad’s intolerable pride, and contempt of God, and of his people, might be punished; and that the remnant of his prophets and people, who were involved in the same calamity with the rest of the Israelites, might be preserved and delivered. I am the Lord — And not Baal, because I will deliver thee, which he cannot do. 1 Kings 20:14 And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, Thus saith the LORD, Even by the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he said, Who shall order the battle? And he answered, Thou. 1 Kings 20:14 . By the young men of the princes, &c. — The Hebrew word ???? , nagnaree, here rendered young men, is ambiguous, and may mean either the sons or the servants of the princes of the provinces. It was not by old, experienced soldiers, but by those young men, who had lived delicately, and perhaps had never seen a fight, that this battle was to be won; in order that it might appear that the victory was wholly due to God’s gracious providence, and not to the valour or worthiness of the instruments. Then he said, Who shall order the battle? — Or, as some understand the words, Who shall begin the fight, they or we? Shall we make a sally, or wait till they assault us? He answered, Thou — The prophet bids the king begin and lead them on, partly to encourage the young men to fight courageously, as being in the presence of their prince; and partly to try whether Ahab would thus far trust God, or not. 1 Kings 20:15 Then he numbered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty two: and after them he numbered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand. 1 Kings 20:15 . He numbered all the men of Israel — All in Samaria and the neighbourhood that were fit to go out to war; all except those whom their age, or infirmity, or other sufficient causes excused; but certainly not all the men of war in Israel, who must have been far more than seven thousand. 1 Kings 20:16 And they went out at noon. But Benhadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty and two kings that helped him. 1 Kings 20:16 ; 1 Kings 20:18 . And they went out at noon — When they knew the Syrians were at dinner, if not also drinking to excess, as their king was. And he said, Whether they be come for peace, take them alive, &c. — It was against the law of nations to apprehend those that came to treat of peace: but he, in his insolent pride, told his people not to trouble themselves to examine what they came for, but to take them alive, which he thought they might easily do, these Israelites being so few in number, and not able, he supposed, to stand the first brunt. 1 Kings 20:17 And the young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Benhadad sent out, and they told him, saying, There are men come out of Samaria. 1 Kings 20:18 And he said, Whether they be come out for peace, take them alive; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive. 1 Kings 20:19 So these young men of the princes of the provinces came out of the city, and the army which followed them. 1 Kings 20:20 And they slew every one his man: and the Syrians fled; and Israel pursued them: and Benhadad the king of Syria escaped on an horse with the horsemen. 1 Kings 20:20-21 . They slew every one his man — Who came to apprehend him. And the Syrians fled — Amazed at the undaunted and unexpected courage of the Israelites, and struck with a divine terror. And Ben-hadad escaped on a horse — That proud boaster durst not face them; but mounted immediately, drunk as he was, and made the best of his way to escape. And the king of Israel went out — Proceeded further in his pursuit of them. And smote the horses and chariots — The men that fought in them. And slew the Syrians with great slaughter — Improving this advantage to the utmost. Thus ended Ben-hadad’s proud boastings; and thus does God often make one wicked man a scourge to another! 1 Kings 20:21 And the king of Israel went out, and smote the horses and chariots, and slew the Syrians with a great slaughter. 1 Kings 20:22 And the prophet came to the king of Israel, and said unto him, Go, strengthen thyself, and mark, and see what thou doest: for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee. 1 Kings 20:22 . Go, strengthen thyself, and mark, and see, &c. — Consider what is necessary for thee to do by way of preparation, and take care that nothing be wanting to oppose the designs of the Syrians against thee, who will certainly return and renew the fight next year. The enemies of the children of God are restless in their malice, and though they may take some breathing-time for themselves, they are still breathing out slaughter against the church: it therefore concerns always to expect our spiritual enemies, and to mark and see what we do. 1 Kings 20:23 And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him, Their gods are gods 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. 1 Kings 20:23 . Their gods are gods of the hills, &c. — The heathen, in general, had no notion of the God of the universe, but only worshipped local and tutelary deities; who, they thought, ruled over particular countries, and distributed the several parts of those countries among them, some being gods of the woods, others of the rivers, and others of the mountains: and the Syrians fancied the gods of the Israelites, whom they thought to be no better than their own gods, to be of the latter kind, gods of the hills, because the land of Canaan was a mountainous land, and the great temple of their God, at Jerusalem, stood upon a hill, as did the city of Samaria, where they had received their last blow; or because the Israelites did generally choose high places for the places of their worship. It is observable, that the Syrians do not impute their ill success to their negligence, and drunkenness, and bad conduct, nor to the valour of the Israelites, but to a divine power, which was indeed visible in it. Let us fight against them in the plain — In this counsel there was not only superstition, but policy; because the Syrians excelled the Israelites in horses and chariots, which were most serviceable on plain ground. 1 Kings 20:24 And do this thing, Take the kings away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their rooms: 1 Kings 20:24 . Do this — take the kings away, &c. — He had made the thirty- two kings, who were his tributaries, chief commanders in his former army; which his counsellors represent to him as a great error, and therefore advise him to displace them, and put his own captains in their stead, who would fight better. The kings, they thought, had had a softer education; and, being less inured to hardships, and less experienced in military matters, were less fit for service: besides, being many of them mercenaries, and therefore less concerned in his good success, they judged they would be more cautious in venturing themselves, and risking their lives in his cause, and not so obedient to discipline, as captains from his own subjects would be. These latter, they supposed, would faithfully obey the commands of their general, to whom the kings would not readily yield, and would use their utmost skill and valour for their own interest and advancement. 