#309 | Melakhim Aleph ch.20 - Understanding Ahab

The chapter focuses on the court of Ahav.

And the two wars between Ahav and Ben-Hadad, the leader of Syria, of what we call in the Tanakh Aram, capital Damascus.

So things haven't changed a lot.

Still Aram, Syria, and the king is called Ben-Hadad.

And there are really two levels of the campaign.

The first time, Ben Hadad comes with a coalition of 32 kings to lay siege on the capital, on Shomron, on Samaria.

And God saves Achav by a miracle, saying, I'll save you.

So you should know that there is a God.

And indeed.

In almost a remarkable way, Ahab has a victory.

In the second story, the Arameans come back for more the next year and say, well, they were only able to beat us because their god is the god of the hills.

But if we fight them on the plain, then we should win.

Our gods will prevail over theirs.

And indeed, God turns around to the king, to Ahav, via a prophet and says, no, no, this time I'm also going to give you victory.

And once again, the king is victorious.

However, there's one thing that Ahav doesn't do.

Ahav lets the king live.

The king appeals, Ben Hadad appeals to Ahav to save his life.

And Ahav, instead of killing him, Ahav says, he's my brother.

And he makes a deal with him.

He makes an economic deal with him.

He makes a territorial deal with him.

And he lets Ben Adad live.

And for this, God condemns Achav roundly.

He sends a prophet and gets terribly upset with Achav and says, Since you set free the man that I had determined should die or the man who I had trapped, your life will be instead of his life and your people instead of his and the prophets seriously condemns ahav so two wars in both ahav defeats ben hadad defeats the arameans however the one flaw of ahav reminds us a little bit of maybe Shaul, is that he lets the king live and doesn't end the war decisively.