First Book of Kings 22

¹ There was a lull of three years, with no fighting between Aram and Israel.

² Then, in the third year, Jehoshaphat king of Judah paid a visit to the king of Israel.

³ The king of Israel said to his officers, ‘You are aware that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us? And yet we do nothing to wrest it away from the king of Aram.’

⁴ He said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Will you come with me to fight at Ramoth-gilead?’ Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, ‘I am as ready as you, my men as your men, my horses as your horses’.

⁵ Jehoshaphat, however, said to the king of Israel, ‘First, please consult the word of Yahweh’.

⁶ So the king of Israel called the prophets together, about four hundred of them. ‘Should I march to attack Ramoth-gilead’ he asked ‘or should I refrain?’ ‘March,’ they replied ‘Yahweh will deliver it into the power of the king.’

⁷ But Jehoshaphat said, ‘Is there no other prophet of Yahweh here for us to consult?’

⁸ The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, ‘There is one more man through whom we can consult Yahweh, but I hate him because he never has a favourable prophecy for me, only unfavourable ones; he is Micaiah son of Imlah’. ‘The king should not say such things’ Jehoshaphat said.

⁹ Accordingly the king of Israel summoned one of the eunuchs and said, ‘Bring Micaiah son of Imlah immediately’.

¹⁰ The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were both sitting on their thrones in full regalia, at the threshing-floor outside the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets raving in front of them.

¹¹ Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had made himself iron horns. ‘Yahweh says this’ he said. ‘”With these you will gore the Aramaeans till you make an end of them.”‘

¹² And all the prophets prophesied the same. ‘March to Ramoth-gilead’ they said ‘and conquer. Yahweh will deliver it into the power of the king.’

¹³ The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said, ‘Here are all the prophets as one man speaking favourably to the king. Try to speak like one of them and foretell success.”

¹⁴ But Micaiah answered, ‘As Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that will I utter!’

¹⁵ When he came to the king, the king said, ‘Micaiah, should we march to attack Ramoth-gilead, or should we refrain?’ He answered, ‘March and conquer. Yahweh will deliver it into the power of the king.’

¹⁶ But the king said, ‘How often must I put you on oath to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of Yahweh?’

¹⁷ Then Micaiah spoke: ‘I have seen all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd. And Yahweh said, “These have no master, let each go home unmolested”.’

¹⁸ At this the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Did I not tell you that he never gives me favourable prophecies, but only unfavourable ones?’

¹⁹ Micaiah went on, ‘Listen rather to the word of Yahweh. I have seen Yahweh seated on his throne; all the array of heaven stood in his presence, on his right and on his left.

²⁰ Yahweh said, “Who will trick Ahab into marching to his death at Ramoth-gilead?” At which some answered one way, and some another.

²¹ Then the spirit came forward and stood before Yahweh. “I,” he said “I will trick him.” “How?” Yahweh asked.

²² He replied, “I will go and become a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets”. “You shall trick him,” Yahweh said “you shall succeed. Go and do it.”

²³ Now see how Yahweh has put a lying spirit into the mouths of all your prophets here. But Yahweh has pronounced disaster on you.’

²⁴ Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah came up and struck Micaiah on the jaw. ‘Which way’ he asked ‘did the spirit of Yahweh leave me, to talk to you?’

²⁵ ‘That is what you will find out,’ Micaiah retorted ‘the day you flee to an inner room to hide.’

²⁶ The king of Israel said, ‘Seize Micaiah and hand him over to Amon, governor of the city, and to Prince Joash,

²⁷ and say, “These are the king’s orders: Put this man in prison and feed him on nothing but bread and water until I come back safe and sound”‘.

²⁸ Micaiah said, ‘If you come back safe and sound, Yahweh has not spoken through me’.

²⁹ The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up against Ramoth-gilead.

³⁰ The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘I will disguise myself to go into battle, but I want you to wear your royal uniform’. The king of Israel went into battle disguised.

³¹ The king of Aram had given his chariot commanders the following order: ‘Do not attack anyone of whatever rank, except the king of Israel’.

³² When the chariot commanders caught sight of Jehoshaphat, they said, ‘That is obviously the king of Israel’. And they wheeled to the attack. But Jehoshaphat shouted his war cry

³³ and the chariot commanders, realising that he was not the king of Israel, called off their pursuit.

³⁴ Now one of the men, drawing his bow at random, hit the king of Israel between the corslet and the scale-armour of his breastplate. ‘Turn about’ the king said to his charioteer. ‘Get me out of the battle; I have been hurt.’

³⁵ But the battle grew fiercer as the day went on; the king was held upright in his chariot facing the Aramaeans, and in. the evening he died; the blood from the wound flowed into the bottom of the chariot.

³⁶ At sundown a shout ran through the camp, ‘Every man back to his town, every man back to his country;

³⁷ the king is dead!’ They went to Samaria, and in Samaria they buried the king.

³⁸ They washed the chariot at the Pool of Samaria; the dogs licked up the blood, and the prostitutes washed in it, in accordance with the word that Yahweh had spoken.

³⁹ The rest of the history of Ahab, his entire career, the ivory house he erected, all the towns he built, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?

⁴⁰ Then Ahab slept with his ancestors; his son Ahaziah succeeded him.

⁴¹ Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.

⁴² Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah, daughter of Shilhi.

⁴³ In every way he followed the example of his father Asa undeviatingly, doing what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

⁴⁴ The high places, however, were not abolished; the people still offered sacrifice and incense on the high places.

⁴⁵ Jehoshaphat was at peace with the king of Israel.

⁴⁶ The rest of the history of Jehoshaphat, the valour he showed, the wars he waged, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?

⁴⁷ The remaining male sacred prostitutes of those who had lived in the time of his father Asa, he swept out of the country.

⁴⁸ There was no king in Edom,

⁴⁹ and King Jehoshaphat built a ship of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but his ship never reached there: it was wrecked at Ezion-geber.

⁵⁰ Then Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Let my men man the ships with yours’. But Jehoshaphat would not agree.

⁵¹ Then Jehoshaphat slept with his ancestors and was buried in the Citadel of David, his ancestor; his son Jehoram succeeded him.

⁵² Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned over Israel for two years.

⁵³ He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, by following the example of his father and mother, and of Jeroboam son of Nebat who had led Israel into sin.

⁵⁴ He served Baal and worshipped him, and provoked the anger of Yahweh the God of Israel just as his father had done.