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CHAPTER 5 : 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, although they spoke at first of, Adonai (the Lord, ver. 6^68 ), 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 (ver. 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 he
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
(^)