1 Kingschapter 22
53 verses · Jeremiah, by tradition · 6th century BC · History
Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left.
Introduction
Jeremiah, by tradition, History, 1 Kings Overview.
The writer of Kings is not named, and Jewish tradition gives the book to Jeremiah. He closes the first half of his work with the death of Ahab. His first hearers had been told by many prophets that all would be well, and they had watched Jerusalem fall. The chapter is war narrative built around a contest between many prophets and one. It asks how a king, or a nation, tells a true word from a welcome one. Listen for the way the king of Judah keeps asking, and for the vision of the heavenly court. Then watch whether a disguise can outrun a word.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who had heard four hundred prophets agree and one man disagree
- What
- An account of Micaiah's lone prophecy against four hundred, Ahab's death at Ramoth-gilead, and the reigns of Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah.
- Where
- The threshing floor by the gate of Samaria, and the battlefield at Ramoth-gilead east of the Jordan.
- When
- 853 BC, the year of Ahab's death, fixed from Assyrian records of the battle of Qarqar.
- Why
- To show that the word of the LORD through one faithful prophet stands against the agreement of many, and that no disguise escapes it.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Micaiah son of Imlah, a prophet the king kept and hated, and to Ahab and Jehoshaphat of Judah, who go to war as allies.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The time is fixed by Assyrian records rather than by the text. In 853 BC Shalmaneser III fought a western coalition at Qarqar on the Orontes, and the Kurkh Monolith names Ahab of Israel among its members. The three years of peace between Israel and Aram were the years both faced a larger threat.
The places are Samaria and Ramoth-gilead, a city east of the Jordan that Ben-Hadad's terms at 20:34 should have restored and never did.
The occasion is a consultation before a campaign, since Jehoshaphat asks first for the word of the LORD.
A first hearer knew the setting was staged, with the two kings in their robes on thrones at the threshing floor by the city gate, the flat open ground where crowds gathered. Zedekiah's iron horns are a standard prophetic sign act, borrowing the bull's horns of Deuteronomy 33:17.
He also knew how armour failed, since scale armour was made of overlapping metal plates sewn to a coat and the joints were its weak point.
The last thirteen verses file two reigns in the book's fixed order, from the accession dated by the rival king's year to the acts filed to the chronicles.
Significance
The first hearers learned to count differently. Four hundred voices said go up and prosper, one said he saw Israel scattered like sheep without a shepherd, and the one was right.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
They also learned that a disguise does not outrun a word. The arrow was shot by a man who was aiming at no one, into the one gap in the armour of the one man in the field who was dressed as nobody.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The corpus reads this chapter as the consequence of the one before the vineyard. The three quiet years Rashi dates from the release of the Aramean king (Rashi on I Kings 22:2:1, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, CC-BY). The king's complaint about Ramoth-gilead he glosses in three words, "We are lazy." (Rashi on I Kings 22:3:1). Metzudat Zion's alternative is that the word means keeping silent, as in Ecclesiastes, with one word of old French beside it. The prophet later quotes a sentence against the king, that he released a man under the ban. Rashi supplies it from the earlier chapter, as the reason for the standing hostility between them (Rashi on I Kings 22:8:1).
The test applied to the four hundred is the note that carries the chapter. Rashi explains why a second opinion is asked for when four hundred prophets have already agreed. He writes: "I have a tradition that no two prophets prophesy with the same expression, and these are all saying the same expression." (Rashi on I Kings 22:7:1). He cites the Talmud at Sanhedrin for the rule. Radak's note adds that the visiting king put the question indirectly, out of respect for his host. The corpus therefore reads unanimity itself as the evidence of falsehood, and it does so from a stated rule rather than from the outcome.
The scene that follows is read line by line. The first answer of the summoned prophet agrees with the four hundred. Rashi marks it as spoken outside the divine Name: "He did not say [it] to him in God’s Name." (Rashi on I Kings 22:15:1). Metzudat David's note calls it a wish for good fortune rather than a word from God. The vision of the scattered flock Rashi reads as a sentence on one man, that the king alone will die in the battle. He points to the order given later in the chapter, that the enemy captains fight with the king of Israel alone. He then carries a midrashic reading of the blow the prophet takes. The drop of blood drawn from him was an atonement for all Israel, and Rashi cites the Jerusalem Talmud at Sanhedrin for it (Rashi on I Kings 22:17:1).
On the throne room Rashi answers the question the verse raises and gives the answer the tradition gives. There is no left in heaven, he writes, since the psalm and the song at the sea name the right hand twice over. The words mean that some stand on the right and some on the left. Rashi writes, "Those on the right present the case for the defense and those on the left present the case for the prosecution." (Rashi on I Kings 22:19:1). The spirit that comes forward he identifies from the Talmud at Sanhedrin and Shabbat as "The spirit of Navos." (Rashi on I Kings 22:21:1). That ties the lying spirit of this chapter to the murdered man of the last one, and makes the vision a scene of judgment on a specific crime. The challenge thrown at the prophet afterward Rashi reads as an elliptical sentence, with the missing word supplied from the parallel in Chronicles (Rashi on I Kings 22:24:1).
Metzudat David, Radak and Malbim comment across the chapter as well. The corpus carries their refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand here cited and unquoted. The corpus holds Metzudat David on I Kings 22:1:1, 22:4:1, 22:5:1, 22:6:1, 22:11:1, 22:13:1, 22:16:1, 22:18:1, 22:22:1 and 22:23:1. It holds Radak on I Kings 22:9:1, 22:10:1, 22:20:1 and 22:25:1. It holds Malbim on I Kings 22:12:1. Metzudat David carries ten of the twenty-four entries in this chapter, more than in any other chapter of this lane. They stand on the alliance, the horns of iron, the pressure put on the prophet before he speaks and the two verses about the lying spirit.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse the corpus carries Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 3:4:3 and Seder Olam Rabbah 17:2, and on the second, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:76. On the answer of the southern king that he is as his ally is, it carries Chullin 5a:1 on the fourth. Chullin 5a:2 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Chullin 1:1 stand on the tenth, where the two kings sit in their robes at the threshing floor by the gate. On the request for another prophet at the seventh it carries Sanhedrin 89a:19, which is the passage Rashi cites for the rule about two prophets. On the horns of iron at the eleventh it carries Bava Kamma 2b:4 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 10:3.
