The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 474

house is yonrs," he would say; never mean- had been continued among the ten tribes, ing, however, that he should be ta.ken at his had an important place in the government, word.] and held regular sittings at the oapital] Ver. 5.-And the messengers ea.me agaJn, and ea1d, Mark, I pray you, and see how and said, Thus spea.keth Ben-hadad, saying, this man [or fell,ow. The i1! expresses Although [Heh. ,;i. According to some of either hatred or contempt. Of. eh. xxii. the grammarians, this is merely the Hebrew 27; Lnke :niii. 2, 18, &c.] eeeketh mis- eqnirnlent of the or, recitanti,s. But the chief [the purport of Ahab's address is Cl~ ':;l of the next verse suggests that there not, " Ben-he.dad is not satisfied with mnst be a connexion between the two, and my treasnres; he wants yours also " (Bii.br), that the second emphasizes the first, much for there is no reference whatsoever to their as in the A. V.] I have sent unto thee, say- property, but, "See how he is determined ing, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, &nd on onr ruin. Nothing short of onr de- thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children. struction will suffice him. He is bent on [Our translators have often sacrificed force provoking an encounter, that he may to elegance by disregarding the order of the plunder the city at pleasnre." The salient Hebrew, which here, e.g., is" Thy silver and word is the i1V1J : for he sent unto me for thy gold . . . to me thou shalt give them."] my wives, and for my children [LXX. 1rEpi Ver. 6.-Yet I will send my serva.nts unto rwv viwv µov. This shows clearly that " the thee to-morrow about this time [This pro- most eminentyoung men "cannot be meant posal was definite and immediate, the first in ver. 3], and for my silver, and for my demand was vague and general. 11 In the gold : and I denied him not. [What these first Ahab was to send what he thought fit words mean depends on what ver. 4 (where to give; in the second, Ben-hadad's servants see note) means. It is difficult to conceive were to take into their own hands whatso- that any monarch could gravely proclaim ever they thought fit to sieze" (Words- his own shame to his counsellors ; coold worth)], and they shall search thine house, confess, that is, that he had consented to and the houses of thy serva.nts ; and it surrender his children and concubines with- shall be, that whatsoever 1B pleasant 1n out a struggle.] [Heb. the desire of] thine eyes [The LXX. Ver. 8.-And all the elders and all the and some other versions have a plnral people [not only, i.e., the inhabitants of snffix-their eyes, But the Hebrew text is Same.ria (Keil), but also those who had fled to be preferred. The object of Ben-he.dad thither for refuge. It is not implied that was to couch his message in the most offen- they were formally consulted, but at such a sive and humiliating terms, and "the desire crisis, when nothing could be done, humanly of thine eyes" would be likely to cut deeper speaking, without their support, it was and wound more than "the desire of their natural that they should express their eyes"], they shall put it 1n their hand, a.nd opinion] said unto him, Hearken not unto take lt away. [If Ahab ever hoped by his him, nor consent. [Lit., thou shalt not con- abject submission to conciliate the Syrian king, he now finds that his words have had sent. ,tt is the equivalent ofµ,}, ne, and tt? just the opposite effect. For all that the of ob, non. Cf. Amos v. 5, and Ewald 350 a.] latter concluded from it was that Ahab was Ver. 9.-Wherefore [Heb. and] he said one upon whom he might trample at plea- unto the messengers of Ben-hadad, Tell snre, and this servility encouraged Ben- my lord the king [He still employs the hadad to renew his demands in a still more same obsequious language as in ver. 4], All gelling and vexatious form. This second that thou didst send for to thy servant at message discloses to us still more plainly the first I will do : but this thing I may the royal bully and braggart, and shows us [Heb. can] not do [At first sight it appears what the "comity of nations" in the old as if Ahab objected to the seo.rob (ver. 6), world was often like.] i.e., plundP.r, of his houso and capital much Ver. 7.-Then the king of IBrael called more than to the surrender of his wives to all the elders of the land [Bahr remarks shame and of bis children to slavery. But that this expression, compared with " the we must remomber that a man is ready to elders of the city " (eh. xxi. 8, &c.), sug- promise almost anything in his extremity, gests either that these nobles, as the highest and that we do not know what construction officials, had their residences at the court, or he put, or would have claimed to put, upon upon the approach of Ben-he.dad had be- Ben-he.dad's first demand, ho.d that monarch taken themselves thither with their treasnres. consented to rnvert to these conditions, or Rawlinson builds on this slender be.sis the by what means he hoped to evade it]. And conclusion tbe.t the council of elders whioh, the messengers departed, and brought him he says, belonged to the undivided kingdom, [Ben-he.dad, not Ahab, as Bawlinson OB. XX, 1-48.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 485