who said to his servants, "Do you not know that Ramoth-gilead is ours, but we have failed to take it from the hand of the king of Aram?" And the king of IsraelThis phrase refers to Ahab, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Ahab's reign is marked by his marriage to Jezebel and the introduction of Baal worship, which led Israel away from the worship of Yahweh. Historically, Ahab was a powerful king, but his spiritual leadership was lacking. His political alliances and military campaigns were significant, yet his failure to follow God's commandments ultimately led to his downfall. said to his servants
The term "servants" here can be understood as Ahab's officials or advisors. In the Hebrew context, these individuals were not merely household servants but were often key figures in the administration of the kingdom. This highlights the king's reliance on counsel and the importance of wise advisors, a theme echoed throughout the wisdom literature of the Bible. Do you not know
This rhetorical question implies a sense of urgency and frustration. Ahab is expressing his awareness of a situation that he believes should be obvious to his advisors. It reflects a common biblical theme where leaders are called to be vigilant and proactive in their duties, especially in matters concerning the welfare of their people. that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us
Ramoth-gilead was a strategically important city located east of the Jordan River. Historically, it was designated as a city of refuge and a Levitical city, underscoring its religious and cultural significance. Ahab's claim to the city is rooted in historical and territorial rights, reflecting the ongoing conflict between Israel and Aram (Syria) over border territories. and yet we are doing nothing
This phrase indicates a state of inaction and complacency. In the biblical narrative, such inaction often leads to negative consequences. The call to action is a recurring theme in Scripture, where God's people are encouraged to act justly and courageously in the face of challenges. to reclaim it
The concept of reclaiming or restoring what is rightfully theirs is central to the biblical narrative of redemption and restoration. In the Hebrew context, reclaiming land was not just a political act but also a fulfillment of God's promises to His people. It reflects the broader biblical theme of God restoring His people to their rightful inheritance. from the hand of the king of Aram
The "king of Aram" refers to the ruler of the Aramean kingdom, a frequent adversary of Israel. The historical context of this conflict highlights the geopolitical tensions of the time. Aram, located in modern-day Syria, was a significant power, and its interactions with Israel are documented throughout the Old Testament. This phrase underscores the ongoing struggle between Israel and its neighbors, a struggle that often served as a backdrop for God's dealings with His people. Persons / Places / Events 1. King of IsraelThis refers to Ahab, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, known for his idolatry and marriage to Jezebel. 2. Servants of the KingThese are the officials or advisors who serve King Ahab, likely involved in military and political counsel. 3. Ramoth-gileadA strategically important city located east of the Jordan River, historically belonging to Israel but at this time under Aramean control. 4. King of AramLikely Ben-Hadad II, the king of Aram (Syria), who had previously been in conflict with Israel. 5. Historical ContextThis event occurs during a period of frequent conflict between Israel and Aram, with territorial disputes being common. Teaching Points The Danger of ComplacencyAhab's statement reveals a complacency in reclaiming what rightfully belongs to Israel. Believers are reminded to be vigilant in their spiritual lives, not allowing complacency to hinder their walk with God. The Importance of Seeking God's WillBefore taking action, it is crucial to seek God's guidance. Ahab's failure to do so serves as a warning against making decisions based solely on human wisdom. The Consequences of DisobedienceAhab's reign is marked by disobedience to God, leading to negative consequences. This serves as a reminder of the importance of obedience to God's commands. The Role of LeadershipAhab's leadership decisions impact the entire nation. This underscores the responsibility of leaders to act in accordance with God's will and for the good of those they lead. Bible Study Questions 1. What does the situation in 1 Kings 22:3 reveal about the spiritual state of Israel under Ahab's leadership? 2. How can we apply the lesson of avoiding complacency in our own spiritual lives today? 3. In what ways does the account of Ahab and Ramoth-gilead parallel the need for Christians to reclaim spiritual ground in their lives? 4. How does the account of Ahab's decision-making process challenge us to seek God's guidance in our own decisions? 5. What can we learn from Ahab's leadership about the impact of our actions on those around us, and how does this relate to the teachings of Jesus on leadership and servanthood? Connections to Other Scriptures Joshua 20:8Ramoth-gilead is mentioned as a city of refuge, highlighting its historical significance to Israel. 1 Kings 20Previous conflicts between Ahab and Ben-Hadad are detailed, providing context for the ongoing tension. 2 Chronicles 18Offers a parallel account of the events in 1 Kings 22, providing additional insights into the account. People Ahab, Ahaziah, Amon, Aram, Asa, Azubah, Chenaanah, David, Geber, Imlah, Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, Jeroboam, Joash, Micah, Micaiah, Nebat, Ophir, Shilhi, Sodomites, Syrians, Tarshish, Tharshish, ZedekiahPlaces Edom, Ezion-geber, Jerusalem, Ophir, Ramoth-gilead, Samaria, Syria, TarshishTopics Aram, Belongs, Gilead, Hands, Keeping, Nothing, Ours, Quiet, Ramoth, Ramoth-gilead, Retake, Servants, Silent, Syria, Taking, YetDictionary of Bible Themes 1 Kings 22:1-4 7233 Israel, northern kingdom 1 Kings 22:1-5 7245 Judah, kingdom of 1 Kings 22:1-28 7774 prophets, false 1 Kings 22:1-38 8131 guidance, results Library Unpossessed Possessions
