11:020:001 And Benhadad 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 Samaria, and warred
against it.
11:020:002 And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city,
and said unto him, Thus saith Benhadad,
11:020:003 Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy
children, even the goodliest, are mine.
11:020:004 And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king,
according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have.
11:020:005 And the messengers came again, and said, Thus speaketh
Benhadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou
shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and
thy children;
11:020:006 Yet I will send my servants unto thee to morrow about this
time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy
servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in
thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away.
11:020:007 Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and
said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief:
for he sent unto me for my wives, and for my children, and for
my silver, and for my gold; and I denied him not.
11:020:008 And all the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken
not unto him, nor consent.
11:020:009 Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Benhadad, Tell my
lord the king, All that thou didst send for to thy servant at
the first I will do: but this thing I may not do. And the
messengers departed, and brought him word again.
11:020:010 And Benhadad sent unto him, and said, The gods do so unto me,
and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for
handfuls for all the people that follow me.
11:020:011 And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not
him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that
putteth it off.
11:020:012 And it came to pass, when Ben-hadad heard this message, as he
was drinking, he and the kings in the pavilions, that he said
unto his servants, Set yourselves in array. And they set
themselves in array against the city.
11:020:013 And, behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel,
saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou seen all this great
multitude? behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day;
and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
11:020:014 And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, Thus saith the LORD, Even
by the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he
said, Who shall order the battle? And he answered, Thou.
11:020:015 Then he numbered the young men of the princes of the
provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty two: and after
them he numbered all the people, even all the children of
Israel, being seven thousand.
11:020:016 And they went out at noon. But Benhadad was drinking himself
drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty and two
kings that helped him.
11:020:017 And the young men of the princes of the provinces went out
first; and Benhadad sent out, and they told him, saying, There
are men come out of Samaria.
11:020:018 And he said, Whether they be come out for peace, take them
alive; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive.
11:020:019 So these young men of the princes of the provinces came out of
the city, and the army which followed them.
11:020:020 And they slew every one his man: and the Syrians fled; and
Israel pursued them: and Benhadad the king of Syria escaped on
an horse with the horsemen.
11:020:021 And the king of Israel went out, and smote the horses and
chariots, and slew the Syrians with a great slaughter.
11:020:022 And the prophet came to the king of Israel, and said unto him,
Go, strengthen thyself, and mark, and see what thou doest: for
at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up
against thee.
11:020:023 And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him, Their
gods are gods of the hills; therefore they were stronger than
we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we
shall be stronger than they.
11:020:024 And do this thing, Take the kings away, every man out of his
place, and put captains in their rooms:
11:020:025 And number thee an army, like the army that thou hast lost,
horse for horse, and chariot for chariot: and we will fight
against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger
than they. And he hearkened unto their voice, and did so.
11:020:026 And it came to pass at the return of the year, that Benhadad
numbered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against
Israel.
11:020:027 And the children of Israel were numbered, and were all
present, and went against them: and the children of Israel
pitched before them like two little flocks of kids; but the
Syrians filled the country.
11:020:028 And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of
Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians
have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of
the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude
into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
11:020:029 And they pitched one over against the other seven days. And so
it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined: and the
children of Israel slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand
footmen in one day.
11:020:030 But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and there a wall
fell upon twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left.
And Benhadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner
chamber.
11:020:031 And his servants said unto him, Behold now, we have heard that
the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, I
pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon our
heads, and go out to the king of Israel: peradventure he will
save thy life.
11:020:032 So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on
their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, Thy
servant Benhadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he said,
Is he yet alive? he is my brother.
11:020:033 Now the men did diligently observe whether any thing would
come from him, and did hastily catch it: and they said, Thy
brother Benhadad. Then he said, Go ye, bring him. Then
Benhadad came forth to him; and he caused him to come up into
the chariot.
11:020:034 And Ben-hadad said unto him, The cities, which my father took
from thy father, I will restore; and thou shalt make streets
for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said
Ahab, I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a
covenant with him, and sent him away.
11:020:035 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his
neighbour in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray thee. And
the man refused to smite him.
11:020:036 Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice
of the LORD, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a
lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him,
a lion found him, and slew him.
11:020:037 Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee.
And the man smote him, so that in smiting he wounded him.
11:020:038 So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way,
and disguised himself with ashes upon his face.
11:020:039 And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and he
said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle; and,
behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and
said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall
thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of
silver.
11:020:040 And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And
the king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be;
thyself hast decided it.
11:020:041 And he hasted, and took the ashes away from his face; and the
king of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets.
11:020:042 And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Because thou hast
let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter
destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy
people for his people.
11:020:043 And the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased,
and came to Samaria.
***Here is a footnote explanation of how to be more exact***
To be exact, one would have to do a demographic analysis, of
the specific portions of the population of the ages at which
such diplomas were conferred, as it would be irrelevant from
a realistic point of view to measure the population on whole
bases if you were only concerned with people who were of the
age to receive Kindergarten Diplomas between 1981 and 1991--
or whatever ages and a whatever kind of diploma. Thus these
figures are not as precise as they could be, but still given
the trends of population and education, it is obvious that a
trend in one is not following the direction of the other. A
further look at the US Census figures averaged below will be
sufficient to inform you that previous generations that were
measured had even greater growth rates than 10%, so that the
number of people getting any specific degrees or diplomas in
the following decades should have been going up even more.
***
What Started This Report
Very recently, there was a report issued on education, which
stated something on the order of people in the United States
are receiving 10% more of a certain level of education, than
they were a decade before.
The years and the exact figures have been altered to protect
those responsible from embarrassment.
For example: let us presume the report stated:
Graduation From Grade School was up 5% from 1981 to 1991.
You would think from this report that the average kid had 5%
greater chances of getting a Grade School Diploma in 91 than
in 81. . .but. . .it turns out that it was just the opposite
because the population was 1.097352 times larger in 91, than
it had been in 1981. . .which is about 10% larger, thus in a
"real education" sense, in the same way the monetary reports
are given in "real dollars" or "constant dollars," education
was actually moving in just the opposite direction, and thus
was DOWN about 5% instead of UP about 5% from 1981 to 1991.
Remember, these were not from years quoted in the report and
the figures were not exactly 5% or 10% respectively, nor the
diploma referred to was not a Grade School Diploma, but they
are pretty close to being exact, in terms of the percentages
and years; much closer than you might expect.
Why and How You Should Use These Tables
Given the rapid inflation that took place sometimes over the
past few decades, you might be aware that if a report said a
certain monetary figure was up 10% during one decade, it was
prudent to check to see if the figures took the inflationary
trends into account to tell you the actual value a figure in
one year might represent would actually be less than figures
which counted more value in lesser numbers of dollars in the
previous decade.
Thus you would be wise to consult a table of Price Indices--
such as the file "price10.txt" released in 1993, before your
evaluation of such figures is complete.
The same is true of population figures, which are going up a
certain amount every year, in a very similar manner to those
price index figures, only not quite as fast, in most cases.
A Few Words About These United States Population Statistics.
All figures listed below for years before 1992 are US Census
Bureau figures as per the source files. Where there were an
assortment of figures for a specific year, we averaged them.
1992 was an estimate. Years after 1992 are our estimates on
a predicted growth rate of 1%, as the average growth rate of
all the averaged figures from 1972-1992 was exactly 1.00%.
The raw data from which we took these figures is appended as
footnote #2. All dates not given are presumed to be July 1,
as that is the official date given by the US Census Bureaus,
over the years, except where otherwise noted. Dates are for
footnoted figures only.