¹² Ben-Hadad heard this message while he and the kings were drinking^(A) in their tents,^[a] and he ordered his men: “Prepare to attack.” So they prepared to attack the city.

Ahab Defeats Ben-Hadad

¹³ Meanwhile a prophet^(B) came to Ahab king of Israel and announced, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Do you see this vast army? I will give it into your hand today, and then you will know^(C) that I am the Lord.’”

¹⁴ “But who will do this?” asked Ahab.

The prophet replied, “This is what the Lord says: ‘The junior officers under the provincial commanders will do it.’”

“And who will start^(D) the battle?” he asked.

The prophet answered, “You will.”

¹⁵ So Ahab summoned the 232 junior officers under the provincial commanders. Then he assembled the rest of the Israelites, 7,000 in all. ¹⁶ They set out at noon while Ben-Hadad and the 32 kings allied with him were in their tents getting drunk.^{(E) 17} The junior officers under the provincial commanders went out first.

Now Ben-Hadad had dispatched scouts, who reported, “Men are advancing from Samaria.”

¹⁸ He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; if they have come out for war, take them alive.”

¹⁹ The junior officers under the provincial commanders marched out of the city with the army behind them ²⁰ and each one struck down his opponent. At that, the Arameans fled, with the Israelites in pursuit. But Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on horseback with some of his horsemen.

Envoys From Babylon^(A)

39 At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon^(B) sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery. ² Hezekiah received the envoys^(C) gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold,^(D) the spices, the fine olive oil—his entire armory and everything found among his treasures.^(E) There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

³ Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”

“From a distant land,^(F)” Hezekiah replied. “They came to me from Babylon.”

⁴ The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”

“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

⁶ The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon.^(A) Nothing will be left, says the Lord.

⁷ And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.^(A)”