1 Kings — Chapter 22

Micheas son of Jemla: \"As the Lord liveth, whatsoever the Lord shall say to me, that will I speak\": Lapide: Here is the perfect model of the true prophet — fearless, faithful to God's word alone, willing to suffer imprisonment and the bread and water of tribulation rather than prophesy pleasant falsehoods to a king who prefers sycophancy. Contrast the 400 false prophets who unanimously promise victory.

Micheas' vision — \"I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on the right hand and on the left\": Lapide: This was an imaginary prophetic vision, not a literal council of God with angels and demons. By it God shows Ahab that he is being deceived by his false prophets, and that this deception is permitted by God as a just punishment for his impiety.

The spirit of lying in the mouth of the false prophets: Lapide (S. Gregory II Moral.): \"It is not right to believe that a good spirit was willing to serve falsehood... but because Ahab from his preceding sins was worthy to be condemned by such deception, permitting license was given to the malignant spirits, that those whom they had strangled willingly in the snare of sin, they might now draw unwillingly to the punishment of sin.\"

A certain man bent his bow strongly shooting at a venture, and chanced to strike the king of Israel between the lungs and the stomach: Lapide: \"This was accidental with respect to the Syrian soldier, but not with respect to God, who through His Angels directed the arrow so that it would strike no one but the impious Ahab.\" He draws the parallel with Julian the Apostate, who likewise perished by what appeared a random blow in battle.

And the dogs licked his blood...according to the word of the Lord: The prophecy of Elijah exactly fulfilled. Lapide: \"At the last hour the blood of Ahab was licked by dogs in Samaria — but the prophecy was more completely fulfilled in the killing of his son Joram, whose body Jehu commanded thrown into the field of Naboth, that this prophecy might be fulfilled (IV Kings ix:25-26).\"