1 Kings 22

Micaiah warns Ahab

¹For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel.

²Then in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to visit Israel’s king. ³The king of Israel said to his officials, “You know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, yet we are doing nothing to take it back from the king of Aram.” ⁴He asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight at Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my troops are as your troops, my horses as your horses.” ⁵But Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “First, please seek the word of the LORD.” ⁶So the king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Shall I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I hold back?” “Go up,” they said, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”^{a 7}But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no other prophet of the LORD here whom we can ask?” ⁸The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man through whom we could inquire of the LORD: Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him, for his prophecies about me are never good, only bad.” Jehoshaphat said, “Let the king not speak like that.” ⁹So the king of Israel called one of his court officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.” ¹⁰Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones, dressed in their royal robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance to the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying in front of them. ¹¹Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had made himself iron horns, and he said, “The LORD says this: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’” ¹²All the prophets were prophesying the same thing: “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and be victorious. The LORD will give it into the king’s hand.” ¹³The messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him, “Listen, the prophets are all speaking with one voice, and what they say is good for the king. Please let your word be like one of theirs, and speak favorably.” ¹⁴But Micaiah said, “As surely as the LORD lives, whatever the LORD says to me is what I will speak.” ¹⁵When he came to the king, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or shall we hold back?” He answered, “Go up and be victorious. The LORD will give it into the king’s hand.” ¹⁶But the king said to him, “How often must I put you under oath to tell me only the truth in the name of the LORD?” ¹⁷Then Micaiah said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills, \q like sheep that have no shepherd. \q And the LORD said, ‘These have no master; \q let each of them go home in peace.’” ¹⁸The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not say to you that he prophesies nothing good about me, only bad?” ¹⁹Micaiah went on, “Then hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD seated on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing around him, on his right and on his left. ²⁰The LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ Some suggested one thing and some another. ²¹Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’ The LORD asked him, ‘How?’^{bc 22}He said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ The LORD said, ‘You will entice him, and you will succeed. Go and do it.’^{d 23}So now, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.” ²⁴Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah came up and slapped Micaiah on the cheek. “Which way did the Spirit of the LORD take from me to speak to you?” he asked. ²⁵Micaiah replied, “You will find out on the day you go into an inner room to hide.” ²⁶Then the king of Israel ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon, the city governor, and to Joash, the king’s son, ²⁷and tell them, ‘The king says this: “Put this man in prison and feed him with scant bread and scant water until I come back safely.”’” ²⁸Micaiah said, “If you ever come back safely, the LORD has not spoken through me.” And he added, “Listen, all you peoples!”^{e 29}So the king of Israel went up to Ramoth-gilead, and Jehoshaphat king of Judah with him. ³⁰The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will go into the battle in disguise, but you should put on your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the fight. ³¹Now the king of Aram had given an order to his thirty-two chariot commanders: “Fight with no one, small or great, but the king of Israel alone.” ³²When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “Surely that is the king of Israel!” So they turned to attack him, and Jehoshaphat cried out.^{f 33}Once the chariot commanders saw he was not Israel’s king, they broke off the chase. ³⁴But a man drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his scale armor and the breastplate. The king said to his chariot driver, “Turn around and get me out of the battle, because I am wounded.”^{g 35}All that day the battle grew fiercer, and the king was held upright in his chariot facing the Arameans. He died at evening, and blood from the wound flowed down into the floor of the chariot. ³⁶As the sun was setting, a shout went through the army: “Every man to his town! Every man to his own land!” ³⁷So the king died. He was brought to Samaria, and they buried him there. ³⁸When they washed the chariot at the pool of Samaria, dogs licked up his blood, and the prostitutes bathed there, just as the LORD had said.^{h 39}The rest of the acts of Ahab, all that he did, the ivory palace he built and all the cities he built, are written in the Book of the History of the Kings of Israel. ⁴⁰So Ahab rested with his ancestors, and his son Ahaziah became king in his place.

Jehoshaphat king of Judah

⁴¹In the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king over Judah. ⁴²Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years, and his mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. ⁴³He followed all the ways of his father Asa and did not turn aside from them, doing what was right in the sight of the LORD. ⁴⁴However, the high places were not removed; the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places.^{i 45}Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel. ⁴⁶The rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, the might he showed and how he waged war, are written in the Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. ⁴⁷He also drove out of the land the rest of the male shrine prostitutes who were left from the days of his father Asa. ⁴⁸There was then no king in Edom; a deputy ruled as king. ⁴⁹Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to sail to Ophir for gold, but they never sailed, because the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber.^{j 50}Then Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my men sail with your men in the ships.” But Jehoshaphat refused. ⁵¹Then Jehoshaphat rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David his ancestor. His son Jehoram became king in his place.

Ahaziah king of Israel

⁵²In the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Ahaziah son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned over Israel two years. ⁵³He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He followed the ways of his father and his mother, and the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into sin. ⁵⁴He served Baal and worshiped him, and he provoked the LORD the God of Israel to anger, as his father had.