Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/308

244 the, and said, I will entice him. And the said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt entice him, and shalt prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets; and the  hath spoken evil concerning thee. Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and smote Micaiah upon the cheek, and said, Which way went the spirit of the from me to speak unto thee? And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see on that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. And the king of Israel said, Take ye Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of

one spirit from the rest. The Evil Spirit (Heb. "the Satan") is not meant here but simply a superhuman being, such as was generally conceived to be the cause of the ecstatic condition manifested by prophets of this type (cp. 1 Sam. x. 5, 6).

22. the hath put a lying spirit ] This and the preceding verse are singularly interesting for the frankness with which they apparently regard Jehovah as causing moral evil. Of course the passage is not to be regarded as a philosophical pronouncement on the origin of moral evil. Rather is it to be treated as a naïve expression regarding a great fact of human life—see the conclusion of the note on ver. 19, who shall entice Ahab. Physical evils are constantly declared in the O.T. to originate in Jehovah's will; they are often sent by Him as punishments for sin. Here too it is only as the penalty of previous sinfulness (ver. 8 "I hate him") that the evil moral condition of the prophets who are deluded by the lying spirit from Jehovah is imposed. A parallel may be found in Ezek. xiv. 1—11. It is, however, a higher plane of thought when Jeremiah expresses the conviction that the false prophets of his day are not inspired at all by Jehovah, but speak solely out of their own hearts (Jer. xxiii. 16, 21).

23. Zedekiah] He takes the lead as in ver. 10.

smote upon the cheek] This phrase is tantamount to "gave an insulting blow"; cp. Mic. v. 1; Matt. v. 39.

24. Behold, thou shalt see] Micaiah answers Zedekiah's gibe with the verb "see" (rather than "know") because of its double meaning, "Behold, thou shalt be a seer, thou shalt possess the power of vision," when it is too late.

go into an inner chamber] i.e. seek safety in hiding from enemies; cp. 1 Kin. xx. 30 (same Heb. phrase).

25. carry him back] Micaiah is not to accompany the expedition, having foretold its failure.