Chapter Twenty-Two

1–5. The preparation of kings Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah for a campaign against the Syrians. 6–28. False prophets and the true prophet of God, Micaiah, concerning the coming campaign. 29–40. The battle at Ramoth-Gilead and Ahab’s death. 41–50. The reign of Jehoshaphat of Judah. 52–54. A note on the reign of Ahaziah of Israel and his ungodliness.

1 Kings 22:1. Three years passed, and there was no war between Syria and Israel. 1 Kings 22:2. In the third year Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. 1 Kings 22:3. And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you know that Ramoth-Gilead is ours? Yet we do nothing, and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria. 1 Kings 22:4. And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are; my people as your people; my horses as your horses. 1 Kings 22:5. And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Inquire now of the word of the Lord. 1 Kings 22:6. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred men, and said to them, Shall I go to war against Ramoth-Gilead, or shall I refrain? And they said, Go up, the Lord will give it into the king’s hand. Three years (v. 1) had passed since the second war of Ahab with the Syrians, which ended in Ahab’s victory over Ben-Hadad of Syria and a peace treaty between them (1 Kgs 20:26-34). One of the provisions of this peace treaty required the Syrian king to return to the Israelite king the cities of the Israelite kingdom taken by Ben-Hadad from Omri (1 Kgs 20:34). Among these cities was apparently Ramoth-Gilead (v. 3; Onomast. 688, 772; compare the commentaries to 1 Kgs 4:13), which the Syrian king apparently did not wish to return to Ahab: this served as the cause of the new war, which chapter XXII describes, thus forming a natural continuation of chapter XX (the three-year period separating the events of the two chapters saw, in the internal life of the Israelite kingdom: the murder of Naboth, chapter XXI; in external affairs, according to the supposition of scholars, the already-mentioned battle at Karkar between Shalmaneser II of Assyria and Ben-Hadad (Bir-idri) of Syria, in whose forces Ahab participated, as ally, according to the records of the Assyrian monuments (Ahabbu Sir-lai). The war is undertaken against the Syrians jointly by the Israelite king Ahab and the Judahite Jehoshaphat; the formerly hostile relations between the two Hebrew kingdoms gave way to friendly ones, partly on the basis of kinship between the royal houses: the son of Jehoshaphat of Judah, Joram, was married to Athaliah, daughter of Ahab of Israel (cf. 2 Kgs 8:18; 2 Chr 18:1),—partly, probably, from political necessity to together break the power of a common enemy—Syria. Jehoshaphat’s visit to Ahab (vv. 2, 4) under such circumstances could have been caused by the latter’s invitation (according to (2 Chr 18:2) Ahab held a great feast for Jehoshaphat); the initiative for the campaign against Ramoth in any case came from Ahab, from whom Jehoshaphat seemed to consider himself dependent (v. 4), for which reason he places at Ahab’s disposal his main military force—horses (cf. Ps 32:16-17). “Thus Jehoshaphat promised to act, called to participate in the battle; that is, I will do as you do, I will arm myself when you arm yourself, my people will begin war when your people begins. But Jehoshaphat also showed his piety, because he considered it necessary first to inquire of God, the Lord of all, v. 5” (the blessed Theodoret, question 67). However, “his piety suffered harm from friendship and kinship” (ibid.). If Jehoshaphat asks Ahab to inquire of the Lord regarding the coming campaign (v. 5), then the about four hundred men gathered by Ahab—prophets could not be the previously mentioned four hundred prophets of Astarte—Asherah (1 Kgs 18:18-19), as the ancient interpreters supposed, but prophets of Jehovah, probably of the calf-cult, which remained official even under Ahab (despite the intrusion of the cult of Baal). Since the very cult of the calves had a strong admixture of heathen elements, the institution of prophets in this cult did not correspond to the idea of prophetic service: already the enormous number of the prophets who now appeared (v. 6) puts them in complete parallel with the prophets of Baal and Astarte (1 Kgs 18:19); for them prophecy apparently became a kind of trade, a profitable profession; they probably, like the prophets of Astarte (ibid.), were fed from the royal table: their obvious flattery of the king testifies to this (vv. 6, 12–13), for which reason the prophet Micaiah calls them (vv. 22–23) prophets of Ahab, although for all that they themselves considered themselves to be under the action of the Spirit of God (v. 24).

