Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 22:38

"And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood (now the harlots washed themselves [there]); according unto the word of Jehovah which he spake." — 1 Kings 22:38 (ASV)

They washed his armour. —There seems little doubt that this is a mistranslation, and that the Septuagint rendering (supported also by Josephus) is correct: And the harlots bathed in it, that is, in the bloodstained pool, the usual public bathing-place of their shamelessness. The dog and the harlot are the animal and human types of uncleanness.

According to the word of the Lord. —The reference to the emphatic prophecy of Elijah is unmistakable, and the context fixes its fulfilment plainly as having taken place in Samaria. The difficulty is, of course, the notice in 2 Kings 9:25, where the dead body of Jehoram is cast in the portion of the field of Naboth, evidently at Jezreel; with quotation of the burden of the Lord laid upon him, I will requite thee in this plot, saith the Lord. The reconciliation is, with our knowledge, difficult, if not impossible. But the reference in the text is so much clearer, that it must outweigh the other.

Naboth, in any case, is likely to have had land in his native place, which would be forfeited to the king; and there would still be an appropriate judgment in making it also the scene of the dishonoured death of the last king of Ahab’s house. We may notice, moreover, that the quotation in 2 Kings 9:26 is not taken from Elijah’s words against Ahab, nor does it contain the characteristic notice of the dogs licking the blood; though it is noticed as a fulfilment of the subsequent prophecy of 1 Kings 21:24 against Ahab’s house.