⁸ The leaders and the people answered King Ahab, ‘Do not listen to that man. Do not agree to do what he is asking for.’

⁹ So King Ahab said to the men who brought the messages from King Ben-Hadad, ‘Say this to my master, the king of Syria: “I agree to do everything that you asked for the first time. But I will not let you take the other things that you want.” ’

So the men took Ahab's answer back to Ben-Hadad. ¹⁰ Then Ben-Hadad sent men with another message to Ahab. He said, ‘I promise that my soldiers will completely destroy Samaria! There will be nothing left! There will not even be enough dirt to fill the hands of each of my soldiers. I pray that the gods will punish me very much if that does not happen!’