'And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?'--1 KINGS xxii. 3. This city of Ramoth in Gilead was an important fortified place on the eastern side of the Jordan, and had, many years before the date of our text, been captured by its northern neighbours in the kingdom of Syria. A treaty had subsequently been concluded and broken a war followed thereafter, in which Ben-hadad, King of Syria, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureAhab and Micaiah
'And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might enquire of him? 8. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.'--1 KINGS xxii. 7,8. An ill-omened alliance had been struck up between Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah. The latter, who would have been much better in Jerusalem, had come down to Samaria …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Prophet Micah.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Micah signifies: "Who is like Jehovah;" and by this name, the prophet is consecrated to the incomparable God, just as Hosea was to the helping God, and Nahum to the comforting God. He prophesied, according to the inscription, under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We are not, however, entitled, on this account, to dissever his prophecies, and to assign particular discourses to the reign of each of these kings. On the contrary, the entire collection forms only one whole. At …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament The Poetical Books (Including Also Ecclesiastes and Canticles).
1. The Hebrews reckon but three books as poetical, namely: Job, Psalms, and Proverbs, which are distinguished from the rest by a stricter rhythm--the rhythm not of feet, but of clauses (see below, No. 3)--and a peculiar system of accentuation. It is obvious to every reader that the poetry of the Old Testament, in the usual sense of the word, is not restricted to these three books. But they are called poetical in a special and technical sense. In any natural classification of the books of the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible The Assyrian Revival and the Struggle for Syria
Assur-nazir-pal (885-860) and Shalmaneser III. (860-825)--The kingdom of Urartu and its conquering princes: Menuas and Argistis. Assyria was the first to reappear on the scene of action. Less hampered by an ancient past than Egypt and Chaldaea, she was the sooner able to recover her strength after any disastrous crisis, and to assume again the offensive along the whole of her frontier line. Image Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief at Koyunjik of the time of Sennacherib. The initial cut, …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 7 Use to be Made of the Doctrine of Providence.
Sections. 1. Summary of the doctrine of Divine Providence. 1. It embraces the future and the past. 2. It works by means, without means, and against means. 3. Mankind, and particularly the Church, the object of special care. 4. The mode of administration usually secret, but always just. This last point more fully considered. 2. The profane denial that the world is governed by the secret counsel of God, refuted by passages of Scripture. Salutary counsel. 3. This doctrine, as to the secret counsel of …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion The Shepherd of Our Souls.
"I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."--John x. 11. Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them," says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII Of Councils and their Authority.
1. The true nature of Councils. 2. Whence the authority of Councils is derived. What meant by assembling in the name of Christ. 3. Objection, that no truth remains in the Church if it be not in Pastors and Councils. Answer, showing by passages from the Old Testament that Pastors were often devoid of the spirit of knowledge and truth. 4. Passages from the New Testament showing that our times were to be subject to the same evil. This confirmed by the example of almost all ages. 5. All not Pastors who …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion That the Employing Of, and Associating with the Malignant Party, According as is Contained in the Public Resolutions, is Sinful and Unlawful.
That The Employing Of, And Associating With The Malignant Party, According As Is Contained In The Public Resolutions, Is Sinful And Unlawful. If there be in the land a malignant party of power and policy, and the exceptions contained in the Act of Levy do comprehend but few of that party, then there need be no more difficulty to prove, that the present public resolutions and proceedings do import an association and conjunction with a malignant party, than to gather a conclusion from clear premises. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Of Passages from the Holy Scriptures, and from the Apocrypha, which are Quoted, or Incidentally Illustrated, in the Institutes.
