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1 Kings 22:16

in 1 Kings 22

But the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear not to tell me anything but the truth in the name of the LORD?”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou speak unto me nothing but the truth in the name of Jehovah?

KJV

And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord?

This verse in 1 Kings 22

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

How many times must I make you swear

on 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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), as if he sincerely desired to know both what God would have him to do and what he would do with him, yet intending to represent the prophet as a perverse ill-humoured man, that would not tell him the truth till he was thus put to his oath, or adjured to do it.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

And the king said unto him, how many times shall I adjure thee,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak--On the way the messenger who conducted [Micaiah] to the royal presence informed him of the tenor of the prophecies already given and recommended him to agree with the rest, no doubt from the kindly motive of seeing him released from imprisonment.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

Go up and be successful. He did not say [it] to him in God’s Name. 6 He was merely wishing him good luck, or giving him a blessing that he succeed.—Metzudas Dovid
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on I Kings 22:15:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
These have no masters. You alone will die in the war, as the matter is stated below, “Do not battle the small or the great, but only with the king of Yisroel himself.” 7 Below v.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on I Kings 22:17:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

16 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּ֤אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • אֵלָיו֙to him

    ʾelavH413 →5510 times

  • הַמֶּ֔לֶךְthe king

    hamelekhH4428 →2525 times

  • עַד־until

    ʾad-H5704 →1261 times

  • כַּמֶּ֥הhow many?

    kamehH4100 →752 times

  • פְעָמִ֖יםtimes

    feamimH6471 →118 times

  • אֲנִ֣י[will] I

    ʾaniH589 →874 times

  • מַשְׁבִּעֶ֑ךָmake swear you

    mashbiekhaH7650 →186 times

  • אֲ֠שֶׁרthat

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • לֹֽא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • תְדַבֵּ֥רyou must speak

    tedaberH1696 →1141 times

  • אֵלַ֛יto me

    ʾelaiH413 →5510 times

  • רַק־only

    rak-H7535 →109 times

  • אֱמֶ֖תtruth

    ʾemetH571 →127 times

  • בְּשֵׁ֥םin [the] name of

    beshemH8034 →864 times

  • יְהוָֽה׃Yahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Joshua 6:26

    At that time Joshua invoked this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho; at the cost of his firstborn he will lay its foundations;…

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 16:34

      In Ahab’s days, Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho. At the cost of Abiram his firstborn he laid its foundation, and at the cost of Segub his youngest he set up its gates, according to…

    • Acts 19:13

      Now there were some itinerant Jewish exorcists who tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits. They would say, “I bind you by Jesus, whom Paul proclaims.”

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Matthew 26:63

      But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to Him, “I charge You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.”

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Matthew 26:63

    But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to Him, “I charge You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.”

    it leads to

    • Leviticus 5:1

      “If someone sins by failing to testify when he hears a public charge about something he has witnessed, whether he has seen it or learned of it, he shall bear the iniquity.

    • Isaiah 53:7

      He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not…

    • Matthew 16:16

      Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

    • Matthew 27:12

      And when He was accused by the chief priests and elders, He gave no answer.

  • Through

    1 Samuel 14:24

    Now the men of Israel were in distress that day, for Saul had placed the troops under an oath, saying, “Cursed is the man who eats any food before evening, before I have taken…

    it leads to

    • Joshua 6:26

      At that time Joshua invoked this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho; at the cost of his firstborn he will lay its foundations;…

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Kings

The Death of Ahab — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Death of Ahab — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

This page draws on F. W. Farrar, The First Book of Kings (Expositor's Bible); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.