1 Kings 20:14-16
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
14 But Ahab asked, “Through whom will it be given over?” He answered, “The Lord says, Through the aides of the provincial governors.” Then Ahab asked, “Who is to attack?” He replied, “You are.” 15 So Ahab mustered the aides of the provincial governors, two hundred thirty-two of them. Behind them he mustered all the Israelite soldiery, who numbered seven thousand in all. 16 [a]They marched out at noon, while Ben-hadad was drinking heavily in the pavilions with the thirty-two kings who were his allies.
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- 20:16–19 The narrator uses a sort of verbal split-screen technique to show us two separate and simultaneous scenes. At the gates of Samaria, the Israelite forces are coming out to battle (v. 16a): first the aides (lit., “young men”; v. 17a), then the whole army (v. 19). Meanwhile in the Aramean camp Ben-hadad is getting drunk (v. 16b), receiving reports (v. 17b) and issuing commands (v. 18).
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