1 Kings 22:7. And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here still a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord through him? Already the fact that the prophets summoned by Ahab were servants of the cult of calves opposed to God (probably many of them were directly priests of this cult: in (1 Kgs 18:19), priests of the cults of Baal and Astarte are called prophets, Hebrew neviim) did not inspire Jehoshaphat with confidence in their encouraging prophecies; furthermore, their strange agreement or unanimity could seem suspicious (according to the Talmud, Sanhedrin, 89, a: “revelation came to many prophets, but never did two prophets speak with one revelation, bassignon echad”). Therefore, he asks Ahab to inquire of a true prophet of Jehovah—like the prophet Elijah or other prophets who suffered persecution from Jezebel (1 Kgs 18:4).

1 Kings 22:8. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good about me, but only disaster—this is Micaiah, son of Imlah. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. 1 Kings 22:9. Then the king of Israel called an official and said, Bring quickly Micaiah, son of Imlah. In response to Jehoshaphat’s request, Ahab does not name the prophet Elijah—both from profound dislike of this prophet and probably from not knowing his whereabouts. As for the prophet Micaiah (Hebrew Micha, more fully: Michayahu: “who is like Jehovah?”), Ahab gives such an assessment, which reveals a purely heathen concept of prophecy—that a prophet has a kind of power and authority over the deity, and the power of his prophecy (magical) depends upon the formulas he uses, and he is wholly responsible for an unfavorable prophecy (such a heathen concept of the prophet as a magus clearly appears in the fact of the Moabite king Balak’s summons of Balaam to curse Israel (Num 22:1-6); Agamemnon’s reproach to the soothsayer Calchas in the Iliad I, 106 is completely analogous to Ahab’s assessment of Micaiah). This assessment (cf. 2 Chr 18:7) gives probability to the opinion of Josephus and the rabbis that the prophet Micaiah (1 Kgs 22:8)—is one and the same person as the son of the prophet who spoke a terrible word against Ahab (1 Kgs 20:35-42). It is also not unlikely that Ahab held Micaiah in a Samaritan prison (cf. vv. 26–27), which is why he could immediately summon him through an official (ἐυνοῦχος; Slavonic: “eunuch”), Hebrew: saris, denoting a person with a certain physical infirmity. (Isa 56:3-4), in particular those disfigured in this way—royal courtiers at the courts of oriental despots (1 Sam 8:15), but it can also have a general sense: a courtier, even a married man, cf. (Gen 37:36).

1 Kings 22:10. Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, sat each on his throne, clothed in royal raiment, on the threshing-floor at the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets prophesied before them. 1 Kings 22:11. And Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, made himself horns of iron and said, Thus says the Lord: With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed. 1 Kings 22:12. And all the prophets prophesied the same, saying, Go up to Ramoth-Gilead and prosper; the Lord will give it into the king’s hand. While awaiting the prophet Micaiah, both Hebrew kings sat on their thrones in full armor (LXX, v. 10, ´ένοπλοι, Slavonic: “in armor”—which is more acceptable than the reading of the Hebrew text: “begadim beGoren”—“clothed on the threshing-floor”; Gratz reads instead: “shiryon”—“breastplate”; Vulgate: vestiti culto regio; Russian Synodal and Prof. Gulyaev’s translation: “clothed in royal raiment”), perhaps making a review of their allied forces; and a host of prophets loudly predicted and sang of the coming victory of the allies (v. 10). One of these prophets, Zedekiah, uses (v. 11), like the symbolism of true prophets of God (1 Kgs 11:29-32; Jer 28:12-14 and others), an expressive symbol of Ahab’s coming victory: he made himself horns of iron—a symbol of the power of the Israelite king; in this sense the horn, Hebrew: keren, is used very frequently in the Bible, for example (Ps 74:11; Jer 48:25; Mic 4:13)—a form very intelligible to the Israelite and deeply sympathetic, in that it recalled the prophecy of Moses about the fate of the tribe of Ephraim (which was dominant in the Israelite kingdom): “His strength is like the firstling of a bull, and his horns like the horns of a wild ox” (Deut 33:17) 24.

