And they went out at noon,.... From Samaria, the two hundred and thirty two young men, and the 7000 Israelites, openly, with great spirit and courage, fearless and undaunted; but it is not said that Ahab went out at the head of them; it seems as if he did not by what is said, 1 Kings 20:21,
but Benhadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions (or booths, or tents), he, and the kings, the thirty two kings that helped him; who either were his subjects, or his tributaries, or confederates; being secure, and having nothing to fear from Ahab, he and they gave themselves up to carousing and drinking, even at noon, and so destruction came upon them unawares, as on Belshazzar.
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 20:1-22
The First Victory. - Kg1 20:1. Benhadad, the son of that Benhadad who had conquered several cities of Galilee in the reign of Baasha (Kg1 15:20), came up with a great army - there were thirty-two kings with him, with horses and chariots - and besieged Samaria. The thirty-two kings with him (אתּו) were vassals of Benhadad, rulers of different cities and the territory belonging to them, just as in Joshua's time almost every city of Canaan had its king; they were therefore bound to follow the army of Benhadad with their troops.
Kg1 20:2-7
During the siege Benhadad sent messengers into the city to Ahab with this demand: "Thy silver and thy gold are mine, and the best of thy wives and thy sons ar…
Read the whole note in the consoleTyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Kings 20:13-34
Two distinct battles ensued, one in Samaria (20:13-25) and one at Aphek (20:26-34). The writer included similar details regarding both: (1) pre-battle counsel (20:13-14, 23-25), (2) pre-battle conditions (20:15-16, 26-28), (3) victory for Israel despite the superior numbers of the enemy (20:17-21, 29-30), and (4) post-battle counsel (20:22, 31).
20:13-16 Ahab’s forces attacked about noontime after receiving assurance of victory from an unknown prophet. The Jewish historian Josephus suggested that the prophet was Micaiah (cp. 22:8). The timing of the Israelite attack, during the heat of the day (see Josh 8:14), took the enemy by surprise. Ben-hadad and the . . . allied kings were still drink…
Read the whole note in the consoleHenry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
