And Ben-ha'dad 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.
Streets ... in Damascus - implying that a quarter of that city was to be assigned to Jews, with the free exercise of their religion and laws, under a judge of their own. The provision was designed for the benefit of trading and commercial colonies of Jews who might be resident there. 'This privilege of having streets in a foreign capital,' says Harmer, 3: pp. 489-492, (quoting from Knollis' 'History of the Turks'), 'gave them liberty to have not only houses, but in each an oven, a mill, a 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 those that dwelt in their streets 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 the father of Ahab had granted to Ben-hadad's father to obtain peace, and that Ben-hadad, on this fatal turn of his affairs, proposed to grant to Ahab in Damascus a quarter for Jewish subjects to live in, which he should possess, and enjoy the same jurisdiction over them as he did over the rest of his kingdom? Such a power in Samaria, and such a making over of a part of it to him, in 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; and the proposing to give Abab a like honour in Damascus was a proof of the most abject adulation in Ben-hadad.'
So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away. This misplaced kindness to a proud and impious idolater, so unbecoming a theocratic monarch, exposed Ahab to the same censure and fate as Saul, (1 Samuel 15:9, etc.) It was in opposition to God's purpose in giving him the victory.