1For three years there was no war between Syria and Israel.
2In the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel.
3The king of Israel said to his servants, "Do you know that Ramoth in Gilead belongs to us? Yet we do nothing, and we do not take it back from the hand of the king of Syria."
4He said to Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to fight at Ramothgilead?" Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses."
5Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "Please ask for the word of the LORD today."
6So the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, "Shall I go to fight against Ramothgilead, or shall I hold back?" They said, "Go up, for the Lord will give it into the king's hand."
7But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there not another prophet of the LORD here, so that we may ask him?"
8The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may ask the LORD. But I hate him, for he never prophesies good about me, only evil." Jehoshaphat said, "Do not let the king say that."
9Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, "Bring Micaiah the son of Imlah here quickly."
10The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, dressed in their robes, in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria. And all the prophets prophesied in front of them.
11Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made himself horns of iron, and he said, "This is what the LORD says: With these you will push the Syrians until you have destroyed them."
12All the prophets said the same: "Go up to Ramothgilead and win, for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."
13The messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him, "Look, the words of the prophets all say good things to the king with one voice. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak what is good."
14Micaiah said, "As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that is what I will speak."
15So he came to the king. The king said to him, "Micaiah, shall we go to fight against Ramothgilead, or shall we hold back?" He answered him, "Go and win, for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."
16The 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?"
17So Micaiah said, "I saw all Israel scattered on the hills, like sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, 'These have no master. Let every man go home in peace.'"
18The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you that he would prophesy no good about me, but only evil?"
19Micaiah said, "Then hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him, on his right hand and on his left."
20"And the LORD said, 'Who will persuade Ahab to go up and fall at Ramothgilead?' One said one thing, and another said another."
21"Then a spirit came out and stood before the LORD and said, 'I will persuade him.'"
22"The LORD said to him, 'How?' He said, 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' The LORD said, 'You will persuade him, and you will succeed. Go out and do it.'"
23"So now, look, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has spoken evil about you."
24But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and hit Micaiah on the cheek, and said, "Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?"
25Micaiah said, "Look, you will see on the day when you go into an inner room to hide yourself."
26The king of Israel said, "Take Micaiah and bring him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son."
27"Say, 'This is what the king says: Put this man in the prison, and give him only the bread of suffering and the water of suffering to live on, until I come back in peace.'"
28Micaiah said, "If you ever come back in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me." And he said, "Listen, you peoples, every one of you."
29So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramothgilead.
30The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself and go into the battle, but you wear your robes." So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle.
31But the king of Syria had commanded his thirty-two captains who were in charge of his chariots, "Do not fight with anyone, small or great, but only with the king of Israel."
32When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, "Surely this is the king of Israel." So they turned aside to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out.
33When the captains of the chariots saw that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from chasing him.
34A certain man shot an arrow without aiming, and it struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armour. So the king said to the driver of his chariot, "Turn round and carry me out of the army, for I am wounded."
35The battle grew worse that day, and the king was held up in his chariot facing the Syrians. He died in the evening, and the blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot.
36About sunset a shout went through the army: "Every man to his city, and every man to his own country."
37So the king died, and he was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria.
38Someone washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood. They also washed his armour there. This was just as the LORD had said.
39The rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house that he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
40So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son became king in his place.
41Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to rule over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.
42Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to rule, and he ruled twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.
43He walked in all the ways of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from them, but did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.
44Yet the high places were not taken away, for the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense in the high places.
45And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
46The rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and the strength he showed, and how he fought his wars, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
47He removed from the land the rest of the sodomites who were left from the days of his father Asa.
48At that time there was no king in Edom. A deputy ruled as king.
49Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they never went, because the ships were wrecked at Eziongeber.
50Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, "Let my servants go with your servants in the ships." But Jehoshaphat would not.
51Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father, and Jehoram his son became king in his place.
52Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to rule over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he ruled over Israel two years.
53He did evil in the sight of the LORD. He walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin.
54He served Baal and worshipped him, and made the LORD God of Israel angry, just as his father had done.