Nothing was left of Jehoahaz’s army except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers. The king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like chaff.
So Ahab gathered the young officers of the district governors, two hundred thirty-two of them. Then he called together the army of Israel, about seven thousand people in all.
The Israelites also had prepared for war. They marched out to meet the Arameans and camped opposite them. The Israelites looked like two small flocks of goats, but the Arameans covered the area.
Hazael asked, “Why are you crying, master?” Elisha answered, “Because I know what evil you will do to the Israelites. You will burn their strong, walled cities with fire and kill their young men with swords. You will throw their babies to the ground and split open their pregnant women.”
“Who caused the one to come from the east? Who gives him victories everywhere he goes? The one who brought him gives nations over to him and defeats kings. He uses his sword, and kings become like dust. He uses his bow, and they are blown away like chaff.
I will be against you, and your enemies will defeat you. These people who hate you will rule over you, and you will run away even when no one is chasing you.
This is what the Lord says: “For the many crimes of Damascus, I will punish them. They drove over the people of Gilead with threshing boards that had iron teeth.
“I sent disasters against you, as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with swords, and your horses were taken from you. I made you smell the stink from all the dead bodies, but still you did not come back to me,” says the Lord.