KING OF SYRIA (ARAM) IN THE DAYS OF ELISHA · TWO KINGDOMS

Ben-hadad. Besieged Samaria; smothered on his sickbed.

REIGNEDi

Not given Scripture gives no length of reign; it tells how it ended (2 Kings 8:15).

CAPITAL

Damascus

HOUSE

Not stated 2nd of 5 in Aram

SCRIPTURE SAYS

“Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.”

PROPHETS

Elisha

ARAM (SYRIA): 5 RULERS BEN-HADAD → REZIN

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

ISRAEL

Joram (Jehoram) son of Ahab

ARAM AFTER HIM

Hazael

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · 848 AND 845 BC (SHALMANESER'S 11TH AND 14TH YEARS); 841 BC (HIS 18TH)

Shalmaneser III's records (Black Obelisk; annals from Calah)

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · SHALMANESER'S REIGN (858–824 BC)

Shalmaneser III's statue inscription, from Assur

SUCCESSION

Before and after

THE REALM

Damascus and the places of the account

Aram (Syria). Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

What Scripture says of him

  • “Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.” 2 Kings 6:24
  • The siege brought a famine in which “an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver”. 2 Kings 6:25
  • “The Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses”, and they fled, leaving their camp. 2 Kings 7:6–7
  • Sick at Damascus, he sent Hazael to Elisha: “Shall I recover of this disease?” 2 Kings 8:7–8
  • Hazael called him “Thy son Ben-hadad king of Syria” before the prophet. 2 Kings 8:9
  • “On the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead.” 2 Kings 8:15

DEALINGS

Dealings with God's people

  • He asked through Hazael for a word from Israel's God: “enquire of the LORD by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease?” 2 Kings 8:8
  • Samaria's famine under his siege: the king of Israel “had sackcloth within upon his flesh”. 2 Kings 6:30
  • Plenty after his flight: “a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD”. 2 Kings 7:16

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

PROPHETS

The prophets who spoke about him

  • El Elisha “Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the LORD hath shewed me that he shall surely die”

TWO ACCOUNTS

Where the accounts differ

How the king before Hazael left the throne

2 KINGS

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

PLACED BY THE ASSYRIAN RECORDS AND SCRIPTURE

No years given[1][2]

No year of his own is known. The siege story names no king of Israel; the chapters around it are set in the reign of Joram son of Ahab (852–841 BC on Thiele, McFall and Young). Hazael, who took his throne, was already king of Damascus when Shalmaneser III fought him in his eighteenth year (841 BC).

Ben-hadad himself, by accident

Luther, Schultz, Geddes and Boothroyd, as reported by the Pulpit Commentary

These commentators supposed Ben-hadad laid the wet cloth on his own face to cool himself and was suffocated; the Pulpit Commentary calls this “very unlikely”.[28]

A servant

H. Ewald, History of Israel, as reported by the Pulpit Commentary and Ellicott

Ewald introduced a bath-servant as the one who killed the king; both commentaries reject it, noting that Hazael is named at the end of the verse as the new king.[28][29]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 3

2 Kings 6 2 Kings 7 2 Kings 8

PASSAGES · 2

2 Kings 6:24–7:20 2 Kings 8:7–15

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Scripture never gives this Ben-hadad's father, his age, or the length of his reign.
  • 2 Kings 5–6 speaks of “the king of Syria” without naming him; that he is this Ben-hadad is a reading, not a statement.
  • Scripture does not name the king of Israel during the siege of Samaria.
  • The Assyrian records used here never name a Ben-hadad; they name Hadad-ezer (or Bir-idri) and then Hazael.

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • From the textThis page follows the site's record for the Ben-hadad named in 2 Kings 6:24 and 8:7–9. The unnamed “king of Syria” of 2 Kings 5:1–6:23 (Naaman's master, the hunt for Elisha at Dothan) is left off this page: the text does not name him, and the site's record does not include him. 2 Kings 6:24 2 Kings 8:7–9 2 Kings 5:1 2 Kings 6:8
  • From the textWhether he is the Ben-hadad of 1 Kings 20 is a question with views below; whether that king is the Hadad-ezer of Shalmaneser III's records is set out on the page of Asa's Ben-hadad. 1 Kings 20:1

