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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
22:1-40 Ahab Killed in Battle. Although the house of Ahab stands under a prophetic curse, the full outworking of God's wrath will be delayed until the reign of Ahab's son (see 21:27-29). Ahab's own death, however, has now been foretold by two different prophets, with apparently no delay in sight (20:41-42; 21:19); the appearance of a third prophet now brings the reader to that event.
22:1-5 The peace that followed the battle of Aphek (20:26-34) lasted three years. Even after such a crushing defeat, the king of Syria was able to hold on to the strategically important city of Ramoth-gilead in Transjordan, which was situated on a major trade route running from the Red Sea to Damascus. More about Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, will be revealed shortly (22:41-50), but from these verses two things are already apparent: he is at peace with Ahab (cf. v. 44) after the long war described in 14:30; 15:6-7, 16-22; and he is a devout man (cf. 22:43, 46), happy to go with Ahab to battle at Ramoth-gilead, but first wishing to inquire . . . for the word of the Lord.
22:6-7 gathered the prophets together. The Hebrew expression occurs in the OT only here (with its parallel in 2 Chron. 18:5) and in 1 Kings 18:20, where Ahab had previously gathered prophets together in response to Elijah's demand for the attendance of "the
22:8 Let not the king say so. A prophet of the Lord should not be marginalized simply because of what has happened in the past (he never prophesies good concerning me).
22:10-12 The harvesting of cereal crops in Israel was followed by a threshing (beating) and winnowing process, in which the threshed material was thrown into the air with a fork or a shovel to allow the breeze to separate the grain, the straw, and the chaff. The grain would then be cleaned and stored in jars, grain pits, or storage houses. The location of this activity was the threshing floor, an open area sufficiently large for the task, sometimes situated (as in this case) at the city gate, and useful for large gatherings of people. It is here that all the prophets were prophesying before the kings, and here that Zedekiah acted out his play with horns, a reminder once again of the worship of Baal and Asherah (see notes on 12:27-28; 16:31-33).
22:15-16 Go up and triumph. Surprisingly, Micaiah's first words to Ahab are exactly those of the other prophets (cf. vv. 12, 15), but Ahab sees that his words are a mere mocking imitation of these court prophets who tell him only what he wants to hear.
22:21 a spirit came forward. The imagery is that of a council of war, with the heavenly king sitting on his throne surrounded by his army, making plans to defeat Ahab in battle.
22:23 put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these . . . prophets. Though God himself does not do evil, he sometimes uses evil agents to accomplish his purposes (see notes on 1 Sam. 16:14; 2 Chron. 18:15-22).
22:24 How did the Spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you? Micaiah's claim in v. 23 was that Zedekiah and his colleagues had a lying spirit. Zedekiah's response is that he himself has been influenced by "the Spirit of the Lord," who cannot have been speaking to both him and Micaiah.
22:25 All will become clear, Micaiah claims, when the disaster that he is predicting eventually falls and Zedekiah is forced to hide away in the city inside someone's home (the inner chamber was also Ben-hadad's hiding place after the disaster at Aphek, 20:30).
22:26 Amon is evidently one of Ahab's high officials, entrusted with control of city affairs in Samaria, while Joash the king's son is responsible for the confinement of prisoners (see also Jer. 36:26; 38:6). It is not clear whether this office requires that its holder literally be the son of the king.
22:30 the king of Israel disguised himself. Ahab's disguise is evidence of unclear thinking, for if Micaiah has truly been lying, there is no danger, and if he has been telling the truth, Ahab will die, whatever he does. The disguise is also a harbinger of disaster; it recalls the actions of both Saul and Jeroboam just before their deaths (cf. 1 Sam. 28:8; 1 Kings 14:1-18). It is foolish to think that a mere disguise will hide someone from the Lord's purposes.
22:32-33 Jehoshaphat cried out. And when the captains . . . saw that it was not the king of Israel. Although Jehoshaphat alone is wearing royal robes, he is saved from death because his Judean shout (either its form or its content) reveals that he is not the man whom Ben-hadad is determined to kill (v. 31).
22:34 between the scale armor and the breastplate. The arrow shot at random flies unerringly to one of the few undefended spots on Ahab's body, and thus fulfills what Micaiah had warned of in vv. 20-23.
22:35 propped up in his chariot. The king stays on the battlefield all day long, presumably to encourage his troops; but at sunset he dies.
22:38 according to the word of the Lord. See 21:19, although that verse does not mention prostitutes, but only dogs. There is already a close association between the two, however, in Deut. 23:17-18, which enjoins the Israelite never to become a cult prostitute (Hb. qedeshah for a woman or qadesh for a man) or to bring into the temple the earnings of a female prostitute (Hb. zonah) or a male prostitute (Hb. keleb, lit., "dog"; see ESV footnote on Deut. 23:18). This association reminds the reader of the idolatrous career that has brought Ahab to this ignominious end.
