I Kings · Chapter 20 King James Version

I Kings 20:16

🔍 Text

The Scripture

(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.
Chapter overview (whole chapter)

First Kings 20 records Ben-hadad king of Syria besieging Samaria with thirty-two allied kings and demanding Ahab's silver, gold, women, and children, then escalating his demands until Ahab refuses. A prophet delivers God's word that Ahab will defeat the vast Syrian host, and Israel's young men strike down the Syrians while Ben-hadad escapes, with a second victory the next year at Aphek after the Syrians arrogantly claim the Lord is only a god of the hills. When Ahab spares Ben-hadad and makes a treaty, a prophet condemns him: because he let the man God devoted to destruction go free, Ahab's life will pay for his, and Ahab returns to Samaria heavy and displeased.

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