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Micaiah ( ''Mīḵāyəhū'' "Who is like Yah?"), son of Imlah, is a
prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...
in the
Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Elijah Elijah ( ) or Elias was a prophet and miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worsh ...
and not to be confused with
Micah Micah (; ) is a given name. Micah is the name of several people in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), and means "He who is like God”. The name is sometimes found with theophoric extensions. Suffix theophory in '' Yah'' and in ''Yahweh'' result ...
, prophet of the
Book of Micah The Book of Micah is the sixth of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The book has seven chapters. Ostensibly, it records the sayings of Micah, whose name is ''Mikayahu'' (), meaning "Who is like Yahweh?", an 8th-century BCE prophet f ...
.


Prophecy

The events leading up to the appearance of Micaiah are illustrated in 1 Kings 22:1–12. In 1 Kings 22:1–4,
Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat (; alternatively spelled Jehosaphat, Josaphat, or Yehoshafat; ; ; ), according to the Hebrew Bible, was the son of Asa, and the fourth king of the Kingdom of Judah, in succession to his father. His children included Jehoram, who ...
, the king of Judah goes to visit the King of Israel (identified later, in 1 Kings 22:20, as
Ahab Ahab (; ; ; ; ) was a king of the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), the son and successor of King Omri, and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon, according to the Hebrew Bible. He is depicted in the Bible as a Baal worshipper and is criticized for causi ...
), and asks if he will go with him to take over
Ramoth-gilead Ramoth-Gilead (, meaning "Heights of Gilead"), was a Levitical city and city of refuge east of the Jordan River in the Hebrew Bible, also called "Ramoth in Gilead" (; ; ) or "Ramoth Galaad" in the Douay–Rheims Bible. It was located in the trib ...
which was under the rule of the king of Aram. Jehoshaphat the Judahite requests that Ahab the Israelite, "Inquire first for the word of the Lord" (1 Kings 22:5). Ahab then calls on his prophets and asks if he should go into battle against Ramoth-gilead. The prophets responded by telling the king of Israel to go into battle, stating that the Lord (
Adonai Judaism has different names given to God in Judaism, God, which are considered sacred: (), (''Adonai'' ), (''El (deity), El'' ), ( ), (''El Shaddai, Shaddai'' ), and ( ); some also include I Am that I Am.This is the formulation of Josep ...
) will deliver Ramoth-gilead into the hand of the king (1 Kings 22:6). Jehoshaphat asks if there are any other prophets of whom to inquire the word of the Lord (
YHWH The TetragrammatonPronounced ; ; also known as the Tetragram. is the four-letter Hebrew-language theonym (transliterated as YHWH or YHVH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four Hebrew letters, written and read from right to left, a ...
). Ahab mentions Micaiah the son of Imlah, but expresses dislike for him because his past (1 Kings 20:13–43) prophecies have not been in favor of him (1 Kings 22:7–8). A messenger is sent to bring Micaiah to the king to give his prophecy. The messenger tells Micaiah to give a favorable prophecy to Ahab (1 Kings 22:12–13). Micaiah replies to the messenger that he will speak whatever the Lord says to him (1 Kings 22:14). Micaiah appears before the king of Israel, and when asked if Ahab should go into battle at Ramoth-gilead Micaiah initially responds with a similar prophecy to that of the other prophets in a mocking manner (1 Kings 22:15b). Ahab then questions Micaiah, and insists that he speak nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord. Micaiah then gives a true prophecy, in which he illustrates a meeting of Yahweh with the heavenly hosts. At this meeting Yahweh asks who will entice Ahab to go into battle so that he may perish (1 Kings 22:19–20). A spirit comes forward, and offers to "be a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets" (1 Kings 22:22). Therefore, the prophecies of the other prophets were a result of the lying spirit.
Zedekiah Zedekiah ( ; born Mattaniah; 618 BC – after 586 BC) was the twentieth and final King of Judah before the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. After the siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II deposed king Jec ...
, leader of the 400 prophets who spoke in favor of Ahab, strikes Micaiah and claims God speaks through him. As a result of Micaiah's prophecy, Ahab ordered Micaiah imprisoned until he returned from battle, unharmed (1 Kings 22:27). Perhaps concerned about the prophecy, Ahab disguised himself in battle rather than lead his troops openly as their king. However, Ahab was killed in battle after being struck by a randomly shot arrow. Micaiah's prophecy was fulfilled, contrary to the word of 400 false prophets, all of whom encouraged Ahab to attack with a prediction of victory. This account is also recorded in 2 Chronicles, Chapter 18.


