1 Kings 20:42

42 The prophet said to him, “This is what the LORD says: Because you have spared the man I said must be destroyed, now you must die in his place, and your people will die instead of his people.”

1 Kings 20:42 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 20:42

And he said unto him, thus saith the Lord
He spake not his own sense, and in his own words, but in the name of the Lord, for which he had authority, that it might have the greater weight with Ahab:

because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to
utter destruction;
meaning Benhadad; or "the man of my anathema or curse" ^F23; cursed of God for his blasphemy of him, and devoted by him to ruin on that account; or "of my net" ^F24, being by his providence brought into a net or noose at Aphek, out of which he could not have escaped, had not Ahab let him go:

therefore thy life shall go for his life;
as it shortly did, and that by the hand of a Syrian soldier, ( 1 Kings 22:34 1 Kings 22:35 ) ,

and thy people for his people;
which was fulfilled by Hazael king of Syria, the sins of Israel rendering them deserving of the calamities they endured by his means, see ( 2 Kings 8:12 ) ( 10:32 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 (ymrx vya) "vir anathematis mei", Montanus, Piscator.
F24 "Vir retis mei"; so some in Vatablus.

1 Kings 20:42 In-Context

40 But while I was busy doing something else, the prisoner disappeared!” “Well, it’s your own fault,” the king replied. “You have brought the judgment on yourself.”

41 Then the prophet quickly pulled the bandage from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets.

42 The prophet said to him, “This is what the LORD says: Because you have spared the man I said must be destroyed, now you must die in his place, and your people will die instead of his people.”

43 So the king of Israel went home to Samaria angry and sullen.

Footnotes

• [a]. The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.