1st Kings Chapter 22 verse 21 Holy Bible
And there came forth a spirit, and stood before Jehovah, and said, I will entice him.
read chapter 22 in ASV
Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick.
read chapter 22 in BBE
And there came forth a spirit, and stood before Jehovah, and said, I will entice him.
read chapter 22 in DARBY
And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
read chapter 22 in KJV
And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
read chapter 22 in WBT
There came forth a spirit, and stood before Yahweh, and said, I will entice him.
read chapter 22 in WEB
`And the spirit goeth out, and standeth before Jehovah, and saith, I -- I do entice him; and Jehovah saith unto him, By what?
read chapter 22 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - And there came forth a spirit [Heb. the spirit. By some, especially of the earlier commentators, understood of the evil spirit. But the view now generally adopted (Thenius, Keil, Bahr) is that "the spirit of prophecy" is meant, "the power which, going forth from God and taking possession of a man, makes him a prophet (1 Samuel 10:6, 10; 1 Samuel 19:20, 23). The נָביא is the אִישׁ הָרוּחַ (Hosea 9:7)" Bahr. This power is here personified], and stood before the Lord, and said, I [emphatic in the Hebrew] will persuade [or entice] him.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) A spirit.--It should be the spirit. The definite article is explained by some, perhaps rather weakly, as simply anticipatory of the description which follows. Others take the phrase to signify "the spirit of prophecy," a kind of emanation from the Godhead, looked upon as the medium of the prophetic inspiration, which is an expression conceivable, but certainly unprecedented. Perhaps without introducing into this passage the distinct idea of "the Satan," i.e., the enemy, which we find in Job 1, 2; 1Chronicles 21:1; Zechariah 3:1-2. it may be best to interpret it by the conception, common to all religions recognising the terrible existence of evil in the world, of a spiritual power of evil (called euphemistically, "the spirit") overruled to work out the judgments of God. The absolute subordination of such spirits of evil in every notice of them in the Old Testament precludes all danger of the monstrous dualism of so many Eastern religions. The reference of the power of divination to such spirits is found in the New Testament also. (See Acts 16:16-18.)
