Ahab consults the elders

5The messengers returned and said, “Thus says Ben-hadad: ‘Though I sent to you, saying, “You shall give me your silver and your gold and your wives and your sons,”’”

6No, but about this time tomorrow I will send my servants to you, and they will search your house and the houses of your servants; and whatever is desirable in your eyes, they will put into their hands and take away.

7Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, “Please know and see that this man is seeking trouble, for he sent to me for my wives, my sons, my silver, and my gold, and I did not withhold them from him.”

8Then all the elders and all the people said to him, “Do not listen, and do not consent.”

9So he said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, “Say to my lord the king, ‘All that you sent to your servant the first time, I will do; but this thing I cannot do.’” And the messengers went and brought back word to him.