2. The next mention of a Syrian king named Ben-hadad occurs during the reign of King Ahab of Israel (c. 940-920 B.C.E.). About the fifth year before Ahab’s death, “Ben-hadad the king of Syria” led the combined forces of 32 kings, evidently vassals, against Samaria, besieging the city and calling on King Ahab to surrender unconditionally. (1Ki 20:1-6) Ahab called a council of the older men of the land, who advised him to resist. Then, while the Syrian forces were preparing for an assault on the city and while Ben-hadad and the other kings were drinking themselves drunk in the booths they had erected, Ahab, following divine counsel, used strategy to initiate a surprise attack on the Syrian camp, and he successfully routed them.​—1Ki 20:7-21.

Still bent on overthrowing the Israelite kingdom, Ben-hadad later massed his forces and besieged Samaria, provoking famine conditions of the gravest kind. (2Ki 6:24-29) Yet, when Jehovah one evening caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of a large approaching army, they hastily concluded that Jehoram had hired the Hittites and Egyptians to rescue him, and thereupon they fled back to Syria in the darkness, leaving behind all their equipment and provisions.​—2Ki 7:6, 7.