Ahab consults the elders

Ahab and Ben-hadad · 1 Kings 20

Story guide: Ahab gathers the elders and tells them Ben-hadad is seeking trouble, then sends back word refusing the second demand. The setting and the number of elders are not specified in the passage.

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5The messengers returned and said, “Thus says Ben-hadad: ‘I sent you word that you must give me your silver and gold, your wives and sons.

6But about this time tomorrow I will send my servants to you. They will search your palace and your servants’ houses, and seize and carry off everything you treasure.’”

7Then the king of Israel summoned all the elders of the land and said, “Please see for yourselves that this man intends harm, for he sent word demanding my wives, my sons, my silver, and my gold, and I did not refuse him.”

8Then all the elders and all the people said to him, “Do not listen to him or agree to his demand.”

9So he said to Ben-hadad’s messengers, “Tell my lord the king, ‘I will do everything you demanded of your servant the first time, but I cannot meet this demand.’” The messengers left and took his reply back to Ben-hadad.

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