The exchange with the summoned prophet carries the next run. On the sixteenth, where the king puts him under oath, it carries Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 12:16 and Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of The 32 Midot of Aggadah 1:6. On the seventeenth, the flock on the hills with no shepherd, it carries Sifrei Devarim 304:2 and Sifrei Zuta 27:17:3, both of them in places about a leader appointed over the congregation.
The throne room carries the densest group. Bamidbar Rabbah 3:4 stands across the nineteenth to the twenty-second, and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 31 on the nineteenth alone. On the twentieth it carries Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 23:1 and Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 23:2, and on the twenty-first, where the spirit comes forward, Sanhedrin 102b:15. On the twenty-third it carries Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 9:5:5 and Vayikra Rabbah 24:2. On the blow at the twenty-fourth it carries Pesikta Rabbati 33:1 and Sifrei Devarim 177:1. The corpus also cites the second of those for the false prophet of the thirteenth chapter of this book. On the prison rations at the twenty-seventh it carries Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introduction to Mishnah and Tosefta, Remains of Ancient Tannaitic Compilations 313 and Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:6:4. On the prophet's parting words at the twenty-eighth it carries Bamidbar Rabbah 18:12 and Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:1:18.
The battle and the closing notices carry the rest. On the twenty-ninth the corpus carries Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 17:9; on the thirty-second, where the captains turn on the southern king by mistake, Bamidbar Rabbah 21:6. On the arrow drawn at a venture at the thirty-fourth it carries Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 4:32 and Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 11:5:9. It carries both of those on the sentence in the vineyard as well, so the corpus files the arrow and the sentence in the same places. On the thirty-fifth, the king propped up in his chariot until evening, it carries Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Moed Katan 3:18 and Ein Yaakov, Moed Katan 3:35. On the cry at sundown that sends each man to his city, it carries Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 4:25 and Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 4:31. The ivory house carries Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:19:2 on the thirty-ninth. The southern reign closes the chapter. Bamidbar Rabbah 19:16 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Chukat 37:1 stand on the forty-fourth, where the high places stand, and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta 3:1 on the forty-fifth. Bereshit Rabbah 83:2 stands on the forty-eighth, where the ships are broken at Ezion-geber. Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 45 stands on the fifty-first, the accession notice this book ends on. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Kings 22:2:1, 22:3:1, 22:7:1, 22:8:1, 22:15:1, 22:17:1, 22:19:1, 22:21:1 and 22:24:1, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Kings 22:1:1, 22:4:1, 22:5:1, 22:6:1, 22:11:1, 22:13:1, 22:16:1, 22:18:1, 22:22:1 and 22:23:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on I Kings 22:9:1, 22:10:1, 22:20:1 and 22:25:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on I Kings 22:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-kings/22.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Four hundred prophets and a pair of iron horns
1 Kings 22:1-2
three years passed without war: The truce with Syria runs the three years Ahab's covenant with Ben-hadad bought him after chapter 20. Into it Jehoshaphat of Judah comes down to Samaria. The two kingdoms that split at Jeroboam sit at peace with each other while both remain at odds with the Lord in different ways.
1 Kings 22:1
“And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. From the time that Benhadad made a covenant with Ahab; not three full years, but part of them: it was threatened by Elijah from the Lord, that Ahab's life should go for Benhadad's, because he had let him, go, 1Ki 22:42, but because of his humiliation, as is thought by Ben Gersom and others, it was respited for those three years; and now an opportunity and occasion would be given for the fulfilment of what was threatened.”
in the third year, Jehoshaphat king of Judah: Albert Barnes marks the visit as a full change in the dealings of Judah and Israel. The two houses were joined by marriage, and Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram had married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab. The growing power of Aram gave them a common enemy.
1 Kings 22:2
“This visit indicates an entire change in the relations which we have hitherto found subsisting between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The common danger to which the two kingdoms were exposed from the growing power of Syria had probably induced them to forget their differences. Jehoshaphat’s eldest son, Jehoram, was married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab: but apparently the bond between the two families had not hitherto led to any very close intimacy, much less to any joint military expeditions.”
1 Kings 22:3-4
Ramoth-gilead is ours: Ahab presses a claim on Ramoth-gilead, a city Ben-hadad's terms should have restored and never did. Jehoshaphat answers with the formula of full alliance, “I am like you, my people are your people, and my horses are your horses”. The same sentence returns word for word at 2 Kings 3:7.
1 Kings 22:3
By the terms of Ahab’s covenant with Ben-hadad, Ramoth in Gilead ought, long ere this, to have been restored 1Ki 20:34. Hence, the claim “is ours,” i. e., “it belongs to us of right though the Syrians still hold possession of it.”
Ramoth-gilead lay east of the Jordan in the land of Gad. Moses set it apart as a city of refuge at Deuteronomy 4:43. Under Solomon it was the seat of a district governor at 1 Kings 4:13.
1 Kings 22:4
“This affair being lately canvassed at the council board, and very much on Ahab's mind, he puts this question to Jehoshaphat, his visitor, relation, and ally; wisely considering that his own forces were small, and that to have such an auxiliary might be of great advantage to him: and Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses; meaning, that he and his soldiers, foot and horse, were at his service.”
3 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 22:4
“Ahab, well aware of the military strength of Syria, and feeling that he cannot now expect divine aid 1Ki 20:42; 1Ki 21:21, asks the aid of Jehoshaphat, whose military resources were very great 2Ch 17:12-19. Jehoshaphat’s answer is one of complete acquiescence, without reserve of any kind (compare 2Ch 18:3). Jehoshaphat was afterward rebuked for thus consenting to “help the ungodly” 2Ch 19:2. He probably acted not merely from complaisance, but from a belief that the interests of his own kingdom would be advanced by the step which he agreed to take.”
1 Kings 22:4
“It is desirable to have an interest in those that have an interest in heaven, and to have those with us that have God with them. But it is strange that Jehoshaphat will go so entirely into Ahab's interests as to say, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people. Jehoshaphat and his people are not so wicked and corrupt as Ahab and his people.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 22:4
“Wilt thou go with me - We find that there was a good understanding between Jehoshaphat and Ahab, which no doubt was the consequence of a matrimonial alliance between the son of the former, Jehoram, and the daughter of the latter, Athaliah; see 2Ch 18:1; 2Ki 8:18. This coalition did not please God, and Jehoshaphat is severely reproved for it by Jehu the seer, 2Ch 19:1-3.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 22:5-6
Jehoshaphat asks first for the word of the Lord. Ahab produces four hundred men who answer as one voice that “the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king”. Their unanimity is the tell: court prophets salaried by a king tend to say what the king wants said.
