Bible Strands
1 Kings 20:3
saying, “This is what Ben-hadad says: ‘Your silver and gold are mine, and your best wives and children are mine!’”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Ben-hadad’s messengers deliver his demand to Ahab king of Israel after entering the city. The message claims absolute ownership over Israel’s treasury and royal family.
The words — כַּסְפְּךָ (kaspeka) and זְהָבְךָ (zehaveka) literally mean “your silver” and “your gold,” establishing a claim of total possession. הַטּוֹבִים (hatovim) qualifies “wives and children,” indicating the demand targets the king’s most prized dependents.
The thread — This pattern of arrogant spoil-taking echoes the enemy’s boast in Exodus 15:9 and the Assyrian king’s claim of self-reliant conquest in Isaiah 10:13. Both passages record rulers demanding tribute and territory through force rather than divine mandate.
Why it lands — The verse forces recognition of how political threats reduce human life to property. It demands the reader evaluate whether authority claims rest on coercion or legitimate order.
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
Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine.
Cross-references
- Exodus 15:9 The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’
- Isaiah 10:13 For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers.