1-kings 20:34

Thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus - It appears that it was customary for foreigners to have a place assigned to them, particularly in maritime towns, where they might deposit and vend their merchandise. This was the very origin of European settlements in Asiatic countries: "The people gave an inch to those strangers; and in consequence they took an ell." Under the pretense of strengthening the place where they kept their wares, to prevent depredations, they built forts, and soon gave laws to their entertainers. In vain did the natives wish them away; they had got power, and would retain it; and at last subjected these countries to their own dominion.

It was customary also, in the time of the crusades, to give those nations which were engaged in them streets, churches, and post dues, in those places which they assisted to conquer. The Genoese and Venetians had each a street in Accon, or St. Jean d'Acre, in which they had their own jurisdiction; with oven, mill, bagnio, weights, and measures. - See William of Tyre, and Harmer's Observations.

He made a covenant with him - According to the words recited above, putting him under no kind of disabilities whatsoever.

Ben-hadad, secure of his life, suggests terms of peace as the price of his freedom. He will restore to Ahab the Israelite cities taken from Omri by his father, among which Ramoth Gilead was probably the most important 1 Kings 22:3; and he will allow Ahab the privilege of making for himself "streets," or rather squares, in Damascus, a privilege which his own father had possessed with respect to Samaria. Commercial advantages, rather than any other, were probably sought by this arrangement.

So he made a covenant with him ... - Ahab, without "inquiring of the Lord," at once agreed to the terms offered; and, without even taking any security for their due observance, allowed the Syrian monarch to depart. Considered politically, the act was one of culpable carelessness and imprudence. Ben-hadad did not regard himself as bound by the terms of a covenant made when he was a prisoner - as his after conduct shows 1 Kings 22:3. Ahab's conduct was even more unjustifiable in one who held his crown under a theocracy. "Inquiry at the word of the Lord" was still possible in Israel 1 Kings 22:5, 1 Kings 22:8, and would seem to have been the course that ordinary gratitude might have suggested.

20:34 Streets - Or, Markets, &c. places where thou mayest either receive the tribute which I promise to pay thee, or exercise judicatureupon my subjects in case of their refusal. So he made, &c. - He takes nonotice of his blasphemy against God; nor of the injuries which his peoplehad suffered from him.