1 Kings 22:5
“And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today. Being a pious and religious prince, he did not choose to go into a war at once, without consulting the Lord by his prophets, whether it was his will and pleasure they should engage in it, and should prosper; and he was desirous of having this done immediately, before they proceeded any further.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 22:5
Jehoshaphat, with characteristic piety 1Ki 22:43 takes advantage of his position as Ahab’s friend and ally, to suggest inquiry of the Lord (Yahweh) before the expedition is undertaken. Lest Ahab should consent in word and put off the inquiry in act, he asks to have the prophets called in at once: “today.”
1 Kings 22:5
“Whithersoever a good man goes he desires to take God along with him, and will acknowledge him in all his ways, ask leave of him, and look up to him for success. Whithersoever a good man goes he ought to take his religion along with him, and not be ashamed to own it, no, not when he is with those who have no kindness for it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
assembled the prophets, about four hundred men: Adam Clarke takes the four hundred as the prophets of Asherah whom Jezebel fed at 18:19, men absent from the contest on Carmel. Their answer uses the title Lord, and in verse 7 Jehoshaphat asks for a prophet of the LORD. The promise leaves the king unnamed.
1 Kings 22:6
“About four hundred men - These were probably the prophets of Asherah or Venus, maintained by Jezebel, who were not present at the contention on Mount Carmel. See 1Ki 18:19, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 22:7-8
Jehoshaphat's question implies he does not count the four hundred as prophets of the LORD in the sense he means. Ahab's answer confirms it: one man remains, “Micaiah son of Imlah”. Ahab says “I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only bad”.
John Wesley separates this Micaiah son of Imlah from the prophet Micah, who lived about a hundred and fifty years later. Adam Clarke records the Jewish view that Micaiah was the prophet of 20:35 who condemned Ahab for sparing Ben-hadad. That word would explain why the king hates him.
1 Kings 22:8
“Micaiah the son of Imlah - The Jews suppose that it was this prophet who reproved Ahab for dismissing Ben-hadad, 1Ki 20:35, etc. And that it was because of the judgments with which he had threatened him, that Ahab hated him: I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 22:8
“One man - In this place, for whom I can speedily send: for there were also other prophets elsewhere in the kingdom, but these were not at hand. Micaiah - Not one of the twelve prophets, who lived about a hundred and fifty years after this time, but another of that name.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 22:9-10
An officer is sent for Micaiah while the two kings take their seats at the gate of Samaria, a threshingfloor turned into a staged court. The scene is built for spectacle before Micaiah ever arrives.
1 Kings 22:9
“Then the king of Israel called an officer,.... An eunuch, as the word is sometimes used, one of pages: and said, hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah; who, as it seems from 1Ki 22:26 was in prison, where perhaps Ahab had cast him for his last prophecy to him, and where he had lain ever since; and this gives a reason why he could so readily send for him, knowing where he was.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 22:9
“An officer - More properly, as in the margin, “a eunuch.” Eunuchs seem to have been first introduced among the Israelites by David (1Ch 28:1 note). They were a natural accompaniment of the seraglio of Solomon. The present passage is the first which shows that, after the separation of the kingdom, the kings of Israel employed them (compare 2Ki 8:6; 2Ki 9:32).”
at the threshing floor by the entrance: Albert Barnes places the scene in the open space at the city gate, where kings heard cases, as at Ruth 4:1 and 2 Samuel 15:2. He adds that eastern kings carried portable thrones on their travels. The kings had come from the feast of 2 Chronicles 18:2.
1 Kings 22:10
“Sat each on his throne - Or, “were sitting.” They had removed from the banquet 2Ch 18:2 to the void place, or empty space at the entrance of the gate Rth 4:1; 2Sa 15:2, where Ahab daily sat to hear complaints and decide causes. Each was seated upon his throne, the Oriental kings having portable thrones, which they took with them upon their journeys.”
1 Kings 22:11-12
had made for himself iron horns: Zedekiah's sign-act, “iron horns” with the word “With these you shall gore the Arameans”, borrows Deuteronomy 33:17, where a bull's horns “gore the nations”. Jeremiah's yoke and Ezekiel's brick later use the same kind of enacted prophecy. All four hundred say the same thing: “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and prosper”.
1 Kings 22:11
“Horns of iron - The horn in Scripture is the favorite symbol of power; and pushing with the horn is a common metaphor for attacking and conquering enemies (see Deu 33:17; Compare Psa 44:5; Dan 8:4). Zedekiah, in employing a symbolic action, was following the example of a former Israelite prophet 1Ki 11:30. Thus saith the Lord - Or, יהוה yehovâh. Zedekiah lays aside the unmeaningful “Lord” אדני 'ǎdonāy of the general company of Israelite prophets 1Ki 22:6, and professes to have a direct message from Yahweh to Ahab.”
Matthew Henry notes that four hundred men spoke with one mind and one mouth, and all were wrong. Henry counts unity a weak test of a true ministry. He reads Jehoshaphat as uneasy with preaching so unlike what he knew in Judah.
1 Kings 22:12
“Unity is not always the mark of a true church and a true ministry. Here were 400 men that prophesied with one mind and one mouth, and yet all in an error. Jehoshaphat cannot relish this sort of preaching; it is not like what he was used to.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Micaiah, whom the king hates, sees a lying spirit in heaven
1 Kings 22:13-14
please let your words be like theirs: Micaiah's answer sets the office in one sentence, “As surely as the LORD lives, I will speak whatever the LORD tells me”. It is the same oath by which Balaam bound himself at Numbers 22:18 and 24:13, “I will speak whatever the LORD says”.
1 Kings 22:13
“And the messenger spake unto him ... - There seems to have been a widespread notion among the irreligious and the half-religious of the ancient world, that their prophets were not the mere mouth-pieces of the god, but that they were persons who had power with the god, and could compel, or at least induce, Him to work their will (compare Num 24:10; Isa 30:10). They saw that the prophet’s word was accomplished; they did not understand that if he falsified his message the accomplishment would no longer follow.”
