1 Kings 22:16

MICAIAH'S TRUE PROPHECY; ISRAEL'S DEFEAT; AHAB WAS SLAIN

"And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou speak unto me nothing but the truth in the name of Jehovah? And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd; and Jehovah said, These have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?"

"How many times shall I adjure thee?" (1 Kings 22:16). Ahab was well acquainted with Micaiah. as indicated not only by this remark, but also by the fact that Ahab was familiar with other prophecies which he had heard from the mouth of Micaiah. For this reason, we hold the Jewish legend to be true that Micaiah here is exactly the same prophet Ahab had encountered upon those two other occasions (1 Kings 20:13,35), which would also account for the fact of Ahab having thrown him into prison. Note also that Ahab's charge that Micaiah never prophesied anything good concerning him was not true (See 1 Kings 20:13ff).

"Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd" (1 Kings 22:17). These identical words concerning Israel were also used by Moses (Numbers 27:17). "Such coincidences (for there are many examples of them) afford the most powerful proof that the Pentateuch was then written."[16] This was prior to the ninth century B.C. There was nothing ambiguous about this prophecy of the scattering of Israel and the loss (death) of their shepherd; because for generations, all Israel had been familiar with the true meaning of these words as first spoken by Moses.