concerning me good, but only evil," and from the later direction to "one of the chamberlains," it has been inferred that

Micaiah had lately been "prophesying" evil to the king - whether in answer to his inquiry, or directly commissioned of

God - and that the prophet was at that moment a prisoner of Ahab. The latter point, indeed, seems quite established by

verse 26, where Micaiah is ordered to be "taken back," or "returned" to custody.

Some points of interest for the understanding of this history may here be noted. It appears that the prophets of God

delivered many more "prophecies" than are recorded in the Scriptures ­ and more especially, that Ahab was not left

without warning. Further, it casts light on the true and the false prophets, that the latter were wont to declare what was

pleasing to their employers ("good"); while the prophets of God faithfully delivered their message, whatever the

consequences might be. And, lastly, it appears that the king regarded such message as the outcome of personal enmity

towards himself. This is most instructive, as showing that men like Ahab took a purely heathen view of prophetism. As

Balak had sought to influence Balaam, apparently in the belief that the soothsayer had power with God, and could at

will direct or control His action, so Ahab imagined that what he called "good" or "evil" in the message was the result of

either personal friendship or enmity. It was against this that Jehoshaphat protested (ver. 8, last clause), and not merely

against the notion that Micaiah hated the king. Ahab yielded to Jehoshaphat,73 but the view which he had in advance

presented of the motives and conduct of Micaiah must have blunted the edge of his words, alike to Ahab and to the

This explains the otherwise strange fact that his emphatic warning remained so entirely unheeded. It was, as we

imagine, during the interval while Micaiah was being brought from his prison, that the leader of the false prophets

indulged in a symbolical action. We can scarcely be mistaken in supposing that when Zedekiah rushed forward holding

against his forehead two pointed pieces of iron, and exclaiming: "With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until they be

consumed," he referred to the Divine promise by Moses in regard to Joseph (Deuteronomy 33:17).

"His horns, the horns of buffaloes: with them shall he push down the nations."

Here was the kingdom of Ephraim - the son of Joseph - and Ahab was the representative of that promise which was

now about to have its fulfillment. Deeply interesting as this reference is, as showing the mixture of Old Testament

religion and acknowledgment of God which, as we have seen, was combined in these prophets with that which was

false, and opposed to Jehovah, it is also instructive as implying that the Book of Deuteronomy was not only existent at

the time this history was originally recorded, but that its sayings - specially so far as they referred to Israel - must have

thoroughly permeated the people.

If, as seems likely, the object of Zedekiah's symbolic action had been to impress on all present the certainty of his

prediction, the arrival of Micaiah speedily changed the aspect of things. On the way, the official charged with bringing

him from the prison had told Micaiah of the unanimous prediction of success by the four hundred prophets, and asked

him to confirm it. We do not wonder at the emphatic reply which this elicited. If the prophetic office was to fulfill its

Divine object, or, indeed, to be continued in Israel, it was needful to state distinctly that the prophet would, without fear

or favor, simply deliver the message of Jehovah. And this, rather than irony, seems to have been also the reason why, in

answer to Ahab's inquiry, Micaiah at first spoke in the same terms as the false prophets. Such a mechanical outward

conformity to them could not have been misunderstood. It meant that Ahab did not really wish to have a message from

Jehovah; that he had chosen his own path and his own guides in it. Ahab evidently understood him so, and, rendered

bold by the scene which had been enacted, and by the apparent unwillingness, or, it might be, inability of Micaiah to

interpose, he adjured him to speak only the truth in the name of Jehovah. Thus challenged, Micaiah could no longer

hesitate. Indeed, after his first apparent confirmation of what the prophets had declared, as it were in chorus, his

message would come with the more startling effect. We may also mark that it affords us yet further insight into the

nature and origin of prophecy. When Micaiah said: "I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no

shepherd; and Jehovah said, These have no masters, let them return every man to his house in peace," - the words

represent, evidently, a vision; and that, not of something literally real, but as we might term it a parabolic vision.

It is in the same manner that we regard the next part of Micaiah's message. It must not be understood as declaring what

really took place in heaven, but as a vision in which the prophet saw before him, as in a parable ,74 the explanation and

the higher Divine meaning of the scene that had just been enacted before the two kings, and the final sequence of it

which he had just announced.