1 Kings 20:25 And number thee an army, like the army that thou hast lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot: and we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. And he hearkened unto their voice, and did so. 1 Kings 20:26 And it came to pass at the return of the year, that Benhadad numbered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel. 1 Kings 20:26-27 . Ben-hadad numbered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek — A city in the tribe of Asher; which, it is probable, was one of those that Ben-hadad’s father had taken from the king of Israel, ( 1 Kings 20:34 ,) not far from which was the plain of Galilee, where he intended to fight. And the children of Israel went against them — Being encouraged by the remembrance of their former success, and an expectation of assistance from God. And pitched before them — Probably upon some hilly ground where they might secure themselves, and watch for advantage against their enemies; which might be the reason why the Syrians durst not assault them before the seventh day, 1 Kings 20:29 . Like two little flocks of kids — Few and weak; being also, for convenience of fighting, and that they might seem more than they were, divided into two bodies. 1 Kings 20:27 And the children of Israel were numbered, and were all present, and went against them: and the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country. 1 Kings 20:28 And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 1 Kings 20:28 . Because the Syrians have said, &c. — What they had said, this man of God knew, either from common report, strengthened by their present choice of plain ground for the battle; or rather, by revelation from God, to whose inspection their secret counsels lay open, 2 Kings 6:12 . His omnipotence being disputed, he sent his prophet to predict the vengeance coming on his enemies; and their defeat in the plains was a singular and undeniable confirmation, both of his omnipotence and veracity. Ye shall know that I am the Lord — Namely, the universal Lord of all places, persons, and things. 1 Kings 20:29 And they pitched one over against the other seven days. And so it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined: and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day. 1 Kings 20:29 . They pitched one over against the other seven days — It may seem strange that they should look one another in the face so long, without coming to any action; for the Syrians had so much advantage in their numbers, that one would have thought they would have immediately encompassed the Israelites, and have destroyed them all: but perhaps the Israelites continued all these days on the rising ground, and the Syrians did not dare to attack them till they came down into the plain. Israel slew of the Syrians a hundred thousand footmen in one day — In all probability they surprised them by a sudden, unexpected attack; and God dismayed them, and struck such a terror into them, that they could make no resistance. 1 Kings 20:30 But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and there a wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left. And Benhadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner chamber. 1 Kings 20:30 . A wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand — The wall of the city under which they lay, ready to defend it; or the walls (the singular number being put for the plural, than which nothing is more frequent) of some great castle or fort, in or near the city in which they were now fortifying themselves; or of some part of the city where they lay. This might possibly happen through natural causes; but most probably was effected by the mighty power of God, sending some earthquake, or violent storm, which threw down the walls upon them: and if ever a miracle was to be wrought, now seems to have been the proper season for it; when the blasphemous Syrians denied the sovereign power of God, and thereby in some sort obliged him to give a proof of it; and to show, that he was the God of the plains, as well as of the mountains; and that he could as effectually destroy them in their strongest holds, as in the open fields; and make the very walls, to whose strength they trusted for their defence, to be the instruments of their ruin. But it may be further observed, that it is not said, that all these were killed by the fall of this wall; but only that the wall fell upon them, killing some, and wounding others. 1 Kings 20:31 And his servants said unto him, Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel: peradventure he will save thy life. 1 Kings 20:31 . We have heard that the kings of Israel are merciful kings — More merciful than others, because that religion, which they professed, taught them humanity, and obliged them to show mercy. Let us put sackcloth upon our loins, and ropes, &c. — As a testimony of our sorrow for undertaking this war; and that we have justly forfeited our lives for it, and shall submit to any punishment he may be pleased to inflict. This, it seems, was the habit in those times, in which supplicants presented themselves, when they petitioned for mercy. Peradventure he will save thy life — This encouragement have all poor sinners, to repent and humble themselves before God. The God of Israel is a merciful God; let us rend our hearts and return to him. 1 Kings 20:32 So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, Thy servant Benhadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he said, Is he yet alive? he is my brother. 1 Kings 20:32 . Thy servant Ben-hadad saith, I pray thee, let me live — He now as humbly petitions Ahab, as Ahab a little while ago had petitioned him, and begs of him his life. What a change from the height of prosperity to the depth of distress! Such is the uncertainty of human affairs! Such the strange turns which are continually taking place! The spoke of the wheel which is uppermost now, may soon be the lowest of all. And he said, is he yet alive? He is my brother — I do not only pardon him, but honour and love him as a brother. This was rather folly than mercifulness, or good nature; to treat a man thus, who had so lately used him with such extreme haughtiness, and brought so much confusion, terror, and damage, into his kingdom. 