Micaiah takes the oath Elijah swore before Ahab at 17:1. Albert Barnes reads his answer as a refusal of counsel he judged both wicked and foolish. His first reply in verse 15 echoes the four hundred, and Ahab hears the mockery at once.
1 Kings 22:14
“Micaiah, as a true prophet of Yahweh, of course rejected the counsel offered him, which he felt to be at once wicked and foolish. Compare also the resolution of Balaam, marginal reference.”
Micaiah's first answer, “Go up and triumph”, “for the LORD will give it into the hand of the king”, repeats the four hundred. Ahab, who wanted this answer from anyone else, recognizes mimicry rather than agreement and presses him again in the next verse.
1 Kings 22:15
“And he answered him ... - Micaiah speaks the exact words of the 400 in so mocking and ironical a tone, that the king cannot mistake his meaning, or regard his answer as serious. The king’s rejoinder implies that this mocking manner was familiar to Micaiah, who had used it in some former dealings with the Israelite monarch. Hence, in part, the king’s strong feeling of dislike (compare 1Ki 22:8).”
1 Kings 22:16-17
Once Ahab demands the truth, Micaiah gives it: “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd”. The image occurs earlier at Num 27:17, where Moses is pleading for a successor. The shepherdless flock is the army Ahab is about to lead to Ramoth-gilead without him.
like sheep without a shepherd: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the vision in three parts: the army scattered, the king fallen, and the people sent home unharmed. The words about going home in peace fit a war that ends with its king dead. Jesus uses the same picture of the crowds at Matthew 9:36.
1 Kings 22:17
“I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd--The purport of this was that the army of Israel would be defeated and dispersed; that Ahab would fall in the battle, and the people return without either being pursued or destroyed by the enemy.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 22:17
“Thus adjured, Micaiah wholly changes his tone. Ahab cannot possibly mistake the meaning of his vision, especially as the metaphor of “sheep and shepherd” for king and people was familiar to the Israelites from the prayer of Moses Num 27:17.”
Ahab's aside to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he never prophesies good for me, but only bad?”, judges the man's reputation. It is the verdict of a king who wanted a favorable word more than a true one. He had decided against Micaiah before the vision came.
1 Kings 22:18
“Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?--Since Ahab was disposed to trace this unwelcome truth to personal enmity, Micaiah proceeded fearlessly to tell the incensed monarch in full detail what had been revealed to him. The Hebrew prophets, borrowing their symbolic pictures from earthly scenes, described God in heaven as a king in His kingdom.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 22:19-20
I saw the LORD sitting on His throne: Micaiah answers Ahab's contempt with a second vision: “I saw the LORD sitting on His throne”. The scene uses the imagery of a royal court. Readers differ on how far to press it: a true sight of the throne room, or a dramatic form for a judgment already settled.
1 Kings 22:19
“I saw - By the eyes of my mind: for he could not see the Lord with bodily eyes. The Host - The angels, both good and bad, the one possibly on his right, the other on his left hand. Nor is it strange that the devils are called the host of heaven; if you consider, first, that their original seat was in heaven.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 22:19
“David’s Psalms had familiarised the Israelites with Yahweh sitting upon a throne in the heavens (Psa 9:7; Psa 11:4; Psa 45:6; Psa 103:19, etc.); but to be allowed to see in vision the ineffable glory of the Almighty thus seated, was a rare favor. It was granted to Isaiah, to Daniel (marginal references), to Ezekiel Eze 1:26, and in Christian times to Stephen Act 7:56, and John Rev 4:2.”
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the prophets pictured God in heaven as a king on his throne with his host around him. John Wesley reads the question of the LORD as spoken in terms suited to human minds. Job 1:6 opens on the same heavenly council.
1 Kings 22:20
“Who shall - This is not to be grossly understood, as if God were at a loss to find out an expedient to accomplish his own will; but only to bring down divine things to our shallow capacities, and to express the various means which God hath to execute his own designs.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 22:21-23
Then a spirit came forward: A spirit comes forward before the LORD and offers, “I will entice him”. Micaiah tells Ahab what the court has seen: “the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours”. In the same breath he says the LORD “has pronounced disaster against you”.
1 Kings 22:21
“I think every evil and deceitful spirit is a lie, and whenever anyone of these speaks, it speaks from its own resources and by no means from the resources of God. And the father of these [spirits] is the liar, the devil. We will now present what moved us to say that every inferior spirit is false.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Commentary on the Gospel of John 20.257-62patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 22:21
A spirit - “The spirit “ - which some explain as “the evil spirit” - i. e. Satan; others as simply “the spirit” who should “persuade.”
be a lying spirit in the mouths: Origen of Alexandria held every lying spirit speaks from its own resources, and the father of such spirits is the devil, as at John 8:44. The lie belongs to the spirit. Paul describes the same kind of judgment on those who refuse the truth at 2 Thessalonians 2:11.
1 Kings 22:22
“Go forth, and do so - This is no more than, “God has permitted the spirit of lying to influence the whole of thy prophets; and he now, by my mouth, apprises thee of this, that thou mayest not go and fall at Ramoth-gilead.” Never was a man more circumstantially and fairly warned; he had counsels from the God of truth, and counsels from the spirit of falsity; he obstinately forsook the former and followed the latter.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 22:22
“He said - I will inspire a lie into the minds and mouths of his prophets. Thou shalt - I will give them up into thy hands, and leave them to their own ignorance and wickedness. Go - This is not a command, but only a permission.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 22:22
“The difficulties which attach to this passage are considerable. On the one hand, it is hard to suppose one of the holy Angels a “lying spirit;” on the other, hard to find Satan, or an evil spirit, included among “the host of heaven” 1Ki 22:19 and acting as the minister of God. Still, Job 1:6; Job 2:1, lend countenance to the latter point, and 2Th 2:11 to the former. But it may be doubted whether we ought to take literally, and seek to interpret exactly, each statement of the present narrative.”
1 Kings 22:22
“And the Lord said unto him, wherewith?....”
the LORD has put a lying spirit: Adam Clarke reads the verb as permission, since Scripture often says God does what his providence allows to be done. Micaiah names the four hundred as the mouths of that spirit. The disaster falls on Ahab at Ramoth-gilead in verse 35.
