1 Kings 20:35

AHAB’S REPROOF, 1 Kings 20:35-43.

35. A certain man of the sons of the prophets A member of one of the schools of the prophets. The head of one of these schools was a spiritual father. See note on 1 Samuel 10:5.

His neighbour A fellow-student among the sons of the prophets.

Smite me Here we first meet with an example of those symbolical actions of the prophets which occur so often in the subsequent history of Israel and Judah. This demand was made in the word of the Lord. It was positively required by Jehovah, and was to be symbolical. The wonderful interposition of Divine power, by which the Syrians had been defeated and Ben-hadad made a captive, was a sufficient indication to Ahab that God had appointed the king of Syria to utter destruction. 1 Kings 20:42. His letting him go, therefore, was a disobedience of the Divine will.

The man refused to smite him And so became a representative of Ahab in his refusal to obey the word of the Lord. The prophets mentioned 1 Kings 20:13; 1 Kings 20:22; 1 Kings 20:28 had said enough to show Ahab that when his royal enemy fell into his power, he must not covenant with him, but smite and utterly destroy him. But his making a covenant with him, and sending him away, was a refusal to smite him.