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • Rodger C. Young, Chronological tables: Table 1, Chronology of the Kings of Israel; Table 2, Chronology of the Kings of Judah (Thiele's system as revised by McFall and Young; dates cited as facts only) (undated web tables, read 2026-10-07), Tables 1 and 2.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §553 (Shalmaneser III, 858–824 BC), §§568, 571, 575, 578 (Black Obelisk, years 11, 14, 18 and 21), pp. 199–206.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §611, p. 223 (Monolith Inscription from Kurkh, the battle of Karkar).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §§658–659 and 663, pp. 240–241 (annals from Calah, years 14 and 18).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §§679–681, pp. 245–246 (the statue inscription from Assur).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §735, p. 261 (the Saba’a stele) and §740, pp. 262–263 (the Nimrud slab) of Adad-nirari III.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §761, p. 269 (on the order of the annal fragments); §769, p. 273; §772, p. 276 (Tiglath-pileser III's tribute lists).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §§776–779, pp. 278–280 (Tiglath-pileser III's annals: the war on Aram; Samsi, queen of Arabia).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 2 (Sargon to the end) (1927), §1198, p. 436 (the eponym list with notes, 733 and 732 BC).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), p. 296, note 1 (the reading “Bir-idri”); p. 299 with note 1 (the statue inscription); pp. 305–306 (Adad-nirari III and Mari’).
  • A. Biran and J. Naveh, “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan” (1993) and “The Tel Dan Inscription: A New Fragment” (1995), Israel Exploration Journal 43 and 45 (facts only; copyrighted) (1993, 1995), IEJ 43 (1993) 81–98; IEJ 45 (1995) 1–18 (the articles were not read; facts taken from published summaries).
  • S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel (Appendix: the Inscription of Mesha) (1890), pp. lxxxv–lxxxvi (introduction), lxxxvii–lxxxviii (translation), lxxxviii–xcii and xciv (Driver's notes).
  • A. H. Sayce, “Moabite Stone”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 3 (1915), pp. 2071–2072 (discovery of the stone; “forty” and the date of the revolt on p. 2072).
  • W. Ewing, “Mesha”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 3 (1915), pp. 2037–2038, section (3).
  • T. Nicol, “Benhadad”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 1 (1915), pp. 435–437.
  • T. Nicol, “Hazael”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 2 (1915), pp. 1345–1346.
  • T. Nicol, “Rezin”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 4 (1915), p. 2588.
  • David Francis Roberts, “Queen of Sheba”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 4 (1915), s.v. (sections 1 and 4).
  • Thomas Hunter Weir, “Sheba” (1), International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 4 (1915), p. 2752, sections 1 and 3.
  • (unsigned article), “Candace”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 1 (1915), p. 552.
  • Edward Mack, “Chronology of the Old Testament”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 1 (1915), pp. 639–640 (Menahem's tribute in 738 BC).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. J. Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Kings (Keil and Delitzsch) (1872), pp. 221 (1 Kgs 15:18), 259–260 (1 Kgs 19:15), 261 and 266–267 (1 Kgs 20), 307 (2 Kgs 3:27), 334–336 (2 Kgs 8:10–15), 402–403 (2 Kgs 16:6); read in the archive.org scan text.
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (Clark's Foreign Theological Library; translation first published 1866, this printing 1876) (1866), pp. 318–321 (Hiram).
  • John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament (1748–1763), note on 2 Kgs 3:27 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1897), note on 2 Kgs 3:27 (read on Bible Hub).
  • J. R. Lumby, The Second Book of the Kings (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1887), note on 2 Kgs 3:27 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), A Bible Commentary for English Readers (c. 1878–1884), note on 2 Kgs 3:27 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1897), note on 2 Kgs 8:15 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), A Bible Commentary for English Readers (c. 1878–1884), note on 2 Kgs 8:15 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), A Bible Commentary for English Readers (c. 1878–1884), note on 2 Kgs 16:6 (read on Bible Hub).
  • John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament (1748–1763), note on 2 Kgs 16:6 (read on Bible Hub).
  • E. A. Wallis Budge (tr.), The Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menyelek (the Kebra Nagast) (1922), Introduction, pp. xxx (the colophons date the Arabic version AD 1314–1344) and xxxiv (the names Makeda and Balkis; Saba “far more probable”).
  • Pliny the Elder, tr. John Bostock and H. T. Riley, The Natural History (1855), book 6, chapter 35 (Bostock and Riley's numbering; 6.29 in older editions).
  • Strabo, tr. H. C. Hamilton and W. Falconer, The Geography of Strabo (1854–1857), book 17, chapter 1, section 54.
  • Eusebius, tr. A. C. McGiffert, Church History (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1) (1890), book 2, chapter 1, section 13.
  • Irenaeus, tr. A. Roberts and W. H. Rambaut, Against Heresies (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1) (1885), book 3, chapter 12, section 8.
  • Geneva Bible translators, Geneva Bible marginal notes (1599), note on 2 Chr 8:2 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1897), note on 2 Chr 8:2 (read on Bible Hub).
  • W. E. Barnes, The Books of Chronicles (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1899), note on 2 Chr 8:2 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), A Bible Commentary for English Readers (c. 1878–1884), note on 2 Chr 8:2 (read on Bible Hub).

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