1 Kings 22:23
“The Lord hath put a lying spirit - He hath permitted or suffered a lying spirit to influence thy prophets. Is it requisite again to remind the reader that the Scriptures repeatedly represent God as doing what, in the course of his providence, he only permits or suffers to be done? Nothing can be done in heaven, in earth, or hell, but either by his immediate energy or permission. This is the reason why the Scripture speaks as above.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 22:24-25
struck Micaiah in the face: Zedekiah's blow and his taunt, “Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go”, assumes his own prophesying carried the Spirit and Micaiah's could not. Micaiah does not argue the point. He points forward, “You will soon see, on that day when you go and hide in an inner room”.
1 Kings 22:24
“Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me - This is an expression of as great insolence as the act was of brutal aggression. “Did the Spirit of the Lord, who rests solely upon me, condescend to inspire thee? Was it at this ear [where he smote him] that it entered, in order to hold communion with thee?” Josephus tells an idle rabbinical tale about this business, which is as unworthy of repetition as it is of credit. See his Antiq. of the Jews, book viii., c. 10.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The words answer Zedekiah, who struck Micaiah in verse 24. John Gill gives three settings for the hiding: flight from the battle, fear of the enemy, or fear of the people who would blame him. Ben-hadad had hidden in an inner room at 20:30.
1 Kings 22:25
“And Micaiah said, behold, thou shalt see in the day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. Who would either accompany Ahab to the battle, and, upon his being wounded, flee to the first place of secrecy for safety; or, upon the news of his defeat brought to Samaria, would betake himself to a private chamber for security, fearing the enemy would pursue to the very place; or else through fear of the populace, who would attribute the death of the king to the advice of him and the other prophets.”
1 Kings 22:26-28
return him to Amon the governor of the city: Micaiah stakes his whole office on the outcome: “If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me”. It is the test Deuteronomy 18:22 sets for a true prophet. Micaiah calls the crowd itself to witness it before the battle: “Take heed, all you people”.
Albert Barnes reads the order as a harsher diet of bread and water, and the words until I return safely as scorn for the prophecy. Matthew Henry recalls the proverb of Ahab at 20:11 about boasting before a battle. The king now boasts before one.
1 Kings 22:27
“Feed him with bread of affliction ... - Micaiah is to be once more put in prison, but, in order to punish him for his uncomplying spirit, upon a poorer and scantier diet than he had been previously allowed. This is to continue until Ahab returns in peace. Ahab introduces this expression purposely, in order to show his entire disbelief of Micaiah’s prophecy.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 22:27
“But by this it appeared that God had determined to destroy him, as 2 Chron. xxv. How confident is Ahab of success. He doubts not but he shall return in peace, forgetting what he himself had reminded Ben-hadad of, Let not him that girdeth on the harness boast; but there was little likelihood of his coming home in peace when he left one of God's prophets behind him in prison.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Micaiah calls the crowd at the gate as witnesses. Micah 1:2 opens with the same summons to all the peoples, and John Wesley keeps the two prophets apart by a century and a half. The outcome at Ramoth-gilead now decides between Micaiah and the four hundred.
1 Kings 22:28
“And Micaiah said, if thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me,.... I am content to be reckoned a false prophet, and to be punished as such: and, he said, hearken, O people, everyone of you; he called aloud unto them to observe what he had predicted, and mark the issue of it, and to bear testimony for him, or against him, as things should be.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 22:28
“40 So Ahab slept with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead. The matter in contest between God's prophet and Ahab's prophets is here soon determined, and it is made to appear which was in the right.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
A disguise, an arrow drawn at a venture, dogs at the pool
1 Kings 22:29-30
went up to Ramoth-gilead: The two kings go up together. Ahab disguises himself while asking Jehoshaphat to wear the royal robes, a plan that places the ally in the danger the word had named. It reads as a man trying to outmaneuver a prophecy he has just heard and still refuses to believe.
1 Kings 22:29
“So the king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, went up to Ramothgilead. Which, according to Bunting (r), was twenty four miles from Samaria.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 22:29
“It might have been expected that Jehoshaphat would have withdrawn from the expedition when he heard Micaiah denounce it. He had, however, rashly committed himself to take part in the war by a solemn promise, before he bethought himself of inquiring what was the will of God in the matter. Now he was ashamed to draw back, especially as Ahab, whom the prophecy chiefly threatened, was resolved to brave it. He may also have had a personal affection for Ahab, and so have been loth to desert him in his need. Compare 2Ch 19:2.”
1 Kings 22:29
“He was ready to give his opinion with the majority, and to conclude that it was 400 to one but they should succeed. Micaiah had not forbidden them to go; nay, at first, he said, Go, and prosper. If it came to the worst, it was only Ahab's fall that was foretold, and therefore Jehoshaphat hoped he might safely venture.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke suggests that Ahab had heard of the order of verse 31, where Ben-hadad told his commanders to fight only the king of Israel. The disguise answers that order. Saul also disguised himself before his last battle at 1 Samuel 28:8.
1 Kings 22:30
“I will disguise myself - Probably he had heard of the orders given by Ben-hadad to his thirty-two captains, to fight with the king of Israel only; that is, to make their most powerful attack where he commanded, in order to take him prisoner, that he might lead him captive whose captive he formerly was; and therefore he disguised himself that he might not be known. But put thou on thy robes - What is meant by this?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 22:31-33
Syria's “thirty-two chariot commanders” are ordered to single out one man, the king of Israel. The order nearly kills Jehoshaphat instead when his robes draw their chariots toward him and he cries out. Only when the captains see he is not Ahab do they turn back.
1 Kings 22:31
“Commanded - “Had commanded.” Ben-hadad delivers his order in the hyperbolical style common in the East. His meaning is, “Make it your chief object to kill or take the king of Israel.” Apparently, his own defeat and captivity were still rankling in his mind, and he wished to retaliate on Ahab, the humiliation which he considered himself to have suffered. He shows small appreciation of the generosity which had spared his life and restored him to his kingdom.”
Albert Barnes takes the mistake as natural, with Jehoshaphat alone in royal robes. Barnes reads his cry as a call to his own men, a battle cry the Arameans would know as Judah's. In 2 Chronicles 18:31 he cries to the LORD.
1 Kings 22:32
“Surely it is the king of Israel - This was a natural supposition, as Jehoshaphat alone wore royal robes. And Jehoshaphat cried out - Jehoshaphat called to his men for help, using perhaps his own special battle-cry, which would be distinct from that of Ahab, and would probably be known to the Syrians.”
he was not the king of Israel: The order of verse 31 named one target. The commanders keep to it once they see their mistake, and Albert Barnes holds that the battle cry of Jehoshaphat told them who he was. He returns home safely at 2 Chronicles 19:1-2, where the seer Jehu rebukes the alliance.
1 Kings 22:33
“And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel,.... Against whom only their orders were to fight: that they turned back from pursuing him; for upon so great a force coming upon him he could not withstand, he fled.”
1 Kings 22:34-35
drew his bow without taking special aim: An arrow shot without aim finds the one joint a disguise could not cover. Ahab is held upright so the army will not scatter, dying at even with the blood running into the chariot. The chance shot lands exactly where 21:19 and 22:20-22 had already said this reign would end.
1 Kings 22:34
“Drew a bow at a venture - It is supposed that he shot, as the archers in general did, not aiming at any person in particular. The word לתמו lethummo, which we translate in his simplicity, has been variously understood; in his integrity, his uprightness; in his perfection; i.e., to the utmost of his skill and strength. This is most probably the meaning; and may imply both aim and power, having his butt full in view.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 22:34
“No armour is of proof against the darts of divine vengeance. Case the criminal in steel, and it is all one, he that made him can make his sword to approach him. That which to us seems altogether casual is done by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the king was propped up in his chariot: Albert Barnes gives Ahab credit for the courage of a true prince at the last. Barnes reads the rising battle through the picture of a flood at Isaiah 8:7-8. The blood in the chariot reaches the dogs at verse 38.
1 Kings 22:35
“The battle increased - See the margin; i. e. the tide of battle rose higher. Compare Isa 8:7-8. The king was stayed up in his chariot - The king’s wound made it impossible for him to remain standing without help; he therefore had himself supported in his chariot by attendants, in order that his soldiers might not lose heart, as they would be sure to do, if they knew of his peril. Ahab must not be denied the credit of right princely fortitude on this occasion. The midst of the chariot - literally, as in the margin.”
1 Kings 22:36-38
At sunset the army breaks up, and Ahab is carried to Samaria and buried. His chariot is washed at the pool of Samaria, and “the dogs licked up Ahab’s blood, according to the word that the LORD had spoken”. The word is Elijah's, spoken in the vineyard at 21:19.
So the king died and was: Ephrem the Syrian notes that Ahab received a royal burial in Samaria, where the threat of 21:24 had spoken of dogs and birds. He links the burial to the humbling of 21:29, which moved the full calamity to the days of his son. Ahab's blood still meets the dogs.
where the prostitutes bathed: Matthew Henry hears Psalm 68:23 in the scene, where the tongues of dogs share in the blood of the enemy. John Gill notes that the Greek Septuagint adds swine to the dogs, a detail he judges unlikely in Israel. Samaria was where Ahab built the temple of Baal at 16:32.
1 Kings 22:38
“And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria,.... After the body was taken out, very likely the chariot driver, who drove it into the pool, and plunged it into it, as the word signifies, to cleanse it from the blood of his master: and the dogs licked up his blood; mixed with the water of the pool; the Septuagint adds, "the swine", which is not probable, such creatures not being bred in the land of Israel: and they washed his armour; his coat of mail, through the joints of which the blood issued, and ran upon it.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 22:38
“The dogs licked up his blood - Some of the rabbins think that this was in the very place where Naboth was stoned; see on 1Ki 21:19 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 22:38
“Now Naboth's blood was avenged ( ch. xxi. 19 ), and that word of David, as well as Elijah's word, was fulfilled ( Ps. lxviii. 23 ), That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thy enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 22:39-40
the ivory palace and all the cities he built: The closing formula names Ahab's ivory house among his works, the same kind of luxury Amos 6:4 later condemns in Israel's houses of ivory. Twenty-two years end in one summary sentence and a burial.
1 Kings 22:39
“The ivory house - So called from the character of its ornamentation. Ivory was largely used in the ancient world as a covering of wood-work, and seems to have been applied, not only to furniture, but to the doors and walls of houses. Nothing is known of the cities built by Ahab; but the fact is important as indicating the general prosperity of the country in his time, and his own activity as a ruler.”
And Ahab rested with his fathers: Rested with his fathers is the book's formula for a king's death, and it stands here over a king killed in battle. Ahaziah reigned two years, by verse 51. His death is recorded at 2 Kings 1:17.
1 Kings 22:40
“So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead, Of whom more is said in the latter part of this chapter, and in the following book.”
Jehoshaphat's long reign; ships broken at Ezion-geber
1 Kings 22:41-43
Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah: Jehoshaphat's record opens with the formula this book gives every king of Judah. His mother Azubah is named as every queen mother in this book is named. The same qualifier attached to nearly every good king before him is attached here too: “The high places, however, were not removed”.
1 Kings 22:41
“And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. And as Ahab reigned twenty two years, 1Ki 16:29, Jehoshaphat must reign about eighteen years with him, and seven years after him.”
Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when: Jehoshaphat began to reign in the fourth year of Ahab, by verse 41. The Chronicler tells his reign at far greater length in 2 Chronicles 17 to 20, with his teachers of the law and his judges. His name means the LORD has judged.
1 Kings 22:42
“Jehoshaphat was thirty five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem,.... So that he must be sixty years of age when he died: and his mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi; but of what family they were is not said.”
in all the ways of his father Asa: Albert Barnes rates Jehoshaphat above Asa, who fell away in his old age at 2 Chronicles 16:2-12. Barnes also meets the claim of 2 Chronicles 17:6 that Jehoshaphat removed the high places. For Barnes, Chronicles gives the intent and Kings the result.
1 Kings 22:43
“On the general piety of Asa, see above, 1Ki 15:11-15 and references. Jehoshaphat seems to have been a still better king, for he did not, like Asa, fall away in his old age 2Ch 16:2-12. The high places were not taken away - This seems to contradict 2Ch 17:6. Probably the writer of Chronicles refers to the desire and intention of the monarch, while the author of Kings records the practical failure of his efforts.”
1 Kings 22:44-46
made peace with the king: Jehoshaphat's peace with Israel closes the war thread the chapter opened with, and the record is filed to the chronicles of Judah. One reform is credited to him plainly: he banished from the land “the male shrine prostitutes who remained”, the work Asa began at 15:12.
