1 Kings 20:25
And number thee an army, like the army that thou hast lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot: and we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. And he hearkened unto their voice, and did so.
This verse belongs to the history of the two separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel for about eighty years, from the revolt of the ten tribes to the death of Jehoshaphat, comprising the reigns of several kings both of Judah and of Israel. It belongs to the record of Ahab, seventh king of Israel and second ruler of the third Israelitish dynasty, contemporary of Jehoshaphat of Judah and Elijah the Tishbite, who reigned twenty-two years early in the ninth century before Christ.
His life as man and king is told at greater length than that of any other ancient monarch, for the learning and profit of men and kings of after generations. He enjoyed more than average opportunities, and from a civil viewpoint was successful, clever as a statesman, skilled as a general, and patriotic toward his people and country. Yet where he should have been strongest he was a moral coward, wickedly selling himself to the worship of a plurality of heathen deities and later enforcing their worship upon his monotheistic and semitheocratic people.
The verse records the Syrian plan after their first defeat to come again the following year against Israel with a much larger force, numbering an army like the army lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot, and fighting Israel in the plain where they expected to be stronger. After a prophet warned the king, God gave Israel a great victory over the Syrian army, that Ahab might know the victory came from Jehovah, as another effort by God to win the weak king. The battle ended with 100,000 Syrian footmen killed, after which Ben-hadad fled to Aphek and surrendered to Israel's king. Despite this lesson, Ahab went on to disobey.