1 Kings 22: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Ahab, king of Israel, asks Jehoshaphat of Judah to join him in taking Ramoth-gilead back from Syria. Four hundred prophets promise victory, but the prophet Micaiah foretells Israel scattered without a master and describes a lying spirit sent to entice Ahab; Ahab jails him and goes to war disguised, and a randomly shot arrow kills him. The chapter then closes out Ahab's reign, records Jehoshaphat's twenty-five years over Judah, and begins the short reign of Ahab's son Ahaziah.

Claim by Claim

1. 22:1
   • Three years passed with no war between Aram and Israel.
2. 22:2
   • In the third year Jehoshaphat came down to the king of Israel.
   • Jehoshaphat was king of Judah.
3. 22:3
   • The king of Israel spoke to his servants.
   • The king of Israel said that Ramoth in Gilead belongs to them.
   • The king of Israel said that they are doing nothing about it.
   • The king of Israel said that they are not taking Ramoth in Gilead from the hand of the king of Aram.
4. 22:4
   • The king of Israel asked Jehoshaphat whether he would go with him to battle at Ramoth-gilead.
   • Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel that he was as the king of Israel was.
   • Jehoshaphat said his people were as the king of Israel's people.
   • Jehoshaphat said his horses were as the king of Israel's horses.
5. 22:5
   • Jehoshaphat asked the king of Israel to inquire for the word of the LORD first.
6. 22:6
   • The king of Israel gathered the prophets together.
   • The prophets numbered about four hundred men.
   • The king of Israel asked them whether he should go to battle against Ramoth-gilead or refrain.
   • The prophets told him to go up.
   • The prophets said the Lord would give Ramoth-gilead into the king's hand.
7. 22:7
   • Jehoshaphat asked whether there was not still a prophet of the LORD there of whom they could inquire.
8. 22:8
   • The king of Israel told Jehoshaphat there was still one man through whom they could inquire of the LORD.
   • The man was Micaiah son of Imlah.
   • The king of Israel said he hated Micaiah.
   • The king of Israel said Micaiah does not prophesy good about him but evil.
   • Jehoshaphat told the king not to say that.
9. 22:9
   • The king of Israel summoned an official.
   • The king of Israel told the official to bring Micaiah son of Imlah quickly.
10. 22:10
    • The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were each sitting on his throne.
    • They were dressed in their robes.
    • They were at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria.
    • All the prophets were prophesying before them.
11. 22:11
    • Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made himself horns of iron.
    • Zedekiah said that this is what the LORD says.
    • Zedekiah said that with these horns the king would gore the Arameans until he had finished them off.
12. 22:12
    • All the prophets were prophesying the same thing.
    • They said to go up to Ramoth-gilead and succeed.
    • They said the LORD would give it into the king's hand.
13. 22:13
    • The messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him.
    • The messenger said the words of the prophets with one mouth declare good to the king.
    • The messenger asked Micaiah to let his word be like the word of one of them.
    • The messenger asked Micaiah to speak what is good.
14. 22:14
    • Micaiah swore by the life of the LORD.
    • Micaiah said he would speak whatever the LORD says to him.
15. 22:15
    • Micaiah came to the king.
    • The king asked Micaiah whether they should go to battle against Ramoth-gilead or refrain.
    • Micaiah answered that they should go up and succeed.
    • Micaiah said the LORD would give it into the hand of the king.
16. 22:16
    • The king asked Micaiah how many times he must make him swear to tell him nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD.
17. 22:17
    • Micaiah said he saw all Israel scattered on the mountains.
    • Micaiah said they were like sheep that have no shepherd.
    • Micaiah said the LORD said these have no master.
    • Micaiah said the LORD said let each man return to his house in peace.
18. 22:18
    • The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat that he had told him Micaiah would prophesy no good about him but evil.
19. 22:19
    • Micaiah told the king to hear the word of the LORD.
    • Micaiah said he saw the LORD sitting on his throne.
    • Micaiah said all the host of heaven was standing by the LORD on his right and on his left.
20. 22:20
    • Micaiah said the LORD asked who would entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead.
    • Micaiah said one spoke one way and another spoke another way.
21. 22:21
    • Micaiah said a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD.
    • Micaiah said the spirit said it would entice Ahab.
22. 22:22
    • Micaiah said the LORD asked the spirit by what means.
    • Micaiah said the spirit answered that it would go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all Ahab's prophets.
    • Micaiah said the LORD told the spirit it would entice him and also prevail.
    • Micaiah said the LORD told the spirit to go out and do so.
23. 22:23
    • Micaiah said the LORD has now put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of the king.
    • Micaiah said the LORD has spoken evil concerning the king.
24. 22:24
    • Zedekiah son of Chenaanah came near.
    • Zedekiah struck Micaiah on the cheek.
    • Zedekiah asked which way the Spirit of the LORD went from him to speak to Micaiah.
25. 22:25
