24. Also do this: remove each king from his position and appoint captains in their place.
25. Raise another army for yourself like the army you lost — horse for horse, chariot for chariot — and let’s fight with them on the plain; and we will certainly be stronger than they will be.” The king listened to them and did so.
26. In the spring, Ben-hadad mobilized the Arameans and went up to Aphek to battle Israel.
27. The Israelites mobilized, gathered supplies, and went to fight them. The Israelites camped in front of them like two little flocks of goats, while the Arameans filled the landscape.
28. Then the man of God approached and said to the king of Israel, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Arameans have said: Yahweh is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys, I will hand over all this great army to you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”
29. They camped opposite each other for seven days. On the seventh day, the battle took place, and the Israelites struck down the Arameans — 100,000 foot soldiers in one day.
30. The ones who remained fled into the city of Aphek, and the wall fell on those 27,000 remaining men.Ben-hadad also fled and went into an inner room in the city.
31. His servants said to him, “Consider this: we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. So let’s put sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads, and let’s go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life.”
32. So they dressed with sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their heads, went to the king of Israel, and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please spare my life.’ ”So he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
33. Now the men were looking for a sign of hope, so they quickly picked up on this and responded, “Yes, it is your brother Ben-hadad.”Then he said, “Go and bring him.”So Ben-hadad came out to him, and Ahab had him come up into the chariot.
34. Then Ben-hadad said to him, “I restore to you the cities that my father took from your father, and you may set up marketplaces for yourself in Damascus, like my father set up in Samaria.” Ahab responded, “On the basis of this treaty, I release you.” So he made a treaty with him and released him.
35. One of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow prophet by the word of the Lord, “Strike me! ” But the man refused to strike him.
36. He told him, “Because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord, mark my words: When you leave me, a lion will kill you.” When he left him, a lion attacked and killed him.
37. The prophet found another man and said to him, “Strike me! ” So the man struck him, inflicting a wound.
38. Then the prophet went and waited for the king on the road. He disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes.
39. As the king was passing by, he cried out to the king and said, “Your servant marched out into the middle of the battle. Suddenly, a man turned aside and brought someone to me and said, ‘Guard this man! If he is ever missing, it will be your life in place of his life, or you will weigh out 75 pounds of silver.’
40. But while your servant was busy here and there, he disappeared.”The king of Israel said to him, “That will be your sentence; you yourself have decided it.”
41. He quickly removed the bandage from his eyes. The king of Israel recognized that he was one of the prophets.