⁸ At that time the king of Aram was making war against Israel; and he had a meeting with the chiefs of his army and said, I will be waiting in secret in some named place.

¹ Now Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got all his army together, and thirty-two kings with him, and horses and carriages of war; he went up and made war on Samaria, shutting it in.

⁵ Because Aram has made evil designs against you, saying,

⁶ Let us go up against Judah, troubling her, and forcing our way into her, and let us put up a king in her, even the son of Tabeel:

⁷ This is the word of the Lord God: This design will not come about or be effected.

³⁰ Wisdom and knowledge and wise suggestions are of no use against the Lord.

¹⁸ Every purpose is put into effect by wise help: and by wise guiding make war.

¹² Who makes the designs of the wise go wrong, so that they are unable to give effect to their purposes.

¹³ He takes the wise in their secret designs, and the purposes of the twisted are cut off suddenly.

²⁴ Now after this, Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got together all his army and went up to make an attack on Samaria, shutting the town in on all sides with his forces.

³¹ Now the king of Aram had given orders to the thirty-two captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel.

³⁴ And Ben-hadad said to him, The towns my father took from your father I will give back; and you may make streets for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria. And as for me, at the price of this agreement you will let me go. So he made an agreement with him and let him go.

²³ Then the king of Aram's servants said to him, Their god is a god of the hills; that is why they were stronger than we: but if we make an attack on them in the lowlands, we will certainly be stronger than they.

¹⁰ Let your designs be formed, and they will come to nothing; give your orders, and they will not be effected: for God is with us.