1 Kings 20:5
And the messengers came again, and said, Thus speaketh Ben-hadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children; And the messengers came again, and said, Thus speaketh Ben-hadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children;
The verse stands in the history of the separate kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the period covered in 1 Kings 12-22. It stands in the history of Ahab as a man and as a king, preserved for the learning and profit of later men and kings. Ahab was the seventh king of Israel and the second ruler of the third Israelite dynasty, and he reigned twenty-two years early in the ninth century before Christ, contemporary with Jehoshaphat of Judah and Elijah the Tishbite.
More is written about Ahab than about any other ancient monarch, showing divine care toward one who as man and ruler had more than average opportunities. In his day Judah and Israel reached the height of power and prosperity. As a civil ruler he was successful, clever as a statesman, skilled as a general, and patriotic toward his people and country, but he was a moral coward who sold himself to the worship of many heathen gods and then forced their worship upon his people.
The verse belongs to the war in which Ben-hadad, king of Syria, came up with thirty-two kings and besieged Samaria. Two hundred and thirty-two princes of the provinces led a sortie out of Samaria, the Syrians fled, and Ben-hadad escaped on a horse. The next year he came again, and the children of Israel pitched before the Syrians like two little flocks of kids while the Syrians filled the country. In the joined battle 100,000 Syrian footmen fell, and Ben-hadad fled to Aphek and then surrendered to the king of Israel.
In the verse Ben-hadad through his messengers repeats his demand for Israel's silver, gold, wives, and children, and his approach was a boast against Israel's God. A prophet warned Ahab, and God gave him victory over Ben-hadad, showing that the victory came from Jehovah. The account of Ben-hadad's defeat to which the verse belongs shows another effort by God to win the weak Ahab.