1 Kings 22:38

Andone [R.V. they] washed the chariot in[R.V. by] the pool of Samaria The first change substitutes an English for a Hebrew idiom; the second renders more exactly the preposition of the original. It was necessary in the East to provide large reservoirs outside each town that the supplies of water in the rainy season might be kept for times of drought. Many such pools are mentioned in Scripture, and some, for example those at Bethlehem, remain to the present day. To the side of such a tank the royal equipage was brought to be washed. Thus Ahab's blood came to be licked up by the dogs in the same sort of spot, outside the city walls, as that where Naboth's blood was licked up near Jezreel.

and the dogs licked, &c. Here as above in 1 Kings 21:19 the LXX. adds -the swine" to the dogs.

and they washed his armour R.V. Now the harlots washed themselves there. This change, which is the rendering of the LXX., is no doubt correct. The Hebrew word זנות occurs often in the O. Test. and means nothing else but -harlots," while the verb in the sentence is not one applied to washing articles that need cleaning but to bathing the body. Cf. Exodus 30:19; Exodus 30:21; Exodus 40:12; Exodus 40:31; Leviticus 16:4; Leviticus 16:24; Leviticus 16:26; Leviticus 16:28, and in Numbers 19:19 another verb is used for -wash his clothes" and the present verb rendered -bathe himself," and in the verse before us another verb is employed to describe the washing of the chariot.

The R.V. by placing this clause in a parenthesis seems to treat it as a subsidiary feature in the description. This was the place to which they usually came to bathe. Some have however suggested that the women alluded to were those attached (as such persons were) to the temples of Baal and Ashtoreth, and that thus a greater indignity still was offered to this fosterer of idolatrous worship. This interpretation however reads a good deal into the text which is not there. And surely it was indignity enough for the royal blood to be washed into the waters of the harlots" bath. It should be mentioned that Josephus, and, among the Fathers, Theodoret, support the rendering of R.V. The A.V. is derived from the Chaldee and the Syriac versions.