King Ahab answered, "Tell King Benhadad that a real soldier does his bragging after a battle, not before it."

The rulers of Samaria were terrified. "How can we oppose Jehu," they said, "when neither King Joram nor King Ahaziah could?"

If a king goes out with ten thousand men to fight another king who comes against him with twenty thousand men, he will sit down first and decide if he is strong enough to face that other king.

If he isn't, he will send messengers to meet the other king to ask for terms of peace while he is still a long way off.