1 Kings 22:19

1Ki 22:19 And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.

Ver. 19. Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord.] Hear something more than yet thou hast heard. So when Jehoiakim had cut Jeremiah’s roll with a pen knife, and cast it into the fire, Baruch, by the prophet’s appointment, wrote a new copy, and added besides thereunto many like words. {Jer 36:23}

I saw the Lord sitting on his throne.] See 1Ki 22:10. So when Moses had seen God at the burning bush, how little cared he for Pharaoh’s frowns and threats!

On his right hand, and on his left.] We should in this sort represent God to our minds in the entrance of our prayers; Omnino oportet nos orationis tempore curiam intrare caelestem, in qua Rex regum stellato sedet solio, circundante innumerabili, et ineffabili beatorum spirituum exercitu. Quanta ergo cum reverentia, quanto timore, &c. {a}

{a} Bernard.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki_22:19

I saw the Lord sitting on His throne.

Council in heaven

We read elsewhere of war in heaven. The text suggests a different subject, apparently connected with it, namely, council in heaven. Micaiah describes what he saw as a vision. We are presented with one of the most imposing descriptions of the heavenly conclave which Holy Scripture contains. It is one of those rare occasions when we are permitted to learn how in the councils of heaven the things of our earth are ordered. Men are unwilling to believe a Providence; they trace out cause and effect, and this they deem sufficient. The text shows that cause and effect indeed are but the results of Gods decree, and it teaches us how He directs also even individual circumstances. In this way it may be a natural effect of a natural cause which shall bring a plague within a certain city or village, and yet God shall direct who shall fall by it, and who escape, The cause of death may be natural; the individual application is providential. You, then, are the subjects of Satans malignity, of the love of God, and of the wonder and ministrations of angels t It may be, that at this very hour a council is proceeding in heaven which may secure blessings of the highest order for you or for our land. Not impossible but that our arch-enemy too yet presents himself in that blessed assembly, and pointing to the many national sins of our country, or to our individual transgressions, may be prompt with a slander, followed by the suggestion, I will go and deceive them yet more, and so I will destroy them entirely! St. Paul meant something when he spake of wrestling not so much against flesh and blood as against principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places. (G. Venables.)

A prophets vision and a kings blindness

(with 1Ki_22:8):--Now in these two utterances, spoken by Ahab on the one hand and by Micaiah on the other, you see the cause of the difference between the two men. One man has a clear vision that leads to goodness, to pure life, to holy character, and to undying courage; the other man is blinded by his sins so that his vision is darkened, and he goes from folly to folly until he ends his life in shame and ignominy, because he hates the truth and will not hear it nor heed it. Here are some very important lessons for us as Christians.

1. The duties of life will not all be pleasant. We Shall sometimes be required to do very unpleasant things; but if, like this brave prophet, we have a clear vision of the Lord on His throne, and recognise that God has the first claim to our service, then we shall be able to do unpleasant duties in a brave and cheerful spirit, because we are pleasing God.

2. We are only fitted to do Christian work in the right spirit when like Micaiah, we seek to please the Lord, having Him always before our eyes. I have noticed that when I have witnessed the falling away in service on the part of a Christian it has almost universally come from a lessening of true devotion. A man ceases to pray with regularity; he becomes absorbed in business or pleasure; sets his mind on material things, until his thought is taken away from God. He does not see the Lord, and so he becomes indifferent to earnest Christian effort.

3. The man who looks upon the Lord as his God, his Heavenly Father, his Saviour, will feel that earthly affairs are of very small moment compared to the importance of spiritual victories. He will feel that it is infinitely more important to be good than it is to be rich. The man who has looked upon the face of God in loving reverence before he goes forth to his work in the morning will not be a fit subject to delude into taking bribes, or into receiving fraudulent money either in business or in politics.