    • Micaiah said Zedekiah would see on that day.
    • Micaiah said that on that day Zedekiah would go into an inner chamber to hide himself.
26. 22:26
    • The king of Israel ordered that Micaiah be taken.
    • The king of Israel ordered that Micaiah be returned to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son.
27. 22:27
    • The king of Israel ordered them to say that this is what the king says.
    • The king ordered that this man be put in prison.
    • The king ordered that he be fed with bread of affliction and water of affliction.
    • The king said this was to last until he came back in peace.
28. 22:28
    • Micaiah said that if the king returned at all in peace, the LORD had not spoken by him.
    • Micaiah said for the people to listen, every one of them.
29. 22:29
    • The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead.
30. 22:30
    • The king of Israel told Jehoshaphat he would disguise himself and go into the battle.
    • The king of Israel told Jehoshaphat to wear his own robes.
    • The king of Israel disguised himself.
    • The king of Israel went into the battle.
31. 22:31
    • The king of Aram commanded his thirty-two chariot commanders.
    • He ordered them not to fight with small or great.
    • He ordered them to fight only with the king of Israel.
32. 22:32
    • The chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat.
    • They said that surely this was the king of Israel.
    • They turned aside to fight against him.
    • Jehoshaphat cried out.
33. 22:33
    • The chariot commanders realized that he was not the king of Israel.
    • They turned back from pursuing him.
34. 22:34
    • A certain man drew his bow without particular aim.
    • He struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor.
    • The king told his charioteer to turn his hand and take him out of the camp.
    • The king said he was wounded.
35. 22:35
    • The battle grew fiercer that day.
    • The king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans.
    • The king died at evening.
    • The blood from the wound ran into the bottom of the chariot.
36. 22:36
    • A cry went through the army about sunset.
    • The cry said every man to his city.
    • The cry said every man to his own land.
37. 22:37
    • The king died.
    • The king was brought to Samaria.
    • They buried the king in Samaria.
38. 22:38
    • The chariot was washed at the pool of Samaria.
    • The dogs licked up his blood.
    • The text is ambiguous whether the next clause says prostitutes bathed there or that they washed his armor.
    • This happened according to the word of the LORD which he had spoken.
39. 22:39
    • There were further acts of Ahab beyond those recounted.
    • Ahab built an ivory house.
    • Ahab built cities.
    • These things are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
40. 22:40
    • Ahab slept with his fathers.
    • Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.
41. 22:41
    • Jehoshaphat son of Asa began to reign over Judah.
    • This was in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.
42. 22:42
    • Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign.
    • He reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem.
    • His mother's name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.
43. 22:43
    • Jehoshaphat walked in all the ways of Asa his father.
    • He did not turn aside from them.
    • He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.
    • The high places were not removed.
    • The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
44. 22:44
    • Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
45. 22:45
    • There were further acts of Jehoshaphat beyond those recounted.
    • Jehoshaphat displayed might.
    • Jehoshaphat waged war.
    • These things are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.
46. 22:46
    • Male cult prostitutes remained in the land from the days of his father Asa.
    • Jehoshaphat removed the rest of them from the land.
47. 22:47
    • There was no king in Edom at that time.
    • A deputy served as king.
48. 22:48
    • Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold.
    • The ships did not go.
    • The ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber.
49. 22:49
    • Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat that his servants should go with Jehoshaphat's servants in the ships.
    • Jehoshaphat refused.
50. 22:50
    • Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers.
    • He was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father.
    • Jehoram his son reigned in his place.
51. 22:51
    • Ahaziah son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria.
    • This was in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah.
    • He reigned two years over Israel.
52. 22:52
    • Ahaziah did evil in the sight of the LORD.
    • He walked in the way of his father.
    • He walked in the way of his mother.
    • He walked in the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat.
    • Jeroboam son of Nebat made Israel to sin.
53. 22:53
    • Ahaziah served Baal.
    • Ahaziah worshipped Baal.
    • Ahaziah provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger.
    • He did this according to all that his father had done.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

22:1

"Syria" is the King James translation of Aram, a kingdom to the north-east whose capital was Damascus; modern versions usually call it Aram and its people Arameans. Israel and Aram had fought two wars in the preceding chapters, ending in a treaty.

