translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET study note

text: “Attack! You will succeed; the Lord will hand it over to the king.” One does not expect Micaiah, having just vowed to speak only what the Lord tells him, to agree with the other prophets and give the king an inaccurate prophecy. Micaiah’s actions became understandable later, when it is revealed that the Lord desires to deceive the king and lead him to his demise. The Lord even dispatches a lying spirit to deceive Ahab’s prophets. Micaiah can lie to the king because he realizes this lie is from the Lord . It is important to note that in v. 14 Micaiah only vows to speak the word of the Lord ; he does not necessarily say he will tell the truth. In this case the Lord ’s word itself is deceptive. Only when the king adjures him to tell the truth (v. 16 ), does Micaiah do so.


text: Beginning with 22:43 b , the verse numbers through 22:53 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text ( BHS ), because 22:43 b in the English Bible = 22:44 in the Hebrew text. The remaining verses in the chapter differ by one, with 22:44-53 ET = 22:45-54 HT.