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an assault on the city. But in whatever these preparations consisted, - whether in the
advance of siege engines, or amassing of the troops,^42 they could scarcely have been
very effective, since all the Syrian chiefs continued at their orgies, so that the hour of
battle surprised them while incapacitated by intoxication (ver. 16). Matters were very
different within Samaria. There a prophet appeared,^43 to announce not only
deliverance from the LORD, but to point its lesson in the contrast between the great
multitude of the enemy, and the small number of Israel's host, by which they were to
be defeated.
This, with the view of showing to Ahab and to Israel that He was Jehovah, the living
Covenant God, Who gave the victory. Thus the teaching of Elijah on Mount Carmel
was now to find its confirmation and application in national blessing. And that the
influence of that scene had not been, as Elijah had feared, only temporary and
transient, appears even from the presence of a prophet in Samaria,^44 and from the
whole bearing of Ahab.
He is neither doubtful nor boastful, but, as having learned the prophetic lesson,
anxious to receive plain Divine direction, and to follow it implicitly. Apparently the
land was parceled out among "princes of the shires," either hereditary chieftains of
districts, or governors appointed by the king: an arrangement which throws further
light on Ben-Hades' previously expressed purpose permanently to break the power of
these leaders of Israel. These "princes of the shires" seem to have been each
surrounded by a small armed retinue: "the young men" (comp. 2 Samuel 18:15). By
these, numbering in all only 232 men, the victory over the great Syrian host was to be
achieved. It only remained for Ahab to inquire, "Who shall commence the
warfare?"^45 For in such a victory the main condition would be exact conformity to all
Divine directions, in order to show that all was of God, and to give evidence of the
principle of faith on the part of the combatants.
Having received the direction that he was to begin the battle, Ahab lost no time. At
midday - probably of the following day - when, as no doubt was well-known in
Samaria, Ben-hadad and his thirty-two confederates were "drinking" themselves
"drunk" in the booths, the 232 of the body-guard of the princes marched forth,
followed by the 7000 men which formed the army of Israel. Although this number
naturally reminds us of the 7000 who had not bent the knee to Baal, there is no need
to regard it as referring to them, or (with the Rabbis) to "the true children of Israel."
The precise number (232) of the body-guard points to an exact numeration, nor need
we perhaps wonder if in the wonder-working Providence of God there was a striking
coincidence between the number of the faithful and that of Israel's victorious host.^46
The same wonder-working Providence appears in the manner in which victory was
granted. As so often, we mark the accomplishment of a result, miraculous when
(^)