1 Reyes 20:23

23 Y los siervos del rey de Siria le dijeron: Sus dioses son dioses de los montes, por eso nos han vencido; mas si peleáremos con ellos en la llanura, se verá si no los vencemos

1 Reyes 20:23 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 20:23

And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him
His ministers of state, his privy counsellors:

their gods are gods of the hills, therefore they were stronger than we;
and beat them in the last battle; this notion they might receive from what they had heard of Jehovah delivering the law on Mount Sinai to Moses, and of the miraculous things done lately on Mount Carmel, as well as of their worship being in high places, especially at Jerusalem, the temple there being built on an hill, as was Samaria itself, near to which they had their last defeat; and this notion of topical deities very much obtained among the Heathens in later times, some of which they supposed presided over rivers, others over woods, and others over hills and mountains ^F5: so Nemestinus the god of woods, Collina the goddess of hills, and Vallina of valleys ^F6; and Arnobins ^F7 makes mention of the god Montinus, and Livy ^F8 of the god Peninus, who had his name from a part of the Alps, so called where he was worshipped; and there also the goddess Penina was worshipped; and Lactantius ^F9 speaks of the gods of the mountains the mother of Maximilian was a worshipper of; and even Jupiter had names from mountains, as Olympius, Capitolinus and such was the great god Pan, called mountainous Pan {k}:

but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be
stronger than they;
and prevail over them, and conquer them.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F5 "Dii fumus agrestes, et qui dominemur in altis montibus.----" Ovid. Fast. l. 3.
F6 Vid. D. Herbert de Cherbury de Relig. Gent. c. 12. p. 198, 112.
F7 Adv. Gentes, l. 4.
F8 Hist. l. 21. c. 38.
F9 De Mort. Persecutor. c. 11. p. 22. Vid. Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 8. ver. 320. "Et numina montis adorant". See Ep. 4. ver. 171.
F11 Sophoclis Oedipus Tyr. ver. 1110.

1 Reyes 20:23 In-Context

21 Y salió el rey de Israel, e hirió la gente de a caballo, y los carros; y deshizo a los sirios con grande estrago

22 Vino luego el profeta al rey de Israel y le dijo: Ve, fortalécete, y considera y mira lo que has de hacer; porque pasado el año, el rey de Siria ha de venir contra ti

23 Y los siervos del rey de Siria le dijeron: Sus dioses son dioses de los montes, por eso nos han vencido; mas si peleáremos con ellos en la llanura, se verá si no los vencemos

24 Haz pues así: Saca a los reyes cada uno de su puesto, y pon capitanes en lugar de ellos

25 Y tú, fórmate otro ejército como el ejército que perdiste, caballos por caballos, y carros por carros; luego pelearemos con ellos en campo raso, y veremos si no los vencemos. Y él les dio oído, y lo hizo así