All that was left of Jehoahaz's army were fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand soldiers, for the king of Aram had destroyed the rest, turning them into dust like that when grain is threshed.
The Israelite army was also called up and provided with supplies. They went to confront the Arameans. But when the Israelites set up their camp opposite the enemy they looked like two little flocks of goats in comparison with the Aramean army that filled the whole land.
“Why are you crying, my lord?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the evil things you are going to do to the Israelites,” Elisha replied. “You will set their fortresses on fire, kill their young men with the sword, dash to pieces their little ones, and rip open their pregnant women.”
Why don't you accept a challenge from my master, the king of Assyria? He says, I'll give you two thousand horses, if you can find enough riders for them!
Who has encouraged this one from the east who is called into God's service to do what is right? He gives him nations, and helps him trample kings underfoot. He makes them like dust with his sword, and turns them into chaff with his bow, blown before him on the wind.
I will turn against you, and you'll be defeated by your enemies. People who hate you will rule over you, and you'll run away even when there's no one chasing you!
This is what the Lord says: The people of Damascus have repeatedly sinned and so I will not hesitate to punish them, for they beat the people of Gilead with sharp iron threshing tools.
I sent a plague on you like I did in Egypt. I killed your young men in battle; I took away your horses; I made you smell the stench of dead bodies in your camps. But still you did not return to me, declares the Lord.
Then Samuel left Gilgal. The rest of the soldiers followed Saul to meet the army, going from Gilgal to Geba in Benjamin. Saul counted the number of soldiers who were with him and there were about six hundred.