1 Kings 22:17

And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

1 Kings 22:17. And he said, I saw — Namely, in the Spirit, or in a vision; all Israel scattered upon the hills — Upon the mountains of Gilead, where they lay encamped by Ahab’s order, or to which they fled from the enemy. As sheep that have no shepherd — As people that have lost their king. The Lord said, These have no master; let them return, &c. — Discharged from the war. This was fulfilled, 1 Kings 22:36.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:15-28 The greatest kindness we can do to one that is going in a dangerous way, is, to tell him of his danger. To leave the hardened criminal without excuse, and to give a useful lesson to others, Micaiah related his vision. This matter is represented after the manner of men: we are not to imagine that God is ever put upon new counsels; or that he needs to consult with angels, or any creature, about the methods he should take; or that he is the author of sin, or the cause of any man's telling or believing a lie. Micaiah returned not the blow of Zedekiah, yet, since he boasted of the Spirit, as those commonly do that know least of the Holy Spirit's operations, the true prophet left him to be convinced of his error by the event. Those that will not have their mistakes set right in time, by the word of God, will be undeceived, when it is too late, by the judgments of God. We should be ashamed of what we call trials, were we to consider what the servants of God have endured. Yet it will be well, if freedom from trouble prove not more hurtful to us; we are more easily allured and bribed into unfaithfulness and conformity to the world, than driven to them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thus adjured, Micaiah wholly changes his tone. Ahab cannot possibly mistake the meaning of his vision, especially as the metaphor of "sheep and shepherd" for king and people was familiar to the Israelites from the prayer of Moses Numbers 27:17.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd—The purport of this was that the army of Israel would be defeated and dispersed; that Ahab would fall in the battle, and the people return without either being pursued or destroyed by the enemy.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I saw; in the spirit, or in a vision.

Upon the hills; upon the mountains of Gilead, nigh Ramoth; either where they lay encamped by Ahab’s order, or to which they fled from the enemy, esteeming that the safest place. See Matthew 24:16.

As sheep that have not a shepherd; as people who have lost their king. See Numbers 27:17 Isaiah 40:11 44:28 Ezekiel 34:23.

Every man to his house in peace; discharged from the war; which was fulfilled, 1 Kings 22:36.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he said,.... The prophet, in a serious and solemn manner, being adjured by the king:

I saw all Israel scattered on the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd; the armies of Israel routed, dispersed, and fleeing, some one way and some another, on the mountains of Gilead near Ramoth, weak and helpless, not knowing where to go for safety, having none to direct them; and this was either now instantly represented to his mind, or what had been before in a dream or vision:

and the Lord said, these have no master; these sheep have no shepherd this army hath no general,

Israel has lost its king: let them return every man to his house in peace, very few slain, Jarchi thinks Ahab only, see 1 Kings 22:31 that part of the threatening, 1 Kings 20:42 was now to he accomplished, "thy life shall go for his life", but the other part, "and thy people for his people", was to be deferred to another time.

Geneva Study Bible

And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the LORD said, {o} These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace.

(o) It is better for them to return home than to be punished and scattered because they go to war without God's counsel and approval.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. And he said] Here the LXX. adds οὐχ οὕτως, ‘Not so,’ and there is a similar insertion at the beginning of 1 Kings 22:19, where see note.

I saw all Israel] Here Micaiah in true prophetic tone relates a vision which foretells the utter ruin of the coming expedition.

scattered upon the hills] R.V. mountains. This is A.V. in 2 Chronicles, and the change gives a sense of greater dispersion. But in any case the two places should be alike.

as sheep that have not a [R.V. no] shepherd] Again the rendering in 2 Chronicles is adopted. The language of Micaiah spake in no doubtful tone of the coming death of Ahab. For the simile cf. Numbers 27:17, a passage which may have been in Micaiah’s thoughts.

let them return] The prophet pictures the great disaster as falling specially upon Ahab. When he was slain, there would be no attempt to prevent the escape of his army.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - And he said [We may imagine how entire was the change of tone. He now speaks with profound seriousness. Thenius sees in the peculiarity and originality of this vision a proof of the historical truth of this history. "We feel that we are gradually drawing nearer to the times of the later prophets. It is a vision which might rank amongst those of Isaiah or Ezekiel" (Stanley)], I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the Lord said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace. [The last words are illustrated by the command of ver. 31; compare ver. 36. We may also picture the effect these words would have on the assembly at the city gate. For, however much they might be inclined to discredit Micaiah's words, and however much the reckless, unreasoning war spirit might possess them, there were none who did not understand that this vision portended the dispersion of the Israelite army and the death of its leader. King and people had been constantly represented under the figure of shepherd and sheep, and notably by Moses himself, who had used these very words, "sheep without a shepherd" (Numbers 27:17; cf. Psalm 78:70, 71; Isaiah 44:28; Jeremiah 23:1, 2; Ezekiel 34, passim. It is observable that Micaiah's vision, like Zedekiah's parable, borrows the language of the Pentateuch. Coincidences of this remote character are the most powerful proofs that the Pentateuch was then written.] 1 Kings 22:17

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Micah's prophecy concerning the war, and his testimony against the lying prophets. - 1 Kings 22:15, 1 Kings 22:16. When Micah had come into the presence of the king, he replied to his question, "Shall we go against Ramoth?" etc., in just the same words as the pseudo-prophets, to show the king how he would speak if he were merely guided by personal considerations, as the others were. From the verbal agreement in his reply, and probably also from the tone in which he spoke, Ahab perceived that his words were ironical, and adjured him to speak only truth in the name of Jehovah. Micah then told him what he had seen in the spirit (1 Kings 22:17): "I saw all Israel scatter itself upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd;" and then added the word of the Lord: "These have no master; let them return every one to his house in peace." That is to say, Ahab would fall in the war against Ramoth in Gilead, and his army scatter itself without a leader upon the mountains of Gilead, and then every one would return home, without being pursued and slain by the enemy. Whilst Zedekiyah attempted to give greater emphasis to his prophecy by symbolically transferring to Ahab's enterprise the success predicted by Moses, Micah, on the other hand, showed to the king out of the law that would really take place in the intended war, namely, that very state of things which Moses before his departure sought to avert from Israel, by the prayer that the Lord would set a man over the congregation to lead them out and in, that the congregation might not become as sheep that have no shepherd (Numbers 27:16-17).