1 Kings 20:33 Now the men did diligently observe whether any thing would come from him, and did hastily catch it : and they said, Thy brother Benhadad. Then he said, Go ye, bring him. Then Benhadad came forth to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot. 1 Kings 20:33 . The men did diligently observe, &c. — They were wise persons whom Ben-hadad employed in this embassy; who watched attentively to hear whether any kind word would drop from Ahab’s mouth, on which they might lay hold, and make their advantage of it, before he could retract it. And they catched hastily at the word brother, and said, Thy brother Ben-hadad lives, and implores this favour, that he may live. They repeated the word again, to try whether the king would own it, or whether it had only dropt casually from him; or whether he spoke this from his heart, or only in dissimulation and design; for it seemed too good news to be true. 1 Kings 20:34 And Benhadad said unto him, The cities, which my father took from thy father, I will restore; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab , I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away. 1 Kings 20:34 . The cities which my father took from thy father — Either from Baasha, ( 1 Kings 15:20 ,) whom he calls Ahab’s father, because he was his predecessor in the government; or rather, from Omri, in whose time he probably made a successful invasion into the land of Israel, and took some more of the cities, and Aphek among the rest, though it be not elsewhere recorded in Scripture. And thou shall make streets in Damascus — Bishop Patrick tells us, that some suppose the word to signify market-places, where things were sold, the toll of which should belong to Ahab: others think he meant courts of judicature, where he should exercise a jurisdiction over the Syrians; others, what we now call a piazza, or rather, what by Rauwolff is called a caravansera, and by others a kane, that is, a great house, built like a cloister, round a great court-yard, and full of warehouses and apartments, in which foreign merchants are wont to live, or travellers to repair to, as to an inn, and of which Ahab was to receive the rents. It is probable, it was a quarter for his subjects to live in, and which he should possess, and over which he should enjoy the same jurisdiction, as he did with respect to the rest of his kingdom. Such a power granted in Samaria, and such a making over a part of it, to the father of Ben-hadad, and annexing it to the kingdom of Syria, with a right of building such idol temples as he thought fit, was a sufficient disgrace to the father of Ahab; as the proposing to give Ahab now a like honour in Damascus, was an expression of a very abject adulation in Ben-hadad. 1 Kings 20:35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbour in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to smite him. 1 Kings 20:35 . A certain man said to his neighbour — Hebrew, ?? ???? , eel regnehu, to his companion, as St. Hierom translates it, that is, to a prophet bred in the same school with himself, who well understood the importance of obeying the command. In the word of the Lord — In the name and by the command of God, whereof, doubtless, he had informed him. Smite me, I pray thee — So as to wound me, 1 Kings 20:37 . He speaks what God commanded him, though it was to his own hurt; by which obedience to God, he secretly reproacheth Ahab’s disobedience in a far easier matter. And this the prophet desires, by God’s appointment, that, looking like a wounded soldier, he might have the more free access to the king. And the man refused to smite him — Not out of contempt to God’s command, but probably, in tenderness to his brother. 1 Kings 20:36 Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him. 1 Kings 20:36 . Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the Lord, a lion shall slay thee — If the punishment seem too severe for so small a fault, let it be considered, 1st, That disobedience to God’s express command, especially when delivered by a person known by the party disobeying to be a prophet, was a great sin, and no less than capital, Deuteronomy 18:19 . 2d, This fault was much worse in a prophet, who very well knew the authority of God’s commands, and this way of publishing them. 3d, This man might be guilty of many other heinous sins unknown to us, but known to God; for which God might justly cut him off: which God chose to do upon this occasion, that by the severity of this punishment of a prophet’s disobedience, proceeding from pity to his brother, he might teach Ahab the greatness of his sin, in sparing him through foolish pity, whom, by the laws of religion, and justice, and prudence, he should have cut off. 1 Kings 20:37 Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man smote him, so that in smiting he wounded him . 1 Kings 20:38 So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with ashes upon his face. 1 Kings 20:38 . And disguised himself with ashes upon his face — As a man in a very sorrowful condition. Houbigant reads it, He had his eyes covered with a bandage, supposing that the genuine, reading of the text is, not ??? , apher, but ??? , aphed, which signifies a bandage; whence comes the Hebrew word ephod; something bound round. Several of the versions render it, with a veil: and thus the Hebrew doctors understand it. It is probable, it was a cloth or bandage of some kind, wherewith he bound up his wound, which probably was in his face: for it was made in a conspicuous place, that it might be visible to Ahab and others. 1 Kings 20:39 And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and he said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver. 1 Kings 20:39 . And he said, Thy servant, &c. — This relation is a parable; a usual way of instruction in the eastern parts, and most fit for this occasion, wherein an obscure prophet was to speak to a great king, impatient of a downright reproof, and exceeding partial in his own cause. A man turned aside and said, Keep, &c. — His commander said this unto him, as the manner of expression shows. The king of Israel said, So shall thy judgment be — Thou hast pronounced thy own sentence. According to your agreement; so shalt thou suffer. Thou shalt lose thy life, or pay the talent or silver. Ahab had forgot how he had dismissed a greater person willingly, or else he could scarcely have been so hard-hearted as to condemn one that had offended unwillingly. But the prophet soon brought it to his remembrance. 1 Kings 20:40 And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be ; thyself hast decided it . 