As the sun was setting, the cry rang out in the army: "Every man to his own city, and every man to his own land!" As the sun was settingThis phrase marks the end of a significant day, both literally and metaphorically. In the Hebrew context, the setting sun often symbolizes the conclusion of an era or the end of a significant event. Here, it signifies the end of the battle and the demise of King Ahab. The setting sun can also be seen as a metaphor for the fading glory of Ahab's reign, as his life and influence come to an end. The imagery of the sun setting is a powerful reminder of the transient nature of human power and the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men. a cry spread throughout the army
The "cry" represents a sudden and urgent proclamation that reverberates through the ranks of the soldiers. In ancient warfare, such cries were often used to communicate important messages quickly across large groups. This particular cry signals a retreat and a return to safety, indicating a decisive end to the battle. The spreading of the cry throughout the army underscores the unity and collective response of the troops, as well as the gravity of the situation. It reflects the chaos and urgency of the moment, as the soldiers realize the battle is lost and their king is dead. Every man to his own city
This phrase is a directive for the soldiers to return to their homes, signifying the disbandment of the army. In the historical context of Israel, each man returning to his own city highlights the tribal and familial structures that were central to Israelite society. It emphasizes the personal responsibility of each soldier to return to his community and resume his civilian life. This return to one's city also symbolizes a return to normalcy and peace after the turmoil of battle, as well as a reminder of the importance of local governance and community in the life of the Israelites. and every man to his own land!
The repetition of the directive, now focusing on "land," underscores the importance of land ownership and inheritance in ancient Israel. Land was not only a source of sustenance but also a key component of identity and heritage. This call to return to one's land is a call to return to one's roots and responsibilities. It reflects the biblical theme of the Promised Land as a divine gift and a place of rest and blessing. The emphasis on returning to one's land also serves as a reminder of God's covenant promises to His people, even in the midst of national defeat and personal loss. Persons / Places / Events 1. AhabThe King of Israel who went into battle against the Arameans at Ramoth-gilead and was fatally wounded. 2. JehoshaphatThe King of Judah who allied with Ahab in the battle against Aram. 3. Ramoth-gileadThe location of the battle where Ahab was killed. 4. The ArameansThe opposing army in the battle against Israel and Judah. 5. The Army of IsraelThe forces that were commanded to retreat after Ahab's death. Teaching Points The Inevitability of God's WordGod's prophecies, as spoken through His prophets, will always come to pass. Ahab's death was foretold, and despite his attempts to disguise himself, God's word was fulfilled. The Consequences of DisobedienceAhab's life and reign were marked by disobedience to God, leading to his downfall. This serves as a warning that turning away from God leads to destruction. The Importance of Godly AlliancesJehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab, a king who did not follow God, led to negative consequences. Believers should seek alliances that honor God and His commandments. The Call to ReturnThe cry for every man to return to his own city and land symbolizes a return to one's roots and responsibilities. It reminds believers to return to God and His purposes for their lives. The Sovereignty of God in BattleDespite human strategies and plans, God remains sovereign over the outcomes of battles and conflicts. Trust in God should be paramount over reliance on human strength. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the fulfillment of Micaiah's prophecy in 1 Kings 22:36 demonstrate the reliability of God's word? 2. In what ways can Ahab's account serve as a warning against disobedience and idolatry in our own lives? 3. What lessons can we learn from Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab about the importance of choosing godly partnerships? 4. How can the command for every man to return to his own city and land be applied to our spiritual lives today? 5. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's sovereignty in a situation where human plans failed. How did this impact your faith? Connections to Other Scriptures 1 Kings 22:29-35Provides context for the battle and Ahab's death, showing the fulfillment of Micaiah's prophecy. 2 Chronicles 18:28-34A parallel account of the battle and Ahab's demise, emphasizing the divine judgment on Ahab. Deuteronomy 28:25Discusses the consequences of disobedience to God, including being defeated by enemies, which is relevant to Israel's defeat. Proverbs 21:30Highlights that no wisdom, understanding, or counsel can prevail against the Lord, reflecting the futility of Ahab's plans against God's will. 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 Army, Camp, Causeth, Close, Cry, Dead, Host, Pass, Passed, Proclamation, Saying, Setting, Spread, Sundown, Sunset, Throughout, TownDictionary of Bible Themes 1 Kings 22:36 5196 voice 1 Kings 22:1-38 8131 guidance, results 1 Kings 22:17-38 6708 predestination 1 Kings 22:29-37 5837 disguise 1 Kings 22:34-38 4912 chance 1 Kings 22:35-38 1429 prophecy, OT fulfilment 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 22:36 NIV1 Kings 22:36 NLT1 Kings 22:36 ESV1 Kings 22:36 NASB1 Kings 22:36 KJV
1 Kings 22:36 Commentaries
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