1 Kings 22:13. Now the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord foretell good to the king; please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak good. 1 Kings 22:14. And Micaiah said, As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that will I speak. From the messenger’s request to the prophet Micaiah to speak in agreement with the other prophets (v. 13), a request probably coming from Ahab, it is evident both how profound was the view of prophecy, as magic, in Ahab and those close to him, and that Ahab valued the prophecies of his four hundred prophets less than the prophecy of one Micaiah, apparently feeling in him a true prophet. As a true prophet of the True God, Micaiah promises to speak only what Jehovah will reveal to him (v. 14); cf. (Jer 23:28; 1 Pet 4:11).

1 Kings 22:15. So he came to the king. The king said to him, Micaiah! Shall we go to war against Ramoth-Gilead, or shall we refrain? And he said, Go up and prosper; the Lord will give it into the king’s hand. 1 Kings 22:16. And the king said to him, How many times must I adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord? Before declaring the bitter word of prophecy, the prophet Micaiah ironically repeats the advice of Ahab’s prophets to go to war, with an ironic promise of victory: this was as it were an exhortation to Ahab’s conscience, a reproach for his deceitful question (cf. the blessed Theodoret, question 68). The prophet’s peculiar approach achieved its goal: Ahab demands that the prophet speak only truth according to the revelation of Jehovah (v. 16), although he does not commit himself to follow the prophet’s word.

1 Kings 22:17. And he said, I see all Israel scattered upon the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master; let each return to his home in peace. The prophet describes the vision shown to him: the Israelites are scattered upon the mountains (of Gilead), like sheep without a shepherd (Num 27:17), because their head and shepherd, the king, will be taken from them: “By this he showed Ahab that his evil would cause his defeat. If Israel had had a pious shepherd, he would have gained a decisive victory over his enemies” (the blessed Theodoret, question 68). Having lost their head, their king, the army will depart in peace. Both the king’s death and the army’s return subsequently happened in exact accordance with the prophet’s word (cf. v. 17 and vv. 35–36).

1 Kings 22:18. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good about me, but only disaster? Ahab hastens to confirm for Jehoshaphat his earlier view of Micaiah (v. 8) by pointing to the prophet’s answer (v. 17): to attribute the cause of Micaiah’s unfavorable prophecy to this prophet’s personal dislike of him, as earlier (1 Kgs 21:20) he accused the prophet Elijah of personal hatred toward him.

