“Not boast like one taking it off”
The one putting on his armor should not boast like one taking it off. (1 Kings 20:11 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A confusing riddle about getting dressed and undressed.
The cultural key
The line puzzles modern readers because the imagery of buckling and unbuckling armor is unfamiliar. It is a compact soldier's proverb. The man 'putting on his armor' is arming for a battle whose outcome is still unknown; the man 'taking it off' is stripping down afterward, alive and victorious, with something real to crow about. So Ahab's retort to the boasting Ben-hadad, who has vowed to grind Samaria to dust, is a sharp ancient equivalent of 'don't count your chickens before they hatch': do not brag on your way into the fight as though you had already won it. Scripture states the principle plainly elsewhere, 'Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring' (Proverbs 27:1). Ben-hadad, drinking in his tent when the taunt arrives, is about to prove the proverb right by losing.
Recovered meaning
'The one putting on his armor should not boast like one taking it off' is a battlefield proverb: don't celebrate victory before the fight is over. Ahab throws it at the boasting Ben-hadad, who is defeated soon after.