1 Kings 20:31

Ben-Hadad's servants suggest appealing to Israel's reputedly merciful kings, wearing sackcloth and ropes to beg for his life. They gamble on Ahab's clemency.

Cross-references · 19

• Gen 37:34Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
• 2 Sam 3:31David said to Joab, and to all the people who were with him, “Tear your clothes, and clothe yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn in front of Abner.” King David followed the bier.
• 1 Kgs 20:23The servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their god is a god of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they.
• 1 Kgs 21:27–29When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
• 2 Sam 14:2Joab sent to Tekoa, and brought a wise woman from there, and said to her, “Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, please, and don’t anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead.
• Esth 4:1–3Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, and wailed loudly and a bitterly.
• Esth 4:16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
• Prov 20:28Love and faithfulness keep the king safe. His throne is sustained by love.
• Isa 37:1When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house.
• Isa 16:5A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.
• Isa 22:12In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:
• Job 2:4Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
• Jonah 3:5–6The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.
• Eph 1:7–8in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
• Matt 10:28Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
• 2 Kgs 7:4If we say, ‘We will enter into the city,’ then the famine is in the city, and we will die there. If we sit still here, we also die. Now therefore come, and let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only die.”
• Rev 11:3I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”
• 2 Kgs 5:13His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean?’”
• 2 Kgs 19:1–2When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house.

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