Bible Strands
1 Kings 20:6
But about this time tomorrow I will send my servants to search your palace and the houses of your servants. They will seize and carry away all that is precious to you.’”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ben-hadad speaks through his messengers to the king of Israel, escalating his initial demand for silver, gold, wives, and children into a direct threat of imminent raid. The declaration fixes the timeline, stating that the search and seizure will occur about this time tomorrow.
The words — אִם־ ('im-) functions as a conditional marker meaning "if" or "except," structuring the escalation, while מָחָ֗ר (maḥār) literally means "tomorrow," locking the threat to a precise deadline. אֶשְׁלַ֤ח ('ešlaḥ) translates as "I will send," emphasizing the king's direct command to dispatch his agents.
The thread — The pattern of royal demands escalating to forced household confiscation appears in Genesis 27:15, where garments are taken by deception, and 2 Samuel 24:14, where David weighs the consequences of royal authority. The threat of seizing a ruler's palace mirrors the political coercion described in 1 Samuel 13:19.
Why it lands — The text states that tribute demands function as pretexts for systematic plunder and psychological pressure. It asks the reader to evaluate how political submission masks as compliance while advancing total subjugation.
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
Yet I will send my servants unto thee to morrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away.
Cross-references
- Genesis 27:15 And Rebekah took the finest clothes in the house that belonged to her older son Esau, and she put them on her younger son Jacob.
- 1 Samuel 13:19 And no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “The Hebrews must not be allowed to make swords or spears.”
- 2 Samuel 24:14 David answered Gad, “I am deeply distressed. Please, let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”
- 2 Kings 18:31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,
- Ezra 8:27 20 gold bowls valued at 1,000 darics, and two articles of fine polished bronze, as precious as gold.
- Isaiah 44:9 All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame.
- Jeremiah 25:34 Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For the days of your slaughter have come; you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.
- Lamentations 1:7 In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands she received no help. Her enemies looked upon her, laughing at her downfall.
- Lamentations 1:10 The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.
- Hosea 13:15 Although he flourishes among his brothers, an east wind will come—a wind from the LORD rising up from the desert. His fountain will fail, and his spring will run dry. The wind will plunder his treasury of every precious article.