Ben-hadad, King of Syria

Ben-hadad was the royal name borne by the kings of Syria (Aram) at Damascus who were Israel's chief military rivals throughout the Elijah and Elisha era. The Ben-hadad of Ahab's day besieged Samaria with thirty-two allied kings and boasted its dust would not suffice his army for handfuls, only to be routed twice by God's word - and then spared by Ahab in a treaty God condemned. Years later, a Ben-hadad again besieged Samaria into famine so desperate that women ate their children, before God caused his army to hear phantom chariots and flee at dusk, leaving their whole camp to feed the starving city. When he later lay sick in Damascus, he sent Hazael to ask Elisha whether he would recover - and Hazael smothered him with a wet cloth and took his throne, just as Elisha had wept to foresee.