Discovery Box1 Kings 20:10 
Context20:10 Ben Hadad sent another message to him, “May the gods judge me severely 1 if there is enough dirt left in Samaria for my soldiers to scoop up in their hands.” 2
1 Kings 20:27-29
Context20:27 When the Israelites had mustered and had received their supplies, they marched out to face them in battle. When the Israelites deployed opposite them, they were like two small flocks 3 of goats, but the Syrians filled the land. 20:28 The prophet 4 visited the king of Israel and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Syrians said, “The Lord is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys,” I will hand over to you this entire huge army. 5 Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
20:29 The armies were deployed opposite each other for seven days. On the seventh day the battle began, and the Israelites killed 100,000 Syrian foot soldiers in one day.
1 tn Heb “So may the gods do to me, and so may they add.”
2 tn Heb “if the dirt of Samaria suffices for the handfuls of all the people who are at my feet.”
3 tn The noun translated “small flocks” occurs only here. The common interpretation derives the word from the verbal root חשׂף, “to strip off; to make bare.” In this case the noun refers to something “stripped off” or “made bare.” HALOT 359 s.v. II חשׂף derives the noun from a proposed homonymic verbal root (which occurs only in Ps 29:9) meaning “cause a premature birth.” In this case the derived noun could refer to goats that are undersized because they are born prematurely.
4 tn Heb “the man of God.”
5 tn Heb “I will place all this great horde in your hand.”