1 Kings 22:44
“This refers probably to an early period in Jehoshaphat’s reign - about his eighth or his ninth year - when he closed the long series of wars between the two kingdoms by a formal peace, perhaps at once cemented by a marriage between Jehoram and Athaliah (1Ki 22:2 note).”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 22:44
“Made peace - With Ahab first, and then with his son. This is noted as a blemish in his government, 2 Chron. xix, 2, and proved of most mischievous consequence to his posterity.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat: Albert Barnes names Jehu son of Hanani as the writer of the history of Jehoshaphat, by 2 Chronicles 20:34. The same Jehu spoke the word against Baasha at 1 Kings 16:1. The wars of this verse include the victory over Moab and Ammon at 2 Chronicles 20.
1 Kings 22:45
“The book of the chronicles ... - Compare 1Ki 22:39 note. The biographer of Jehoshaphat appears to have been Jehu, the son of Hanani 2Ch 20:34.”
the male shrine prostitutes who remained: The Hebrew term means consecrated ones, and Adam Clarke explains it as the men given over to the rites of Baal and Ashtoreth. Deuteronomy 23:17 forbade any such person in Israel. Clarke holds that the cult was gone from Judah after this.
1 Kings 22:46
“The remnant of the sodomites - הקדש of the consecrated persons; or it may rather apply here to the system of pollution, effeminacy, and debauch. He destroyed the thing itself; the abominations of Priapus, and the rites of Venus, Baal, and Ashtaroth. No more of that impure worship was to be found in Judea.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 22:47-48
no king in Edom: Edom sits under a deputy rather than a king of its own, the arrangement David set in place at 2 Sam 8:14 holding under Jehoshaphat. His ships built for Ophir's gold never sail, “wrecked at Ezion-geber”, the same port Solomon's fleet had used at 9:26 a generation earlier.
1 Kings 22:47
“In the time of Solomon, Hadad 1Ki 11:14, according to the Septuagint, “reigned over Edom.” It appears by the present passage that the country had been again reduced either by Jehoshaphat, or by an earlier king, and was dependent on the kingdom of Judah, being governed by a “deputy” or viceroy, who, however, was allowed the royal title (compare 2Ki 3:9, 2Ki 3:12, 2Ki 3:26). This government of dependencies by means of subject-kings was the all but universal practice in the East down to the time of Cyrus (the 1Ki 4:21 note).”
built ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir: Adam Clarke notes that some render ships of Tarshish as ships of burden, and that Houbigant doubted the meaning of the word. The name marks large vessels built for long voyages. Solomon's fleet had brought gold from Ophir at 9:28.
1 Kings 22:48
“Ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold - In the parallel place (2Ch 20:36) it is said that Jehoshaphat joined himself to Ahaziah, to make ships to go to Tharshish; and they made the ships in Ezion-geber. Concerning these places, and the voyage thither, see the notes on 1Ki 9:26-28 (note); 1Ki 10:11 (note), 1Ki 10:22 (note). Some translate, instead of ships of Tharshish, ships of burden. See Houbigant, who expresses himself doubtful as to the meaning of the word.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 22:49-50
Ahaziah's offer to join the shipping venture is refused, a rare instance of Jehoshaphat drawing back from partnership with Ahab's house. 2 Chronicles names the reason, in the prophet’s word at 20:37: “Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the LORD has destroyed your works”.
1 Kings 22:49
“Would not - He did join with Ahaziah before this time, and before the ships were broken: for the breaking of the ships mentioned here, is noted to be the effect of his sin, in joining with Ahaziah, 2 Chron. xx, 37. And Jehoshaphat being warned and chastised by God for this sin, would not be persuaded to repeat it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 22:49
“2Ch 20:35-36, explains that the two kings conjointly built the fleet with which the Ophir trade (1Ki 9:28 note) was to be re-opened. Ahaziah had thus an interest in the ships; and when they were wrecked, attributing, as it would seem, the calamity to the unskillfulness of his ally’s mariners, he proposed that the fleet should be manned in part by Israelite sailors - men probably accustomed to the sea, perhaps trained at Tyre.”
buried with them in the city: John Gill names the royal tombs in Zion, where David, Rehoboam, Abijam and Asa already lay. Jehoram, the son who follows him, had married a daughter of Ahab, by 2 Kings 8:18. The alliance of verse 4 now enters the line of David.
1 Kings 22:50
“And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father,.... In the city of Sion, where David, Rehoboam, Abijam, and Asa, were buried: and Jehoram his son reigned in his stead; who was now thirty two years of age, and he reigned ten years.”
Ahaziah serves Baal as his father did
1 Kings 22:51-53
Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel: Ahaziah's formula closes the scroll's first half. He “walked in the ways of his father and mother and of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin”, and served Baal. Elijah's ministry still has this king to reckon with in 2 Kings 1.
Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel: Ahaziah son of Ahab becomes king of Israel and reigns in Samaria two years. John Gill notes that verse 41 points to Jehoshaphat's eighteenth year and suggests a reign begun while Ahab still lived. Albert Barnes counts them as little more than one year.
1 Kings 22:51
“Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah,.... It is observed, that Jehoshaphat began to reign in the fourth year of Ahab, and Ahab reigned twenty two years, see 1Ki 22:41, and therefore Ahab's son must begin to reign in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat; but perhaps he was made king in his father's lifetime, before he went on his expedition to Ramothgilead, or Ahab's reign was not twenty two years complete: and reigned two years over Israel; not complete, as appears from 2Ki 3:1.”
in the ways of his father and mother: Albert Barnes notes the words about his mother occur nowhere else in Kings, a mark of the hold Jezebel had on the house of Ahab. John Gill adds that Jezebel was still living and serving Baal. Barnes would begin 2 Kings with these verses about Ahaziah.
1 Kings 22:52
“Which evil was idolatry: and walked in the way of his father; his father Ahab, who worshipped Baal: and in the way of his mother; his mother Jezebel, who was still living, and served Baal and Astarte, the deities of her country: and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat; who set up and worshipped the golden calves: who made Israel to sin; by the worship of the same, into which he drew them by his example and authority.”
