Chapter
20
Ben Hadad the queen of Syria gathered all her army together; and there were thirty-two queens with her, and horses and chariots: and she went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it.
She sent messengers to Ahab queen of Israel, into the city, and said to her, Thus says Ben Hadad,
Your silver and your gold is mine; your husbands also and your children, even the best, are mine.
The queen of Israel answered, It is according to your saying, my domina, O queen; I am yours, and all that I have.
The messengers came again, and said, Thus speaks Ben Hadad, saying, I sent indeed to you, saying, You shall deliver me your silver, and your gold, and your husbands, and your children;
but I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they shall search your house, and the houses of your servants; and it shall be, that whatever is pleasant in your eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away.
Then the queen of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, Please notice how this woman seeks mischief: for she sent to me for my husbands, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I didn't deny her.
All the elders and all the people said to her, Don't you listen, neither consent.
Therefore she said to the messengers of Ben Hadad, Tell my domina the queen, All that you did send for to your servant at the first I will do; but this thing I may not do. The messengers departed, and brought her word again.
Ben Hadad sent to her, and said, The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me.
The queen of Israel answered, Tell her, Don't let her who girds on her armor boast herself as she who puts it off.
It happened, when Ben Hadad] heard this message, as she was drinking, she and the queens, in the pavilions, that she said to her servants, Set [yourselves in array]. They set [themselves in array against the city.
Behold, a prophetess came near to Ahab queen of Israel, and said, Thus says Yahweh, Have you seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it into your hand this day; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Ahab said, By whom? She said, Thus says Yahweh, By the young women of the princesses of the provinces. Then she said, Who shall begin the battle? She answered, You.
Then she mustered the young women of the princesses of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two: and after them she mustered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand.
They went out at noon. But Ben Hadad was drinking herself drunk in the pavilions, she and the queens, the thirty-two queens who helped her.
The young women of the princesses of the provinces went out first; and Ben Hadad sent out, and they told her, saying, There are women come out from Samaria.
She said, Whether they are come out for peace, take them alive, or whether they are come out for war, taken them alive.
So these went out of the city, the young women of the princesses of the provinces, and the army which followed them.
They killed everyone her woman; and the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them: and Ben Hadad the queen of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen.
The queen of Israel went out, and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.
The prophetess came near to the queen of Israel, and said to her, Go, strengthen yourself, and mark, and see what you do; for at the return of the year the queen of Syria will come up against you.
The servants of the queen of Syria said to her, Their god is a god 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.
Do this thing: take the queens away, every woman out of her place, and put captains in their room;
and number you an army, like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot; and we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. She listened to their voice, and did so.
It happened at the return of the year, that Ben Hadad mustered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel.
The children of Israel were mustered, and were provisioned, and went against them: and the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country.
A woman of God came near and spoke to the queen of Israel, and said, Thus says Yahweh, Because the Syrians have said, Yahweh is a god of the hills, but she is not a god of the valleys; therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
They encamped one over against the other seven days. So it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel killed of the Syrians one hundred thousand footmen in one day.
But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand women who were left. Ben Hadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner chamber.
Her servants said to her, See now, we have heard that the queens of the house of Israel are merciful queens: let us, we pray you, put sackcloth on our bodies, and ropes on our heads, and go out to the queen of Israel: peradventure she will save your life.
So they girded sackcloth on their bodies, and put ropes on their heads, and came to the queen of Israel, and said, Your servant Ben Hadad says, please let me live. She said, Is she yet alive? she is my sister.
Now the women observed diligently, and hurried to catch whether it were her mind; and they said, Your sister Ben Hadad. Then she said, Go you, bring her. Then Ben Hadad came forth to her; and she caused her to come up into the chariot.
Ben Hadad] said to her, The cities which my mother took from your mother I will restore; and you shall make streets for you in Damascus, as my mother made in Samaria. I, [said Ahab, will let you go with this covenant. So she made a covenant with her, and let her go.
A certain woman of the daughters of the prophets said to her fellow by the word of Yahweh, Please strike me. The woman refused to strike her.
Then said she to her, Because you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, behold, as soon as you are departed from me, a lion shall kill you. As soon as she was departed from her, a lion found her, and killed her.
Then she found another woman, and said, Please strike me. The woman struck her, smiting and wounding her.
So the prophetess departed, and waited for the queen by the way, and disguised herself with her headband over her eyes.
As the queen passed by, she cried to the queen; and she said, Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and behold, a woman turned aside, and brought a woman to me, and said, Keep this woman: if by any means she be missing, then shall your life be for her life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.
As your servant was busy here and there, she was gone. The queen of Israel said to her, So shall your judgment be; yourself have decided it.
She hurried, and took the headband away from her eyes; and the queen of Israel discerned her that she was of the prophets.
She said to her, Thus says Yahweh, Because you have let go out of your hand the woman whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for her life, and your people for her people.
The queen of Israel went to her house sullen and angry, and came to Samaria.