2tn The word “visit” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

3tn Heb “Do you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us, and we hesitate to take it from the hand of the king of Aram?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course, you must know!”

4tn Heb “Like me, like you; like my people, like your people; like my horses; like your horses.”

5tn Heb “and Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel.”

6tn Heb “the word of the Lord.” Jehoshaphat is requesting a prophetic oracle revealing the Lord’s will in the matter and their prospects for success. For examples of such oracles, see 2 Sam 5:19, 23-24.

7tn Heb “Should I go against Ramoth Gilead for war or should I refrain?”

8tn Though Jehoshaphat requested an oracle from “the Lord” (יְהוָה, Yahweh), they stop short of actually using this name and substitute the title אֲדֹנָי (’adonai, “lord; master”). This ambiguity may explain in part Jehoshaphat’s hesitancy and caution (vv. 7-8). He seems to doubt that the four hundred are genuine prophets of the Lord.

9tn Heb “to seek the Lord from him.”

10tn Or “hate.”

11tn The words “his name is” are supplied for stylistic reasons.

12tn Heb “were sitting, a man on his throne.”

13map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

14tn Heb “the words of the prophets are [with] one mouth good for the king.”

15tn Heb “let your words be like the word of each of them and speak good.”

16sn “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.

17tn Or “swear an oath by.”

18tn Heb “he”; the referent (Micaiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

19tn Heb “he”; the referent (Micaiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

20tn Heb “and fall.”

21tn Heb “the spirit.” The significance of the article prefixed to רוּחַ (ruakh) is uncertain, but it could contain a clue as to this spirit’s identity, especially when interpreted in light of v. 24. It is certainly possible, and probably even likely, that the article is used in a generic or dramatic sense and should be translated, “a spirit.” In the latter case it would show that this spirit was vivid and definite in the mind of Micaiah the storyteller. However, if one insists that the article indicates a well-known or universally known spirit, the following context provides a likely referent. Verse 24 tells how Zedekiah slapped Micaiah in the face and then asked sarcastically, “Which way did the spirit from the Lord (רוּחַ־יְהוָה, [ruakh-Yahweh], Heb “the spirit of the Lord”) go when he went from me to speak to you?” When the phrase “the spirit of the Lord” refers to the divine spirit (rather than the divine breath or mind, Isa 40:7, 13) elsewhere, the spirit energizes an individual or group for special tasks or moves one to prophesy. This raises the possibility that the deceiving spirit of vv. 20-23 is the same as the divine spirit mentioned by Zedekiah in v. 24. This would explain why the article is used on רוּחַ; he can be called “the spirit” because he is the well-known spirit who energizes the prophets.

22tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

23tn The Hebrew text has two imperfects connected by וְגַם (v˙gam). These verbs could be translated as specific futures, “you will deceive and also you will prevail,” in which case the Lord is assuring the spirit of success on his mission. However, in a commissioning context (note the following imperatives) such as this, it is more likely that the imperfects are injunctive, in which case one could translate, “Deceive, and also overpower.”

24tn Heb “the bread of affliction and the water of affliction.”

25tn Heb “come in peace.” So also in v. 28.

26tn Heb “Listen.”

27tn The Hebrew verbal forms could be imperatives (“Disguise yourself and enter”), but this would make no sense in light of the immediately following context. The forms are better interpreted as infinitives absolute functioning as cohortatives. See IBHS 594 §35.5.2a. Some prefer to emend the forms to imperfects.

28tn Heb “small or great.”

29tn Heb “now a man drew a bow in his innocence” (i.e., with no specific target in mind, or at least without realizing his target was the king of Israel).

30tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

31tn Heb “camp.”

32tn Heb “and the king died and he came to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria.”

33tn Heb “now the prostitutes bathed.”

34tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord which he spoke.”

35tn Heb “As for the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did, and the house of ivory which he built and all the cities which he built, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?”

36tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”

37map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

38tn Heb “he walked in all the way of Asa his father and did not turn from it, doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.”

39sn Beginning with 22:43b, the verse numbers through 22:53 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), because 22:43b 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.

40tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jehoshaphat, and his strength that he demonstrated and how he fought, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”

41tn Heb “and the rest of the male cultic prostitutes who were left in the days of Asa his father, he burned from the land.” Some understand the verb בִּעֵר (bi’er) to mean “sweep away” here rather than “burn.” See the note at 1 Kgs 14:10.

sn Despite Asa’s opposition to these male cultic prostitutes (see 1 Kgs 15:12) some of them had managed to remain in the land. Jehoshaphat finished what his father had started.

42tn Heb “a fleet of Tarshish [ships].” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish.

43tn Heb “Let my servants go with your servants in the fleet.”

44tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”

45tn Heb “with his fathers in the city of his father.”

46map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

47tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

48tn Or “way.”

49tn Heb “and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat who made Israel sin.”

50tn Heb “he served Baal and bowed down to him.”

51tn Heb “according to all which his father had done.”