Ahaziah served and worshiped Baal: John Gill points ahead to 2 Kings 1, where Ahaziah falls through a lattice and sends to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron. Elijah meets his messengers on the road. The story of this king runs on into the next book.
1 Kings 22:53
“For he served Baal, and worshipped him,.... That is, Ahaziah served him, as his father had done, and his mother still did: and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel, according to all that his father had done; of which there is an instance in the first chapter of the following book; for falling through a lattice, and becoming sick upon it, he quickly died, having sent messengers to inquire of the god of Ekron whether he should die or not.”
How this psalm is built
The form: A prophetic contest inside a war narrative, closed by the regnal formula for two kings and the handover to the next scroll, as Keil classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| He never prophesies good for me, but only bad | Ahab says it to Jehoshaphat at verse 8, before Micaiah is fetched, and says it again at verse 18 after the vision has been given. The second use judges the man's reputation rather than weighing what he has just said. Keil and John Gill read it as the verdict of a king who had already decided. Ahab states his objection to truth telling as plainly as Scripture records anyone stating it.Carl Friedrich Keil and John Gill, The Books of the Kings, 1872, and Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Kings 22:18. | 1 Kings 22:8, 1 Kings 22:18 |
| Go up and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king | The four hundred give the sentence at verse 6, all of them give it again at verse 12, and Micaiah gives it back word for word at verse 15. Adam Clarke and Keil read the third use as mimicry, which Ahab recognises at once and presses past. A chorus that had already answered the king's question is repeated to him by the one man who will contradict it.Adam Clarke and Carl Friedrich Keil, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and The Books of the Kings, 1872, on 1 Kings 22:15. | 1 Kings 22:6, 1 Kings 22:12, 1 Kings 22:15 |
| Sheep that have no shepherd | Micaiah's first vision at verse 17 shows all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd. The phrase had been used once before, at Numbers 27:17, where Moses asks for a successor so the congregation will not be left without one. Matthew Henry and F. W. Farrar mark the echo. The shepherdless flock here is the army Ahab is about to take to Ramoth-gilead without coming back.Matthew Henry and F. W. Farrar, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, and The First Book of Kings, The Expositor's Bible, 1893, on 1 Kings 22:17. | 1 Kings 22:17 |
| I saw the LORD sitting on His throne | Micaiah answers the king's contempt with a second vision at verses 19 to 23, and it is the one throne room scene in the book. The LORD asks who will entice Ahab, one suggests this and another that, a spirit comes forward and names its own means, and the LORD sends it. Micaiah then applies it to the four hundred standing in front of him. The vision is reported to a court at a city gate about a court in heaven.Carl Friedrich Keil and Matthew Henry, The Books of the Kings, 1872, and Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Kings 22:19. | 1 Kings 22:19, 1 Kings 22:20, 1 Kings 22:21, 1 Kings 22:22, 1 Kings 22:23 |
| According to the word that the LORD had spoken | Elijah had said in the stolen vineyard at 21:19 that dogs would lick Ahab's blood. Verse 38 records the chariot washed at the pool of Samaria and the dogs licking his blood, and then adds the clause that makes the connection itself. Keil and F. W. Farrar read the closing clause as the text supplying its own footnote. The same dogs formula runs back through Jeroboam's house at 14:11 and Baasha's at 16:4 before it reaches this king.Carl Friedrich Keil and F. W. Farrar, The Books of the Kings, 1872, and The First Book of Kings, The Expositor's Bible, 1893, on 1 Kings 22:38. | 1 Kings 22:38 |
| The regnal formula, run out twice at the close | Verses 41 to 53 file two reigns in the book's fixed order. Jehoshaphat's accession is dated by the year of the rival king, and his age and his years are given. His mother Azubah is named as every queen mother of Judah is named, his conduct is graded, and the acts are filed to the chronicles. Ahaziah's notice runs the same order for the north. Keil and John Gill mark the qualifier attached to nearly every good king of Judah, that the high places were not removed.Carl Friedrich Keil and John Gill, The Books of the Kings, 1872, and Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Kings 22:43. | 1 Kings 22:41, 1 Kings 22:42, 1 Kings 22:43, 1 Kings 22:45, 1 Kings 22:51, 1 Kings 22:52 |
The debated concept
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
The first question is how far to press the throne room scene at verses 19 to 22. Some readers take it as a true disclosure of the heavenly court shown to the prophet. Others take it as a dramatic form clothing a judgment already settled, given in the imagery of a royal council because that is the imagery the hearers had. The chapter's exposition notes carry both and choose between them nowhere, and this page does the same.
The second is what the lying spirit is and what God's part in it amounts to. Carl Friedrich Keil reads the spirit as a real agent sent under divine judicial permission against a king who had already chosen to believe a flattering word. Matthew Henry stresses that the deceiving belongs to the spirit's own nature, and that God's part is to hand a self deceived king over to the counsel he wanted. Both readings leave the justice of God intact. Micaiah's own summary at verse 23 states the fact and settles nothing about the mechanism.
The third is Micaiah's first answer at verse 15. He gives the four hundred's sentence word for word, and Adam Clarke and Keil read it as mimicry rather than agreement. The evidence is Ahab's own reaction, since the king who wanted that answer from anyone else demands the truth the moment he hears it from this man.
The divine connection
The chapter is the book's clearest case of a word outrunning a man's precautions. Ahab hears the sentence, imprisons the man who gave it, and then takes the one step that should have made him safe. He takes off the robes and sends his ally out in them.
The arrow is the answer. A man draws without taking special aim and hits the seam between the plates, so the one death the word had named happens to the one man in the field dressed as a commoner. Verse 35 has him propped upright in his chariot through the day's fighting so the army will not scatter, and the blood runs into the chariot floor.
The pool at Samaria closes two chapters at once. Elijah had spoken the sentence in Naboth's vineyard, and verse 38 records it kept and says so in its own clause. The thread that runs from a farmer's refusal to a king's chariot is the book's own argument that the prophetic word is the true throne over the throne.
Keep studying
Studies9
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Kings 22:10; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Books of the Kings, 1872, on 1 Kings 22:41; F. W. Farrar, The First Book of Kings, The Expositor's Bible, 1893, on 1 Kings 22:28 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Kings 22:18.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Ephrem the Syrian, ON THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS 22:37; F. W. Farrar, The First Book of Kings (Expositor's Bible); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Kings; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.257-62.