³⁹ As the king passed by, he cried to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and behold, a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if for any reason he is missing, ^(A)then your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’ ⁴⁰ While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” And the king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.”

⁴² He said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore ^(A)your ^[a]life shall go for his ^[b]life, and your people for his people.’”

¹⁹ So ^(A)the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you would have ^[a]destroyed it. But now you shall strike Aram ^(B)only three times.”