1 Kings 20:23

WEB

The servants of the king of Syria said to him, "Their god is a god 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.

KJV

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.

Commentary

And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him,.... His ministers of state, his privy counsellors: their gods are gods of the hills, therefore they were stronger than we; and beat them in the last battle; this notion they might receive from what they had heard of Jehovah delivering the law on Mount Sinai to Moses, and of the miraculous things done lat ely on Mount Carmel, as well as of their worship being in high places, especially at Jerusalem, the temple there being built on an hill, as was Samaria itself, near to which they had their last defeat; and this notion of topical deities very much obtained among the Heathens in later times, some of which they supposed presided over rivers, others over woods, and others over hills and mountains (e): so Nemestinus the god of woods, Collina the goddess of hills, and Vallina of valleys (f); and Arnobins (g) makes mention of the god Montinus, and Livy (h) of the god Peninus, who had his name from a part of the Alps, so called where he was worshipped; and there also the goddess Penina was worshipped; and Lactantius (i) speaks of the gods of the mountains the mother of Maximilian was a worshipper of; and even Jupiter had names from mountains, as Olympius, Capitolinus, &c. and such was the great god Pan, called mountainous Pan (k): but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they; and prevail over them, and conquer them. (e) "Dii fumus agrestes, et qui dominemur in altis montibus.----" Ovid. Fast. l. 3. (f) Vid. D. Herbert de Cherbury de Relig. Gent. c. 12. p. 198, 112. (g) Adv. Gentes, l. 4. (h) Hist. l. 21. c. 38. (i) De Mort. Persecutor. c. 11. p. 22. Vid. Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 8. ver. 320. "Et numina montis adorant". See Ep. 4. ver. 171. (k) Sophoclis Oedipus Tyr. ver. 1110.