22:2

Since the death of Solomon the old kingdom had been split in two: "Israel" is the northern kingdom, with its capital at Samaria, and "Judah" is the southern kingdom, with its capital at Jerusalem. The unnamed "king of Israel" here is Ahab, first named in verse 20. "Came down" is geography, not status: Jerusalem sits high in the hills, so travelers from it always go down.

22:3

Ramoth in Gilead was a fortified town east of the Jordan, on the caravan road and on the disputed frontier between Israelite and Aramean territory. Control of it changed hands repeatedly, which is why Ahab can call it "ours" while Aram holds it.

22:4

"I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses" is a formal pledge of full military alliance, not a compliment. Judah's king is committing his army to Israel's campaign. The two royal houses were also linked by marriage.

22:5

Kings routinely consulted a god through prophets or other means before committing to a campaign; the expected answer was a plain yes or no. Jehoshaphat is asking for this standard pre-battle consultation.

22:6

These four hundred were prophets attached to the royal court and supported by the king. They are not presented as prophets of another god: they speak in the LORD's name, but they are on the payroll of the man asking the question.

22:7

Jehoshaphat wanted a prophet who spoke only for the LORD, and for no other god.

22:8

"Good" and "evil" here mean favorable and unfavorable, a good or bad outcome for the king, rather than morally right and wrong. Ahab's complaint is about the content of the forecasts, not Micaiah's character.

22:10

The King James "void place" means an open, empty area, the threshing floor, a flat cleared space where grain was beaten out. Such floors were often just outside the city gate, and the gate area was where kings held court and public business was transacted, so this is a formal public hearing, not a private consultation.

22:11

Prophets often delivered a message by acting it out rather than only speaking it. Iron horns evoke a charging bull; the same image was used of the tribes of Joseph goring their enemies (Deuteronomy 33:17). The performance is a claim that the message is guaranteed.

22:14

"As the LORD liveth" is the standard Hebrew oath formula, swearing by the life of God, the strongest binding oath available.

22:15

Micaiah gives word-for-word the answer the four hundred gave in verse 12. The king's reaction in the next verse shows he heard it as mockery rather than agreement.

22:16

The king made Micaiah swear in God's name. That meant God himself was listening to the promise.

22:17

A shepherdless flock is a standard image for an army or a nation that has lost its king; the point is not that the people are helpless in general but that their leader is gone. "Let them return every man to his house in peace" is a dismissal of a defeated army, and the same words are used in verse 36 after Ahab dies.

22:19

"The host of heaven" here means the heavenly beings who attend God as a royal court, courtiers standing at the right and left of an enthroned king. (The same phrase elsewhere in the Bible means the stars.) Micaiah answers the four hundred by claiming to have stood in the meeting whose decisions they are unknowingly reporting.

22:20

This is the first time the chapter names the king of Israel: Ahab, whose reign the book has been following since chapter 16.

22:24

A blow to the face was a public insult and a challenge, not a casual act of violence. Zedekiah's question means: if the spirit of prophecy passed from me to you, tell me by what route it traveled, a demand that Micaiah prove his claim.

22:25

Hiding in an "inner chamber", the innermost room of a house, is what people did when a city fell or an enemy searched for them. Micaiah is predicting that Zedekiah will one day be a fugitive.

22:26

"The king's son" appears to be an official title held by a member of the royal household rather than simply a description of Joash's parentage; such men are named elsewhere as royal officers. Micaiah is being handed to the city administration for custody.

22:27

"Bread of affliction and water of affliction" is a Hebrew way of saying short rations, the minimum kept for a prisoner, not ordinary meals.

22:28

Micaiah stakes his standing as a prophet on a testable outcome: the accepted test of a true prophet was whether the thing predicted happened (Deuteronomy 18:22). The closing line, "Hearken, O people, every one of you," is word for word the opening of the book of Micah (Micah 1:2), and many scholars think a later copyist added it here after confusing the two prophets; it is missing from some ancient copies.

