1 Kings 22.13-18 = 2 Chronicles 18.12-17.
| 22.13=18.12והמלאך אשר הלך לקרא מיכיהו/למיכיהו | The agent which goes to call to Mikay’hu |
|---|---|
| דבר אליו לאמר | speaks to him, saying, |
| הנה נא דברי הנביאים/הנבאים פה אחד | “Look now, the prophets with speak one mouth: |
| טוב אל המלך | Good to the king. |
| יהי/ויהי נא דבריך [דברך] | Now, your message must be |
| כדבר אחד/כאחד מהם | like one of their messages. |
| ודברת טוב׃ | Speak good.” |
| 22.14=18.13ויאמר מיכיהו חי יהוה | Mikay’hu says, “By Yahweh’s life, |
| כי את אשר יאמר יהוה/אלהי אלי | if it’s a message which Yahweh God says to me, |
| אתו אדבר׃ | I speak it.” |
| 22.15=18.14 ויבוא/ויבא אל המלך | He comes to the king. |
| ויאמר המלך אליו מיכיהו/מיכה | The king says to him, “Mikay’hu,α |
| הנלך אל רמת גלעד למלחמה אם נחדל/אחדל | do we go to Ramot Gil’adβ to battle, or stop?” |
| ויאמר אליו | He says to him, |
| עלו והצלח/והצליחו | “Go up. Be successful. |
| ונתן יהוה ביד המלך׃ | Yahweh gives into the king’s hand. |
| וינתנו בידכם׃ | They are given into your hand.” |
| 22.16=18.15ויאמר אליו המלך | The king says to him, |
| עד כמה פעמים אני משבעך/משביעך | “How many times must I make you swear? |
| אשר לא תדבר אלי רק אמת | Tell me nothing but the truthγ |
| בשם יהוה׃ | by Yahweh’s name.” |
| 22.17=18.16ויאמר ראיתי את כל ישראל נפצים/נפוצים אל ההרים | He says, “I see all Isra’el scattered on the hills, |
| כצאן אשר אין להם/להן רעה | like the flock which has no one to pastor them. |
| ויאמר יהוה לא אדנים לאלה | Yahweh said: ‘No lords for them! |
| ישובו איש לביתו בשלום׃ | Return each man to his house in peace.’ ” |
| 22.18=18.17ויאמר מלך ישראל אל יהושפט | Israel’s king says to Y’hoshfat, |
| הלוא/הלא אמרתי אליך | “Didn’t I say to you, |
| לוא יתנבא עלי טוב כי אם רע׃/לרע׃ | ‘He doesn’t prophesy good for me, but of evil’?” |
I’ve had the darndest time with this passage because I simply couldn’t find the application for it. The behavior of these folks simply wasn’t making any sense.
Obviously Ahab was a big fan of having a huge crowd of false prophets tell him what he wants to hear. Jehoshaphat of Judah complained that he wants to hear from Yahweh, not a gaggle of guys with only a vague affiliation to a Lord, so Ahab called in Mikay’hu, whom he hated, but who was a real prophet of Yahweh unlike the 400 and Tsidqiyya, their horn-wearing ringleader.
Essentially Ahab admitted to Jehoshaphat and everyone that all his other prophets were crap, but Mikay’hu was the real deal. This being the case, why didn’t he listen to Mikay’hu? He didn’t like Elijah, but he listened to him. He probably wasn’t a big fan of that prophet who condemned him at the last Syrian/Israeli battle, but he listened to him too. Why did he acknowledge that Mikay’hu is a real prophet, yet later didn’t listen to him and rejected his message?
Hold that thought. Let’s examine Mikay’hu a moment.
Whatever Mikay’hu was doing during Ahab’s 400-prophet presentation, suddenly Ahab’s eunuch—or a subordinate that the eunuch sent out, since eunuchs were important guys who had better things to do than deliver messages—showed up and summoned him to the city gate. His advice? Look at what the other prophets are saying; repeat their message; don’t annoy Ahab.
Mikay’hu’s response provokes kind of a knee-jerk “Right on!” from me and most Christians: “If it’s what Yahweh says to me, I speak it.” Usually this is the place where most folks who teach this passage point to. We’re not to be swayed by outside pressure; we’re to present the message as God intended. Good for Mikay’hu. Way to be a prophet.
Yet right after Mikay’hu said this, whilst standing before Ahab, the first thing out of his mouth is the exact same thing the other prophets were saying: “Go up. Be successful. Yahweh gives into the king’s hand.” What the hell? What happened to, “If it’s what Yahweh says to me”? What happened to that fist-pumping God-fearing statement that every preacher loves to quote?
