﻿1 Kings.
Chapter 22.
For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. 
In the third year, Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to the king of Israel. 
The king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, yet we do nothing to take it from the hand of the king of Aram?” 
He asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, and my horses as your horses.” 
Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire for the word of the LORD today.” 
The king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I refrain?” They answered, “Go up! The Lord will give it into the king’s hand.” 
But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not another prophet of the LORD here through whom we may inquire?” 
The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man through whom we may inquire of the LORD, but I hate him, because he never prophesies good concerning me, only calamity. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” Jehoshaphat said, “The king should not say that.” 
The king of Israel called a court official and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.” 
The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting, each on his throne, dressed in their robes, on a threshing floor at the entrance to Samaria’s gate. All the prophets were prophesying before them. 
Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had made iron horns for himself. He said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until you destroy them.’” 
All the prophets prophesied the same thing: “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and succeed! The LORD will give it into the king’s hand.” 
The messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the prophets are speaking good things to the king with one voice. Please let your word be like one of theirs, and speak good things.” 
Micaiah said, “As the LORD lives, I will speak what the LORD says to me.” 
When he came to the king, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should we refrain?” He answered, “Go up and succeed! The LORD will give it into the king’s hand.” 
The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?” 
He said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd. The LORD said, ‘These have no master. Let each return home in peace.’” 
The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would prophesy no good concerning me, only calamity?” 
Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right and on his left. 
The LORD asked, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ One said one thing, and another said another. 
Then the spirit came forward, stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ 
The LORD asked him, ‘How?’ He answered, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ The LORD said, ‘You will entice him, and you will succeed. Go and do so.’ 
So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared calamity against you.” 
Zedekiah son of Chenaanah approached, struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?” 
Micaiah answered, “You will see on the day you go into an inner room to hide.” 
The king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah and bring him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son. 
Tell them, ‘This is what the king says: Put this man in prison and feed him scant bread and scant water until I return in peace.’” 
Micaiah said, “If you ever return in peace, the LORD has not spoken through me.” He also said, “Hear, all you peoples!” 
The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. 
The king of Israel told Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and enter the battle, but you wear your robes.” The king of Israel disguised himself and entered the battle. 
The king of Aram had commanded his thirty-two chariot commanders, “Do not fight anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel alone.” 
When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “Surely this is the king of Israel!” They turned against him to fight, and Jehoshaphat cried out. 
When the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, they stopped pursuing him. 
But a man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, “Turn around and take me out of the battle, for I am wounded.” 
The battle raged that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. He died in the evening, and the blood from his wound flowed into the bottom of the chariot. 
At sunset a cry went through the army: “Each man to his city, and each to his own land!” 
The king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. 
They washed the chariot at the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked his blood, and the prostitutes bathed there, according to the word the LORD had spoken. 
The rest of Ahab’s acts, all he did, the ivory palace he built, and all the cities he built—are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 
Ahab rested with his ancestors, and his son Ahaziah reigned in his place. 
Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. 
Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. 
He walked in all the way of his father Asa without turning aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the LORD. Yet the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense at the high places. 
Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel. 
The rest of Jehoshaphat’s acts, the mighty deeds he performed, and his wars—are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 
He removed from the land the remaining male cult prostitutes who had been left from the days of his father Asa. 
There was no king in Edom; a deputy acted as king. 
Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they did not sail, for the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber. 
Then Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants go with your servants in the ships.” But Jehoshaphat would not agree. 
Jehoshaphat rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the city of his ancestor David. His son Jehoram reigned in his place. 
Ahaziah son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. He reigned over Israel two years. 
He did evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of his father, the way of his mother, and the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin. 
He served Baal and bowed down to him, provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger, just as his father had done. 
