32. So they girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’ ”And he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother!”
33. Now the men were diligently looking for a positive sign and quickly took hold of it, and they said, “Your brother Ben-Hadad!”Then he said, “Go. You bring him.” Then Ben-Hadad came to him and got into the chariot.
34. Ben-Hadad said to him, “I will restore the cities which my father took from your father, and you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.”Then Ahab said, “I will send you away with this covenant.” So he made a covenant with him and sent him away.
35. Speaking in the word of the Lord, a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbor, “Strike me, please.” But the man refused to strike him.
36. Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, as soon as you leave me, a lion will kill you.” And as soon as he left him, a lion found and killed him.
37. Then he found another man and said, “Strike me, please.” And the man struck him so that he was wounded.
38. So the prophet departed and waited by the road for the king and disguised himself with ashes on his face.
39. As the king passed by, he cried to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle, and a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said, ‘Keep this man, and if by any means he goes missing, then your life shall be given for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’
40. As your servant was busy here and there, he disappeared.”And the king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you have decided it yourself.”
41. He quickly took the ashes away from his face, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets.
42. He said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand a man whom I had appointed to utter destruction, you shall pay for his life with your life and his people with your people.’ ”
43. The king of Israel went to his house in Samaria angry and depressed.