4. He who sees the Lord in daily communion finds God a present help in every time of trouble. (L A. Banks, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki 22:19. And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord — Because thou givest credit to thy false prophets, and disbelievest my words, as if they were but the suggestions of my own fancy, and of hatred to thy person, I will give thee a distinct and true account of the whole matter in God’s name and presence. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne — Not with his bodily eyes certainly, for with them he could not see God, but with the eyes of his mind, or rather in a vision. For we must by no means look upon what follows as the relation of an affair really transacted, but merely as an account of a symbolical vision, like that of Peter, (Acts 10.,) when he saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him; whereby Micaiah was informed how it came to pass that so many prophets prophesied falsely, or contrary to what the event of things would prove; which was, that these prophets were influenced, not by the Spirit of God, which is the spirit of truth, but by an evil spirit, a spirit of error and falsehood, of flattery and dissimulation. For we should form most unjust ideas of the truth and holiness of God, if we supposed he would really send a spirit of lying into any of his prophets, which they could not distinguish from true inspiration; for this would be to confound false prophecy with true, and to make God the author of moral evil, which he can in no way or manner ever be. It would have been to overturn the whole authority of prophecy; for, if the true prophets had been once actuated by a false spirit, there would have been an end of placing any dependance on them for the future. The whole foundation of their authority would have been overthrown.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22:19-23 Micaiah explained that God had allowed a lying spirit of prophecy to mislead Ahab to bring about his death. In his sovereignty, God used the counsel of Ahab’s false prophets to accomplish his will.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Meaning, his Angels.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 19. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne] This is a mere parable, and only tells in figurative language, what was in the womb of providence, the events which were shortly to take place, the agents employed in them, and the permission on the part of God for these agents to act. Micaiah did not choose to say before this angry and impious king, "Thy prophets are all liars; and the devil, the father of lies, dwells in them;" but he represents the whole by this parable, and says the same truths in language as forcible, but less offensive.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(19-22) The symbolic vision of Micaiah, which naturally recalls the well-known description in Job_1:6-12 of the intercourse of Satan with the Lord Himself, is to be taken as a symbol, and nothing more. (Josephus, characteristically enough, omits it altogether.) The one idea to be conveyed is the delusion of the false prophets by a spirit of evil, as a judgment of God on Ahab’s sin, and on their degradation of the prophetic office. The imagery is borrowed from the occasion. It is obviously drawn from the analogy of a royal court, where, as is the case before Micaiah’s eyes, the king seeks counsel against his enemies.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. And he said] After these words the LXX. adds οὐχ οὕτως οὐκ ἐγώ, ‘Not so, I do not.’ Here we can discern how the insertion was made. The next word in the Hebrew text is לכן= Therefore. This the translators have taken for לא כן = not so, and have put in the οὐκ ἐγὼ to round off the sense. Apparently they must have seen or thought they saw the same reading in 1Ki_22:17 above, for there they have made a similar insertion.

Hear thou therefore] R.V. Therefore hear thou. Conforming to the order of the Hebrew, and the order in 2 Chronicles.

I saw the Lord] A vision in which Micaiah had been shewn the heavenly council-chamber. Jehovah was sitting as ruler of the universe, and all ministers waiting around to speed at His bidding. These are the ministering spirits of Heb_1:14. But they also discharge other ministry, as when the angel of the Lord destroyed David’s people (2Sa_24:16) or the army of Sennacherib (2Ki_19:35).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the Lord said unto him, wherewith?.... What way and method did he propose, to persuade Ahab to go up to Ramoth? the Lord is introduced in this visionary narrative as asking this question, not as ignorant of the scheme of the evil spirit, but in order to bring it out, and lead on to the following account:

and he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets; put them on encouraging Ahab to go up, and promising him success, as he had in former battles with the king of Syria, and which might both encourage them to give forth such a prediction, and him to believe it to be true; this proposal was quite agreeable to the character of the devil, as the father of lies:

and he said, thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also; not only make use of this artifice to persuade, but succeed also; the Lord knew that what he should suggest to the prophets, and they should deliver to Ahab, would be agreeable to his inclination, nor would he do anything in the course of his providence to hinder its taking effect:

go forth, and do so; which was giving leave to try his skill in the art of persuasion, in which he knew he would succeed, and bring on the righteous judgment of God upon Ahab; with this compare Joh 13:27.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

David’s Psalms had familiarised the Israelites with Yahweh sitting upon a throne in the heavens (Psa 9:7; Psa 11:4; Psa 45:6; Psa 103:19, etc.); but to be allowed to see in vision the ineffable glory of the Almighty thus seated, was a rare favor. It was granted to Isaiah, to Daniel (marginal references), to Ezekiel Eze 1:26, and in Christian times to Stephen Act 7:56, and John Rev 4:2.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He, Micheas, added, (Menochius) not fearing the king’s displeasure, who seemed to regard his former denunciation as an effect of his ill-will. Hence he explains his vision more at large. God often conforms to our ideas, and even prejudices. The people were then accustomed to look upon him as a king, environed with his army of good and evil spirits; the one at his right-hand, to execute his designs of mercy, and the other at his left, to execute his judgments. Job (i. 6, 12.) speaks in the like manner. We know that God stands in need of no counsellors; (Romans xi. 34.) and that the angels of satan have no place in heaven, Isaias xiv. 12., Apocalypse xii. 9., and Jude 6.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Because thou givest credit to thy false prophets, and distrustest my words, as if they were but the suggestions of my own fancy, and hatred of thy person, I will give thee a distinct and true account of the whole matter, in God’s name and presence.

