[775] For he had seventy sons, besides daughters (2 Kings x. 7)
[776] The words implied that the king would fall, though the army would escape (1 Kings xxii. 17, בְּשָׁלוֹם). Comp. Numb. xxvii. 16, 17 "Let the Lord ... set a man over the congregation, ... who may lead them out and in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd."
[777] Theodoret explains it as anthropomorphism, and condescension to human modes of speech (προσωποποιΐα τίς ἐστι διδάσκουσα τὴν θείαν συγχώρησιν).
[778] 1 Kings xxii. 21. It is "the," not "a" spirit, i.e., the unclean spirit of deception (τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης, 1 John iv. 6). Comp. Zech. xiii. 2, "Also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land." St. Paul says in 2 Thess. ii. 11: "God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie."
[779] The worst of insults (Job xvi. 10; Lam. iii. 30).
[780] The words (verse 28) "And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you," are believed by Nöldeke, Klostermann, and others to be an interpolation from Micah i. 2, by some one who confused Micaiah with Micah. They are omitted in the LXX.
[781] We have no reason to accuse Ahab of any bad or selfish motives here. No doubt Micaiah's prophecy of his approaching death had made him anxious. If the LXX. reading, "but put thou on my robes," were right, the case would be different.
[782] We see in this order a trace of the single combats which mark the Homeric battles.
[783] 2 Chron. xviii. 31: "And the Lord helped him, and God moved them from him."
[784] So Jarchi. Josephus calls him Aman.