1 Kings 20:34 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, &c.— Ben-hadad, received to mercy, and treated with respect, promised upon this occasion to restore to the kingdom of Israel the cities that his father had taken from it. And thou shalt make, said he, streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. This was a proposal better relished by Ahab, than understood by commentators. Bishop Patrick tells us, that some suppose the word חצות chutsoth to signify market-places, where things were sold, the toll of which should belong to Ahab: others think that he meant courts of judicature, where he should exercise a jurisdiction over the Syrians; others, what we now call a piazza, or rather what by Rauwolff is called a a fondique, champ, carvatschura, or caravansera, and by others a kane; 1:e. a great house, built like a cloister, round a great court-yard, and full of warehouses and apartments, in which foreign merchants are wont to live, or travellers to repair, as to an inn, and of which Ahab was to receive the rents. But commonly, says the Bishop, interpreters understand by the word, fortifications or citadels, as we now speak; Vallandus, however, attempts to prove, that palaces are meant, the building of which by Ahab was a great token of subjection in Ben-hadad. Perhaps the privileges which we know were actually granted to the Venetians for their aid, by the states of the kingdom of Jerusalem, in the time of the captivity of Baldwin II. may more satisfactorily explain these words of Ben-hadad. William of Tyre, the greatest historian of the Croisades, has preserved that ancient and curious instrument; from which convention, as well as from the accounts he has elsewhere given of the privileges granted to other nations for their assistance, it appears, that they were wont to assign churches, and give streets, in their towns and cities to those foreign nations, together with great liberties and jurisdiction in these streets. Thus he tells us, that the Genoese had a street in Accon, or John D'Acre, together with full jurisdiction in it, and a church, as a reward for taking that city, together with a third part of the dues of the port. Thus too the above-mentioned ancient instrument very clearly shews, that the Venetians had a street also in Accon; and explains what this full jurisdiction in a street means, by giving them liberty to have in their street there an oven, mill, bagnio, weights and measures for wine, oil, and honey, if they thought fit, and also to judge causes among themselves; together with as great a jurisdiction over all who dwelt in their street and houses, of whatever nation they might be, as the king of Jerusalem had over others. May we not believe, that the same or nearly the same franchises and regalities which were granted to the Venetians and Genoese, in order to obtain aid from them, the father of Ahab had granted to Ben-hadad's father to obtain peace, and Ben-hadad, upon this fatal turn of his affairs, proposed to grant to Ahab in Damascus;—a quarter for his subjects to live in, and which he should possess, and over which he should enjoy the same jurisdiction, as he did with respect to the rest of his kingdom? Such a power in Samaria, and such a making-over a part of it to the father of Ben-hadad, and annexing it to the kingdom of Syria, with a right of building such idol temples as he thought fit, was a sufficient disgrace to the father of Ahab, as the proposing to give Ahab now a like honour in Damascus was an expression of a very abject adulation in Ben-hadad. The privileges that commentators have mentioned are either not of importance enough to answer the general representation of matters in the history, or are absolutely destructive of them. A medium is therefore to be sought for; and such an one, we presume, is here satisfactorily proposed. See Observations, p. 355.