TO THE AUTHORS QUOTED IN THE INSTITUTES PREFATORY ADDRESS TO HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY, THE MOST MIGHTY AND ILLUSTRIOUS MONARCH, FRANCIS, KING OF THE FRENCH, HIS SOVEREIGN; [1] JOHN CALVIN PRAYS PEACE AND SALVATION IN CHRIST. [2] Sire,--When I first engaged in this work, nothing was farther from my thoughts than to write what should afterwards be presented to your Majesty. My intention was only to furnish a kind of rudiments, by which those who feel some interest in religion might be trained to …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion He Does Battle for the Faith; He Restores Peace among those who were at Variance; He Takes in Hand to Build a Stone Church.
57. (32). There was a certain clerk in Lismore whose life, as it is said, was good, but his faith not so. He was a man of some knowledge in his own eyes, and dared to say that in the Eucharist there is only a sacrament and not the fact[718] of the sacrament, that is, mere sanctification and not the truth of the Body. On this subject he was often addressed by Malachy in secret, but in vain; and finally he was called before a public assembly, the laity however being excluded, in order that if it were …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh Sovereignty of God in Administration
"The LORD hath prepared His Throne In the heavens; and His Kingdom ruleth over all" (Psa. 103:19). First, a word concerning the need for God to govern the material world. Suppose the opposite for a moment. For the sake of argument, let us say that God created the world, designed and fixed certain laws (which men term "the laws of Nature"), and that He then withdrew, leaving the world to its fortune and the out-working of these laws. In such a case, we should have a world over which there was no intelligent, …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God Tit. 2:06 Thoughts for Young Men
WHEN St. Paul wrote his Epistle to Titus about his duty as a minister, he mentioned young men as a class requiring peculiar attention. After speaking of aged men and aged women, and young women, he adds this pithy advice, "Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded" (Tit. 2:6). I am going to follow the Apostle's advice. I propose to offer a few words of friendly exhortation to young men. I am growing old myself, but there are few things I remember so well as the days of my youth. I have a most …
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times General Principles of Interpretation. 1 Since the Bible Addresses Men in Human Language...
CHAPTER XXXIV. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 1. Since the Bible addresses men in human language, and according to human modes of thinking and speaking, the interpreter's first work is to ascertain the meaning of the terms employed. Here he must proceed as in the case of other writings, seeking by the aid of grammars, lexicons, cognate languages, ancient versions, ancient interpreters, and whatever other outward helps are available, to gain a thorough knowledge of the language employed by …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible Commerce
The remarkable change which we have noticed in the views of Jewish authorities, from contempt to almost affectation of manual labour, could certainly not have been arbitrary. But as we fail to discover here any religious motive, we can only account for it on the score of altered political and social circumstances. So long as the people were, at least nominally, independent, and in possession of their own land, constant engagement in a trade would probably mark an inferior social stage, and imply …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life The Figurative Language of Scripture.
1. When the psalmist says: "The Lord God is a sun and shield" (Psa. 84:11), he means that God is to all his creatures the source of life and blessedness, and their almighty protector; but this meaning he conveys under the figure of a sun and a shield. When, again, the apostle James says that Moses is read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day (Acts 15:21), he signifies the writings of Moses under the figure of his name. In these examples the figure lies in particular words. But it may be embodied …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible Instruction for the Ignorant:
BEING A SALVE TO CURE THAT GREAT WANT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHICH SO MUCH REIGNS BOTH IN YOUNG AND OLD. PREPARED AND PRESENTED TO THEM IN A PLAIN AND EASY DIALOGUE, FITTED TO THE CAPACITY OF THE WEAKEST. 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'--Hosea 4:6 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This little catechism is upon a plan perfectly new and unique. It was first published as a pocket volume in 1675, and has been republished in every collection of the author's works; and recently in a separate tract. …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Kings
The book[1] of Kings is strikingly unlike any modern historical narrative. Its comparative brevity, its curious perspective, and-with some brilliant exceptions--its relative monotony, are obvious to the most cursory perusal, and to understand these things is, in large measure, to understand the book. It covers a period of no less than four centuries. Beginning with the death of David and the accession of Solomon (1 Kings i., ii.) it traverses his reign with considerable fulness (1 Kings iii.-xi.), …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links 1 Kings 22:3 NIV1 Kings 22:3 NLT1 Kings 22:3 ESV1 Kings 22:3 NASB1 Kings 22:3 KJV
1 Kings 22:3 Commentaries
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