1 Kings 20:26

SYRIANS WERE AGAIN DEFEATED AND THEIR KING BEN-HADAD WAS CAPTURED BY ISRAEL

"And it came to pass at the return of the year, that Benhadad mustered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. And the children of Israel were mustered, and victualed, and went against them: and the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country. And a man of God came near and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Because the Syrians have said, Jehovah is a god of the hills, but he is not a god of the valleys; therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thy hand, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. And they encamped one over against the other seven days. And so it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians a hundred thousand footmen in one day; but the rest fled to Aphek into the city; and the wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand men that were left. And Benhadad fled, and came into the city, into the inner chamber."

"And ye shall know that I am Jehovah" (1 Kings 20:28). This gives one of the reasons why God blessed Israel with the great victories mentioned in this chapter. It was not only a necessary action on God's part to preserve the Chosen People through all threatening circumstances until the Messiah should be born, but there was also an extension to Ahab in these victories of still more evidence that should have convinced him of the reality of the true God Jehovah and of the utter worthlessness of Baal. Incidentally, Jezebel herself was also included in the periphery of God's merciful forbearance in these events.

"And the wall fell upon the twenty and seven thousand men that were left" (1 Kings 20:30). The text does NOT say that this disaster killed the 27,000 men, but such a disaster would have so wrecked and demoralized any kind of fighting unit that the Israelites pursuing them would have had little or no opposition in the slaughter of any who might have survived the fall of the wall. We find no fault whatever with what is written here, but for some timid souls who seem to think it would have been impossible for a falling wall to kill 27,000 men, Snaith has this: "The destruction of the city wall is often used to describe the capture of a city; and the verse may actually mean that this large, number of men lost their lives when the city was captured and taken."[16]

To all intents and purposes, Benhadad's temporary hiding place was useless. He was already in the control of Ahab.