BENHADAD'S DEFEAT. 


AFTER Elijah had left Mount Horeb, and gone back to Canaan, he found Elisha plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. As Elijah passed by him, he cast his mantle upon him, and Elisha, making haste, followed Elijah, and became his servant.

"And Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, gathered all his host together; and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots; and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. ... And, behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab, king of Israel, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord."

Ahab, following the Lord's directions, sent out two hundred and thirty-two young men, and all the mighty host of the Syrians fled before them. Then all the men of Israel pursued, and made a great slaughter among their enemies.

"And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him, Their gods are gods of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they." "And it came to pass at the return of the year, that Ben-hadad numbered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel. 

. . . And the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country.

"And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the Lord, Because the Syrians have said, the Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

"And they pitched one over against the other seven days. And so it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and there a wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left. 

And Ben-hadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner chamber.'

Now the Lord did not work these great miracles because Ahab was a good man, but that both he and the Syrians might know who is the true God.

Afterward Ben-hadad came to Ahab, and humbled himself before him, calling himself Ahab'a servant, and promising to restore all the cities, which the Syrians had taken from the Israelites. 

Then Ahab made a covenant with him, and let him go in peace. This displeased the Lord very much; for he had meant that this wicked king should be destroyed. So the Lord said to Ahab, "Thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people."