The books of Chronicles

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Chapter XVIII.

1–3 (compare 1 Kings xxii. 1–4).
The Alliance between Jehoshaphat and Ahab.

¹Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance; and he joined affinity with Ahab.

1. joined affinity] Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat married Athaliah the daughter of Ahab (2 Kings viii. 16, 18, 26). Athaliah though called “daughter” of Omri in 2 Kings viii. 26 was really his grand-daughter.

²And after certain years he went down to Ahab to Samaria. And Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the people that were with him, and moved him to go up with him to Ramoth-gilead.

2. killed sheep and oxen] This phrase implies a feast, for flesh is eaten in the East only on festal occasions. The phrase used for supplying necessary food is to set bread and water before one.

Ramoth-gilead] Deuteronomy iv. 43; 1 Kings iv. 13, xxii. 3; 2 Kings viii. 28, ix. 1 and 14. Ramoth was a city of refuge and (under Solomon) the seat of the governor of a province. Probably it was the most important Israelite city east of Jordan. Its site has not been certainly identified (see Barnes’ note on 1 Kings iv. 13). Probably it was on the Yarmuk near Edrei. In 1 Chronicles vi. 80 it is mentioned as a city assigned to the sons of Merari. Apparently it was captured from Israel by the Syrians in the time of Baasha or of Omri, and was not restored in accordance with the treaty referred to in 1 Kings xx. 34.

³And Ahab king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Wilt thou go with me to Ramoth-gilead? And he answered him, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people; and we will be with thee in the war.

3. and we will be with thee in the war] In 1 Kings the corresponding phrase is, my horses as thy horses. The phrases in 1 Kings need not be more than the expression of oriental politeness. At the present day the Arab says to his guest, My house is thy house, but he generally means very little by the words. The Chronicler, however, interpreting by the event, turns the vaguer phrase of Kings into a definite promise.

4–27 (= 1 Kings xxii. 5–28).
The Prophecy of Micaiah.

This narrative, apart from its intrinsic interest, is of great value for the welcome light it throws upon the prophets in Israel. The direct references of the later Prophets have accustomed us to the thought that they had to contend with unworthy representatives of their calling. Here we are made to realise with peculiar vividness that even in the early stages of the national history the false prophet was a menace to Israel’s spiritual enlightenment. Micaiah spake few words, yet he deserves to rank with the great Prophets. He resembles them at least in his overmastering conviction of the truth and in his resolution to proclaim it, whatever cost of personal suffering it may entail. His opponents were professedly servants of Jehovah, and it is noteworthy that Micaiah does not accuse them of deliberate intent to deceive Ahab but rather of self-deception and ignorance of the truth (verse 21). Their ignorance of course was blameworthy, for it was due to their willingness to prophesy smooth things: they lacked that utter integrity of heart and entire devotion to his prophetic calling which Micaiah possessed.

⁴And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord to-day.

4. Jehoshaphat] Compare 1 Kings iii. 11.

Inquire ... at the word] Compare Daniel ii. 10 (Authorized Version), “no king ... asked such things at any magician.” The use of “at” after verbs of asking is obsolete.

⁵Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for God shall deliver it into the hand of the king.

5. the prophets] These no doubt were prophets of Jehovah (not of Baal); compare verse 4 and note on verse 6.

Shall we go ... or shall I forbear?] In 1 Kings, “Shall I go ... or shall I forbear?” (so LXX., but not Peshitṭa, of Chronicles).

⁶But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here besides a prophet of the Lord, that we might inquire of him? ⁷And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he never prophesieth good concerning me, but always evil: the same is Micaiah the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

6. But Jehoshaphat said] The insertion of this lengthy account of an event which principally concerns the Northern Kingdom is remarkable, seeing that the Chronicler nowhere else inserts a narrative dealing with the affairs of north Israel. Some commentators find the chief motive for its insertion in this verse which credits Jehoshaphat with an honourable desire to ascertain Jehovah’s real will. A secondary motive may be that the story shows very clearly the obstinate wickedness of Ahab, as the Chronicler would regard it, and so lends point to the censure which is subsequently passed on Jehoshaphat (xix. 2) for his alliance with the northern king.

Is there not here besides a prophet of the Lord] Or, Hath not the Lord here yet another prophet. The unanimity of the four hundred prophets aroused the suspicion of Jehoshaphat.

⁸Then the king of Israel called an officer¹, and said, Fetch quickly Micaiah the son of Imla.

8. called an officer] The Hebrew word means “eunuch.” From 1 Samuel viii. 15 we may perhaps conclude that such officers were known in Israel from the very beginning of the monarchy. Compare 1 Chronicles xxviii. 1, note.

