¹Ben-hadad, king of Aram gathered all his army, and thirty-two kings were with him, with horses and chariotry; and he went up and laid siege to Samaria and fought against it.

²And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, into the city, and said to him, "Thus says Ben-hadad:

³Your silver and your gold are mine, and your wives and your children, the good ones are mine."

⁴And the king of Israel answered and said, "According to your word, my lord the king, I am yours, and all that is mine."

⁵And the messengers came back and said, "Thus says Ben-hadad, saying: 'Indeed I sent to you, saying, Your silver and your gold and your wives and your children you shall give to me.

⁶But about this time tomorrow I will send my servants to you, and they will ransack your house and the houses of your servants; and it will be that everything desirable in your eyes they will put in their hand and take it away.'"

⁷Then the king of Israel summoned all the elders of the land and said, "Know, please, and see that this man is seeking evil; for he sent to me for my wives and my children and my silver and my gold, and I did not withhold them from him."

⁸And all the elders and all the people said to him, "Do not heed, and do not consent."

⁹He said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, "Say to my lord the king: 'All that you sent to your slave for at first I will do, but this word I am not able to do.'" The messengers went and brought him back word.

¹⁰Ben-hadad sent to him and said, "May God do so to me, and add more besides, if the dust of Samaria is enough for handfuls for all the people who are at my feet."

¹¹The king of Israel answered and said, "Speak: let not the one who girds on boast like the one who loosens."

¹²It happened, when he heard this word, that he and the kings were drinking in the shelters, and he said to his slaves, "Station yourselves." And they stationed themselves against the city.

¹³And behold, one prophet drew near to Ahab king of Israel and said, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Do you see all this great crowd? Look, I am about to give it into your hand today, and you will know that I am Yahweh.'"

¹⁴Ahab said, "By whom?" He said, "Thus says Yahweh: 'By the young men of the officials of the provinces.'" He said, "Who will begin the battle?" He said, "You."

¹⁵He mustered the young men of the officials of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two; and after them he mustered all the people, all the children of Israel, seven thousand.

¹⁶They went out at noon, while Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the shelters, he and the kings, thirty-two kings helping him.

¹⁷The young men of the officials of the provinces went out first. Ben-hadad sent, and they told him, saying, "Men have come out from Samaria."

¹⁸He said, "If they have come out for wholeness, seize them alive; and if they have come out for battle, seize them alive."

¹⁹And these went out from the city: the young men of the officials of the provinces, and the army that was behind them.

²⁰Each struck down his man, and Aram fled, and Israel pursued them; but Ben-hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with horsemen.

²¹The king of Israel went out and struck down the horses and the chariotry, and struck Aram with a great blow.

²²The prophet drew near to the king of Israel and said to him, "Go, strengthen yourself, and know and see what you will do, for at the return of the year, the king of Aram is coming up against you."

²³The slaves of the king of Aram said to him, "Their God is a God of mountains; therefore they were stronger than us. But let us fight with them on the plateau; surely we will be stronger than they.

²⁴And do this word: remove the kings, each from his place, and appoint governors in their place.

²⁵And you, appoint for yourself an army like the army that fell from you, horse like horse and chariotry like chariotry, and let us fight them on the plateau; surely we will be stronger than they." He heeded their voice and did so.

²⁶It happened at the return of the year that Ben-hadad mustered Aram and went up to Aphek for battle with Israel.

²⁷The children of Israel were mustered and were supplied, and went to meet them. The children of Israel camped opposite them like two little flocks of she-goats, while Aram filled the land.

²⁸The man of God drew near and said to the king of Israel, then said, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because Aram has said, Yahweh is a God of mountains, and he is not a God of valleys, I will give all this great crowd into your hand, and you will know that I am Yahweh.'"

²⁹They camped, these opposite those, seven days. On the seventh day the battle drew near, and the children of Israel struck down a hundred thousand foot soldiers of Aram in one day.

³⁰The ones who remained fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men, the ones who remained. Ben-hadad fled and came into the city, a chamber within a chamber.

³¹His slaves said to him, "Look, please, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel, indeed they are kings of loyal love. Let us please put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will let your being live."

³²They girded sackcloth on their loins and ropes on their heads, and went to the king of Israel and said, "Your slave Ben-hadad says, 'Please let my being live.'" He said, "Is he still alive? He is my brother."

³³The men were observing signs, and hurried, and snatched at it from him, and said, "Your brother Ben-hadad!" He said, "Go, fetch him." Ben-hadad came out to him, and he brought him up onto the chariot.

³⁴He said to him, "The cities that my father took from your father I will return; and you shall set streets for yourself in Damascus, just as my father set them in Samaria. And I, with the covenant, will send you away." So he cut a covenant with him and sent him away.

³⁵One man of the sons of the prophets said to his companion by the word of Yahweh, "Strike me, please." But the man refused to strike him.

³⁶He said to him, "Because you did not heed the voice of Yahweh, look, you are going from me, and the lion will strike you down." He went from beside him, and the lion found him and struck him down.

³⁷He found another man and said, "Strike me, please." The man struck him, striking and wounding.

³⁸The prophet went and stood for the king beside the way, and disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes.

³⁹And it happened, as the king passed by, that he cried out to the king and said, “Your slave went out into the midst of the battle, and behold, a man turned aside and brought a man to me, and said, ‘Guard this man; if he goes missing, then your being will be in place of his being, or you will weigh out a talent of silver.’”

⁴⁰And it happened, while your slave was doing things here and there, that he was gone.” Then the king of Israel said to him, “So is your justice; you yourself have decided.”

⁴¹And he hurried and removed the bandage from over his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him, that he was one of the prophets.

⁴²And he said to him, “Thus Yahweh has said: Because you released the man under my ban from your hand, your being will be in place of his being, and your people in place of his people.”

⁴³The king of Israel went to his house, sullen and furious, and came to Samaria.