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? 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. 19And the LORD said, Who shall [1]entice 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. 20And there came forth [2]a spirit, and stood before
16. as sheep that have no shepherd] Cp. Matt. 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.
18. And he said] There are three stages in the prophet's dealings with the king, (1) irony in ver. 14, (2) serious advice in ver. 16, (3) denunciation of death in vv. 18—22.
the host of heaven] angelic beings are meant, as in Ps. ciii. 21, and probably also in Neh. ix. 6; Dan. iv. 35, etc., but in these passages the usual meaning "the stars" is possible. The parallel verse in Kings (1 Kin. xxii. 19) is apparently the earliest clear instance of the phrase in the significance "angelic beings."
19. Who shall entice Ahab] So 1 Kin. (R.V.). The same Heb. word is used in Jer. xx. 7, "thou hast deceived (mg. '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 cp. 2 Thess. ii. 11 (cp. ibid. 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 (ver. 4), he excluded the plain-speaking Micaiah until Jehoshaphat insisted on his presence (vv. 6, 7), and he scorned the true prophet's warning of the falseness of the 400 (ver. 26). Delusion as a Divine punishment comes only upon the man who is willing to be deluded.
20. a spirit] Heb. the spirit, but the definite art. simply singles out
