AHAB AND AHAZIAH, (EIGHTH AND NINTH) KINGS OF ISRAEL. - JEHOSHAPHAT, (FOURTH) KING OF

JUDAH. - The Visit of Jehoshaphat to Ahab - The projected Expedition against Ramoth-Gilead - Flattering Predictions

of False Prophets - Micaiah - The Battle of Ramoth-Gilead - Death of Ahab.

(1 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 18)

THE events told in the previous chapter were followed by a period of rest. Religiously, it might be described as one of

approximation to the worship of Jehovah. But it might prove only the more dangerous on that account, as being the

outcome of an attempted compromise where compromise was impossible. Evidence of this occurs to us alike from the

summons and the bearing of those four hundred prophets whom Ahab called together, when requested by Jehoshaphat

to inquire at "the word of Jehovah" as to the projected expedition against Ramoth-Gilead. Those four hundred could not

have been "prophets of Baal," since the latter had been destroyed on Mount Carmel. Their bearing also widely differs

from that of the prophets of Baal. Nor could they have been the four hundred "prophets of Asherah" [Astarte] -

specially supported by Jezebel - who had been summoned to (1 Kings 18:19), but did not appear at, the decisive contest

on Carmel (vers. 22, 26, 40). For, first, they were now summoned as professedly bringing "the word of Jehovah," that

is, as prophesying in His Name.

Further, a lthough they spoke at first of, Adonai (the Lord, ver. 668), yet afterwards (vers. 11, 12)they professed to

announce what "Jehovah" would do, while Zedekiah their leader expressly referred to "the Spirit of Jehovah" as having

gone from himself to Micaiah (v er. 24).

On the other hand, they must not be regarded as either true "prophets of Jehovah," or as "sons of the prophets." For

from the first Jehoshaphat appears unwilling to recognize their authority. They were evidently not those whose guiding

message h e had originally wished (ver. 5), and in contrast to them he continued to ask for "a prophet of Jehovah" (ver.

7), upon which Ahab mentioned Micaiah (not one of those four hundred prophets) as one by whom "to inquire of

Jehovah." Lastly, the four hundred false prophets are afterwards expressly designated, first, by the evil spirit, and then

by Micaiah, not as those of Jehovah, but as those of Ahab (vers. 22, 23).

These considerations lead us to characterize the religious condition prevailing at the time as a debasement of the

worship of Jehovah. Apparently these prophets professed to bring the word of Jehovah: yet they were only the lying

prophets of Ahab. It seems not unlikely that Ahab may have restored the ancient rites instituted by Jeroboam, when

Jehovah was professedly worshipped under the symbol of the golden calf that had brought Israel out of Egypt. This

transformation of the religion of Israel has been fully described in another place. Such a form of worship would have

the twofold recommendation, that, while it seemed a return from the service of Baal to that of Jehovah, it still left to

Ahab, as king, the office and control of chief pontiff of the new religion (comp. 1 Kings 12:32, 33).  69

Indeed, it may have been in this sense also that the four h undred prophets were designated those of Ahab, just as they

of Astarte may have been called those of Jezebel, because in her character as queen she was their high-priestess. And if

these prophets were really priests of the worship originally instituted by Jeroboam, and now restored, it is only natural

to suppose that they may have been formed into a prophetic association, after the mode and in imitation of the

institution of the "sons of the prophets." Whether any connection between the two really existed at the time can

scarcely be determined, although the angry speech of Zedekiah (ver. 24), the leader of the prophets of Ahab, seems to

imply it.

And we can readily believe that in those degenerate days many of the "sons of the prophets" - perhaps even an

association of them - may have lent themselves to this spurious worship of Jehovah. We can now realize the scene

enacted before Ahab and Jehoshaphat. It is related in almost identical terms in the Books of Kings and of Chronicles (2

Chronicles 18:2-34). In the latter it is introduced, by an account of the circumstances which led up to the ill -fated

expedition against Syria. We remember70 that eight or nine years previously, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, then a

youth of about fifteen or sixteen, had been ma rried to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel.