(And the king of Israel said to his servants: Know ye not that Ramoth Galaad is ours, and we neglect to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?)

And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do ye know that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we keep quiet without taking it out of the hand of the king of Syria?

and the king of Israel saith unto his servants, 'Have ye not known that ours is Ramoth-Gilead? and we are keeping silent from taking it out of the hand of the king of Aram!'

And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you not see that Ramoth-gilead is ours? and we are doing nothing to get it back from the hands of the king of Aram.

And the king of Israel said unto his servants: 'Know ye that Ramoth-gilead is ours, and we are still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Aram?'

And the king of Israel said to his servants, "Are you ignorant that Ramoth Gilead is ours, and that we have neglected to take it from the hand of the king of Syria?"

By the terms of Ahab's covenant with Ben-hadad, Ramoth in Gilead ought, long ere this, to have been restored 1-Kings 20:34. Hence, the claim "is ours," i. e., "it belongs to us of right though the Syrians still hold possession of it."

And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that (c) Ramoth in Gilead [is] ours, and we [be] still, [and] take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?
(c) The kings of Syria kept Ramoth before this league was made by Benhadad: therefore he did not think he was bound by it to restore it.

(And the king of Israel said unto his servants,.... His nobles, those of his privy council, his ministers of state; or "had said" (n), some little time before Jehoshaphat came:
know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours a city of refuge beyond Jordan, in the tribe of Gad, and so of course must belong to the kingdom of Israel, of which see Joshua 20:8.
and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?) neither demand it, nor take any measures to oblige him to deliver it up; representing it as a great omission, and as a piece of negligence and slothfulness, or cowardice.
(n) "et dixerat", Junius & Tremellius.

Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours--a Levitical and free town on the north border of Gad (Deuteronomy 4:43; Joshua 21:38), on 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 2-Chronicles 18:3). Previous to declaring hostilities, it was customary to consult the prophets (see on 1-Samuel 28:8); and Jehoshaphat having expressed a strong desire to know the Lord's will concerning this war, Ahab assembled four hundred of his prophets. These could not be either the prophets of Baal or of Ashteroth (1-Kings 18:19), but seem (1-Kings 22:12) to have been false prophets, who conformed to the symbolic calf-worship of Jehovah. 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.

Is ours - Belongeth to us by right. both by God's donation, and by our last agreement with Ben - hadad, 1-Kings 20:34, which yet he refuseth to deliver up.