65
This intercalated notice of the writer is very interesting. It traces Ahab's slavish surrender to the service of sin to the
incitement of Jezebel, and it likens the state of public idolatry then in the land to that of "the Amorites," that is, the
Canaanites (comp. Genesis 15:16) whom God had destroyed. Surely no less punishment could follow the like
abominations on t he part of Israel.
66
The word rendered "softly" might denote the gentle, noiseless step of sorrow or humiliation; but it has also been
rendered by "barefooted," as in mourning.
67
The judgment on Jezebel was to be executed "by the wall of Jezreel" (21:23) . The expression means properly: on the
free space by the wall. And, as we remember that the window from which Jezebel looked down upon Jehu must have
been in the city wall, since she addressed him as he entered in at the gate (2 Kings 9:30, 31), we can understand how
literally the prediction was fulfilled.
68
At the same time all the ancient Versions and many Codd. Read Jehovah.
69
Comp. Volume 5 of this History.
70
Comp. Volume 5.
71
This, and not "persuaded," as in the A.V. The term is often used of inciting to evil (comp. Deuteronomy 13:6; Judges
3:14; Job 2:3; 1 Chronicles 21:1).
72
The word "royal" is not in the original. The Hebrew offers some difficulties; but, as the issue is not of any practical
importance, it is useless to burden these pages with the discussion.
73
The LXX. seem to have pointed the word "Hasten hither, Micaiah," otherwise than in our text, and to have read:
"Quick! Micaiah!" which would be quite characteristic in Ahab.
74
It was a real, external vision, God-directed, which the pro phet describes; not a vision of what really occurred in
heaven, but that which really occurred, the seduction of Ahab by his false prophets as the result of Divine judgment,
was thus presented in a parable, as it were, from the heavenly point of view. In v er. 21, "a spirit" should be rendered
"the spirit."
75
Josephus has the curious idea that the blow was intended to test whether Micaiah was a true prophet, in accordance
with 1 Kings 13:4. Thenius treats the question of Zedekiah as a sneer. Bahr regards it as implying that Zedekiah did not
purposely and consciously prophesy falsely, and that it meant: How dare you say that the Spirit has gone from me to
you?
76
Josephus states - though without support from the sacred text - that Ahab and the people had at first been afraid at the
words of Micaiah, but that they took courage when Divine judgment did not immediately follow on the blow which
Zedekiah gave to the prophet.
77
There is no indication that this was known to Ahab, and that his disguise was due to it.
78
Probably they thought some one had been arrayed as a king for the purpose of misleading them.
79
The Targum and some interpreters have regarded the "staying" as an act of Ahab's, that, in order to sustain the
courage of his soldiers, and to continue the battle, he had borne his pain and hurt, and kept up in his chariot.
80
The rendering in the A.V. (1 Kings 22:38), "and they washed his armor," is untenable. The words mean, "And the
harlots bathed," and the terrible significance of the event lies in this : that the blood of Ahab, who had erected altars in
Israel to Baal and Astarte (see Vol. 5.), was not only licked by dogs - which would remind of the prophecy of Elijah (1
Kings 21:19), and its threatened transference to his successor (ver. 29) but that it also mingled with that pool which
served for lustration to those abandoned women whose life of debauchery was part of the worship of Astarte,
introduced by Ahab and Jezebel. And this fulfilled the prediction of Elijah upon Ahab's public sins (1 Kings 21 :21-23).