1 AND Ben-hadad the king
of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two
kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged
Samariaa, and warred against it.
2 And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into
the city, and said unto him, Thus saith aBen-hadad,
3 Thy asilver and thy gold
is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest,
are mine.
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1a he went up and besieged Samaria
Unlike today's northly directional maps, 'up' was not a compass direction.
It was an elevation indicator or the fact that a particular local is in a
mountainous or hilly region rather than in a valley location. Samaria, the
kingdom of Israel, was largely based in the hill or mountain regions of Israel,
and thus to arrive there and beseige the nation's center one would go 'up'
elevation wise to arrive in Samaria. This is also that Ramah or hilly or
mountainous region of which is spoken of as 'mount Ephraim' and such.
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