In First Kings, chapter twenty, verse thirty-five, these were students of the prophets who, in some sense, were discipled by older and more renowned prophets like Elisha as in Second Kings two, verses three, five, seven, fifteen, chapter four, verses one, thirty-eight, chapter five, verse twenty-two, chapter six, verse one, and chapter nine, verse one, respectively. They stood in close association with the master prophet, opposed the worship of Baal, and promoted obedience and faithfulness to the Lord God. They were known for prophesying by the power of the Spirit.
The Sons of the Prophet’s expression occurs here for the first time. It signifies the schools or colleges of prophets that existed in several of the Israelite, and probably of the Jewish, towns, where young men were educated for the prophetical office. These “schools” makes their first appearance under Samuel as in First Samuel nineteen, verse twenty. There is no evidence that they continued later than the time of Elisha, but it is most probable that the institution survived the captivity and that the bulk of the “prophets,” whose works have come down to us, belonged to them. Amos, as in Amos seven, verses fourteen through fifteen, seems to this prophet is supposed in First Kings twenty, verse eight to have been Micaiah. The refusal of his neighbor to smite the prophet was manifestly wrong, as it was a withholding of necessary aid to a prophet in the discharge of a duty to which he had been called by God, and it was severely punished in verse thirty-six, as a beacon to warn others in chapter thirteen, verses two through twenty-four. The prophet found a willing assistant and then, waiting for Ahab, leads the king unconsciously, in the allegorical manner of Nathan as in Second Samuel twelve, verses one through four, to pronounce his doom, and this consequent punishment was announced by a prophet as if he were an exceptional case.