7 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, but I have no love for him, because he has never been a prophet of good to me, but only of evil: he is Micaiah, the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
Happy are you, when men have hate for you, and put you away from among them and say angry words to you, turning away in disgust at your name, because of the Son of man.
Who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Do not give us word of what is true, but say false things to give us pleasure:
And so I say to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all men. For I have not kept back from you anything of the purpose of God.
If I had not done among them the works which no other man ever did, they would have had no sin: but now they have seen, and they have had hate in their hearts for me and my Father.
It is not possible for you to be hated by the world; but I am hated by it, because I give witness that what it does is evil.
And straight away the king sent out one of his armed men, and gave him an order to come back with the head: and he went and took off John's head in prison,
Is the Lord quickly made angry? are these his doings? do not his words do good to his people Israel?
They have hate for him who makes protest against evil in the public place, and he whose words are upright is disgusting to them.
Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the children of Israel: so give ear to the word of my mouth, and give them word from me of their danger. When I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly be your fate; and you give him no word of it and say nothing to make clear to the evil-doer the danger of his evil way, so that he may be safe; that same evil man will come to death in his evil-doing; but I will make you responsible for his blood. But if you give the evil-doer word of his danger, and he is not turned from his sin or from his evil way, death will overtake him in his evil-doing; but your life will be safe.
Then the rulers said to the king, Let this man be put to death, because he is putting fear into the hearts of the men of war who are still in the town, and into the hearts of the people, by saying such things to them: this man is not working for the well-being of the people, but for their damage.
Then they said, Come, let us make a design against Jeremiah; for teaching will never be cut off from the priest, or wisdom from the wise, or the word from the prophet. Come, let us make use of his words for an attack on him, and let us give attention with care to what he says.
Men of blood are haters of the good man, and evil-doers go after his soul.
Like a nose-ring of gold and an ornament of the best gold, is a wise man who says sharp words to an ear ready to give attention.
Take me from the grip of the sticky earth, so that I may not go down into it; let me be lifted up from the deep waters.
I am troubled because of the voice of the cruel ones, because of the loud cry of the evil-doers; for they put a weight of evil on me, and they are cruel in their hate for me.
And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the Lord says to me I will say.
Now when Joram saw Jehu he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he said in answer, What peace is possible while all the land is full of the disgusting sins of your mother Jezebel, and her secret arts?
And he said to him, These are the words of the Lord: Because you have let go from your hands the man whom I had put to the curse, your life will be taken for his life, and your people for his people. Then the king of Israel went back to his house, bitter and angry, and came to Samaria.
And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the Lord, the God of armies; for the children of Israel have not kept your agreement; they have made destruction of your altars, and have put your prophets to death with the sword: till I, even I, am the only one living; and now they are attempting to take away my life.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » John Gill's Exposition of the Bible » Commentary on 2 Chronicles 18
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 18 John Gill's Exposition of the Bible
Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance,.... Still more and more, see 2 Chronicles 17:5, and which moved Ahab to desire friendship and affinity with him, to which Jehoshaphat agreed:
and joined affinity with Ahab; king of Israel, married his son Joram to Athaliah, a daughter of Ahab by Jezebel of Zidon; which marriage proved of bad consequence to Jehoshaphat and his family.
And after certain years,.... Two years, according to the Syriac and Arabic versions, or in the third year after the affinity was contracted, see 1 Kings 22:2,
he went down to Ahab to Samaria; to pay him a visit upon the alliance, civil and matrimonial, contracted between them:
and Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the people that he had with him; entertained him and his retinue in a very grand and liberal manner:
and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramothgilead; from hence, to the end of the chapter, it is the same with 1 Kings 22:4.