1 Kings 22:19. And [Micaiah] said, [No; not I, but] hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven stood beside Him, on His right hand and on His left; 1 Kings 22:20. and the Lord said, Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one said one thing, and another said another; 1 Kings 22:21. and a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said to him, By what means? 1 Kings 22:22. And he said, I will go forth and become a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, You shall entice him and prevail; go forth and do so. 1 Kings 22:23. Now therefore the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours; but the Lord has spoken disaster against you. Refuting this, essentially heathen view of Ahab concerning prophecy (the LXX and Slavonic text convey the Hebrew lakhen with negation: οὐχ οὕτως—“not so,” which much more corresponds to the opposition of Ahab’s words, v. 18, and the prophet’s speech vv. 19 ff.), the prophet describes the continuation of his vision (cf. v. 17), in which is indicated the mysterious basis of all visible facts: the seduction of Ahab by false prophecy from his prophets, which is to bring about Ahab’s destruction in the coming battle, is divine permission, figuratively represented as a consultation before Jehovah of the hosts in the midst of angels or spirits; according to Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews VIII, 15, 4, “the fateful inevitability of predetermination (χρεών = ἀνάγκη or εἱμαρμένη of the Stoics) played a decisive role in Ahab’s undertaking of the campaign, by virtue of which the words of the false prophets seemed more convincing to Ahab than the words of the true prophet.” But the biblical text knows no such blind fate, but only speaks of the free action of the all-acting providence of the living God, though an action merely permissive of the development of events, not productive of, or at any rate, not assisting in them. All the vision, vv. 19–23, according to the blessed Theodoret (question 68), “is merely a personification, by which divine permission is shown; for the true God and Teacher of truth did not command to seduce Ahab.” God’s action upon Ahab in this case—the allowance of him to come under the influence of a spirit of falsehood, speaking through the mouths of his prophets (vv. 21–23), is analogous, for example, to God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart (Exod 4:21), or the allowance of Rehoboam’s foolish response to the people’s demands (1 Kgs 12:15), that is, here there was not direct causality. The very picture of the host of heaven (Hebrew Tseba hashamayim, v. 19), standing before the throne of Jehovah of hosts, as well as similar pictures of angels in the book of Job (Job 1:6) or the seraphim in the vision of the prophet Isaiah (Isa 6:1-3), expresses the biblical idea that the plans and judgments of divine providence concerning the world and people are carried out by higher spiritual forces—angels, forming a whole world—the “host” in the transcendent sphere of God’s being (“heavenly”), cf. (2 Sam 24:16; 2 Kgs 19:35; Heb 1:14). The spirit, separated from the host of heaven and becoming, by God’s permission, a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab’s prophets, embodying false prophecy, appears as a spirit of falsehood (Hebrew ruach sheker, v. 22) and in this capacity is represented as standing under the influence of Satan or the devil (only in the vision of the prophet Micaiah is the idea of God’s universal action brought to the fore, while in (Job 1:6-12) Satan or the devil is outlined more distinctly, although God’s permission is also pointed out. The Talmud arbitrarily sees in the “spirit” the spirit of Naboth, though the accusing reminder of Naboth to Ahab would not have been superfluous). See in the book of A. Glagolev, “Old Testament biblical doctrine of angels,” p. 610 ff.

1 Kings 22:24. Then Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, How did the Spirit of the Lord go from me to speak in you? 1 Kings 22:25. And Micaiah said, Behold, you will see it on the day when you go from chamber to chamber to hide yourself. The bold deed of Zedekiah, expressing grave contempt for the prophet Micaiah (cf. Job 16:10; John 18:22), shows how keenly this head of Ahab’s prophets was wounded in his professional honor (cf. v. 11), having apparently great weight with the king. The prophet Micaiah predicts for the bold false prophet a shameful captivity (and perhaps a similar death) after Ahab’s defeat.

1 Kings 22:26. And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and bring him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son, 1 Kings 22:27. and say, Thus says the king: Put this man in prison and feed him with meager bread and meager water until I return in peace. The prophetic denunciations and warnings had no effect on Ahab. He angrily throws the prophet Micaiah into prison and not without mockery orders the prophet to be fed there with bread of sorrow and water of affliction (cf. Isa 30:20) until his return from the field of battle, in the prosperous outcome of which he boastfully assures himself and others (contrary to (1 Kgs 20:11)). According to Josephus, Ahab’s self-assurance and determination to go to war contrary to Micaiah’s word grew because Zedekiah, who struck the prophet Micaiah, suffered no harm (as Jeroboam suffered from the Judahite prophet), (1 Kgs 13:4).

1 Kings 22:28. And Micaiah said, If you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me. And he said, Listen, all you people! All the more does the prophet Micaiah solemnly assure before all the people the truth of his prophecy.

