direction, and to follow it implicitly. Apparently the land was parceled out among "princes of the shires," either

hereditary chieftains of districts, or governors appointed by the king: an arrangement which throws further light on

Ben-Hades' previously expressed purpose permanently to break the power of these leaders of Israel. These "princes of

the shires" seem to have been each surrounded by a small a rmed retinue: "the young men" (comp. 2 Samuel 18:15). By

these, numbering in all only 232 men, the victory over the great Syrian host was to be achieved. It only remained for

Ahab to inquire, "Who shall commence the warfare?"45 For in such a victory the main condition would be exact

conformity to all Divine directions, in order to show that all was of God, and to give evidence of the principle of faith

on the part of the combatants.

Having received the direction that he was to begin the battle, Ahab lost n o time. At midday - probably of the following

day - when, as no doubt was well-known in Samaria, Ben-hadad and his thirty-two confederates were "drinking"

themselves "drunk" in the booths, the 232 of the body-guard of the princes marched forth, followed by the 7000 men

which formed the army of Israel. Although this number naturally reminds us of the 7000 who had not bent the knee to

Baal, there is no need to regard it as referring to them, or (with the Rabbis) to "the true children of Israel." The precise

number (232) of the body-guard points to an exact numeration, nor need we perhaps wonder if in the wonder-working

Providence of God there was a striking coincidence between the number of the faithful and that of Israel's victorious

The same wonder-working Providence appears in the manner in which victory was granted. As so often, we mark the

accomplishment of a result, miraculous when viewed by itself, yet, as regards the means, brought about in the order of

natural causation. And thus we ever learn anew that, although too frequently we do not perceive it, we are constantly

surrounded by miracles, since Jehovah is the living God; and that hence ours should be the faith of a constant

expectancy. It reads as we might have expected in the circumstances, that, when Ben-hadad was informed that men had

come out from Samaria, he commanded in his drunken conceit and boastfulness, they should not be attacked, but made

captives and brought to him. It may have been that those who were sent to execute this command went not fully armed.

At any rate they seem to have been quite unprepared for resistance; and when these 232 Israelitish soldiers cut down

each a man, no doubt following it up by further onslaught, the Syrians might naturally imagine that this was only an

advanced guard, which was intended to precede a sortie of the whole garrison of Samaria. A panic, not uncommon

among Orientals, seized the unprepared and unmarshalled masses, whose officers the while lay drunken in the booths.

The very number of the Syria ns would make a formation or rally more difficult, while it would afterwards increase the

confusion of what soon became an indiscriminate flight. At this moment King Ahab issued from Samaria with his

whole army. Whether, as our present Hebrew text bears, t he king struck at the war-horses and war-chariots of the

enemy, with the view of capturing them, or, as the ancient Greek translators (the LXX.) seem to have read, he "took"

them, - implying that there had not been time to harness the war-chariots when the Israelitish host was among them -

the result would be the same. Ben-hadad, followed by a few horsemen, escaped by hasty flight, as the word used in the

original conveys, on a "chariot-horse," showing how sore was the stress when the king was obliged hastily to escape on

the first horse to hand.

If it were necessary to demonstrate the compatibility of direct Divine help, and of reliance upon it, with the most

diligent use of the best means, the narrative which follows would show it. After this great victory the king and people

might have indulged in outward, or still worse, in professedly religious security, to the neglect of what was plain duty.

But the same prophet who before had announced Divine deliverance, now warned Ahab to gather all his forces, and

prepare, for that - "at the turn of the year," that is, in the spring (comp. 2 Samuel 11:1), he might expect another attack

from Syria. And to make best preparation for the coming danger, in obedience to the Divine word, would not supersede

but presuppose faith, even as we shall work best when we feel that we have the Divine direction in, and the Divine

blessing on, our undertakings.

It was as the prophet had told. It seems quite natural that the courtiers of Ben-hadad should have ascribed the almost

incredible defeat of such an army to supernatural causes, rather than to the dissipation and folly of their king. They

suggested that the gods of Israel were mountain -deities, and that the rout of Syria around mountainous Samaria had

been due to this cause. But the result would be far different if the battle were waged in the plains, man against man, and

not gods against men, ("but, on the other hand, we shall fight with them in the plain [see,] if we shall not be stronger

than they!") The grounds of this stra nge suggestion must be sought partly in the notions of the heathen world, but also

partly in the sin of Israel. The ancient heathen world worshipped not only gods on the heights, but gods of the heights,47