To The Word – Day 116

₁King Benhadad of Syria gathered all his troops, and supported by 32 other rulers with their horses and chariots, he marched up, laid siege to Samaria, and launched attacks against it. ₂He sent messengers into the city to King Ahab of Israel to say, “King Benhadad demands that ₃you surrender to him your silver and gold, your women and the strongest of your children.”

₄“Tell my lord, King Benhadad, that I agree; he can have me and everything I own,” Ahab answered.

₅Later the messengers came back to Ahab with another demand from Benhadad: “I sent you word that you were to hand over to me your silver and gold, your women and your children. ₆Now, however, I will send my officers to search your palace and the homes of your officials, and to take everything they consider valuable. They will be there about this time tomorrow.”

₇King Ahab called in all the leaders of the country and said, “You see that this man wants to ruin us. He sent me a message demanding my wives and children, my silver and gold, and I agreed.”

₈The leaders and the people answered, “Don't pay any attention to him; don't give in.”

₉So Ahab replied to Benhadad's messengers, “Tell my lord the king that I agreed to his first demand, but I cannot agree to the second.”

The messengers left and then returned with another message ₁₀from Benhadad: “I will bring enough men to destroy this city of yours and carry off the rubble in their hands. May the gods strike me dead if I don't!”

₁₁King Ahab answered, “Tell King Benhadad that a real soldier does his boasting after a battle, not before it.”

₁₂Benhadad received Ahab's answer as he and his allies, the other rulers, were drinking in their tents. He ordered his men to get ready to attack the city, so they moved into position.

₁₃Meanwhile, a prophet went to King Ahab and said, “The LORD says, ‘Don't be afraid of that huge army! I will give you victory over it today, and you will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

₁₄“Who will lead the attack?” Ahab asked.

The prophet answered, “The LORD says that the young soldiers under the command of the district governors are to do it.”

“Who will command the main force?” the king asked.

“You,” the prophet answered.

₁₅So the king called out the young soldiers who were under the district commanders, 232 in all. Then he called out the Israelite army, a total of 7,000 men.

₁₆The attack began at noon, as Benhadad and his 32 allies were getting drunk in their tents. ₁₇The young soldiers advanced first. Scouts sent out by Benhadad reported to him that a group of soldiers was coming out of Samaria. ₁₈He ordered, “Take them alive, no matter whether they are coming to fight or to ask for peace.”

₁₉The young soldiers led the attack, followed by the Israelite army, ₂₀and each one killed the man he fought. The Syrians fled, with the Israelites in hot pursuit, but Benhadad escaped on horseback, accompanied by some of the cavalry. ₂₁King Ahab took to the field, captured the horses and chariots, and inflicted a severe defeat on the Syrians.

₂₂Then the prophet went to King Ahab and said, “Go back and build up your forces, and make careful plans, because the king of Syria will attack again next spring.”

₂₃King Benhadad's officials said to him, “The gods of Israel are mountain gods, and that is why the Israelites defeated us. But we will certainly defeat them if we fight them in the plains. ₂₄Now, remove the 32 rulers from their commands and replace them with field commanders. ₂₅Then call up an army as large as the one that deserted you, with the same number of horses and chariots. We will fight the Israelites in the plains, and this time we will defeat them.”

King Benhadad agreed and followed their advice. ₂₆The following spring he called up his men and marched with them to the city of Aphek to attack the Israelites. ₂₇The Israelites were called up and equipped; they marched out and camped in two groups facing the Syrians. The Israelites looked like two small flocks of goats compared with the Syrians, who spread out over the countryside.

₂₈A prophet went to King Ahab and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because the Syrians say that I am a god of the hills and not of the plains, I will give you victory over their huge army, and you and your people will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

₂₉For seven days the Syrians and the Israelites stayed in their camps, facing each other. On the seventh day they started fighting, and the Israelites killed a hundred thousand Syrians. ₃₀The survivors fled into the city of Aphek, where the city walls fell on 27,000 of them.

Benhadad also escaped into the city and took refuge in the back room of a house. ₃₁His officials went to him and said, “We have heard that the Israelite kings are merciful. Give us permission to go to the king of Israel with sackcloth round our waists and ropes round our necks, and maybe he will spare your life.” ₃₂So they wrapped sackcloth round their waists and ropes round their necks, went to Ahab and said, “Your servant Benhadad pleads with you for his life.”

Ahab answered, “Is he still alive? Good! He's like a brother to me!”

₃₃Benhadad's officials were watching for a good sign, and when Ahab said “brother”, they took it up at once, and said, “As you say, Benhadad is your brother!”