1 Kings 22:29. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-Gilead. 1 Kings 22:30. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and go into the battle, but you put on your royal raiment. So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle. 1 Kings 22:31. Now the king of Syria had commanded the commanders of his chariots, saying, Do not fight with anyone, small or great, but only with the king of Israel. 1 Kings 22:32. And when the commanders of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, Surely this is the king of Israel, and they turned to fight against him. But Jehoshaphat cried out. 1 Kings 22:33. And when the commanders of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from him. 1 Kings 22:34. And a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. And he said to his charioteer, Turn around and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded. 1 Kings 22:35. And the battle intensified that day, but the king stood upon his chariot facing the Syrians; and at evening he died, and the blood from his wound flowed into the chariot. 1 Kings 22:36. And as the sun was setting, a cry went throughout the army, saying, Each to his own city, and each to his own land! 1 Kings 22:37. So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. 1 Kings 22:38. And they washed the chariot at the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked his blood, and the harlots washed themselves in it, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke. Notwithstanding everything, Ahab set out for the campaign against the Syrians to Ramoth-Gilead (v. 29); “Jehoshaphat accompanied him, having acted unworthily of his piety. For, having sought out the prophet, rejected the false prophets, and learned from Micaiah what he should do, he preferred friendship to piety” (the blessed Theodoret, question 66). Ahab’s fate was already decided by the direct command of the Syrian king to kill him (v. 31: thus the king of Syria rewarded Ahab for his magnanimity toward him, cf. (1 Kgs 20:32-33), despite the precaution he took (v. 30), caused both by this command of the Syrian king and by Ahab’s great fear of Micaiah’s unfavorable prophecy. By his disguise, Ahab inadvertently became the indirect cause of the attack upon Jehoshaphat, who was saved only by a miracle (vv. 32–33; (2 Chr 18:31)). The Israelite army as well returned safely (v. 36), according to the prophet’s word (v. 17). “The prediction of God was fulfilled. The wounded Ahab stood for a long time on his chariot so that his departure would not give cause for a general flight. The flowing blood coagulated in the chariot; the one driving it, as he approached the city, washed the chariot at a certain spring. The dogs licked the blood; and the harlots, early in the morning, bathed themselves in it according to custom, not intending to bathe in blood, but on the contrary, thinking they were bathing in running water; but the water was stained with blood,” (the blessed Theodoret, question 68; cf. (1 Kgs 21:19)).

1 Kings 22:39. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, all that he did, and the ivory house that he built, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Israel? With regard to his passion for building (cities and palaces), Ahab apparently vied with Solomon; the “ivory house” (cf. Amos 3:15)—the height of luxury (probably, however, ivory was used only for many of the ornaments of Ahab’s palace).