1 Kings 20:41 And he hasted, and took the ashes away from his face; and the king of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets. 1 Kings 20:41 . And he hasted, and took the ashes away from his face — Threw off his disguise immediately, by pulling off the cloth or bandage wherewith his face, or a part of it, had been concealed. And the king of Israel discerned him — Either by his face, which was known to the king, or to some of the courtiers there present: or, by the manner of his address to him, which, being changed, was now such as the prophets generally used. 1 Kings 20:42 And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people. 1 Kings 20:42 . Thus saith the Lord, Because, &c. — “What was the great sin of Ahab in this action, for which God so severely punished him?” The great dishonour hereby done to God, in suffering so horrid a blasphemer to go unpunished, which was contrary to an express law, Leviticus 24:16 . And God had delivered him into Ahab’s hand, for his blasphemy, as he promised to do, ( 1 Kings 20:28 ,) by which act of his providence, compared with that law, it was most evident that this man was appointed by God to destruction. But Ahab was so far from punishing this blasphemer, that he did not so much as rebuke him, but dismissed him upon easy terms, and took not the least care for the reparation of God’s honour. And the people were punished for their own sins, which were many and great; though God took this occasion to inflict the punishment. The former part of this decree of God, Thy life shall go for his life, was fulfilled three years after, when Ahab was killed in a battle against the Syrians, 1 Kings 22:1-40 . But the latter, And thy people for his people, was deferred till the reign of Hazael, who fulfilled it by the wars he had with the Israelites, and the slaughter he made of them, 2 Kings 10:32-33 . 1 Kings 20:43 And the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria. 1 Kings 20:43 . The king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased — This distressing sentence turned all their joy, for their late victory, into mourning; Ahab being much troubled for what he had done, and for what, it seems, he now believed he must suffer. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 1 Kings 20:1 And Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. AHAB AND BENHADAD 1 Kings 20:1-30 IN the Septuagint and in Josephus the events narrated in the twentieth chapter of the Book of Kings are placed after the meeting of Elijah with Ahab at the door of Naboth’s vineyard, which occupies the twenty-first chapter in our version. This order of events seems the more probable, but no chronological data are given us in the long but fragmentary details of Ahab’s reign. They are, in fact, composed of different sets of records, partly historical, partly prophetic, and partly taken from some special monograph on the career of Elijah. Here, too, we may observe that some most important details are altogether omitted, and that we only learn them, (1) from the inscription of King Mesha, and (2) from the clay tablets of Assyria. 1. As regards King Mesha, the monument containing his very interesting annals is generally known as The Moabite Stone. It is a stele of black basalt, 3 feet 10 inches high, 2 feet broad, 14 1-2 inches thick, rounded at the top and bottom almost into a semicircle. The Phoenician inscription is of capital importance both for philology and history. It was first discovered by Mr. Klein, the German missionary of an English society at Dibon, east of the Dead Sea, and it is now at the Louvre. Dibon is now Dibban. Mr. Klein in 1868, at Jerusalem, informed Professor Petermann of Berlin of the existence of this ancient relic, and from a few letters of the thirty-four lines which he had copied the Professor at once pronounced that the language employed was Phoenician. When M. Clermont Ganneau, the French consul at Jerusalem, endeavored to get possession of it, the Bedawin discovered that it was regarded with deep interest by European scholars. They immediately began to quarrel over its possession, and the Arab who had been sent to copy it barely escaped with his life. In their greed and jealousy these modern Moabites "sooner than give it up, put a fire under it, and threw cold water on it, and so broke it, and then distributed the bits among the different families to be placed in the granaries and to serve as blessings upon the corn; for they said that without the stone (or its equivalent in hard cash) a blight would fall upon their crops." Squeezes had been previously taken from it by M. Ganneau and Captain Warren, from which the text has been restored. It records three great events in the reign of Mesha. (1) Lines 1-21. Wars of Mesha with Omri and his successors. (2) Lines 21-31. Public works of Mesha after his deliverance from his Jewish oppressors. (3) Lines 31-34. His successful wars against the Edomites (or a people of Horonaim), undertaken by command of his god Chemosh. The date of the erection of the monolith is about B.C. 890. It begins thus:- (1) I, Mesha, am son of Chemosh-Gad, King of Moab, (2) the Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I reigned (3) after my father. And I erected this Stone to Chemosh (a stone of salvation) {Comp. 1Sa 7:12}(4) for he saved me from all despoilers, and let me see my desire upon all my enemies. (5) Now Omri, King of Israel, he oppressed Moab many days, for Chemosh was angry with his (6) land. His son succeeded him, and he also said, I will oppress Moab. In my days he said (Let us go) (7) and I will see my desire on him and his house, and Israel said, I shall destroy it for ever. Now Omri took the land (8) Medeba, and (the enemy) occupied it (in his days and in) the days of his sons, forty years. And Chemosh (had mercy) (9) on it in my days. He goes on to tell how he built Bael Meon and Kirjathaim; captured Ataroth, and killed all its warriors, and devoted its spoil to Chemosh. "And Chemosh said to me, Go take Nebo against Israel." He took it, slew seven thousand men, devoted the women and maidens to Ashtar-Chemosh, and offered Jehovah’s vessels to Chemosh. Then he took Jahas which the king of Israel had fortified, and annexed it to Dibon; built Korcha, its palaces, prisons, etc., Aroer, Bethbamoth, and other towns which he colonised with poor Moabites; and took Horonaim by assault. There the inscription ends, but not until it has given us some details of a series of bloody wars about which the Scripture narrative is almost entirely silent, though in 2 Kings 3:4-27 it narrates Mesha’s desperate resistance of Israel, Judah, and Edom (B.C. 896). On this inscription we may briefly remark that for Chemosh-Gad, Dr. Neubauer reads Chemosh-melech, and makes various other changes and suggestions. 