1 Kings 20:23 Komentář

This chapter is the history of a war between Ben-hadad king of Syria and Ahab king of Israel, in which Ahab was, once and again, victorious. We read nothing of Elijah or Elishain all this story; Jezebel's rage, it is probable, had abated, and the persecution of the prophets began to cool, which gleam of peace Elijah improved. He appeared not at court, but, being told how many thousands of good people there were in Israel more than he thought of, employed himself, as we may suppose, in founding religious houses, schools, or colleges of prophets, in several parts of the country, to be nurseries of religion, that they might help to reform the nation when the throne and court would not be reformed. While he was thus busied, God favoured the nation with the successes we here read of, which were the more remarkable because obtained against Ben-hadad king of Syria, whose successor, Hazael, was ordained to be a scourge to Israel. They must shortly suffer by the Syrians, and yet now triumphed over them, that, if possible, they might be led to repentance by the goodness of God. Here is, I. Ben-hadad's descent upon Israel, and his insolent demand (Kg1 20:1-11). II. The defeat Ahab gave him, encouraged and directed by a prophet (Kg1 20:12-21). III. The Syrians rallying again, and the second defeat Ahab gave them (Kg1 20:22-30). IV. The covenant of peace Ahab made with Ben-hadad, when he had him at his mercy (Kg1 20:31-34), for which he is reproved and threatened by a prophet (Kg1 20:35-43).

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 20 This chapter relates the siege of Samaria by the king of Syria, and his insolent demand of Ahab's wives, children, and riches, Kg1 20:1, the sally made out upon him, at the direction of the prophet, and the route made of the Syrian army, Kg1 20:13, the return of the Syrian army the next year, when there was a pitched battle between them and Israel, in which the former were entirely defeated, Kg1 20:22, the peace Ahab made with the king of Syria, Kg1 20:31, and the reproof one of the sons of the prophets gave him for it, which made him very uneasy, Kg1 20:35.

And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him,.... His ministers of state, his privy counsellors: their gods are gods of the hills, therefore they were stronger than we; and beat them in the last battle; this notion they might receive from what they had heard of Jehovah delivering the law on Mount Sinai to Moses, and of the miraculous things done lately on Mount Carmel, as well as of their worship being in high places, especially at Jerusalem, the temple there being built on an hill, as was Samaria itself, near to which they had their last defeat; and this notion of topical deities very much obtained among the Heathens in later times, some of which they supposed presided over rivers, others over woods, and others over hills and mountains (e): so Nemestinus the god of woods, Collina the goddess of hills, and Vallina of valleys (f); and Arnobins (g) makes mention of the god Montinus, and Livy (h) of the god Peninus, who had his name from a part of the Alps, so called where he was worshipped; and there also the goddess Penina was worshipped; and Lactantius (i) speaks of the gods of the mountains the mother of Maximilian was a worshipper of; and even Jupiter had names from mountains, as Olympius, Capitolinus, &c. and such was the great god Pan, called mountainous Pan (k): but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they; and prevail over them, and conquer them. (e) "Dii fumus agrestes, et qui dominemur in altis montibus.----" Ovid. Fast. l. 3. (f) Vid. D. Herbert de Cherbury de Relig. Gent. c. 12. p. 198, 112. (g) Adv. Gentes, l. 4. (h) Hist. l. 21. c. 38. (i) De Mort. Persecutor. c. 11. p. 22. Vid. Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 8. ver. 320. "Et numina montis adorant". See Ep. 4. ver. 171. (k) Sophoclis Oedipus Tyr. ver. 1110.

Here the Scripture relates the two battles of the king of Israel against the Arameans, at which we have already hinted, and the twin slaughters of the Arameans, of which the second caused the death of 127, men, as God took his revenge on the impious voice of the Arameans, who said about the true God worshiped by the Israelites, “The Lord is a god of the hills, but he is not a god of the valleys.”

Did not the Lord wish Ben-hadad, king of Syria, whom besides countless thousands of his own people, thirty-two kings and armies of the same number of kings served, to be conquered by a few foot soldiers of the princes in order that he who was the author of such victory would be acknowledged?

