1 Kings 22:27-49

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.

⁴⁴Jehoshaphat also made a peace agreement with the king of Israel.

⁴⁵All the other things that happened while Jehoshaphat was ruling, and the great things that he did and the victories his troops won, are written in the scroll called ❛The History of the Kings of Judah❜.

⁴⁶Jehoshaphat's father Asa had tried to expel the male prostitutes that stayed at the pagan shrines, but some of them were still there. Jehoshaphat got rid of them.

⁴⁷At that time, there was no king in Edom; a ruler who had been appointed by Jehoshaphat ruled there.

⁴⁸Jehoshaphat ordered some Israeli men to build a fleet/group of ships to sail south to the Ophir region to get gold. But they were wrecked at Ezion-Geber/Elath, so the ships never sailed.

⁴⁹Before the ships were wrecked, Ahab's son Ahaziah suggested to Jehoshaphat, “Allow my sailors to go with your sailors,” but Jehoshaphat refused.