2. From the annals of Assyria we learn the altogether unexpected fact that Ahabu Sirlai, i.e. , "Ahab of Israel," was acting as one of the allies, or more probably as one of the vassals, of Syria in the great battle fought at Karkar, B.C. 854, against Shalmanezer II, by Hittites, Hamathites, and Syrians. Whether this was before the invasion of Benhadad, or after his defeat, is uncertain. The twentieth chapter of the Book of Kings tells us that Benhadad, the Aramaean king, accompanied by thirty-two feudatory princes of Hittites, Hamathites, and others, gathered together all his host with his horses and chariots, and proclaimed war against Israel. Unable to meet this vast army in the field, Ahab shut himself up in Samaria, and Benhadad went up and besieged it. We do not know which Benhadad this was. It could not have been the grandson of Rezon, whom, fourteen years earlier, King Asa had bribed to attack Baasha in order to divert him from building Ramah. It may have been his son or grandson bearing the same religious dynastic name. In any case the policy of attacking Israel was suicidal. If the kings had possessed the prescient glance of the prophets they could not have failed to see on the northern horizon the cloud of Assyrian power, which menaced them all with cruel extinction at the bands of that atrocious people. Their true policy would have been to form an offensive and defensive league, instead of coveting one another’s dominions. Although Assyria had not yet risen to the zenith of her empire, she was already formidable enough to convince the King of Damascus that he would never be able single-handed to prevent Syria from being crushed before her. Instead of inflicting ruinous losses and humiliations on the tribes of Israel, the dynasty of Rezon if it had been wise in its day, would have insured their friendly aid against the horrible common enemy of the nations. When Benhadad had succeeded in reducing Ahab to hopeless straits, he sent him a herald to demand the admission of ambassadors. Their ultimatum was couched in language of the deadliest insult. Benhadad laid insolent claim to everything which Ahab possessed-his silver, his gold, his wives, and the fairest of his children. To save his people from ruin, Ahab-it is strange that throughout the narrative we do not hear one word either about Jezebel or Elijah-sent an answer of the humblest submission. Tyre gave him no help, nor did Judah. He seems at this time to have been entirely isolated and to have sunk to the nadir of his degradation. "It is true," he said, "my lord, and king; I, and all that I possess, is thine." The depth of humiliation involved in such a concession is the measure of the utter straits to which Ahab was reduced. When an Eastern king had to give up to his conqueror even his seraglio-yes, even his queen-all his power must have been humbled to the very dust. And at the head of Ahab’s seraglio was Jezebel. How frenzied must have been the thoughts of that terrible woman, when she saw that her Baal, and the Astarte to whom her father was a priest, in spite of the temple which she had built, and her eight hundred and fifty priests of Baal and Asherah with all their vestments and pompous ceremonies and blood-stained invocations, had wholly failed to save her-a great king’s daughter and a great king’s wife-from drinking to the very dregs this cup of shame! Encouraged by this abject demeanor into yet more outrageous insolence, Benhadad sent back his ambassadors with the further menace that he would himself send his messengers next day into Samaria, who should search and rifle not only the palace of Ahab, but the houses of all his servants, from which they should take away everything that was pleasant in their eyes. The merciless demand kindled in the breast of the wretched king one last spark of the courage of despair. Nothing could be worse than such a pillage. Death itself seemed preferable. He summoned together all the elders of the land to a great council, to which the people also were invited, and he set the state of things before them. The fact gives us an interesting glimpse into the constitution of the kingdom of Israel. It greatly resembled that of the little Greek states in the days of the Iliad. Under ordinary circumstances of prosperity the king was within certain limits despotic; but he might easily be reduced to the necessity of consulting a sort of senate, composed of his greatest subjects, and at these open-air deliberations the people were present as assessors on whose will depended the ultimate decision. Ahab put before his council the desperate condition to which he had been reduced by the Syrian leaguer. He recounted the cruel terms to which he had submitted in order to save his people from destruction. From the second embassage of Benhadad it was clear that the first demand had only been made in the hope that its refusal would give the Syrians an excuse for pressing on the siege, and delivering the city to ravage and slaughter. Was it their will that the insolent foreign tyrant should have his way, and be permitted without let or hindrance to rifle their houses, and carry away their goodliest sons as eunuchs and their fairest wives as concubines? He asked their advice how to overcome this dire calamity; "What reinforcement we may gain from hope, If not what resolution from despair." The elders saw that even massacre and pillage could hardly be worse than a tame submission to such demands. They plucked up courage and said to Ahab, "Hearken not to him, nor consent" and the people shouted their applause to the heroic refusal. {Comp. Jos 9:18; Jdg 11:11} The king seems in this instance to have been more despondent than his subjects, perhaps because he was better able than they to gauge the immense military superiority of his invader. Even his second message, though it rejected Benhadad’s demand was almost pusillanimous in its submission. With bated breath and whispering humbleness Ahab said to the Syrian ambassadors, quite in the tone of a vassal: "Tell my lord the king, I will submit to his first demands; I may not consent to his final ones." The ambassadors went to Benhadad, and returned with the fierce menace that in the name of his god their king would shatter Samaria into dust, of which the handfuls would not suffice for each of his soldiers. Ahab replied firmly in a happy proverb, "Let not him that girdeth on his armor boast himself as he that putteth it off." The warning proverb was reported to the Aramaean king, whilst in the insolent confidence of victory he was drinking himself drunk in his war-booths. It nettled him to fury. "Plant the engines," he exclaimed. The catapults and battering-rams, with all the engines which constituted the siege-train of the day, were at once set in motion, the scaling ladders brought up, and the archers set in position, just as we see in the Assyrian Kouyunjik sculptures of the siege of Lachish and other cities by