Michael (Angel)

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Michael (Angel) alty). This vision raises the problem of false prophecy and how to detect it. After all, both Zedekiah and Micaiah were authentic prophets who deserved to be listened to. The idea that it was Naboth's spirit that enticed the prophets and not God, thus lets God off the hook, so to speak, as God is shown to allow this only reluctantly (Goldenberg: 96). Judah ha-Levi (Kuzari 3.73) explains the vision as a rhetorical strategy to bolster the argument and make it sound more convincing. In a similar vein, Qimh i (at vv. 20-23) explains that Ahab was already sentenced to death by divine decree (mitah la-shamayim) and it was God who instilled the false spirit into the band of prophets. The whole scene Micaiah describes was his invention to drive home the point that Ahab was doomed. Rashi cites an aggadah (most likely ySan 11:5, 30c), which seems to imply that Micaiah was wounded during the battle and his blood atoned for Israel and allowed them to escape punishment. Ginzberg (6:313) questions this, suggesting that the aggadah may actually refer to the suffering of the pious king Jehoshaphat.