“Bring him to me,” Ahab ordered. When Benhadad arrived, Ahab invited him to get in the chariot with him. ₃₄Benhadad said to him, “I will restore to you the towns my father took from your father, and you may set up a commercial centre for yourself in Damascus, just as my father did in Samaria.”

Ahab replied, “On these terms, then, I will set you free.” He made a treaty with him and let him go.

₃₅At the LORD's command a member of a group of prophets ordered a fellow-prophet to hit him. But he refused, ₃₆so he said to him, “Because you have disobeyed the LORD's command, a lion will kill you as soon as you leave me.” And as soon as he left, a lion came along and killed him.

₃₇Then this same prophet went to another man and said, “Hit me!” This man did so; he hit him a hard blow and hurt him. ₃₈The prophet bandaged his face with a cloth, to disguise himself, and went and stood by the road, waiting for the king of Israel to pass. ₃₉As the king was passing by, the prophet called out to him and said, “Your Majesty, I was fighting in the battle when a soldier brought a captured enemy to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if he escapes, you will pay for it with your life or else pay a fine of 3,000 pieces of silver.’ ₄₀But I got busy with other things, and the man escaped.”

The king answered, “You have pronounced your own sentence, and you will have to pay the penalty.”

₄₁The prophet tore the cloth from his face, and at once the king recognized him as one of the prophets. ₄₂The prophet then said to the king, “This is the word of the LORD: ‘Because you allowed the man to escape whom I had ordered to be killed, you will pay for it with your life, and your army will be destroyed for letting his army escape.’ ”

₄₃The king went back home to Samaria, worried and depressed.

₁Near King Ahab's palace in Jezreel there was a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth. ₂One day Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard; it is close to my palace, and I want to use the land for a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard for it, or, if you prefer, I will pay you a fair price.”

₃“I inherited this vineyard from my ancestors,” Naboth replied. “The LORD forbid that I should let you have it!”

₄Ahab went home, depressed and angry over what Naboth had said to him. He lay down on his bed, facing the wall, and would not eat. ₅His wife Jezebel went to him and asked, “Why are you so depressed? Why won't you eat?”

₆He answered, “Because of what Naboth said to me. I offered to buy his vineyard, or, if he preferred, to give him another one for it, but he told me that I couldn't have it!”

₇“Well, are you the king or aren't you?” Jezebel replied. “Get out of bed, cheer up and eat. I will get you Naboth's vineyard!”

₈Then she wrote some letters, signed them with Ahab's name, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the officials and leading citizens of Jezreel. ₉The letters said: “Proclaim a day of fasting, call the people together, and give Naboth the place of honour. ₁₀Get a couple of scoundrels to accuse him to his face of cursing God and the king. Then take him out of the city and stone him to death.”

₁₁The officials and leading citizens of Jezreel did what Jezebel had commanded. ₁₂They proclaimed a day of fasting, called the people together, and gave Naboth the place of honour. ₁₃The two scoundrels publicly accused him of cursing God and the king, and so he was taken outside the city and stoned to death. ₁₄The message was sent to Jezebel: “Naboth has been put to death.”

₁₅As soon as Jezebel received the message, she said to Ahab, “Naboth is dead. Now go and take possession of the vineyard which he refused to sell to you.” ₁₆At once Ahab went to the vineyard to take possession of it.

₁₇Then the LORD said to Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe, ₁₈“Go to King Ahab of Samaria. You will find him in Naboth's vineyard, about to take possession of it. ₁₉Tell him that I, the LORD, say to him, ‘After murdering the man, are you taking over his property as well?’ Tell him that this is what I say: ‘In the very place that the dogs licked up Naboth's blood they will lick up your blood!’ ”

₂₀When Ahab saw Elijah, he said, “Have you caught up with me, my enemy?”

“Yes, I have,” Elijah answered. “You have devoted yourself completely to doing what is wrong in the LORD's sight. ₂₁So the LORD says to you, ‘I will bring disaster on you. I will do away with you and get rid of every male in your family, young and old alike. ₂₂Your family will become like the family of King Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the family of King Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have stirred up my anger by leading Israel into sin.’ ₂₃And concerning Jezebel, the LORD says that dogs will eat her body in the city of Jezreel. ₂₄Any of your relatives who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and any who die in the open country will be eaten by vultures.”

₂₅(There was no one else who had devoted himself so completely to doing wrong in the LORD's sight as Ahab — all at the urging of his wife Jezebel. ₂₆He committed the most shameful sins by worshipping idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD had driven out of the land as the people of Israel advanced.)

₂₇When Elijah finished speaking, Ahab tore his clothes, took them off, and put on sackcloth. He refused food, slept in the sackcloth, and went about gloomy and depressed.

₂₈The LORD said to the prophet Elijah, ₂₉“Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has done this, I will not bring disaster on him during his lifetime; it will be during his son's lifetime that I will bring disaster on Ahab's family.”

₁There was peace between Israel and Syria for the next two years, ₂but in the third year King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to see King Ahab of Israel.

₃Ahab asked his officials, “Why is it that we have not done anything to get back Ramoth in Gilead from the king of Syria? It belongs to us!” ₄And Ahab asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to attack Ramoth?”

“I am ready when you are,” Jehoshaphat answered, “and so are my soldiers and my cavalry. ₅But first let's consult the LORD.”

₆So Ahab called in the prophets, about 400 of them, and asked them, “Should I go and attack Ramoth, or not?”

“Attack it,” they answered. “The Lord will give you victory.”

₇But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn't there another prophet through whom we can consult the LORD?”

₈Ahab answered, “There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him, because he never prophesies anything good for me; it's always something bad.”

“You shouldn't say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.

₉Then Ahab called in a court official and told him to go and fetch Micaiah at once.

₁₀The two kings, dressed in their royal robes, were sitting on their thrones at the threshing place just outside the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying in front of them. ₁₁One of them, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, made iron horns and said to Ahab, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you will fight the Syrians and totally defeat them.’ ” ₁₂All the other prophets said the same thing. “March against Ramoth and you will win,” they said. “The LORD will give you victory.”

₁₃Meanwhile, the official who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, “All the other prophets have prophesied success for the king, and you had better do the same.”

₁₄But Micaiah answered, “By the living LORD I promise that I will say what he tells me to!”

₁₅When he appeared before King Ahab, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should King Jehoshaphat and I go and attack Ramoth, or not?”

“Attack!” Micaiah answered. “Of course you'll win. The LORD will give you victory.”

₁₆But Ahab replied, “When you speak to me in the name of the LORD, tell the truth! How many times do I have to tell you that?”

₁₇Micaiah answered, “I can see the army of Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These men have no leader; let them go home in peace.’ ”

₁₈Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn't I tell you that he never prophesies anything good for me? It's always something bad!”

₁₉Micaiah went on: “Now listen to what the LORD says! I saw the LORD sitting on his throne in heaven, with all his angels standing beside him. ₂₀The LORD asked, ‘Who will deceive Ahab so that he will go and be killed at Ramoth?’ Some of the angels said one thing, and others said something else, ₂₁until a spirit stepped forward, approached the LORD, and said, ‘I will deceive him.’ ₂₂‘How?’ the LORD asked. The spirit replied, ‘I will go and make all Ahab's prophets tell lies.’ The LORD said, ‘Go and deceive him. You will succeed.’ ”

₂₃And Micaiah concluded: “This is what has happened. The LORD has made these prophets of yours lie to you. But he himself has decreed that you will meet with disaster!”

₂₄Then the prophet Zedekiah went up to Micaiah, slapped his face, and asked, “Since when did the LORD's spirit leave me and speak to you?”

₂₅“You will find out when you go into some back room to hide,” Micaiah replied.

₂₆Then King Ahab ordered one of his officers, “Arrest Micaiah and take him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Prince Joash. ₂₇Tell them to throw him in prison and to put him on bread and water until I return safely.”

₂₈“If you return safely,” Micaiah exclaimed, “then the LORD has not spoken through me!” And he added, “Listen, everyone, to what I have said!”

₂₉Then King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to attack the city of Ramoth in Gilead. ₃₀Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “As we go into battle, I will disguise myself, but you wear your royal garments.” So the king of Israel went into battle in disguise.

₃₁The king of Syria had ordered his 32 chariot commanders to attack no one else except the king of Israel. ₃₂So when they saw King Jehoshaphat, they all thought that he was the king of Israel, and they turned to attack him. But when he cried out, ₃₃they realized that he was not the king of Israel, and they stopped their attack. ₃₄By chance, however, a Syrian soldier shot an arrow which struck King Ahab between the joints of his armour. “I'm wounded!” he cried out to his chariot driver. “Turn round and pull out of the battle!”

₃₅While the battle raged on, King Ahab remained propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrians. The blood from his wound ran down and covered the bottom of the chariot, and at evening he died. ₃₆Near sunset the order went out through the Israelite ranks: “Every man go back to his own country and city!”

₃₇So died King Ahab. His body was taken to Samaria and buried. ₃₈His chariot was cleaned up at the pool of Samaria, where dogs licked up his blood and prostitutes washed themselves, as the LORD had said would happen.

₃₉Everything else that King Ahab did, including an account of his palace decorated with ivory and all the cities he built, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. ₄₀At his death his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.

₄₁In the fourth year of the reign of King Ahab of Israel, Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah ₄₂at the age of 35, and he ruled in Jerusalem for 25 years. His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. ₄₃Like his father Asa before him, he did what was right in the sight of the LORD; but the places of worship were not destroyed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. ₄₄Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

₄₅Everything else that Jehoshaphat did, all his bravery and his battles, are recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ₄₆He got rid of all the male and female prostitutes serving at the pagan altars who were still left from the days of his father Asa.

₄₇The land of Edom had no king; it was ruled by a deputy appointed by the king of Judah.

₄₈King Jehoshaphat built ocean-going ships to sail to the land of Ophir for gold; but they were wrecked at Eziongeber and never sailed. ₄₉Then King Ahaziah of Israel offered to let his men sail with Jehoshaphat's men, but Jehoshaphat refused the offer.

₅₀Jehoshaphat died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Jehoram succeeded him as king.

₅₁In the seventeenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for two years. ₅₂He sinned against the LORD, following the wicked example of his father Ahab, his mother Jezebel, and King Jeroboam, who had led Israel into sin. ₅₃He worshipped and served Baal, and like his father before him, he aroused the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel.

₁Listen to what your father teaches you, my children. Pay attention, and you will have understanding. ₂What I am teaching you is good, so remember it all. ₃When I was only a little boy, my parents' only son, ₄my father would teach me. He would say, “Remember what I say and never forget it. Do as I tell you, and you will live. ₅Get wisdom and insight! Do not forget or ignore what I say. ₆Do not abandon wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will keep you safe. ₇Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do. Whatever else you get, get insight. ₈Love wisdom, and she will make you great. Embrace her, and she will bring you honour. ₉She will be your crowning glory.”

₁₀Listen to me, my child. Take seriously what I am telling you, and you will live a long life. ₁₁I have taught you wisdom and the right way to live. ₁₂Nothing will stand in your way if you walk wisely, and you will not stumble when you run. ₁₃Always remember what you have learnt. Your education is your life — guard it well. ₁₄Do not go where evil people go. Do not follow the example of the wicked. ₁₅Don't do it! Keep away from evil! Refuse it and go on your way. ₁₆Wicked people cannot sleep unless they have done something wrong. They lie awake unless they have hurt someone. ₁₇Wickedness and violence are like food and drink to them.

₁₈The road the righteous travel is like the sunrise, getting brighter and brighter until daylight has come. ₁₉The road of the wicked, however, is dark as night. They fall, but cannot see what they have stumbled over.

₂₀Pay attention to what I say, my child. Listen to my words. ₂₁Never let them get away from you. Remember them and keep them in your heart. ₂₂They will give life and health to anyone who understands them. ₂₃Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts. ₂₄Never say anything that isn't true. Have nothing to do with lies and misleading words. ₂₅Look straight ahead with honest confidence; don't hang your head in shame. ₂₆Plan carefully what you do, and whatever you do will turn out right. ₂₇Avoid evil and walk straight ahead. Don't go one step off the right way.

₁Pay attention, my child, and listen to my wisdom and insight. ₂Then you will know how to behave properly, and your words will show that you have knowledge. ₃The lips of another man's wife may be as sweet as honey and her kisses as smooth as olive oil, ₄but when it is all over, she leaves you nothing but bitterness and pain. ₅She will take you down to the world of the dead; the road she walks is the road to death. ₆She does not stay on the road to life; but wanders off, and does not realize what is happening.

₇Now listen to me, my children, and never forget what I am saying. ₈Keep away from such a woman! Don't even go near her door! ₉If you do, others will gain the respect that you once had, and you will die young at the hands of merciless people. ₁₀Yes, strangers will take all your wealth, and what you have worked for will belong to someone else. ₁₁You will lie groaning on your deathbed, your flesh and muscles being eaten away, ₁₂and you will say, “Why would I never learn? Why would I never let anyone correct me? ₁₃I wouldn't listen to my teachers. I paid no attention to them. ₁₄And suddenly I found myself publicly disgraced.”

₁₅Be faithful to your own wife and give your love to her alone. ₁₆Children that you have by other women will do you no good. ₁₇Your children should grow up to help you, not strangers. ₁₈So be happy with your wife and find your joy with the woman you married — ₁₉pretty and graceful as a deer. Let her charms keep you happy; let her surround you with her love. ₂₀Why should you give your love to another woman, my son? Why should you prefer the charms of another man's wife? ₂₁The LORD sees everything you do. Wherever you go, he is watching. ₂₂The sins of the wicked are a trap. They get caught in the net of their own sin. ₂₃They die because they have no self-control. Their utter stupidity will send them to their graves.