or of the opening scenes of the
drama. When the curtain is lifted, the preliminary conflict is over, and
the Israelites, closely besieged in Samaria, have no alternative before
them but unconditional surrender. This was the first serious attack
the city had sustained, and its resistance spoke well for the military
foresight of its founder. In Benhadad's train were thirty-two kings, and
horses and chariots innumerable, while his adversary could only
oppose to them seven thousand men. Ahab was willing to treat, but
the conditions proposed were so outrageous that he broke off the
negotiations. We do not know how long the blockade had lasted, when
one day the garrison made a sortie in full daylight, and fell upon the
Syrian camp; the enemy were panic-stricken, and Benhadad with difficulty
escaped on horseback with a handful of men. He resumed hostilities
in the following year, but instead of engaging the enemy in the
hill-country of Ephraim, where his superior numbers brought him no
advantage, he deployed his lines on the plain of Jezreel, near the town
of Aphek. His servants had counselled him to change his tactics: "The
God of the Hebrews is a God of the hills, therefore they were stronger
than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we
shall be stronger than they." The advice, however, proved futile, for he
sustained on the open plain a still more severe defeat than he had met
with in the mountains, and the Hebrew historians affirm that he was
taken prisoner during the pursuit. The power of Damascus was still
formidable, and the captivity of its king had done little to bring
the war to an end; Ahab, therefore, did not press his advantage, but
received the Syrian monarch "as a brother," and set him at liberty after
concluding with him an offensive and defensive alliance. Israel at this
time recovered possession of some of the cities which had been lost
under Baasha and Omri, and the Israelites once more enjoyed the right
to occupy a particular quarter of Damascus. According to the Hebrew
account, this was the retaliation they took for their previous
humiliations. It is further stated, in relation to this event, that a
certain man of the sons of the prophets, speaking by the word of the
Lord, bade one of his companions smite him. Having received a wound, he
disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes, and placed himself in
the king's path, "and as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and
he said