1 Kings 20:33

_NOW THE MEN DID DILIGENTLY OBSERVE WHETHER ANY THING WOULD COME FROM HIM, AND DID HASTILY CATCH IT: AND THEY SAID, THY BROTHER BEN-HA'DAD. THEN HE SAID, GO YE, BRING HIM. THEN BEN-HA'DAD CAME FORTH TO HIM; AND HE CAUSED HIM TO COME UP INTO THE CHARIOT._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

31-43 This encouragement sinners have to repent and humble themselves before God; Have we not heard, that the God of Israel is a merciful God? Have we not found him so? That is gospel repentance, which flows from an apprehension of the mercy of God, in Christ; there is forgiveness with him. What a change is here! The most haughty in prosperity often are most abject in adversity; an evil spirit will thus affect a man in both these conditions. There are those on whom, like Ahab, success is ill bestowed; they know not how to serve either God or their generation, or even their own true interests with their prosperity: Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness. The prophet designed to reprove Ahab by a parable. If a good prophet were punished for sparing his friend and God's when God said, Smite, of much sorer punishment should a wicked king be thought worthy, w...

Verse 33. _DID HASTILY CATCH_ IT] They were watching to see if any kind word should be spoken by him, from which they might draw a favourable omen; and when they heard him use the word _brother_, it gave them much encouragement....

The meaning of this verse is that the men from the first moment of their arrival were on the watch to note what Ahab would say; and the moment he let fall the expression “He is my brother,” they caught it up and repeated it, fixing him to it, as it were, and preventing his retreat. By the Oriental law of “dakheel” anyone is at any time entitled to put himself under the protection of another, be that other his friend or his greatest enemy; and if the man applied to does not at once reject him, if the slightest forms of friendly speech pass between the two, the bond is complete, and must not be broken. Ben-hadad’s friends were on the watch to obtain for him “dakheel;” and the single phrase “He is my brother,” having been accepted by them on his part, was sufficient to complete the bond, and secure the life of the captive. Ahab having called Ben-hadad his brother, treated him as he would a...

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; and which is resumed with 1 Kings 21:1.—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

NOW THE MEN DID DILIGENTLY OBSERVE WHETHER ANYTHING WOULD COME FROM HIM,.... That would be a good omen to them, and encourage them to hope for success; they observed him as diligently by his words and behaviour as soothsayers do when they look out for a lucky sign; for the word is sometimes used of divining s: AND DID HASTILY CATCH IT; as soon as it was out of his mouth, and laid hold on it to improve it to advantage, being wiser than him: AND THEY SAID, THY BROTHER BENHADAD; him whom thou callest thy brother; he is thy brother, and is alive; this they caught, and expressed it, to observe whether it was a slip of his tongue, and whether he spoke it heartily, and would abide by it, or whether he would retract it: THEN HE SAID, GO YE, BRING HIM; meaning from the city to the place where he was: THEN BENHADAD CAME FORTH TO HIM; out of his chamber, upon the report of his servants: and h

4. KING AHAB: HIS WICKED REIGN AND END CHAPTER 20 Ahab's War with the Syrians and His Victory _ 1. The siege and relief of Samaria (1 Kings 20:1)_ 2. The victory at Aphek (1 Kings 20:22) 3. A prophet's symbolical action and his message (1 Kings 20:35) Two expeditions of Ben-hadad (son of the Sun) against Israel are recorded in this chapter. When Ben-hadad forced the war and insulted the King of Israel, Ahab prepared for the battle. Then a prophet came to Ahab, most likely one of those who had been hidden by Obadiah. He brought a message from the Lord. “Thus saith Jehovah, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou sha

AHAB'S VICTORY OVER BEN-HADAD. Chs. 20 and 22 come from another source. Elijah does not appear, the religious interest is less prominent, and Ahab is presented in a far less hostile light. He acts as a brave and chivalrous king, bold in the battle and merciful in victory. In the Book of Kings the kings of Israel are seldom represented in a hostile spirit when confronted by the common enemy, Syria (_cf._ 2 Kings 7). Syria, we learn, had become a formidable power. Ben-hadad's father had taken some of Omri's cities, and had compelled him to allow his merchants to have streets, _i.e._ bazaars, in Samaria (1 Kings 20:34). The power of Syria was such that the king could treat the Israelite sovereign as his despised vassal. When the Syrian army filled the valley, the Israelite forces appeared like two small flocks of goats ...

DID DILIGENTLY OBSERVE. Hebrew divined and hasted. Figure of speech _Hendiadys_ (App-6). quickly divined. ANY THING WOULD COME. These italics are wrongly supplied, not knowing the two readings of E. and W. recensions, caused by. different division of words. The E. recension reads "and they pressed [to find out] whether it was from him and said". The W. recension reads" and they pressed it out from him, and they said": i.e. they wanted to know whether he confirmed the word of his own accord....

_the men did diligently observe whether_any thing would come _from him, and did hastily catch_it] R.V. THE MEN OBSERVED DILIGENTLY AND HASTED TO CATCH WHETHER IT WERE HIS MIND. There are several difficulties in this verse. The italics of A.V. being omitted, we have an expression meaning -whether from him". This the R.V. takes as -whether it were his mind", his true intention, to regard Ben-hadad in this friendly way. The first verb is used several times of divination by augury (cf. 2 Kings 17:17; 2 Kings 21:6). Hence the sense of -diligent observation" (see Genesis 44:5, marg. A.V.). Some have taken the word as implying a favourable omen, and so rendered -they took it as a good sign". But this further meaning is n