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Journey of a Passage

1 Kings 22:19–23

A lying spirit in the prophets' mouths

The witnesses checked agree on Micaiah's vision of the heavenly council. The hard question is theological and interpretive: what it means that a spirit offers to be "a lying spirit" and God permits it.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original KingsUnknown (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Kings
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 3 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Kings

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint, 3 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    je serai un esprit trompeur dans la bouche de tous ses prophètes

    I will be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets

    One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    ero spiritus mendax in ore omnium prophetarum ejus

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Kings

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וְהָיִיתִי רוּחַ שֶׁקֶר בְּפִי כָּל־נְבִיאָיו

    and I will be a spirit of falsehood in the mouth of all his prophets

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.

What changed, and why

Jewish and Christian interpreters have offered several readings: judicial hardening of a king who wanted lies; a parable unmasking the court prophets; or an ancient way of attributing all events to God. Micaiah's own disclosure means Ahab is not left without the truth. See the lesson for the divine-council background.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe witnesses checked agree on 22:22.
  • DisputedGod deceives the innocent. The text concerns a king who refused true prophecy.

Sources

Related lessons

  • Micaiah and the Heavenly Council →Ahab and Jehoshaphat of Judah plan to retake Ramoth-gilead. Four hundred prophets promise victory; Zedekiah makes iron horns. Jehoshaphat asks for another prophet: Micaiah son of Imlah, whom Ahab hates. Micaiah first mocks, then tells a vision: God on His throne with the host of heaven, asking who will entice Ahab; a spirit offers to be a lying spirit in the prophets' mouths. Micaiah is struck and imprisoned.
  • Ancient Mysteries and Echoes: Baal, Wisdom, Prophecy and Heavenly Assemblies →Solomon's wisdom, Elijah's contest with Baal and Micaiah's vision of the heavenly council all draw on ideas shared across the ancient Near East: royal wisdom, the storm god who gives rain, and the assembly of the gods. 1 Kings uses this shared language to make its own claims. Later legends about Solomon's magic and modern readings of these scenes as technology are assessed here too.