Sennacherib. Ahab’s heart must have sunk within him, for he knew his impotence, and he knew also the horrors which befell a city taken after desperate resistance. But he was not left unencouraged. The characteristic of the prophets was that dauntless confidence in Jehovah which so often made a prophet the Tyrtaeus of his native land, unless the land had sunk into utter apostasy. In this extreme of peril a nameless prophet-the Rabbis, who always guess at a name when they can, say it was Micaiah ben Imlah-came to Ahab. As though to emphasize the supernatural character of his communication, he pointed to the chariots and archers and the Syrian host - which, if the subsequent numbers be accurate, must have reached the astounding total of one hundred and thirty thousand men-and said, in the name of Jehovah:- "Hast thou seen all this great multitude? Lo! I will deliver it into thine hand today: And thou shalt know that I am the Lord." "By whom?" was the astonished and half-despairing question of the king; and the strange answer was:- "By the young servants of the provincial governors." It was to be made clear that this was a victory due to the intervention of God, and not won by the power nor the might of man, lest the warriors of Israel should be able to boast of the arm of flesh. "Who shall lead the assault?" asked the king. "Thou!" answered the prophet. Nothing could be wiser than this counsel, now that the nation was brought to the extreme edge of hazard. The veterans, perhaps, were intimidated. They would see more clearly the hopelessness of attempting to cope with that colossal host under its five-and-thirty kings. But now the nation, whose veterans had been driven back, evoked the battle-brunt of its youths. The two hundred and thirty-two pages of the district governors were ready to obey orders, ready, like an army of Decii to devote their lives to the cause of their country. They were put in the forefront of the battle, and so pitiable was the depression of the capital that Ahab could only number a paltry army of seven thousand soldiers to stand behind their desperate undertaking. Their plan was well laid. They went out at noon. At that burning hour, under the intolerable glare and heat of the Syrian sun-and campaigns were only undertaken in spring and summer-it is almost impossible to bear the weight of armor, or to sit on horseback, or to endure the fierce heat of iron chariots. The first little army which issued from the gates of Samaria might rely on the effects of a surprise. Thousands of the Syrian soldiers expecting nothing less than a battle would be unarmed, and taking their siesta. Their chariots and war steeds would be unharnessed and unprepared. Benhadad was still continuing his heavy drinking bout with his vassal princes, and not one of them was in a condition to give coherent commands. A messenger announced to the band of royal drunkards that "men" were come out of Samaria. They were too few to call them "an army," and the notion of an attack from that poor handful seemed ridiculous. Benhadad thought they were coming to sue for peace, but whether peace or war were their object he gave the contemptuous order to "take them alive." It was easier said than done. Led by the king at the head of his valorous youths the little host clashed into the midst of the unwieldly, unprepared, ill-handled Syrian host, and by their first slaughter created one of those fearful panics which have often been the destruction of Eastern hosts. The Syrians, whose army wag made up of heterogeneous forces, and which could not be managed by thirty-four half-intoxicated feudatories of differing interests and insecure allegiance, was doubtless afraid that internal treachery must have been at work. Like the Midianites, like Zerah’s Ethiopian host, like the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, like the Ammonites and Moabites in the wilderness of Tekoa, like the army of Sennacherib, like the enormous and motley hosts of Persia at Marathon, at Plataea, and at Arbela, they were instantly flung into irremediable confusion which tended every moment to be more fatal to itself. The little band of the youths and horses of Israel had nothing to do but to slay, and slay, and slay. No effective resistance was even attempted. Long before evening the hundred and thirty thousand Syrians. with the entangled mass of their chariots and horsemen, were in headlong flight, while Ahab and the people of Israel slaughtered their flying rear. The defeat became an absolute rout. Benhadad himself had a most narrow escape. He could not even wait for his war chariot. He had to fly with a few of his horsemen, and apparently, so the words may imply, on an inferior horse. What effect was produced on the national mind and on the social religion by this immense deliverance we are not told. Never, certainly, had any nation deeper cause for gratitude to its religious teachers, who alone had not despaired of the commonwealth when everything seemed lost. We would fain know where was Elijah at this crisis and whether he took any part in it. We cannot tell, hut we know that as a rule the sons of the prophets acted together under their chiefs, and that individual impulses were rarely encouraged. The very meaning of the "Schools of the Prophets" was that they were all trained to adopt the same principles and to move together as one body. The service rendered by this prophet, whose very name has been buried in undeserved oblivion, did not end here. Perhaps he saw signs of carelessness and undue exultation. He went again to the king, and warned him that his victory, immense as it had been, was not final. It was no time for him to settle on his lees. The Syrians would assuredly return the following year probably with increased resources and with the burning determination to avenge their defeat. Let Ahab look well to his army and his fortresses, and prepare himself for the coming shock! 