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hesitation how to decide. He told him that in recounting his story he had already
pronounced sentence upon himself. Then the prophet, having removed the bandage
from his eyes, so that the king recognized him, announced the application of the
Divine parable. The war had been Jehovah's, not Ahab's, and Ben-hadad had been the
"banned" of the Lord. "Because thou hast let go forth out of thine hand (custody) the
man of my ban (compare Leviticus 27:29), therefore thy life shall be for his life, and
thy people for his people."
The judgment pronounced was not only righteous, but alike the necessary sequence
of God's dealings throughout this history, and of Ahab's bearing in it. And in the
judgment the people as a whole must also share. For even if theirs had not been the
same spirit as that which had prompted the conduct of Ahab, yet the public acts of
rulers are those of the nation, and national sins are followed by national judgments.
Ahab had been on his triumphant return to Samaria, there to receive the popular
applause for his achievements, when, in presence of all his retinue, he was thus
publicly confronted by the prophet's message. He now "went to his house much
excited and angry."^58 And this also casts further light both on what Ahab had done,
and on what he was about to do.
(^)