1 Kings 20:2-10

2He sent men to take a message to Ahab, the king of Israel, who was in the city.

3The message said: ‘This message is from King Ben-Hadad. He says, “Your silver and your gold now belong to me. Your best wives and your strongest children will also be mine.” ’

4The king of Israel replied, ‘My master, the king, I agree with what you have said. I, and everything that I have, belongs to you.’

5Ben-Hadad's men then took another message to Ahab. They said to him, ‘This is what Ben-Hadad says: “I already told you that you must give me your silver, your gold, your wives and your children.

6At this time tomorrow, I will send my officers to look for things in your palace. They will also look in the houses of your officers. They will take away everything that is valuable.” ’

7Then King Ahab told all the leaders of Israel to come to him. He said to them, ‘See what this man is doing! He wants to cause trouble! He asked me to give him my wives, my children, my silver and my gold. And I did not refuse to do it.’

8The leaders and the people answered King Ahab, ‘Do not listen to that man. Do not agree to do what he is asking for.’

9So King Ahab said to the men who brought the messages from King Ben-Hadad, ‘Say this to my master, the king of Syria: “I agree to do everything that you asked for the first time. But I will not let you take the other things that you want.” ’ So the men took Ahab's answer back to Ben-Hadad.

10Then Ben-Hadad sent men with another message to Ahab. He said, ‘I promise that my soldiers will completely destroy Samaria! There will be nothing left! There will not even be enough dirt to fill the hands of each of my soldiers. I pray that the gods will punish me very much if that does not happen!’