⁹Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, and they sat in an open place¹ at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them.

9. in an open place] Render, in a threshing-floor. The threshing-floor was convenient as being a large flat open space; compare Genesis l. 10; 1 Chronicles xiii. 9, xxi. 18 ff.

¹⁰And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron, and said, Thus saith the Lord, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until they be consumed. ¹¹And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper: for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. ¹²And the messenger that went to call Micaiah spake to him, saying, Behold, the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one mouth: let thy word therefore, I pray thee, be like one of theirs, and speak thou good.

10. made him horns of iron] For a similar use of symbolic action by a prophet compare Jeremiah xxvii. 2 (also xxviii. 10). For the meaning of the phrase compare Amos vi. 13, “Have we not taken to us horns?” i.e. “Have we not acquired military power?”

shalt thou push] Compare Deuteronomy xxxiii. 17. So Rameses II is described in an Egyptian psalm as “the strong bull against the Ethiopians; his horn pushes them.” (Erman, Ancient Egypt, English Translation, p. 57.)

¹³And Micaiah said, As the Lord liveth, what my God saith, that will I speak.

13. what my God saith] Render, surely, what my God shall say. The Divine message has not yet come to the prophet.

¹⁴And when he was come to the king, the king said unto him, Micaiah¹, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And he said, Go ye up, and prosper; and they shall be delivered into your hand.

14. Go ye up ... into your hand] Micaiah addresses both kings. In 1 Kings Ahab only is addressed, Go and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. Micaiah repeats in mocking tones the utterance of the other prophets.

¹⁵And the king said to him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou speak unto me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?

15. that thou speak unto me nothing but the truth] The scorn in Micaiah’s voice was noticed by the king.

¹⁶And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and the Lord said, These have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace. ¹⁷And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?

16. as sheep that have no shepherd] Compare Matthew ix. 36.

the Lord said, These have no master; let them return, etc.] The prophet has had a vision of Israel’s army, defeated and scattered, like a flock of sheep wandering shepherdless upon the mountains. God, he means, proclaims that in the coming battle their king will fall and they will be beaten and dispersed.

¹⁸And he said, Therefore hear ye the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left.

18. And he said] There are three stages in the prophet’s dealings with the king, (1) irony in verse 14, (2) serious advice in verse 16, (3) denunciation of death in verses 18–22.

the host of heaven] angelic beings are meant, as in Psalms ciii. 21, and probably also in Nehemiah ix. 6; Daniel iv. 35, etc., but in these passages the usual meaning “the stars” is possible. The parallel verse in Kings (1 Kings xxii. 19) is apparently the earliest clear instance of the phrase in the significance “angelic beings.”

¹⁹And the Lord said, Who shall entice¹ Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one spake saying after this manner, and another saying after that manner.

19. Who shall entice Ahab] So 1 Kings (Revised Version). The same Hebrew word is used in Jeremiah xx. 7, “thou hast deceived (margin ‘enticed’) me,” where Jeremiah complains that he has been called to the fruitless labour of a hated prophet. For the underlying thought that delusion is sometimes a preliminary part of Divine punishment compare 2 Thessalonians ii. 11 (compare 2 Thessalonians ii. 9) and the famous saying, “quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat.” It should be noted however that the “lying spirit” in the mouth of the 400 prophets played only a subordinate part in Ahab’s fall, and indeed could have played no part at all, but for the fact that the king was more than willing to be enticed. Ahab had already made up his mind; he consulted the 400 only as an afterthought to satisfy Jehoshaphat (verse 4), he excluded the plain-speaking Micaiah until Jehoshaphat insisted on his presence (verses 6, 7), and he scorned the true prophet’s warning of the falseness of the 400 (verse 26). Delusion as a Divine punishment comes only upon the man who is willing to be deluded.

²⁰And there came forth a spirit¹, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? ²¹And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt entice him, and shalt prevail also: go forth, and do so.

20. a spirit] Hebrew the spirit, but the definite article simply singles out one spirit from the rest. The Evil Spirit (Hebrew “the Satan”) is not meant here but simply a superhuman being, such as was generally conceived to be the cause of the ecstatic condition manifested by prophets of this type (compare 1 Samuel x. 5, 6).

²²Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets; and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee.

