He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive.”
THE SURROUNDING PASSAGE
1 Kings 20:18 in context
1 Kings 20:15–21
15
Then he mustered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two. After them, he mustered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand.
16
They went out at noon. But Ben Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him.
17
The young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Ben Hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, “Men are coming out from Samaria.”
18
Selected verse
He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive.”
19
So these went out of the city, the young men of the princes of the provinces, and the army which followed them.
20
They each killed his man. The Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them. Ben Hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen.
21
The king of Israel went out and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.
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