Ben-hadad Attacks Samaria

1And Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his hoast together, hauing thirtie & two kinges with him, and horses and charets: and went vp and besieged Samaria, & warred against it. 2And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the citie, and sayde vnto him, thus saith Benhadad. 3Thy siluer & thy gold is myne, & the fayrest of thy wiues & of thy childre be mine. 4And the king of Israel aunswered and said: My lord king, according to thy saying, I am thyne and all that I haue. 5And when the messengers came againe, they sayd, thus sayth Benhadad: Forasmuch as I haue sent vnto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliuer me thy siluer and thy golde, and thy wyues, and thy children: 6I will therfore send my seruauntes vnto thee to morowe this time: and they shall searche thyne house, & the houses of thy seruauntes, and whatsoeuer is pleasaunt in thyne eyes, they shall take it in their handes, and bring it away.

7Then the king of Israel sent for all the elders of the land, and said: Take heede I pray you, and see howe this felowe goeth about mischiefe: For he sent vnto me for my wiues, for my children, for my siluer, and for my golde, and I denyed him not. 8And all the elders and all the people said: Hearken not vnto him, nor consent. 9Wherfore he sayde vnto the messengers of Benhadad: Tell my lord the king, all that thou dyddest send for to thy seruaut at the first time, that I will do: but this thing I may not do. And the messengers departed, and brought aunswere againe. 10And Benhadad sent vnto him againe, and sayde: Thus and thus do the gods vnto me, if the dust of Samaria be enough for al the people that folowe me, to take euery man an handfull. 11And the king of Israel aunswered, and sayd: Tell him, let not him that putteth on his harnesse boast him selfe, as he that putteth it of. 12And it fortuned, that when Benhadad hearde that tydinges, as he was with the kinges drinking within the pauilions, and he saide vnto this seruauntes, Put your selues in order. And they set them selues in aray against the citie.

Ahab Defeats Ben-hadad

13And beholde, there came a prophete vnto Ahab king of Israel, saying, thus sayeth the Lord: Hast thou seene all this great multitude? beholde, I will deliuer it into thyne hand this day, & thou shalt knowe that I am the Lorde. 14And Ahab sayd: By whom? He sayde: Thus sayth the Lorde, euen by the seruauntes of the gouernours of ye shyres. He sayd againe: who shall order the battayle? And he aunswered: Thou. 15Then he numbred the seruauntes of the gouernours of the shyres, & they were two hundred and thirtie and two: And after them also he numbred all the people of the children of Israel euen seuen thousande.

16And they went out at noone: but Benhadad dyd drinke till he was drunken in the pauillions, both he and the kinges: eue thirtie & two kinges, that holpe him. 17And the seruauntes of the gouernours of the shyres went out first, and Benhadad sent out, & they shewed him, saying: There are men come out of Samaria. 18He sayde: Whether they be come out for peace, take them alyue: or whether they be come out to fight, take them yet alyue.

19And so those young men of the gouernours of the shyres came out of the citie, and the hoast after them: 20And they slue euery one his enemie that came in his way: and the Syrians fled, & they of Israel folowed after the: And Benhadad the king of Syria scaped on a horse, with his horsemen. 21And the king of Israel went out, and smote the horses and charettes, & with a great slaughter slue he the Syrians.

22(And there came a prophete to the king of Israel, and said vnto him: Go foorth, and play the man, be wyse, & take heede what thou doest: for when the yere is gone about, the king of Syria will come vp against thee.)

23And the seruauntes of the king of Syria sayde vnto him: The gods of the hilles are their gods, and therefore they had the better of vs: but let vs fight against them in the playne, and for what ye will we shall haue the better of them. 24And this do: Take the kinges away euery man out of his place, & put dukes in their roomes: 25And do thou number thee an hoast, lyke the hoast that thou hast lost, such horses and suche charets, and we will fight against them in the plaine, and thou shalt see vs get the better of the. And he hearkened vnto their voyce, and dyd euen so.

Another War with Ben-hadad

26And it fortuned, that after the yere was gone about, Benhadad numbred the Syrians, and went vp to Aphec to fight against Israel. 27And the children of Israel were numbred, & with their whole number went they against them, and the children of Israel pitched before them lyke two litle flockes of kiddes: but the Syrians filled the countrey. 28And there came a man of God, and sayd vnto the king of Israel, thus sayth the Lorde: Because the Syrians haue sayd, the Lorde is but God of the hilles, and not God of the valleys: therfore wil I deliuer all this great multitude into thyne hande, and ye shall knowe that I am the Lorde. 29And they pitched one ouer against the other seuen dayes: and it came to passe, that in the seuenth day the battaile was ioyned, and the children of Israel slue of the Syrians an hundred thousande footemen in one day. 30But the rest fled to Aphec into the citie, and there fell a wall vpon twentie and seuen thousande of the men that were left: And Benhadad fled, and came into the citie, from chamber to chamber.

Ahab Spares Ben-hadad

31And his seruauntes said vnto him: Behold, we haue heard say that the kinges of the house of Israel are mercyfull kinges: We will therfore put sackcloth about our loynes, and ropes about our heades, and go out to the king of Israel, if happyly he will saue thy lyfe. 32And so they girded sackcloth about their loynes, & put ropes about their heades, and came to the king of Israel, and said: Thy seruaunt Benhadad sayth, I pray thee let me lyue. He sayde: Is he yet alyue? he is my brother. 33And ye men toke that word for good lucke and hastyly caught it out of his mouth, and sayd: Yea thy brother Benhadad. He sayde: Go, bring him hyther. And Benhadad came out vnto him, and he caused him to come vp into the charet. 34And he said vnto him: The cities which my father toke from thy father, I will restore agayne, and thou shalt make streates for thee in Damasco, as my father dyd in Samaria: And I wil make an appoyntment with thee, & send the away. And so he made an appoyntment with him, and sent him away.

A Prophet Reproves Ahab

35And there was a certayne man of the children of the prophetes, whiche sayde vnto his neyghbour in the word of the Lord: Smyte me I pray thee. And the man woulde not smyte him. 36Then sayd he vnto him: Because thou hast not hearkened vnto the voyce of the Lorde: beholde, assoone as thou art departed fro me, a lion shal slay thee. And it came to passe, that assoone as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slue him. 37Then he founde another man, & sayde: Smyte me I pray thee. And the man smote him, so that in smyting he wounded him. 38So the prophete went foorth, & wayted for the king by the way, and put him selfe out of knowledge with ashes whiche he layed vpon his face. 39And when the king came by, he cryed vnto the king, and sayde: Thy seruaunt wet out in the middes of the battel, and behold there went away a man, whom another man brought vnto me, & sayde, Kepe this man: and if he be myssed or lost, thy lyfe shall go for his, or els thou shalt pay a talent of siluer. 40And as thy seruaunt had here & there to do, he was gone. And the king of Israel sayde vnto him: Euen so shall thy iudgement be, as thou hast defined it thy selfe. 41And he hasted, & toke the ashes away from his face, and the king of Israel knewe him, that he was of ye prophetes. 42And he sayde vnto him, Thus sayth the Lorde: Because thou hast let go out of thy hande a man that is in my curse, thy lyfe shall go for his lyfe, and thy people for his people. 43And the king of Israel went to his house wayward and in displeasure, and came to Samaria.