So they put sackcloth on their bodies and ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, “Your servant Ben Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’” He said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
Parallel translations
- KJV So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, Thy servant Benhadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he said, Is he yet alive? he is my brother.
- BSB So with sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their heads, they went to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please spare my life.’” And the king answered, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
- NKJV So they wore sackcloth around their waists and put ropes around their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’ ” And he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
- NASB So they put sackcloth around their waists and ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’ ” And Ahab said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
- NLT So they put on burlap and ropes, and they went to the king of Israel and begged, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please let me live!’” The king of Israel responded, “Is he still alive? He is my brother!”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The servants come humbled to Ahab pleading for Ben-Hadad's life, and Ahab calls him his brother. Ahab's misplaced leniency begins here.
Overview
Wearing sackcloth and ropes, the Syrian envoys beg Ahab to spare their king, and Ahab surprisingly embraces Ben-Hadad as a brother. By treating a divinely condemned enemy as an ally, Ahab elevates political advantage over obedience to the Lord. His response reveals a heart more concerned with worldly diplomacy than with God's expressed purpose, a failure the prophet will soon condemn.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 1 Kgs 20:3–6‘Your silver and your gold is mine. Your wives also and your children, even the best, are mine.’”
- Isa 10:12Therefore it will happen that, when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his haughty looks.
- Obad 1:3–4The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’
- Isa 2:11–12The lofty looks of man will be brought low, the haughtiness of men will be bowed down, and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.
- Dan 5:20–23But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:
- 1 Kgs 20:31His servants said to him, “See now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us put sackcloth on our bodies, and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Maybe he will save your life.”
- 1 Sam 15:8–20He took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
- Job 12:17–18He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.
- Job 40:11–12Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.
- 1 Kgs 20:42He said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life will take the place of his life, and your people take the place of his people.’”
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