And Ben-hadad said unto him, The cities, which my father took from your father, I will restore; and you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab, I will send you away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away.
Read Chapter 20
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Thy father. Benadad did not know the changes which had taken place in the royal family of Israel. He speaks of the cities which his predecessor had wrested from Baasa, chap. xv. 20.
Streets, for merchants, of whom he would receive tribute: or military stations, as David had done, (2 Kings viii. 6.) to prevent any inroads. Benadad does not appear to have complied with these conditions, as the king of Israel had to take Ramath by force, chap. xxii. 2.
And having. These words seem to be the conclusion of Benadad's proposition: but, according to the Hebrew, they contain Achab's reply. (Calmet)
Protestants, "Then said Achab: I will send thee away with this covenant. "(Haydock)
How generous does the conduct of Achab appear to the world! Yet it displeased God. (Salien)
He severely punished this foolish pity towards a dangerous foe. (Worthington)
No one doubts that when the judgment of the heart goes astray and is seized by the night of ignorance, our thoughts and our deeds, which proceed from the deliberation of discretion, are involved in the greater darkness of sin. Finally, because he never had this eye of discretion, he who by God’s judgment first deserved to rule over the people of Israel was cast out of his kingdom like something dark out of a healthy body. Having been deceived by the darkness and error of this light, he decided that his own sacrifices were more acceptable to God than obedience to Samuel’s command, and in the very act by which he had hoped that he would propitiate the divine majesty he committed sin instead. Ignorance of this discretion, I say, constrained Ahab, the king of Israel, after the triumph of the glorious victory that had been conceded to him by God’s favor, to believe that his own mercy was better than the very severe execution of the divine command, which seemed to him to be a cruel decree. E...
