Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 22:21

"And there came forth a spirit, and stood before Jehovah, and said, I will entice him." — 1 Kings 22:21 (ASV)

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, regarded as the medium of 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; 1 Chronicles 21:1; Zechariah 3:1–2, it may be best to interpret it by the conception—common to all religions recognizing the terrible existence of evil in the world—of a spiritual power of evil (called euphemistically “the spirit”) overruled to work out God’s judgments. 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.)