1 Kings 20:1

EXPOSITION

THE INVASIONS OF ISRAEL BY THE SYRIANS AND THEIR RESULTS .—The insertion of this chapter, which contains an account of two invasions of Israel by the hosts of Syria, and of the utter defeat of the latter, and which therefore constitutes a break in the history of Elijah, which has occupied the historian up to the end of 1 Kings 19:1-21 ; and which is resumed with 1 Kings 21:1-29 .—the insertion of this twentieth chapter in this place is apparently due to the compiler of these records, who seems to have adopted this arrangement as the more chronological. It is not absolutely certain, however, that we owe this disposition of his materials to the original compiler, as the Vatican LXX ; which sometimes appears to represent an older and purer text, places 1 Kings 20:1-43 . after 1 Kings 21:1-29 ; thereby concluding the history of Elijah—so far as it was comprehended in the reign of Ahab—before entering on the subject of the Syrian wars. It is not improbable, consequently, that this latter was the original order; and it is quite certain that the account of Elijah's ministry, of which 1 Kings 21:1-29 . forms a part, is of a piece with 1 Kings 19:1-21 ; and by the same hand, and is by a different hand from the author, or authors, of chaps, 20. and 22. 1 Kings 22:1 also supplies a reason why that chapter should follow 1 Kings 20:1-43 . There seems, moreover to be a close connexion between 1 Kings 22:1-53 . and the denunciation of 1 Kings 20:42 . But the present arrangement evidently dates from very early times.

And Ben-hadad [See on 1 Kings 11:14 and 1 Kings 15:18 . The LXX . uniformly spells the name Ader ( υἱὸσἄδερ ). The form אֲדַד is found in 1 Kings 11:17 , and ד and ר are frequently interchanged; cf. Genesis 25:15 , Genesis 36:39 with 1 Chronicles 1:30 , 1 Chronicles 1:46 . We learn from 1 Chronicles 1:34 that this prince was the son of a Syrian king who had conquered some of the cities of Israel, but we cannot nevertheless be certain that he was the son of that Ben-hadad ( 1 Kings 15:18 ) who invaded Israel in the reign of Baasha (Ewald), See on 1 Chronicles 1:34 .] the king of Syria gathered all his host [See note on 1 Kings 10:2 , where we have same word] together: and there were thirty and two kings with him [Evidently these were vassals, not allied powers. The number alone proves that they must have been petty princes or chieftains of Hittite tribes, ruling over very limited districts' and all acknowledging the suzerainty of the king of Damascus, all paying tribute ( 1 Kings 10:25 ) and furnishing a contingent in time of war "The Assyrian inscriptions show that this country was, about the period in question, parcelled out into a number of petty kingdoms," etc.], and horses, and chariots [Heb. horse and chariot ; cf. verse 21 and 1 Kings 1:5 ; 1 Kings 10:26 ; 1 Kings 16:9 , etc. Both are collective nouns. We see here the fruit and retribution of Solomon's irreligious policy. "A king who has been probably identified with this Ben-hadad brought into the field against Assyria nearly 4000 chariots" (Rawlinson)]: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it . [The object of this expedition was clearly to humble and to plunder the kingdom of Samaria. It would almost appear, from the animus of the Syrian king and the studied offensiveness of his messages, as if Ahab or Israel must have given him dire offence. But Ben-hadad was clearly a vain and overbearing and tyrannical prince, and the only crime of Israel may have been that it was independent of him, or had refused to do him homage.]