And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?
Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours - the site of the present Salt Lake, in the province of Belka. It lay within the territories of the Israelitish monarch, and was unjustly alienated; but whether it was one of the cities usurped by the first Ben-hadad, which his son had promised to restore, or was retained for some other reasons, the sacred historian has not mentioned. In the expedition which Ahab meditated for the recovery of this town, the aid of Jehoshaphat was asked, and promised (see the notes at 2 Chronicles 18:3). Previous to declaring hostilities, it was customary to consult the prophets (see the notes at 1 Samuel 28:1-25); and Jehoshaphat having expressed a strong desire to know the Lord's will concerning this war, Ahab assembled 400 of his prophets. These could not be either the prophets of Baal nor of Asherah (1 Kings 18:19), but seem (1 Kings 22:12) to have been false prophets, who conformed to the symbolic calf-worship Yahweh. Being the creatures of Ahab, they unanimously predicted a prosperous issue to the war. But, dissatisfied with them, Jehoshaphat inquired if there was any true prophet of the Lord. Ahab agreed, with great reluctance, to allow Micaiah to be summoned. He was the only true prophet then to be found residing in Samaria, and he had to be brought out of prison (1 Kings 22:26), into which, according to Josephus, he had been cast, on account of his rebuke to Ahab for sparing the king of Syria.