[1] Now for three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. [2] And
it came about in the third year, that Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, came down
to the king of Israel. [3] And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do
you not see that Ramoth-gilead is ours? and we are doing nothing to get it
back from the hands of the king of Aram. [4] And he said to Jehoshaphat,
Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead to make war? And Jehoshaphat said to
the king of Israel, I am as you are: my people as your people, my horses as
your horses. [5] Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now
get directions from the Lord. [6] So the king of Israel got all the
prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to
Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for the Lord will
give it into the hands of the king. [7] But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no
other prophet of the Lord here from whom we may get directions? [8] And the
king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may
get directions from the Lord, Micaiah, son of Imlah; but I have no love for
him, for he is a prophet of evil to me and not of good. And Jehoshaphat
said, Let not the king say so. [9] Then the king of Israel sent for one of
his unsexed servants and said, Go quickly and come back with Micaiah, the
son of Imlah. [10] Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of
Judah, were seated on their seats of authority, dressed in their robes, by
the doorway into Samaria; and all the prophets were acting as prophets
before them. [11] And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made himself horns of
iron and said, The Lord says, Pushing back the Aramaeans with these, you
will put an end to them completely. [12] And all the prophets said the same
thing, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and it will go well for you, for the
Lord will give it into the hands of the king. [13] Now the servant who had
gone to get Micaiah said to him, See now, all the prophets with one voice
are saying good things to the king; so let your words be like theirs and
say good things. [14] And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the
Lord says to me I will say. [15] When he came to the king, the king said to
him, Micaiah, are we to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And in
answer he said, Go up, and it will go well for you; and the Lord will give
it into the hands of the king. [16] Then the king said to him, Have I not,
again and again, put you on your oath to say nothing to me but what is true
in the name of the Lord? [17] Then he said, I saw all Israel wandering on
the mountains like sheep without a keeper; and the Lord said, These have no
master: let them go back, every man to his house in peace. [18] And the
king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not say that he would not be a
prophet of good but of evil? [19] And he said, Give ear now to the word of
the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his seat of power, with all the army of
heaven in their places round him at his right hand and at his left. [20]
And the Lord said, How may Ahab be tricked into going up to Ramoth-gilead
to his death? And one said one thing and one another. [21] Then a spirit
came forward and took his place before the Lord and said, I will get him to
do it by a trick. [22] And the Lord said, How? And he said, I will go out
and be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said,
Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so. [23] And now,
see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all these your
prophets; and the Lord has said evil against you. [24] Then Zedekiah, the
son of Chenaanah, came near and gave Micaiah a blow on the side of the
face, saying, Where is the spirit of the Lord whose word is in you? [25]
And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner
room to keep yourself safe. [26] And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah
and send him back to Amon, the ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king's
son; [27] And say, It is the king's order that this man is to be put in
prison and given prison food till I come again in peace. [28] And Micaiah
said, If you come back at all in peace, the Lord has not sent his word by
me. [29] So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up
to Ramoth-gilead. [30] And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will
make a change in my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king, and
will go into the fight; but do you put on your robes. So the king of Israel
made a change in his dress and went into the fight. [31] Now the king of
Aram had given orders to the thirty-two captains of his war-carriages,
saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel.
[32] So when the captains of the war-carriages saw Jehoshaphat, they said,
Truly, this is the king of Israel; and turning against him, they came round
him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry. [33] And when the captains of the
war-carriages saw that he was not the king of Israel, they went back from
going after him. [34] And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without
thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound where his
breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to the driver of his
war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away out of the army, for I am
badly wounded. [35] But the fight became more violent while the day went
on; and the king was supported in his war-carriage facing the Aramaeans,
and the floor of the carriage was covered with the blood from his wound,
and by evening he was dead. [36] And about sundown a cry went up from all
parts of the army, saying, Let every man go back to his town and his
country, for the king is dead. [37] And they came to Samaria, and put the
king's body to rest in Samaria. [38] And the war-carriage was washed by the
pool of Samaria, which was the bathing-place of the loose women, and the
dogs were drinking his blood there, as the Lord had said. [39] Now the rest
of the acts of Ahab, and all he did, and his ivory house, and all the towns
of which he was the builder, are they not recorded in the book of the
history of the kings of Israel? [40] So Ahab was put to rest with his
fathers; and Ahaziah his son became king in his place. [41] And
Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, became king over Judah in the fourth year of
Ahab's rule over Israel. [42] Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he
became king, and he was king for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His
mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. [43] He did as Asa his
father had done, not turning away from it, but doing what was right in the
eyes of the Lord;\ [44] \22:43\but the high places were not taken away: the
people went on making offerings and burning them in the high places. [45]
\22:44\And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel. [46] \22:45\Now
the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his great power, and how he went
to war, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
Judah? [47] \22:46\He put an end to the rest of those who were used for sex
purposes in the worship of the gods, all those who were still in the land
in the time of his father Asa. [48] \22:47\At that time there was no king
in Edom; [49] \22:48\And the representative of King Jehoshaphat made a
Tarshish-ship to go to Ophir for gold, but it did not go, because it was
broken at Ezion-geber. [50] \22:49\Then Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, said to
Jehoshaphat, Let my men go with yours in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would
not let them. [51] \22:50\Then Jehoshaphat went to rest with his fathers,
and his body was put into the earth in the town of David his father; and
Jehoram his son became king in his place. [52] \22:51\Ahaziah, the son of
Ahab, became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of the
rule of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and he was king over Israel for two
years. [53] \22:52\He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, going in the ways
of his father and his mother, and in the ways of Jeroboam, the son of
Nebat, who made Israel do evil. [54] \22:53\He was a servant and worshipper
of Baal, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath, as his father had
done.