1 Kings 20:10

20:10 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

20:27 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.”