The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 486

the circumstances of their defeat. It was to their eternal disgrace the.t n handful of men, of boys rather, unused to war, foemen quite unworthy of their steel, hu.d routed and dispersed them; that their innumere.ble e.rmy had melted e.way before " two little flocks of kids.'' What a contrast to the proud boasting of ver. 10 I Even the manner of Ben-hadad's escape, his hurried, ignominious flight on the first horse that offered; his cowering abjectly in a corner of an inner chamber, this helped to sink him to a lower pitch of shame. The cavah-ythat we.a to accomplish such great things ; he is thankful for one of its stray horses to be:tr him away from the field of slaughter. The walls of Aphek, a,gain, e.vengedhis threats against the walls of Samaria. And the kings who had flattered him and encouraged his cruel projects, they too received a meet recompense, not only in the defeat, but in their summary degradation from their commands; while the courtiers who suggested the second expedition expiated their folly by the miseries e.nd indignities which they suffered. It was a pitiful end of a campaign begun with so much of bluster e.nd fury, and threatening; that procession of wretched e.nd terrified men, with " sackcloth on their loins, and ropes on their heads." Nor did the losses of Syria end with the battle or the earthquake ; the king voluntarily cedes a part of the territory which his father bad won by his valour from Israel, and returns to his capital with a deci- mated army, a tarnished fame, and a restricted realm. His gluttonous desire for pillage, his forcing a qua1Tel upon Israel, bis defiance of the Almighty, have been punished by the forfeiture of all be holds most dear. It has more than once been remarked that the history of Israel has its lessons for the individual soul. But it also speaks to nations and kings. This chapter pro- claims that neither any people nor its rulers can forget God with impunity; that disregard of His laws is sure to bring down His judgments ; that the purgatory of nations is in this life present; that, while the individual a.waits a judgment to come, the community is judged now, by sword, and famine, and pestilence; by invasion and defeat; by loss of fame and territory ; by bad harvests and crippled trade. Corporate bodies and communities may" have no conscience," but they will prove sooner or later, as Assyria and Babylon, as Medes and Persians, as Greeks and Romans, as Russia and Turkey, as France and Germany have proved, that" verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God thatjndgeth in the earth" (Psa. lviii. 11). But this history has other lessons than those-which concern nations and kings. Some of these we may glean as we pass along. . Ver. 1.-" All his host . . . thirty a,nd two kings , .. horses and chariots.'' It has been remarked that it is not easy to account for this expedition. Was it that Ahab had refused to do fealty? or had he offered some personal affront to the Syrian king? Nay, may we not find explanation enough in the fact that Ben-ha.dad, having an enormous host at his command, must find something for it to do? Large standing armies are constantly the cause of war. Preparations for war in the interest of peace (si via pacem, &c.) are so manifestly paradoxical that who can wonder if war, and not peace, is the result? Let Europe beware of its bloated armaments. It ie natural for statesmen to wish to have something to show for the cost of their maintenance. Ver. 3.-" Thy silver ••• is mine." A conspicuous inste.ll.oe this of that law of old time- " the simple plan That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can." But is our modem warfare so very different in prinoiple? Why may kings remove landmarks any more than peasants? Why may a Ben-ho.dad, an Alexander, a Napoleon cry "Your lands or your life," without reproach, and yet the footpad who plays at the s~me game on the highway is hangod for it ? Why eho~ld what is plain "stealing" in private life be called "conveying" or "anneX1Dg '' when prnctised on a larger scale ? . . Ver. 4.-" I wm thine.'' "Wisely doth Ahab, as a reed m a tempest, stoop to <lH. XX, 1-48.) THB FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 497