1 Kings 20:31 And his servants said unto him, Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel: peradventure he will save thy life. AHAB’S INFATUATION 1 Kings 20:31-43 " Quem vult Deus perire dementat prius ." THE courtiers of Benhadad found it easy to flatter his pride by furnishing reasons to account for such an alarming overthrow. They had attacked the Israelites on their hills, and the gods of Israel were hill-gods. Next time they would take Israel at a disadvantage by fighting only on the plain. Further, the vassal kings were only an element of dissension and weakness. They prevented the handling of the army as one strong machine worked by a single supreme will. Let Benhadad depose from command these incapable weaklings, and put in their place dependent civil officers ( pachoth ) who would have no thought but to obey orders. And so, with good heart, let the king collect a fresh army with horses and chariots as powerful as the last. The issue would be certain conquest and dear revenge. Benhadad followed this advice The next year he went with his new host and encamped near Aphek. There is an Aphek (now Fik) which lay on the road between Damascus on the east of Jordan on a little plain south-east of the Sea of Galilee. This may have been the town of Issachar, in the valley of Jezreel, where Saul was defeated by the Philistines. {1Sa 29:1} Israel went out to meet them duly provisioned. The Syrian host spread over the whole country; the Israelite army looked only like two little flocks of kids. To strengthen the misgivings of the anxious king of Israel, another nameless prophet-probably, like Elijah, a Gileadite-came to promise him the victory. Jehovah would convince the Syrians that He was something more than a mere local god of the hills as they had blasphemously said, and Israel would once more he shown that He was indeed the Lord. For seven days the vast army and the little band of patriots gazed at each other, as the Israelites and Philistines had done in the days of Saul and Goliath. On the seventh day they joined battle. In what special way the aid of Jehovah seconded the desperate valor of His people who were fighting for their all we do not know, but the result was, once more, their stupendous victory. The army of the Syrians was not only defeated, but practically annihilated. In round numbers 100,000 Syrians fell in the slaughter of that day, and when the remnant took refuge in Aphek, which they had captured, they perished in a sudden crash-perhaps of earthquake-which buried them in the ruins of its fortifications. Rescued, we know not how, from this disaster, Benhadad fled from chamber to chamber to hide himself from the victors in some innermost recess. But it was impossible that he should not be discovered, and therefore his servants persuaded him to throw himself on the mercy of his conqueror. "The kings of Israel," they said, "are, as we have heard, compassionate kings; let us go before the king with sackcloth on our loins, and ropes round our necks, and ask if he will save thy life." So they went, as the burghers of Calais went before Edward I; and then Ahab heard from the ambassadors of the king who had once dictated terms to him with such infinite contempt, the message: "Thy slave Benhadad saith, I pray thee, let me live." The incident that followed is eminently characteristic of Eastern customs. In rencontres between Orientals everything depends on the first words which are exchanged. It is believed that superior powers wield the utterances of the tongue amid the chances which are really destiny, so that the most casual expression is caught up superstitiously as a sort of Bath Kol , or "the daughter of a voice," which not only indicates but even helps to bring about the purposes of Heaven. A chance friendly greeting may become the termination of a blood feud, because something more than chance is supposed to lie behind it! Once when a group of doomed gladiators gathered themselves under the Imperial podium of the amphitheatre with their sublimely monotonous chant, " Ave Caesar, morituri te salutamus ," the half-dazed emperor inadvertently answered, " Avete vos! He has bidden us, ‘Hail!"’ shouted the gladiators: "the contest is remitted; we are free!" Had the Romans been Orientals the twenty thousand assembled spectators would have felt the force of the appeal. Even as it was the significance of the omen was felt to be so great that the gladiators threw down their arms, and it was only by whips and violence that they were finally driven to the combat in which they perished. So with intense eagerness the ambassadors, in their sackcloth and their halters, awaited the Bath Kol . It came far more favorably than they had dared to hope. Surprised, and perhaps half touched with pity for so immense a reverse of misfortune, "Is he yet alive?" exclaimed the careless king: "he is my brother!" The Syrians snatched at the expression as a decisive omen. It constituted an absolute end of the feud. It became an implicit promise of that sacred dakheel , that "protection" to which the slightest and most accidental expression constitutes a recognized claim. "Thy brother Benhadad," they earnestly and emphatically repeated. In accordance with Eastern custom and augury their whole end was gained. As far as Benhadad was concerned he was now safe; as far as Ahab was concerned, the mischief, if mischief it were, was irreparably done. Ahab could hardly have drawn back even if he wished to do so, but perhaps he was swayed by a fellow feeling for a king. This strange uxorious monarch, with his easily swayed impulses, his fits of schoolboy sullenness and swift repentance, his want of insight into existing conditions, his-if the expression may be excused-happy-go-lucky way of letting questions settle themselves, was, no doubt, a brave warrior, but he was a most incapable statesman. His conduct was perfectly infatuated. Pity is one thing, but the security of a nation has also to be considered. It would have been a worse than insensate piece of pseudo-chivalry if the Congress of Vienna had not sent Napoleon to Elba, and if England had not confined him in St. Helena. To set free a man endowed with passionate hatred, with immense ambitions, with boundless capacities for mischief-or only to bind him with the packthread of insecure promises-was the conduct of a fool. If it was compassion which induced Ahab to give Benhadad his life, it showed either gross incapacity or treachery against his own nation not to clip his wings, and hamper him from the future injuries which the burden of gratitude was little likely to prevent. The sequel shows that Benhadad’s resentment against his royal "brother" only became more hopelessly implacable, and in all probability it was largely mingled with contempt. And Ahab’s conduct, besides being foolish, was guilty. It showed a frivolous non-recognition of his duties as a theocratic king. It flung away the national advantages, and even the national security, which had not been vouchsafed to any power or worth of his, but only to Jehovah’s direct interposition to save the destinies of his people from premature extinction. When Benhadad came out of his hiding-place, Ahab, not content with sparing the life of this furious and merciless aggressor, took him up into his chariot, which was the highest honor he could have paid him, and accepted the excessively easy terms which Benhadad himself proposed. The Syrians were not required to pay any indemnity for the immense expenditure and unutterable misery which their wanton invasions had inflicted upon Israel! They simply proposed to