1 Three years passed without war between Syria and Israel.
2 In the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to the king of Israel.
3 The king of Israel had said to his servants, "Do you know that Ramoth-gilead is ours, and yet we are doing nothing to take it back from the king of Syria?"
4 He asked Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to fight at Ramoth-gilead?" Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, "I am with you as one; my people are your people, my horses your horses."
5 But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, "First, please, seek the word of the LORD today."
6 So the king of Israel gathered the prophets, some four hundred men, and asked them, "Should I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I hold back?" "Go up," they said, "for the Lord will hand it over to the king."
7 Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there no other prophet of the LORD here whom we might consult?"
8 The king of Israel told Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man through whom we can consult the LORD, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him, because he never prophesies anything good about me, only evil." Jehoshaphat said, "The king should not say that."
9 So the king of Israel called an official and said, "Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once."
10 The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah, wearing their robes, were each seated on his throne at the threshing floor by the entrance of Samaria's gate, with all the prophets prophesying in front of them.
11 Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had made himself iron horns, and he said, "This is what the LORD says: 'With these you will gore the Syrians until you finish them off.'"
12 All the prophets were prophesying the same: "Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph. The LORD will hand it over to the king."
13 The messenger who had gone to call Micaiah told him, "Listen, the prophets are all saying with one voice what is good for the king. Please let your word be like one of theirs, and speak what is good."
14 Micaiah said, "As the LORD lives, whatever the LORD tells me, that is what I will speak."
15 When he came to the king, the king asked him, "Micaiah, should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should we hold back?" He told him, "Go up and triumph. The LORD will hand it over to the king."
16 The king said to him, "How many times must I put you under oath to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?"
17 So he said, "I saw all Israel scattered over the mountains like sheep with no shepherd, and the LORD said, 'These have no master. Let each of them go home in peace.'"
18 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you he never prophesies good about me, only evil?"
19 Micaiah went on, "Hear then the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD seated on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left.
20 The LORD said, 'Who will lure Ahab into going up to fall at Ramoth-gilead?' One said this and another said that.
21 Then a spirit came out and stood before the LORD and said, 'I will lure him.'
22 'How?' the LORD asked him. He said, 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' The LORD said, 'You will lure him, and you will prevail. Go and do it.'
23 So now, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed evil against you."
24 Zedekiah son of Chenaanah walked up, struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, "Which way did the Spirit of the LORD pass from me to speak with you?"
25 Micaiah answered, "You will find out on the day you go into an inner room to hide."
26 The king of Israel ordered, "Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king's son.
27 Say, 'The king orders this: Put this man in prison and give him nothing but meager bread and meager water until I return safely.'"
28 Micaiah said, "If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me." And he added, "Listen, all you peoples!"
29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead.
30 The king of Israel told Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself as I go into battle, but you put on your robes." So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
31 The king of Syria had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, "Do not fight anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel alone."
32 When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, "That must be the king of Israel," and they turned aside to attack him. But Jehoshaphat cried out,
33 and when the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, they turned away from him.
34 Someone, however, drew his bow without aiming and hit the king of Israel between the plates of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, "Turn around and get me out of the fighting, for I am wounded."
35 The battle raged all that day, and the king was held up in his chariot facing the Syrians. He died at evening, and the blood from his wound ran into the floor of the chariot.
36 As the sun was setting, a shout spread through the camp: "Every man to his town! Every man to his land!"
37 So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria.
38 They washed the chariot at the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and the prostitutes washed themselves in it, as the LORD had said.
39 As for the rest of the deeds of Ahab and all he did, and the ivory house that he built and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
40 Ahab lay down with his fathers, and his son Ahaziah reigned in his place.
41 Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.
42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.
43 He walked in all the ways of his father Asa without turning from them, doing what was right in the sight of the LORD. The high places, however, were not removed; the people went on sacrificing and burning incense at the high places.
44 Jehoshaphat also kept peace with the king of Israel.
45 As for the rest of the deeds of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he showed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
46 He also rid the land of the rest of the male cult prostitutes who had remained from the days of his father Asa.
47 At that time Edom had no king; a deputy served as king.
48 Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to sail to Ophir for gold, but they never sailed, because the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber.
49 Ahaziah son of Ahab then told Jehoshaphat, "Let my servants sail with your servants in the ships," but Jehoshaphat refused.
50 Jehoshaphat lay down with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of his father David, and his son Jehoram reigned in his place.
51 Ahaziah son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel.
52 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, walking in the way of his father, the way of his mother and the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.
53 He served Baal and bowed down to him, and he provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, in every way his father had done.