(1) King Ben-hadad of Aram gathered his whole army; thirty-two kings accompanied him with horses and chariots. He advanced against Samaria, laid siege to it, and attacked it. (2) And he sent messengers to Ahab inside the city (3) to say to him, “Thus said Ben-hadad: Your silver and gold are mine, and your beautiful wives and children are mine.” (4) The king of Israel replied, “As you say, my lord king: I and all I have are yours.” (5) Then the messengers came again and said, “Thus said Ben-hadad: When I sent you the order to give me your silver and gold, and your wives and children, (6) I meant that tomorrow at this time I will send my servants to you and they will search your house and the houses of your courtiers and seize everything you prize and take it away.”
(7) Then the king of Israel summoned all the elders of the land, and he said, “See for yourselves how that man is bent on evil! For when he demanded my wives and my children, my silver and my gold, I did not refuse him.” (8) All the elders and all the people said, “Do not obey and do not submit!” (9) So he said to Ben-hadad’s messengers, “Tell my lord the king: All that you first demanded of your servant I shall do, but this thing I cannot do.” The messengers went and reported this to him.
Rabbi Yoḥanan says: For what virtue was Ahab privileged to ascend to the monarchy and rule for twenty-two years? It is due to the fact that he respected the Torah, which was given with twenty-two letters, as it is stated: “And he sent messengers to Ahab, king of Israel, into the city, and said to him: So says Ben-Hadad: Your silver and your gold are mine; your wives and also your good children, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said: It is according to your saying, my lord, O king: I am yours, and all that I have. And the messengers came again, and said: So speaks Ben-Hadad, saying: I sent to you, saying: You shall deliver me your silver, and your gold, and your wives, and your children. Yet 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 they shall put in their hand all the delight of your eyes and take it…And he said to the messengers of Ben-Hadad, tell my lord the king: All that you did send for to your servant at the first I will do; but this thing I may not do” (I Kings 20:2–6, 9). The Gemara asks: What is “the delight of your eyes” that Ahab refused to give Ben-Hadad after agreeing to give him his wives and his gold? Is it not a Torah scroll? Ahab treated the Torah with deference.
(10) Thereupon Ben-hadad sent him this message: “May the gods do thus to me and even more, if the dust of Samaria will provide even a handful for each of the men who follow me!” (11) The king of Israel replied, “Tell him: Let not him who girds on his sword boast like him who ungirds it!”
(12) On hearing this reply—while he and the other kings were drinking together at Succoth—he commanded his followers, “Advance!” And they advanced against the city. (13) Then a certain prophet went up to King Ahab of Israel and said, “Thus said the LORD: Do you see that great host? I will deliver it into your hands today, and you shall know that I am the LORD.” (14) “Through whom?” asked Ahab. He answered, “Thus said the LORD: Through the aides of the provincial governors.” He asked, “Who shall begin the battle?” And he answered, “You.” (15) So he mustered the aides of the provincial governors, 232 strong, and then he mustered all the troops—all the Israelites—7,000 strong.
(16) They marched out at noon, while Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk at Succoth together with the thirty-two kings allied with him. (17) The aides of the provincial governors rushed out first. Ben-hadad sent [scouts], who told him, “Some men have come out from Samaria.” (18) He said, “If they have come out to surrender, take them alive; and if they have come out for battle, take them alive anyhow.”
(19) But the others—the aides of the provincial governors, with the army behind them—had already rushed out of the city, (20) and each of them struck down his opponent. The Arameans fled, and Israel pursued them; but King Ben-hadad of Aram escaped on a horse with other horsemen. (21) The king of Israel came out and attacked the horses and chariots, and inflicted a great defeat on the Arameans. (22) Then the prophet approached the king of Israel and said to him, “Go, keep up your efforts, and consider well what you must do; for the king of Aram will attack you at the turn of the year.”
(23) Now the ministers of the king of Aram said to him, “Their God is a God of mountains; that is why they got the better of us. But if we fight them in the plain, we will surely get the better of them. (24) Do this: Remove all the kings from their posts and appoint governors in their place. (25) Then muster for yourself an army equal to the army you lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot. And let us fight them in the plain, and we will surely get the better of them.” He took their advice and acted accordingly. (26) At the turn of the year, Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and advanced on Aphek to fight Israel. (27) Now the Israelites had been mustered and provisioned, and they went out against them; but when the Israelites encamped against them, they looked like two flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the land. (28) Then the man of God approached and spoke to the king of Israel, “Thus said the LORD: Because the Arameans have said, ‘The LORD is a God of mountains, but He is not a God of lowlands,’ I will deliver that great host into your hands; and you shall know that I am the LORD.”
(6) “For tomorrow,” he replied. And [Moses] said, “As you say—that you may know that there is none like the LORD our God; (7) the frogs shall retreat from you and your courtiers and your people; they shall remain only in the Nile.”
(29) For seven days they were encamped opposite each other. On the seventh day, the battle was joined and the Israelites struck down 100,000 Aramean foot soldiers in one day. (30) The survivors fled to Aphek, inside the town, and the wall fell on the 27,000 survivors. Ben-hadad also fled and took refuge inside the town, in an inner chamber. (31) His ministers said to him, “We have heard that the kings of the House of Israel are magnanimous kings. Let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and surrender to the king of Israel; perhaps he will spare your life.”