I saw the Lord, by the eyes of my mind; for he could not see the Lord with bodily eyes.

The host of heaven, i.e. the angels, who are oft called God’s host or hosts, because of their great number, excellent order, and constant readiness to attend upon God, and to execute his commands. See Gen 2:1; Psa 103:21; 148:2. These angels were both good and bad; the one possibly on his right, the other on his left hand. Nor is it strange that the devils are called the host of heaven, if you consider, first, That their original seat was in heaven, and men in Scripture are oft called by the name of the place from whence they came. Secondly, That the name of heaven is oft given to all that part of the world which is above the earth, and among the rest to the air, as Gen 1:20; 7:11; 8:2; 27:28; Deu 4:11; 11:11, where the devil’s residence and dominion lies, Eph 2:2; and that both Michael and his angels, and the dragon and his angels, are said to be and to wage war in heaven, Rev 12:7, i.e. either the air, or the church. And this place is not to be understood as if Micaiah had seen with his bodily eyes the Lord and his angels sitting in the third heaven; but that he saw a representation of the Divine presence in the air, attended with good and bad angels.

Standing by him, in the posture of ministers, to receive and execute his commands.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. I saw the Lord — Here is a vision worthy of Isaiah or Ezekiel.

All the host of heaven standing by him — The prophet drew his imagery from the very scene before him. The kings on their thrones, and the surrounding host assembled at the gate of Samaria, were representative of the King of kings sitting on his throne and surrounded by the host of ministering spirits who do his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he said, Hear thou in 2Ch_18:18, Hear ye therefore The LXX has oujc outwv, whence it would almost appear that they had the text Ke al before them (Bahr). But kel; is every way to be preferred. It is emphatic by position, and the meaning is, "Since you will have it that my words are prompted by malice, hear the message I have for you," etc. the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord It is not implied (Wordsworth) that he had any direct and objective vision of God, such as, (Exo_34:5) Elijah, or St. Stephen. He here declares what he may have seen in dream or trance. (Cf. Rev_1:10 Rev_4:2; Isaiah Eze_1:1) It was a real but inner vision (Keil). In its interpretation the caution of Peter Martyr is carefully to be borne in mind; Omnia haec dicuntur ajnqrwpopaqwv sitting on his throne It was natural for some of the commentators to see in these words a reference to the two kings then sitting in their royal apparel, each upon his throne. But it is very doubtful whether any such thought was present in the mind of the speaker, who, imply relates a vision of the past, and all the host of heaven The celestial powers, cherubim, angels, archangels, who surround the Lord of glory. That there can be no reference to the sun, moon, and stars, notwithstanding that these are called "the host of heaven" in Deu_4:19, Deu_17:3, is clear from the next words. The expression is to be explained by Gen_32:1, 2 standing by him wyl for the meaning, (see Gen_18:8) on his right hand and on his left. The resemblance of this vision to that of Isaiah (1Ki_6:1-8) must not be overlooked.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He said - I will give thee a distinct and true account of the whole matter, in God's name and presence. I saw - By the eyes of my mind: for he could not see the Lord with bodily eyes. The Host - The angels, both good and bad, the one possibly on his right, the other on his left hand. Nor is it strange that the devils are called the host of heaven; if you consider, first, that their original seat was in heaven. Secondly, that the name of heaven is often given to all that part of the world which is above the earth, and among the rest, to the air, and where the devil's residence and dominion lies, Eph. ii, 2, and that both Michael and his angels, and the Dragon and his angels, are said to be, and to wage war in heaven, Rev. xii, 7, either the air, or the church.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

To His right and to His left. Is there “left” in Heaven? Is it not stated, “The right hand of Adonoy’s is exalted, the right hand of Adonoy performs deeds of valor,” [and,] “Your right hand, Adonoy, is adorned with power; Your right hand, Adonoy, crushes the enemy”? But rather, these are on the right and these are on the left. Those on the right present the case for the defense and those on the left present the case for the prosecution.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.