Interpretation


Rabbinical interpretation

The
Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...
(b.Sanhedrin 89a) accepts that the scene literally occurred in
heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
. Against this
Judah Halevi Judah haLevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi; ; ; c. 1075 – 1141) was a Sephardic Jewish poet, physician and philosopher. Halevi is considered one of the greatest Hebrew poets and is celebrated for his secular and religious poems, many of whic ...
(''Kuzari'' 3.73) considered the "prophecy" to be an example of the prophet's own
rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
. This rhetoric is clear from the contrast of
syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...
used for the divination: "the word of Y-H-V-H" and "the spirit of Y-H-V-H" (2 Chronicles 18:23, 27).
David Kimhi ''Cervera Bible'', David Kimhi's Grammar Treatise David Kimhi (, also Kimchi or Qimḥi) (1160–1235), also known by the Hebrew acronym as the RaDaK () (Rabbi David Kimhi), was a medieval rabbi, biblical commentator, philosopher, and grammarian ...
argues that "prophecy is true by definition", the spirit of Lord is often represented as an irrational and emotional response unlike the word of Lord, and following Judah Halevi also critically assesses that Micaiah might have himself presented the vivid scene, using poetic dramatization to frighten and convince Ahab—"not that he saw these things, nor did he hear them." "On 1 Kgs 22: 19–23, Radak adopts a bolder strategy to avoid a rational dilemma that never distressed the Rabbis. In that passage, the prophet Micaiah, responding to Ahab's false prophets who predicted military success against Aram, describes a vision of God sending a "lying spirit" to mislead the king. Radak rejects the rabbinic view (b. Sanh. 89 a) that this scene occurred in heaven, arguing that God could not have sent false prophecy, since "prophecy is true by definition". Instead, he argues that Micaiah actually fabricated this vivid scene, using poetic dramatization (divre meliza ... derekh haza'at devarim) to frighten and thereby prevail upon Ahab."
Pseudo-Epiphanius Pseudo-Epiphanius is the name given to an anonymous eighth-century Christian author of a selection of legends about the lives of the twelve apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (als ...
("Opera," ii. 245) makes Micah an Ephraimite. Confounding him with Micaiah, son of Imlah (I Kings xxii. 8 et seq.), he states that Micah, for his inauspicious prophecy, was killed by order of Ahab through being thrown from a precipice, and was buried at Morathi (Maroth?; Mic. i. 12), near the cemetery of Enakim (Ένακεὶμ Septuagint rendering of ; ib. i. 10). According to "Gelilot Ereẓ Yisrael" (quoted in "Seder ha-Dorot," i. 118, Warsaw, 1889), Micah was buried in Chesil, a town in southern Judah (Josh. xv. 30).
Naboth Naboth (; ) was a citizen of Jezreel (city), Jezreel. According to the first Book of Kings, Book of Kings in the Hebrew Bible, he was executed by Jezebel, the queen of Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Israel, so that her husband Ahab could possess his ...
's soul was the lying spirit that was permitted to deceive Ahab to his death.


Modern scholarly interpretation

Micaiah prophesies as though he was present at the meeting between Yahweh and the heavenly hosts.
Michael Coogan Michael D. Coogan is lecturer on Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Harvard Divinity School, Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum, editor-in-chief of Oxford Biblical Studies Online, and professor emeritus of religious studies at Sto ...
of
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
compared the prophecy of Micaiah to that of several other prophets, including Isaiah's vision of the
Divine Council A Divine Council is an assembly of a number of deities over which a higher-level one presides. Historical setting The concept of a divine assembly (or council) is attested in the archaic Sumerian, Akkadian, Old Babylonian, Ancient Egyptian ...
(Isaiah 6:1–8). In Jeremiah 23, Yahweh warns against false prophecies. However, Coogan argued that unlike Isaiah 6 and Jeremiah 23, in 1 Kings 22 Yahweh's actions to allow false prophecy to be given are deliberate and intentional. It appears as though Yahweh has an ulterior motive, and that is for Ahab to die, in this case at the battle at Ramoth-gilead. R. W. L. Moberly of
Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...
discussed Micaiah's prophecy in "Does God Lie to His Prophets? The Story of Micaiah ben Imlah as a Test Case." In his article, Moberly discussed
Hebrew prophecy Bible prophecy or biblical prophecy comprises the passages of the Bible that are claimed to reflect communications from God to humans through prophets. Jews and Christians usually consider the biblical prophets to have received revelations fro ...
as "relational, engaging language that seeks a response."Moberly, R.W.L. "Does God Lie to His Prophets? The Story of Micaiah ben Imlah as a Test Case." ''The Harvard Theological Review'' 96, no. 1 (January 2003): p8. Moberly called into question the honesty of Yahweh particularly in relation to integrity and the concept of loving and forgiving God. He suggested that for the Deuteronomistic historians who were the compilers of the text, the compassion of Yahweh is delivered by challenging and engaging the human will for repentance or bringing forth change or obduracy. Dependency dynamics and will of the Lord rooted in foreknowledge is revealed in 1 Kings 21:27–29.


Heavenly throne room

The prophecy is probably the earliest example in the Hebrew Bible of a representation of a
heavenly throne room The throne of God is the reigning centre of God in the Abrahamic religions: primarily Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The throne is said by various holy books to reside beyond the Seventh Heaven which is called ''Araboth'' ( ''‘ărāḇōṯ ...
. It is not clear whether the heavenly throne room represents Micaiah's own belief or a depiction of Ahab's court prophets without discrediting them entirely like the prophet Zedekiah ben Chenaanah, who struck him after his non-populist prophecy (1 Kings 22:24). The focus of voice from the heavenly throne is concerned for the people while Ahab the earthly king's response is self-centered, it reflects the difference in the two approaches, a characteristic of post-exile exemplification in the scripture.Mordechai Cogan, ''1 Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary'', Anchor-Yale, Doubleday, 2001


References


External links


Prophet Micah
Orthodox
icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...
and
synaxarion Synaxarion or Synexarion (plurals Synaxaria, Synexaria; , from συνάγειν, ''synagein'', "to bring together"; cf. etymology of '' synaxis'' and ''synagogue''; Latin: ''Synaxarium'', ''Synexarium''; ; Ge'ez: ሲናክሳሪየም(ስንክ ...
for January 5 {{Authority control 9th-century BCE Hebrew people Books of Kings people