restore the cities which Benhadad’s father had taken from Omri, and to allow the Israelites to have a protected bazaar in Damascus similar to the one which the Syrians enjoyed in Samaria. On this covenant Benhadad was sent home scatheless, and with a supineness which was not so much magnanimous as fatuous, Ahab neglected to take hostages of any kind to secure the fulfillment even of these ridiculously inadequate terms of peace. Benhadad was not likely to throw away the chance which gave him such an easy-going and improvident adversary. It is certain that he did not keep the covenant. He probably never even intended to keep it. If he condescended to any excuse for breaking it, he would probably have affected to regard it as extorted by violence, and therefore invalid, as Francis I defended the forfeiture of his parole after the battle of Pavia. The recklessness with which Ahab had reposed in Benhadad a confidence, not only undeserved, but rendered reckless by all the antecedents of the Syrian king, cost him very dear. He had to pay the penalty of his dementation three years later in a new and disastrous war, in the loss of his life, and the overthrow of his dynasty. The fact that, after so many exertions, and so much success in war, in commerce, and in worldly policy, he and his house fell unpitied, and no one raised a finger in his defense, was doubtless due in part to the alienation of his army by a carelessness which flung away in a moment all the fruits of their hard-won victories. There was one aspect in which Ahab’s conduct assumed an aspect more supremely culpable. To whom had he owed the courage and inspiration which had rescued him from ruin, and led to the triumphs which had delivered him and his people from the depths of despair? Not in the least to himself, or to Jezebel, or to Baal’s priests, or to any of his captains or counselors. In both instances the heroism had been inspired and the success promised by a prophet of Jehovah. What would convince him, if this would not, that in God only was his strength? Did not the most ordinary gratitude as well as the most ordinary wisdom require that he should recognize the source of these unhoped-for blessings? There is not the least trace that he did so. We read of no word of gratitude to Jehovah, no desire to follow the guidance of the prophets to whom he was so deeply indebted, and who had proved their right to be regarded as interpreters of God’s will. Had he done this he would not have suffered the clannishness of royalty to plunge him into a step which was the chief cause of his final destruction He might ignore guidance, but he could not escape reproof. Again an unknown monitor from the sons of the prophets was commissioned to bring home to him his error He did so by an acted parable, which gave concrete force and vividness to the lesson which he desired to convey Speaking "by the word of the Lord"- i.e. , as a part of the prophetic inspiration which dictated his acts-he went to one of his fellows in the school of which the members are here first called "the sons of the prophets," and bade him to wound him. His comrade, not unnaturally, shrank from obeying so strange a command. It must be borne in mind that the mere appeal to an inspiration from Jehovah did not always authenticate itself. Over and over again in the prophetic books, and in these histories which the Jews call "the earlier prophets," we find that men could profess to act in Jehovah’s name, and even perhaps to be sincere in so doing, who were mere dupes of their own wills and fancies. It was, in fact, possible for them to become false prophets, without always meaning to be so; and these chances of hallucination-of being misled by a lying spirit-led to fierce contentions in the prophetic communities. "Since you have not obeyed Jehovah’s voice," said the man, "the lion shall immediately slay you." "And as soon as he was departed from him the lion found him and slew him." There is nothing impossible in the incident, for in those days lions were common in Palestine, and they multiplied when the country had been depopulated by war. But we can never feel certain how far the ethical and didactic and parabolic elements were allowed, for purposes of edification, to play a part in these ancient yet not contemporaneous Acta Prophetarum , and at any rate to dictate the interpretation of things which may have actually occurred. The prophet then bade another comrade to smite him, and he did so effectually, inflicting a serious wound. This was a part of the intended scene in which the prophet meant for a moment to play the role of a soldier who had been wounded in the Syrian war. So he bound up his head with a bandage, and waited for the king to pass by. An Eastern king is liable at any time to be appealed to by the humblest of his subjects, and the prophet stopped Ahab and stated his imaginary case. "A captain," he said, "brought me one of his war captives, and ordered me to keep him safe. If I failed to do so, I was to pay the forfeit of my life, or to pay as a fine a silver talent. But as I was looking here and there the captive escaped." "Be it so," answered Ahab; "you are bound by your own bargain." Thus Ahab, like David, was led to condemn himself out of his own mouth. Then the prophet tore the bandage from his face, and said to Ahab: "Thou art the man! Thus saith Jehovah, I entrusted to thee the man under my ban ( cherem ), and thou hast let him escape. Thou shalt pay the forfeit. Thy life shall go for his life thy people for his people." Anger and indignation filled the heart of the king; he went to his house "heavy and displeased." The phrase, twice applied to him and never used of another, shows that he was liable to characteristic moods of overwhelming sullenness, the result of an uneasy conscience, and of a rage which was compelled to remain impotent. It is evident that he did not dare to chastise the audacious offender, though the Jews say that the prophet was Micaiah, the son of Imlah, and that he was imprisoned for this offense. As a rule the prophets-like Samuel and Nathan, and Gad and Shemaiah, and Jehu the son of Hanani-were protected by their sacrosanct position. Now and then an Urijah, a Jeremiah, a Zechariah son of Berechiah, paid the penalty of bold denunciation, not only by hatred and persecution, but with his life. This, however, was the exception. As a rule the prophets felt themselves safe under the wing of a Divine protector. Not only Elijah in his sheepskin mantle, but even the humblest of his imitators in the prophetic schools might fearlessly stride up to a king, seize his steed by the bridle, as Athanasius did to Constantine, and compel him to listen to his rebuke or his appeal. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.