Some Notes on 1 Kings 20

Some Notes on 1 Kings 20 March 2, 2005

1) Ben-Hadad comes to Ahab with a ?thus saith Ben-Hadad,?Eand Ahab responds more readily to his claim than he has to the claims of any ?thus saith Yahweh.?EAfter consulting with the elders, however, he is told not to ?hear?E(Heb. shema ) the demands of Ben-Hadad. This gives us some slight hope that Ahab will hear the word of Yahweh, and that he will join in Israel?s confession that Israel?s Lord is one Lord.

2) Ben-Hadad threatens Ahab by saying that ?the dust of Samaria will not suffice for handfuls for all the people who are among my foot soldiers?E(v. 10). The image is that there won?t be enough of Samaria left for each soldier to receive a couple handfuls of dust as plunder. This is a startling threat, since presumably Ben-Hadad first approached Samaria precisely for its silver, gold, women, and boys. But since Ahab has rejected the ?Thus saith Ben-Hadad?Ethe Aramean king is going to wage a war of utter destruction. Ben-Hadad is going to carry out herem warfare, and that implies that Ahab should be responding in the same fashion, eye-for-eye, tooth-for-tooth.

3) The ?going out?Eat the time of Exodus is often described with the Hebrew verb yatza?E/i> . That word appears six times in verses 16-19, describing the charge of the ?lads of the chiefs of the provinces?Ewho lead Israel into battle. In the context, the exodus allusion is important, since this great act of deliverance, like the Exodus, is designed to show a faithless king (or kings) that Yahweh is God. The seventh usage is in verse 21, when Ahab himself goes out to finish what the young men had begun. The fact that Ben-Hadad comes with horses and chariots is also reminiscent of the Exodus; the chariots of Ben-Hadad are destroyed as the chariots of Pharaoh were at the ?going out?Eof Israel.

4) There is a Loony Tunes quality about the advice from Ben-Hadad?s servants (vv. 24-25). They have just suffered a devastating defeat, and the servants advise Ben-Hadad to assemble a replica of his previous army to attack again.

5) Ben-Hadad follows the instructions of the servants (v. 26), but is also unwittingly fulfilling the prophecy of the prophet. The phrase ?at the return of the year?E(v. 26) reaches back not to the counsel of his own servants but to the word of the prophet who approached Ahab following the battle of Samaria (v. 22).

6) Israel has provisions as they go out to battle the Arameans at Aphek (v. 27). The word for provision is the same verb, in the same aspect, as the one used for the provision of food to Elijah in the wilderness (17:4) and at the house of the widow of Zarephath (17:9). Also, Obadiah ?provisioned?Ethe 100 prophets in caves (18:4). Throughout the Elijah narratives, the faithful remnant has received miraculous provisions from Yahweh. Now, however, the whole army of Ahab receives provision before they enter battle. There is no mention of miraculous provision, but against the background of the uses in chapters 17-18, it?s likely that the writer of Kings intends to say that Yahweh provides for Israel now as he had for the remnant earlier.

7) The battle of Aphek resembles the battle of Jericho in several particulars. The battle is joined after a week-long lull, giving both battles a ?sabbatical?Estructure. In both cases, walls tumble and kill many. Further, there is an Achan in both battles who seizes plunder that should be devoted to Yahweh. By preserving the life of Ben-Hadad, Ahab proves himself a genuine ?troubler of Israel.?E

8) 1 Kings 20 has a parallel structure as well as the chiastic structure suggested in the sermon notes for this week:

Aramean attack, vv 1-12 Aramean attack, vv. 26-27
Prophet visits Ahab, vv 13-14 Man of God visits Ahab, v. 28
Ahab wins battle, vv. 15-21 Ahab wins battle, vv 29-30
Prophet advises Ahab, v. 22 ??
Ben-Hadad?s servants advise him, vv 23-25 Ben-Hadad?s servants advise him, vv 31
Ben-Hadad takes advice, v. 25b Ben-Hadad takes advice, vv 32-34
Prophet confronts Ahab, vv 35-43

As in the chiastic outline, the final word from the prophet interrupts the structure, breaks the frame, and draws attention to itself in this way.

9) In verse 38, the word normally translated as ?bandage?Eis a hapax legomenon (?apher). A related term, though with different vocalization, is the word for dust ( ?epher ). (The word for ?dust?Ein verse 10 closely resembles the word here, but begins with an ayin rather than an aleph.) It seems plausible to take the word as ?dust?Ehere. The prophet is thus presenting himself as a wounded soldier, but also one who is in mourning, with dust over his eyes.

10) The prophet who elicits a self-condemnation from Ahab is like Nathan in 1 Samuel 12. But he is an even more clever operator than Nathan. He sets things up so that Ahab believes that he is eliciting a self-condemnation from the prophet, all the while the tables are really turned and Ahab is the one on trial.


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