Lives of Scripture

Ben-hadad, son of Hazael, inherited the throne of Aram-Damascus at a low point for Israel: under his father Hazael, the LORD had given Israel again and again into Aram's hand as judgment for Jehoahaz's unfaithfulness, until Jehoahaz sought the LORD and was granted a deliverer (2 Kings 13:1-5). By the time Hazael died and Ben-hadad succeeded him, Elisha the prophet was himself dying. King Jehoash of Israel wept over Elisha and was told to shoot an arrow eastward -- "the LORD's arrow of victory over Aram" -- then to strike the ground with more arrows. Jehoash struck only three times and stopped; Elisha, angry, told him he should have struck five or six times to destroy Aram completely, but now he would defeat Ben-hadad only three times (13:14-19). After Elisha died, that word came true exactly: Jehoash recovered the Israelite cities Ben-hadad's father had seized, defeating Ben-hadad in battle three times, no more and no less (13:22-25). Ben-hadad's Damascus later appears again in the prophet Amos's oracles of judgment against the nations, where God promises to send fire on "the house of Hazael" that will "consume the citadels of Ben-hadad" (Amos 1:4) -- a sentence of judgment on Aram's cruelty that Ben-hadad's own reign helped bring on his dynasty.