He said means the prophet Micaiah said. In the context of this dialogue, “answered” (New International Version, New Century Version) is an appropriate translation of the verb said.

I saw: Other translations also use the past tense I saw (Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), and such a translation is more likely the sense of the Hebrew here rather than the present tense “I can see” as in Good News Translation. New Living Translation and Parole de Vie take this to mean that Micaiah had earlier seen a vision, saying “In a vision I saw,” and certainly this expresses the correct sense since Micaiah did not literally see what he describes.

All Israel in this context clearly refers to “the army of Israel” (Good News Translation). Parole de Vie says simply “all the soldiers.”

As sheep that have no shepherd: The image of people being like sheep without a shepherd occurs in various places in the Bible (for example, Num 27.17; Jer 50.6; Matt 9.36; Mark 6.34), and the image of the king as a shepherd is also common (2 Sam 5.2). This is figurative language in which sheep refers to the combined armies of Israel and Judah, and the shepherd refers to the king who will be killed.

These have no master means the king is dead. The Hebrew noun rendered master is plural in form, but the plural form of this particular noun is sometimes used with a singular meaning in the Old Testament, and this seems to be the case here in this verse.

Let each return to his home in peace: Both Contemporary English Version and New Century Version say “They should go home and not fight,” but the meaning is more likely “let them all go safely home” (New Jerusalem Bible) or “let everyone return to his home in safety” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The Hebrew word translated home is literally “house.” And this may be the best way to translate it in a number of languages. Before this clause, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch adds “The war is over,” which may be helpful in other languages.

The two levels of quotation in this verse may be difficult in some languages. A possible model to resolve this difficulty is:

• Then Micaiah explained that he had seen [in a vision] the whole army of Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd and that the LORD had said, “These people have no leader. Let each one go home safely.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .