Bible Strands
1 Kings 20:27
The Israelites also mobilized, gathered supplies, and marched out to meet them. The Israelites camped before them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Following Ben-hadad's spring mobilization at Aphek to fight Israel, the Israelite army gathers provisions and marches to confront the advancing Aramean forces.
The words — The Hebrew verbs הָתְפָּקְדוּ (ha.te.pa.ke.Du) and וְ/כָלְכְּל֔וּ (ve./khal.ke.Lu) literally render "they were mustered" and "they were supplied," marking the organized preparation of the Israelite camp.
The thread — The narrative echoes the overwhelming troop numbers described in Judges 6:5 and 1 Samuel 13:5, while establishing the battle conditions that lead to the theological principle cited in Deuteronomy 32:30.
Why it lands — The text contrasts the Israelites' compact camp with the Arameans covering the countryside, requiring the reader to recognize that the coming victory depends on divine action rather than numerical advantage.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the children of Israel were numbered, and were all present, and went against them: and the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country.
Cross-references
- Judges 6:5 For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it.
- 1 Samuel 13:5 Now the Philistines assembled to fight against Israel with three thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and troops as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Michmash, east of Beth-aven.
- Deuteronomy 32:30 How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- Joshua 1:11 “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for within three days you will cross the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.’”
- Judges 7:8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred men, who took charge of the provisions and rams’ horns of the others. And the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley.
- 1 Samuel 14:2 Meanwhile, Saul was staying under the pomegranate tree in Migron on the outskirts of Gibeah. And the troops who were with him numbered about six hundred men,
- 2 Chronicles 32:7 “Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater One with us than with him.
- Ecclesiastes 9:11 I saw something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither is the bread to the wise, nor the wealth to the intelligent, nor the favor to the skillful. For time and chance happen to all.