The popular interpretation is that Mikay’hu was being sarcastic. Presumably he said this in a half-hearted tone to Ahab, or mocked the 400 prophets by mimicking them. Something like that. But the writer of the scriptures doesn’t say what Mikay’hu’s tone was; we’re only told what he said. Then we’re told what Ahab said. And this makes even less sense. Ahab, who didn’t want to hear Mikay’hu’s message anyway, had to force the truth out of him.
Now, if I had gone to all the trouble of fabricating evidence so that I could convince my allies to join me in a preemptive war (Wait. Doesn’t this sound like Iraq, anyone? Oh, never mind.) I might want a nay-sayer around in order to convince my allies that I’m not just surrounding myself with yes-men. But if the nay-sayer inexplicably says yes too, I’m gonna grab that ball and run with it. The reasonable thing for Ahab to do was ignore any sarcastic tone and say, “Well, looks like all the prophets say go,” and quickly send Mikay’hu home before he whipped out any dramatic protest. (’Cause you know how theatrical the prophets can be.)
Ahab, instead, says, “How many times must I make you swear?”
Let’s step back a bit and not overlay attitudes and motives and so forth to the text. Let’s look at what they did. Mikay’hu came before Ahab, and was told to play along. At first he protested, but before Ahab, he played along. Ahab rebuked him and told him to tell the truth. In fact, Ahab made a point of saying that this isn’t the first time Mikay’hu hasn’t told the truth.
I think we’re so used to assuming Ahab is the weaselly politician here that we never ask the obvious question: What if Ahab is telling the truth? After all, Mikay’hu just said, “By Yahweh’s life”—he swore to God that he’d say what God told him. And then he didn’t. He violated an oath. He lied. He sinned. Forget the “He was being sarcastic” interpretation—it’s not in the text. On face value, Mikay’hu lied.
Ahab may have been trying to pull a fast one on Jehoshaphat, but Mikay’hu annoyed him so much that he dropped his subterfuge temporarily to rant about how Mikay’hu did nothing but lie to him. So this isn’t the first time Mikay’hu lied. In fact, I would argue that Mikay’hu was a habitual liar.
One could easily translate v16 as I did: “Tell me nothing but the truth in Yahweh’s name,” without a comma before the phrase “in Yahweh’s name.” It’s not necessarily an oath—“By God, tell me the truth.” It could also mean, “When you speak in God’s name, don’t lie.”
“But he’s a prophet of God.” Yeah, well, so were a lot of guys in the scriptures. So are a lot of people now. Being able to hear from God and forward His messages doesn’t make you any less sinful. It may motivate you to be less sinful—it should, anyway—but it doesn’t always.
The reason people are habitual liars is because they’re trying to get attention for themselves. The reason many people pursue or study prophecy is because they seek power, and being God’s mouthpiece supposedly gives you power. Mikay’hu is likely just this sort: He went to prophesy school so that he could learn to hear from God, then used this gift to make himself a big deal. But the prophet who is only interested in a prophet’s honor is a lousy messenger of God’s truth. He doesn’t prophesy encouragement, building up, and support; (1Co 14.3) he simply rips on the king: “He doesn’t prophesy good for me, but evil.” (v8, v18) He is not greeted as God’s messenger, but as a downer, a wet blanket, a pest, an irritant. I have known some people who would be awesome prophets if they would just stop it with the self-promotion: the unending demands that people listen to them, and take their ministry and spiritual gifting seriously.
Ahab was definitely a weaselly politician, but it seems Mikay’hu was a weaselly prophet. This being the case, it’s entirely understandable why Ahab dismissed him. Yes, Miaky’hu might have actually heard from God, and represented Him from time to time, but he was a liar and you couldn’t trust him. Mikay’hu wrecked his own message and validity by focusing on self-aggrandizement instead of the glory of God.
And there’s our application: When we do the same, we shipwreck our message. When we lie in order to get attention, or make ourselves great, no one is going to pay attention when we try to redirect the focus to God. The purpose of prophecy is to magnify God, not the prophet, and people instinctively know this, and reject prophets who demand honor. Ahab would have respected him—as he did Elijah—if Mikay’hu had just stuck to God’s messages, and no more.
α. 2 Chronicles has “Mika” (or Micah).
β. The Golan Heights.
γ. Lit. “what you don’t speak to me but truth.”
