Then Benhadad sent Ahab the following message: “May the gods strike me dead if there will be enough dust left from Samaria to give a handful to each soldier who follows me.”
The king will say, “I did this with my own two powerful hands. I did this with my wisdom, because I am so clever. I’ve eliminated the boundaries of nations. I’ve looted treasuries. I’ve brought down people like a mighty man.
I’ve found the riches of nations as one finds a nest. I’ve gathered the whole world as one gathers abandoned eggs. Not one of them flapped a wing, opened its mouth, or peeped.”
But the field commander asked, “Did my master send me to tell these things only to you and your master? Didn’t he send me to the men sitting on the wall who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?”
The land you’re about to enter and take possession of isn’t like the land you left in Egypt. There you used to plant your seed, and you had to water it like a vegetable garden.