25. Then muster an army like the army that you lost—horse for horse and chariot for chariot—and let’s fight against them in the plain, and surely we’ll be stronger than them!” He listened to their advice and acted accordingly.
26. It came about at the turn of the year that Ben-Hadad mustered the Arameans and marched up to Aphek, to fight against Israel.
27. Now the children of Israel were mustered, given provisions, and marched against them. But when the children of Israel encamped before them, they looked like two little flocks of goats while the Arameans covered the land.
28. Then a man of God approached the king of Israel and spoke to him saying, “Thus says Adonai: Because the Arameans have said, ‘Adonai is a God of the mountains, but He is not a God of the valleys,’ therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am Adonai.”
29. So they encamped one over against the other seven days. On the seventh day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel struck down 100,000 of the Aramean foot soldiers in a single day.
30. The rest fled to Aphek into the city and the wall fell upon 27,000 men that were left. But Ben-Hadad fled into the city, into an inner chamber.
31. His officials said to him, “Look now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let’s put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and surrender to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life.”
32. So they girded sackcloth on their loins, put ropes on their heads, came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says: ‘Please let me live.’” He replied, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
33. The men took it as a good sign and were quick to catch on, so they said, “Yes, Ben-Hadad is your brother.” “Go, bring him,” he said. So Ben-Hadad came out to him and he took him up into his chariot.
34. Then he said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will give back, and you may set up markets for yourself in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.” “Then I will let you go with this covenant.” So he made a covenant with him and let him go.
35. Now a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow by the word of Adonai, “Strike me please!” But the man refused to strike him.
36. Then he said to him, “Because you did not obey the voice of Adonai, behold, as soon as you leave me, a lion shall kill you.” As soon as he left him, a lion found him and killed him.