Ben-hadad, king of Syria, and thirty-two kings, besiege Samaria, Kg1 20:1. He sends an insulting message to Ahab; and insists on pillaging the whole city, Kg1 20:2-7. The elders of Israel counsel the king not to submit to such shameful conditions, Kg1 20:8. He sends a refusal to Ben-hadad; who, being enraged, vows revenge, Kg1 20:9-12. A prophet comes to Ahab, and promises him victory, and gives him directions how he should order the battle, Kg1 20:13-19. The Syrians are discomfited, and Ben-hadad scarcely escapes, Kg1 20:20, Kg1 20:21. The prophet warns Ahab to be on his guard, for the Syrians would return next year, Kg1 20:22. The counsellors of the king of Syria instruct him how he may successfully invade Israel, Kg1 20:23-25. He leads an immense army to Aphek, to fight with Ahab, Kg1 20:26, Kg1 20:27. A man of God encourages Ahab, who attacks the Syrians, and kills one hundred thousand of them, Kg1 20:28, Kg1 20:29. They retreat to Aphek, where twenty-seven thousand of them are slain by a casualty, Kg1 20:30. Ben-hadad and his courtiers, being closely besieged in Aphek, and unable to escape, surrender themselves with sackcloth on their loins, and halters on their heads; the king of Israel receives them in a friendly manner, and makes a covenant with Ben-hadad, Kg1 20:31-34. A prophet, by a symbolical action, shows him the impolicy of his conduct in permitting Ben-hadad to escape, and predicts his death and the slaughter of Israel, Kg1 20:35-43.

Their gods are gods of the hills - It is very likely that the small Israelitish army availed itself of the heights and uneven ground, that they might fight with greater advantage against the Syrian cavalry, for Ben-hadad came up against Samaria with horses and chariots, Kg1 20:1. These therefore must be soon thrown into confusion when charging in such circumstances; indeed, the chariots must be nearly useless. Let us fight against them in the plain - There our horses and chariots will all be able to bear on the enemy, and there their gods, whose influence is confined to the hills, will not be able to help them. It was a general belief in the heathen world that each district had its tutelary and protecting deity, who could do nothing out of his own sphere.

BEN-HADAD BESIEGES SAMARIA. (Kg1 20:1-12) Ben-hadad the king of Syria--This monarch was the son of that Ben-hadad who, in the reign of Baasha, made a raid on the northern towns of Galilee (Kg1 15:20). The thirty-two kings that were confederate with him were probably tributary princes. The ancient kings of Syria and Phœnicia ruled only over a single city, and were independent of each other, except when one great city, as Damascus, acquired the ascendency, and even then they were allied only in time of war. The Syrian army encamped at the gates and besieged the town of Samaria.

The Second Victory. - Kg1 20:23, Kg1 20:24. The servants (ministers) of Benhadad persuaded their lord to enter upon a fresh campaign, attributing the defeat they had sustained to two causes, which could be set aside, viz., to the supposed nature of the gods of Israel, and to the position occupied by the vassal-kings in the army. The gods of Israel were mountain gods: when fighting with them upon the mountains, the Syrians had had to fight against and succumb to the power of these gods, whereas on the plain they would conquer, because the power of these gods did not reach so far. This notion concerning the God of Israel the Syrians drew, according to their ethnical religious ideas, from the fact that the sacred places of this God - not only the temple at Jerusalem upon Moriah, but also the altars of the high places - were erected upon mountains; since heathenism really had its mountain deities, i.e., believed in gods who lived upon mountains and protected and conducted all that took place upon them (cf. Dougtaei Analect. ss. i. 178,179; Deyling, Observv. ss. iii. pp. 97ff.; Winer, bibl. R. W. i. p. 154), and in Syrophoenicia even mountains themselves had divine honours paid to them (vid., Movers, Phniz. i. p. 667ff.). The servants of Benhadad were at any rate so far right, that they attributed their defeat to the assistance which God had given to His people Israel; and were only wrong in regarding the God of Israel as a local deity, whose power did not extend beyond the mountains. They also advised their lord (Kg1 20:24) to remove the kings in his army from their position, and appoint governors in their stead (פּחות, see Kg1 10:15). The vassal-kings had most likely not shown the desired self-sacrifice for the cause of their superior in the war. And, lastly (Kg1 20:25), they advised the king to raise his army to its former strength, and then carry on the war in the plain. "Number thyself an army, like the army which has fallen from thee." מאותך, "from with thee," rendered correctly de tuis in the Vulgate, at least so far as the sense is concerned (for the form see Ewald, 264, b.). But these prudently-devised measures were to be of no avail to the Syrians; for they were to learn that the God of Israel was not a limited mountain-god.