Throughout the history of the Israelite kingdoms there were prophets who prophesied nothing but favorable consequences for the actions of their political leaders. Opposing them were prophets who drew a distinction between the will of Yahweh for his people and the opportunistic aims of the monarchs. In the Micaiah narratives of 1 Kings 22 are seen two early states in the development of this ideological conflict. Simon John De Vries examines thoroughly these early stages in order to find and understand the root causes of the conflict that fled finally to national ruin.

The ancient Hebrews were distinctive in the way they understood time. This study of Hebrew terms and phrases shows that they thought of time in qualitative rather than quantitative terms, making it possible for them to conceive of a process and a goal in history.