1 Kings 20:29

For seven days the armies camped opposite each other, and on the seventh day the battle ensued, and the Israelites struck down the Arameans—a hundred thousand foot soldiers in one day.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The narrative records the moment immediately following a prophet’s declaration that God will deliver the Aramean army into the Israelite king’s hand. The words — The text employs נֹכַח (No.khach), literally opposite to, to describe the armies’ positioning, and שִׁבְעַת (shiv.'At), literally seven, to mark the waiting period. The thread — This seven-day standoff and seventh-day battle resolution mirrors the siege pattern in Joshua 6:15, contrasts with the daily provocations in 1 Samuel 17:16, and aligns with the heavy Aramean casualties described in 2 Samuel 10:18. Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that military outcomes are dictated by divine timing, demanding endurance through the prescribed waiting period before the decisive action unfolds.

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 they pitched one over against the other seven days. And so it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined: and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day.

Cross-references

Joshua 6:15 Then on the seventh day, they got up at dawn and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. That was the only day they circled the city seven times.
1 Samuel 17:16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening to take his stand.
2 Samuel 10:18 But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers. He also struck down Shobach the commander of their army, who died there.
2 Chronicles 13:17 Then Abijah and his people struck them with a mighty blow, and 500,000 chosen men of Israel fell slain.
2 Chronicles 20:23 The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction. And when they had finished off the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.
2 Chronicles 28:6 For in one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 valiant men in Judah. This happened because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers.
Psalms 10:16 The LORD is King forever and ever; the nations perish from His land.
Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!