1 Kings 22:13-43

¹³Meanwhile, the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Listen to me! All the other prophets are predicting that the king's army will defeat the Syrians. So be sure that you agree with them and say ◄what will be favorable/that the king's army will be successful►.”

¹⁴But Micaiah replied, “As surely as Yahweh lives, I will tell him only what Yahweh tells me to say.”

¹⁵When Micaiah came to Ahab, Ahab asked him, “Micaiah, should we go to fight against the people of Ramoth, or not?” Micaiah replied, “Sure, go! Yahweh will enable your army to defeat them!”

¹⁶But King Ahab realized that Micaiah was ◄lying/being sarcastic►, so he said to Micaiah, “I have told you RHQ many times that you must always tell only the truth when you say what Yahweh has revealed to you!”

¹⁷So Micaiah said to him, “ The truth is that in a vision I saw all the troops of Israel scattered on the mountains. They seemed to be like sheep that did not have a shepherd. And Yahweh said, ‘Their master has been killed. So tell them all to go home peacefully.’ ”

¹⁸Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “I told you RHQ that he never predicts that anything good will happen to me! He always predicts that bad things will happen to me.”

¹⁹But Micaiah continued, saying, “Listen to what Yahweh showed to me! In a vision I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, with all the armies of heaven surrounding him, on his right side and on his left side.

²⁰And Yahweh said, ‘Who can persuade Ahab to go to fight against the people of Ramoth, in order that he may be killed there?’ Some suggested one thing, and others suggested something else.

²¹Finally one evil spirit came to Yahweh and said, ‘I can do it!’

²²Yahweh asked him, ‘How will you do it?’ The spirit replied, ‘I will go and inspire all of Ahab's prophets to tell lies.’ Yahweh said, ‘You will be successful; go and do it!’

²³So now I tell you that Yahweh has caused all of your prophets to lie to you. Yahweh has decided that something terrible will happen to you.”

²⁴Then Zedekiah walked over to Micaiah and slapped him on his face. He said, “Do you think that Yahweh's Spirit left me in order to speak to you?” RHQ

²⁵Micaiah replied, “You will find out for yourself which of us Yahweh's Spirit has truly spoken to on the day when you go into a room of some house to hide from the Syrian troops!”

²⁶King Ahab commanded his soldiers, “Seize Micaiah and take him to Amon, the governor of this city, and to my son Joash.

²⁷Tell them that I have commanded that they should put this man in prison and give him only bread and water. Do not give him anything else to eat until I return safely from the battle!”

²⁸Micaiah replied, “If you return safely, it will be clear that it was not Yahweh who told me what to say to you!” Then he said to all those who were standing there, “Do not forget what I have said to King Ahab!”

²⁹So the King of Israel and the King of Judah led their armies to Ramoth, in the Gilead region.

³⁰King Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “I will put on different clothes, in order that no one will recognize that I am the king. But you should wear your ◄royal robe/robe that shows that you are a king►.” So Ahab disguised himself, and they both went into the battle.

³¹The King of Syria told this to his thirty-two men who were driving the chariots: “Attack only the king of Israel!”

³²So when the men who were driving the Syrian chariots saw Jehoshaphat wearing ◄his royal robes/clothes that showed he was the king►, they pursued him. They shouted, “There is the king of Israel!” But when Jehoshaphat cried out,

³³they realized that he was not the king of Israel. So they stopped pursuing him.

³⁴But one Syrian soldier shot an arrow at Ahab, without knowing that it was Ahab. The arrow struck Ahab between the places where the parts of his armor joined together. Ahab told the driver of his chariot, “Turn the chariot around and take me out of here! I have been severely wounded!”

³⁵The battle continued all the day. Ahab was sitting propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrian troops. The blood from his wound ran down to the floor of the chariot. And late in the afternoon he died.

³⁶Just as the sun was going down, someone among the Israeli troops shouted, “ The battle is ended! Everyone should return home!”

³⁷So king Ahab died, and they took his body in the chariot to Samaria city and buried his body there.

³⁸They washed his chariot alongside the pool in Samaria, a pool where the prostitutes bathed. And dogs came and licked the king's blood, just like Yahweh had predicted would happen.

³⁹The account/record of the other things that happened while Ahab was ruling, and about the palace decorated with much ivory that they built for him, and the cities that were built for him, was written in the scroll called ❛The History of the Kings of Israel❜.

⁴⁰When Ahab died, his body was buried where his ancestors were buried. Then his son Ahaziah became king.

⁴¹Before King Ahab died, when he had been ruling in Israel for four years, Asa's son Jehoshaphat started to rule in Judah.

⁴²Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he started to rule, and he ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-five years. His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.

⁴³Jehoshaphat was a good king, just like his father Asa had been. He did things that pleased Yahweh. But while he was king, he did not remove all the pagan altars that the people had built on the hilltops. So the people continued to offer sacrifices to idols on those altars and burned incense there.