1 Kings 22:41. Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel. 1 Kings 22:42. Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah, daughter of Shilhi. 1 Kings 22:43. He walked in all the way of his father Asa; he did not turn from it, doing what was right before the Lord. Yet the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. 1 Kings 22:44. Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel. 1 Kings 22:45. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his mighty deeds that he did, and how he waged war, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah? 1 Kings 22:46. And he removed from the land the male cult prostitutes who remained in the days of his father Asa. 1 Kings 22:47. At that time there was no king in Edom; there was a deputy of the king. 1 Kings 22:48. [King] Jehoshaphat made ships to sail to Ophir for gold; but they did not go, for the ships were wrecked at Ezion-Geber. 1 Kings 22:49. Then Ahaziah, son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with your servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat was not willing. 1 Kings 22:50. And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, his father. And Joram, his son, reigned in his place. Concerning the twenty-five-year reign of the pious Judahite (the fourth in reckoning) king Jehoshaphat (cf. 1 Kgs 15:24), the Third Book of Kings gives an excessively brief account, while the Second Book of Chronicles devotes four chapters (XVII-XX) to his reign, wherein the internal measures of Jehoshaphat in his kingdom are described in detail: the fortification of cities, the organization of administration, the spread among the people of knowledge of God’s law through priests and Levites sent throughout the country (XVII); the purification of the cult and firm organization of civil and ecclesiastical courts (XIX); equally, besides Jehoshaphat’s participation in the Israelite campaign against the Syrians (XVIII), there is a detailed account of the invasion of the Judahite kingdom by the Moabites and Ammonites during Jehoshaphat’s reign, which ended in the miraculous victory of the Jews over their enemies without a battle (chapter 20). The Third Book of Kings depicts the reign of Jehoshaphat only in general features, reminding more of the description of the reign of his father Asa (1 Kgs 15:9-24). Like Asa (1 Kgs 15:14; cf. (2 Chr 15:17)), Jehoshaphat destroyed the high places of heathen cults (2 Chr 17:6), but preserved the ancient high places sacred to the True God (v. 43; (2 Chr 20:33). Similarly to his father, Jehoshaphat destroyed the religious prostitution that had entered Judah in the time of Rehoboam (1 Kgs 14:24)) (v. 46, cf. (1 Kgs 15:12)). But sorrowful in a religious and moral respect were the consequences of the “peace” (v. 44) of Jehoshaphat with the Israelite royal house: from political motives, Jehoshaphat, the first of the Judahite kings, concluded an alliance with Ahab, strengthened by family ties and maintained by Jehoshaphat and under Ahab’s successors—Ahaziah and Joram. If Jehoshaphat aided Ahab in a war against the Syrians (vv. 4 ff.), then with Ahaziah he entered into joint commercial ventures: both kings, with joint resources, undertook the construction, following Solomon’s example (1 Kgs 9:26), of a fleet at Ezion-Geber (vv. 49–50; (2 Chr 20:35-38)), which was favored by the absence at that time of a king in Edom (v. 48) where Ezion-Geber lay, which had become something of a province of Judah under the rule of a deputy of the Judahite king. Finally, with Joram of Israel, Jehoshaphat subsequently undertook a campaign against the Moabite king (2 Kgs 3:1-7). Prophets rebuked Jehoshaphat for his friendship with the ungodly house of Ahab (2 Chr 19:2), threatening him with disaster; indeed, all three named undertakings of the allies proved extremely unsuccessful for them, particularly for Jehoshaphat; from the campaign to Ramoth against the Syrians, Jehoshaphat barely escaped; the fleet he built jointly with Ahaziah was wrecked by a storm in the very harbor (vv. 49–50; (2 Chr 20:37)); the campaign of Jehoshaphat with Joram of Israel against the Moabites ended in failure (2 Kgs 3:1-27).

1 Kings 22:51. Ahaziah, son of Ahab, reigned over Israel in Samaria, in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel [in Samaria] for two years, 1 Kings 22:52. and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, 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 caused Israel to sin: 1 Kings 22:53. he served Baal and worshipped him and provoked the Lord, God of Israel, to anger with all that his father had done. The date of Ahaziah’s accession to the throne in the Israelite kingdom—the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat’s reign—is difficult to reconcile with other chronological data: according to v. 41 of this chapter, Jehoshaphat of Judah became king in the fourth year of Ahab’s reign in Israel, who, according to (1 Kgs 16:29), reigned twenty-two years. Thus, according to (1 Kgs 22:51), the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat’s reign will be the twentieth year of Ahab’s reign; consequently, Ahaziah could have ascended to the throne only in the nineteenth year of Jehoshaphat’s reign. But this apparent contradiction is explained by the repeatedly noted circumstance that incomplete years of reign in the Book of Kings are counted as full years. The two-year reign of Ahaziah is characterized religiously (vv. 52–53) in a way completely similar to that of Ahab (1 Kgs 16:30-31): under Ahaziah, likewise, the cult of the calves and the cult of Baal flourished. * * * Notes It is possible, however, that the horns of Zedekiah had relation also to the cults of Baal and Astarte, which Ahab upheld, and Baal was depicted with a bull’s head, and Astarte—in the form of a cow