24. Do this: remove all the kings from their commands and replace them with other officers.
25. You must also raise an army like the one you lost – horse for horse and chariot for chariot – so we can fight Israel on the plains. Then surely we will be stronger than they.’ He agreed with them and acted accordingly.
26. The next spring Ben-Hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.
27. When the Israelites were also mustered and given provisions, they marched out to meet them. The Israelites camped opposite them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside.
28. The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Because the Arameans think the Lord is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the Lord.” ’
29. For seven days they camped opposite each other, and on the seventh day the battle was joined. The Israelites inflicted a hundred thousand casualties on the Aramean foot soldiers in one day.
30. The rest of them escaped to the city of Aphek, where the wall collapsed on twenty-seven thousand of them. And Ben-Hadad fled to the city and hid in an inner room.
31. His officials said to him, ‘Look, we have heard that the kings of Israel are merciful. Let us go to the king of Israel with sackcloth round our waists and ropes round our heads. Perhaps he will spare your life.’
32. Wearing sackcloth round their waists and ropes round their heads, they went to the king of Israel and said, ‘Your servant Ben-Hadad says: “Please let me live.” ’The king answered, ‘Is he still alive? He is my brother.’
33. The men took this as a good sign and were quick to pick up his word. ‘Yes, your brother Ben-Hadad!’ they said.‘Go and get him,’ the king said. When Ben-Hadad came out, Ahab brought him up into his chariot.
34. ‘I will return the cities my father took from your father,’ Ben-Hadad offered. ‘You may set up your own market areas in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.’Ahab said, ‘On the basis of a treaty I will set you free.’ So he made a treaty with him, and let him go.
35. By the word of the Lord one of the company of the prophets said to his companion, ‘Strike me with your weapon,’ but he refused.
36. So the prophet said, ‘Because you have not obeyed the Lord, as soon as you leave me a lion will kill you.’ And after the man went away, a lion found him and killed him.
37. The prophet found another man and said, ‘Strike me, please.’ So the man struck him and wounded him.
38. Then the prophet went and stood by the road waiting for the king. He disguised himself with his headband down over his eyes.