1 Kings 20:16
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| Overview - 1 Kings 20 | |
| 1 | Ben-hadad, not content with Ahab's homage, besieges Samaria. |
| 13 | By the direction of a prophet, the Syrians are slain. |
| 22 | As the prophet forewarned Ahab, the Syrians, trusting in the valleys, come against him in Aphek. |
| 28 | By the word of the prophet, and God's judgment, the Syrians are smitten again. |
| 31 | The Syrians submitting themselves, Ahab sends Ben-hadad away with a covenant. |
| 35 | The prophet, under the parable of a prisoner, making Ahab judge himself, denounces God's judgment against him. |
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1 Kings 20:16 (King James Version)
And they went out at noon. But Benhadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty and two kings that helped him.
- Ben-hadad
- 1 Kings 20:11 1 Kings 20:12 ; 16:7 Proverbs 23:29-32 ; Ecclesiastes 10:16 Ecclesiastes 10:17 ; Hosea 4:11
- the thirty
- Isaiah 54:15
- The Syrians, the besiegers, had their directions from a drunken king, who gave orders over his cups, while he was drinking at noon. Drunkenness is a sin which is most detestable in all, but more so in a king than in a private individual, inasmuch as the greater weight a man's situation carries, whether from accumulated riches, family connections, hereditary authority, or invested command, so is the influence which his vices must have on those around him. Perhaps it may be said, from past experience, that drunkenness, which is a most heinous sin in the sight of God, may be charged on those who indulge only now and then in that which may eventually lead them into drunkenness; for they shut their eyes against the most palpable facts, and rather than give up the paltry gratification of a debauch, involve thousands by their example to positive harm. Benhadad's drunkenness was the forerunner of his fall. Belshazzar also, we read, drank wine with his princes, his wives, and his concubines, and praised the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone: and in the same hour came forth the finger of a man's hand and wrote his doom on the plaster of the wall. Those who fancy themselves perfectly secure, and above the possibility of falling, are commonly nearest their destruction: there is always an Ahab read to take advantage of and improve the self-imposed imbecility.