26 It happened at the turning of the year that Ben-Hadad mustered Aram and went up to Aphek for the war with Israel. 27 The ⌊Israelites⌋g had been mustered and provisioned, and they went to engage them. The ⌊Israelites⌋h encamped opposite them as two flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the land. 28 Then the man of God approached, and he spoke to the king of Israel, and he said, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Because Aram has said, “Yahweh is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys,” ’ I will give all this great crowd into your hand that you may know that I am Yahweh.” 29 These encamped opposite for seven days, and it happened on the seventh day that ⌊the battle began⌋,i and the ⌊Israelites⌋j killed the Arameans, one hundred thousand infantry in one day. 30 Then those who remained fled to Aphek, to the city, and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who had remained, so Ben-Hadad fled and went to the innermost rooms of the city.

31 Then his servants said to him, “Please now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are kings of mercy. Let us now put sackcloth on around our waists and ropes on our heads. Then let us go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps ⌊he will let you live⌋.”k 32 So they tied sackcloth around their waists and ropes on their heads. Then they went to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’ ” And he said, “Is my brother still alive?” 33 The men took this as a good omen and they quickly accepted it as true from him, and they said, “Your brother Ben-Hadad lives.” So he said, “Go, get him.” Ben-Hadad came out to him, and Ahab pulled him up on the chariot. 34 Ben-Hadad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I shall return. You may set up streets with stalls for yourself in Damascus just as my father set up in Samaria.” Then Ahab said, “⌊On these terms⌋l I will let you go,” So he made a covenant with him and let him go.