22:30

Kings normally fought in recognisable royal armor so their own troops could see them. Ahab strips off that identification while leaving Jehoshaphat wearing his, which is why the Aramean chariots go after the wrong man in the next verses.

22:31

Chariots were the elite arm of an ancient Near Eastern army, expensive and fast, used to break enemy lines. "Neither with small nor great" means with no one of any rank whatever: the order is to ignore the battle and hunt one man. Thirty-two commanders had replaced the thirty-two allied kings mentioned in 1 Kings 20:24.

22:32

The text does not say what Jehoshaphat shouted. Whatever it was, it identified him as the king of Judah and not the man the Syrians were hunting.

22:34

"At a venture" means at random, without picking a target. "Harness" in 1611 English meant body armor; the arrow found the gap where the scales or plates of the armor met, the one place a shot could penetrate.

22:35

"At even" means at evening. The king is held upright in his chariot so his troops will not see that their commander has fallen, an army that saw its king down would break.

22:36

With the king dead, the army had neither a reason nor the authority to keep fighting. The proclamation is effectively an order to disband and go home.

22:38

The Hebrew of the last clause is uncertain. It can be read as "they washed his armour" (as the King James takes it) or as "the prostitutes washed themselves there," which is how many modern versions read it. "According unto the word of the LORD" points back to Elijah's sentence on Ahab in 1 Kings 21:19.

22:39

The "ivory house" was a palace whose furniture and wall panels were decorated with carved ivory inlay, a display of extreme wealth; excavations at Samaria have turned up hundreds of such ivory fragments. The "book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel" was the royal annals of the northern kingdom, a record now lost; it is not the biblical books of Chronicles.

22:40

"Slept with his fathers" is a stock Hebrew phrase meaning simply that he died and was buried among his ancestors. It carries no comment on how he died.

22:41

The books of Kings date each reign by the regnal year of the king in the other kingdom. Because the two kingdoms counted years by different conventions, and part-years were sometimes counted as whole ones, these cross-references do not always add up neatly.

22:42

Judah's records almost always name the king's mother. The queen mother held a recognized official position at court, ranking above the king's wives.

22:43

"High places" were local open-air shrines, often on hilltops, with an altar and standing stones. They had long been the ordinary way Israelites worshiped, but the writer of Kings judges every king by whether worship was confined to the temple in Jerusalem, so their survival is repeatedly noted as a failing even in kings he otherwise approves.

22:45

That book of history is lost now. Nobody today has a copy of it.

22:46

The King James "sodomites" translates the Hebrew word qadesh, literally "consecrated one", a male attached to a sanctuary. Most translations render it "male shrine prostitute," though what these men actually did is disputed among scholars; some argue the term means a cultic functionary of another kind. The King James word imports a later English meaning that the Hebrew does not carry.

22:47

Edom lay south-east of Judah and had been subject to Judah; instead of a king of its own it was run by an appointed governor answering to Jerusalem. This matters for the next verse: it gave Judah access to the Red Sea port of Ezion-geber, which lay in Edomite territory.

22:48

"Ships of Tharshish" was a class of vessel (large, ocean-going cargo ships), rather than ships bound for a place called Tarshish; the name attached to the type. Ophir was a source of fine gold whose location is unknown, variously placed in Arabia, East Africa or India. Ezion-geber was the port at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, on the Red Sea.

22:50

The "city of David" is Jerusalem, or specifically the oldest fortified part of it, where the kings of Judah were buried. David was Jehoshaphat's distant ancestor, not his father; the King James "his father David" uses "father" in the wider Hebrew sense of forefather.

22:52

"The way of his mother" refers to Jezebel, the Phoenician princess Ahab married, who promoted the worship of Baal in Israel. Jeroboam son of Nebat was the first king of the northern kingdom, who set up rival golden-calf sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan so his people would not go to Jerusalem; "who made Israel to sin" is the fixed formula the book of Kings attaches to his name whenever a northern king is being condemned.

22:53

Baal, meaning "lord" or "master," was the Canaanite and Phoenician storm god, credited with rain and so with crops and fertility. His worship in Israel is the running conflict of the Elijah chapters.