22. the Lord hath put a lying spirit...] This and the preceding verse are singularly interesting for the frankness with which they apparently regard Jehovah as causing moral evil. Of course the passage is not to be regarded as a philosophical pronouncement on the origin of moral evil. Rather is it to be treated as a naïve expression regarding a great fact of human life—see the conclusion of the note on verse 19, who shall entice Ahab. Physical evils are constantly declared in the Old Testament to originate in Jehovah’s will; they are often sent by Him as punishments for sin. Here too it is only as the penalty of previous sinfulness (verse 8 “I hate him”) that the evil moral condition of the prophets who are deluded by the lying spirit from Jehovah is imposed. A parallel may be found in Ezekiel xiv. 1–11. It is, however, a higher plane of thought when Jeremiah expresses the conviction that the false prophets of his day are not inspired at all by Jehovah, but speak solely out of their own hearts (Jeremiah xxiii. 16, 21).

²³Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and smote Micaiah upon the cheek, and said, Which way went the spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee?

23. Zedekiah] He takes the lead as in verse 10.

smote ... upon the cheek] This phrase is tantamount to “gave an insulting blow”; compare Micah v. 1; Matthew v. 39.

²⁴And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see on that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber¹ to hide thyself.

24. Behold, thou shalt see] Micaiah answers Zedekiah’s gibe with the verb “see” (rather than “know”) because of its double meaning, “Behold, thou shalt be a seer, thou shalt possess the power of vision,” when it is too late.

go into an inner chamber] i.e. seek safety in hiding from enemies; compare 1 Kings xx. 30 (same Hebrew phrase).

²⁵And the king of Israel said, Take ye Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king’s son;

25. carry him back] Micaiah is not to accompany the expedition, having foretold its failure.

²⁶and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I return in peace.

26. bread of affliction ... water of affliction] Compare Ezekiel iv. 9–11.

²⁷And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hear, ye peoples, all of you.

27. ye peoples, all of you] The “peoples” represented at this gathering were probably, Israel, Judah, Edom, and Moab. The clause occurs in Micah i. 2, and in all probability has been added to the text of Kings (which the Chronicler here copies) by a glossator, who perhaps thought that Micaiah and Micah were one and the same person.

28–34 (= 1 Kings xxii. 29–37).
The Death of Ahab at Ramoth-gilead.

²⁸So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. ²⁹And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but put thou on thy robes. So the king of Israel disguised himself; and they went into the battle.

29. I will disguise myself] Despite the warning uttered by Micaiah the two kings decide to seek battle, and Ahab, whose failing was not the lack of courage, resolved to take part in the fighting. To avert the fulfilment of the prophecy, he suggests that he should not wear his royal insignia, whilst Jehoshaphat, whose life had not been threatened, should wear his robes and be the obvious leader of the allied army.

and they went into the battle] 1 Kings (more correctly) and he (Ahab) went into the battle (so LXX. here).

³⁰Now the king of Syria had commanded the captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel.

30. the captains of his chariots] Thirty-two in number (1 Kings). While the rest of the Syrian army met the Israelite attack, the chariots were to act as an independent force, whose primary task should be to kill or capture Ahab. The king of Syria felt himself overmatched and thought that the only chance of victory lay in the fall of the Israelite commander. Compare 2 Kings iii. 26 (the king of Moab tries to break through to the king of Edom).

³¹And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, It is the king of Israel. Therefore they turned about to fight against him: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him; and God moved them to depart from him. ³²And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him.

31. saw Jehoshaphat ... to fight] The captains of the chariots who had been instructed to direct all their efforts towards slaying the king of Israel, at length perceived Jehoshaphat conspicuous in his royal robes. The various chariots turned aside from lesser enemies, and then, discovering their mistake and obeying their orders, left him to continue their search for Ahab.

and God moved them to depart from him] These words anticipate verse 32 and are not found in 1 Kings Jehoshaphat’s cry was to his soldiers for aid, but the Chronicler apparently took it to be a cry to Jehovah, and accordingly added these words.

³³And a certain man drew his bow at a venture¹, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness²: wherefore he said to the driver of the chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am sore wounded.

33. And a certain man drew a bow] Render, But a certain man had drawn a bow. God had already brought about that which the Syrians were labouring to perform.

at a venture] literally in his innocence, i.e. without knowing that he was aiming at Ahab. Compare 2 Samuel xv. 11.

between the joints of the harness] Probably between the breastplate (or coat of mail) and the appendages to it; the wound would be in the lower part of the body.

³⁴And the battle increased that day: howbeit the king of Israel stayed himself up in his chariot against the Syrians until the even: and about the time of the going down of the sun he died.

34. stayed himself up in his chariot] 1 Kings was stayed up. Ahab sustained his reputation as a good soldier (compare 1 Kings xx. 14, xxii. 31) to the last; his death caused the failure of the attack on Ramoth (1 Kings xxii. 36).