1 Kings 22 AMPC

1. SYRIA AND Israel continued without war for three years.

2. In the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah came down to the king of Israel.

3. And [Ahab] king of Israel said to his servants, Do you know that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we keep silence and do not take it from the king of Syria?

4. And [Ahab] said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead to battle? Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.

5. But Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Inquire first, I pray you, for the word of the Lord today.

6. Then [Ahab] king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I hold back? And they said, Go up, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.

7. Jehoshaphat said, Is there not another prophet of the Lord here whom we may ask?

8. [Ahab] king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good for me, but evil. Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say that.

9. Then [Ahab] king of Israel told an officer, Bring quickly Micaiah son of Imlah.

10. Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting in [royal] robes [or armor], each on his throne in an open place [on a threshing floor] at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them.

11. And Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron and said, Thus says the Lord: With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.

12. And all the prophets agreed, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead and prosper, for the Lord will deliver it into the king's hand.

13. The messenger who went to call Micaiah said to him, Behold now, the prophets unanimously declare good to the king. Let your answer, I pray you, be like theirs, and say what is good.

14. But Micaiah said, As the Lord lives, I will speak what the Lord says to me.

15. So he came to the king. King [Ahab] said, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we hold back? And he answered, Go and prosper, for the Lord will deliver it into the king's hand.

16. And the king said to him, How many times must I charge you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?

17. And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have no shepherd, and the Lord said, These have no master. Let them return every man to his house in peace.

18. Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell you that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?

19. And Micaiah said, Hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on His left.

20. And the Lord said, Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? One said this way, another said that way.

21. Then there came forth a spirit [of whom I am about to tell] and stood before the Lord and said, I will entice him.

22. The Lord said to him, By what means? And he said, I will go forth and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets. [The Lord] said, You shall entice him and succeed also. Go forth and do it.

23. So the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets; and the Lord has spoken evil concerning you.

24. But Zedekiah son of Chenaanah went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak to you?

25. Micaiah said, Behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.

26. [Ahab] king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, carry him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son,

27. And say, The king says, Put this fellow in prison and feed him with bread and water of affliction until I come in peace.

28. Micaiah said, If you return at all in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me. He [added], Hear, O people, every one of you!

29. So [Ahab] king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead.

30. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and enter the battle, but you put on your [royal] clothing. And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle.

31. But the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, Fight neither with small nor great, but only with [Ahab] king of Israel.

32. And when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, Surely it is the king of Israel. They turned to fight against him, but Jehoshaphat cried out.

33. And when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.

34. But a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote [Ahab] the king of Israel between the joints of the armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, Turn around and carry me out of the army, for I am wounded.

35. The battle increased that day, and [Ahab] the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians, and at nightfall he died. And the blood of his wound flowed onto the floor of the chariot.

36. And there went a cry throughout the army about sundown, saying, Every man to his city and his own country,

37. For the king is dead! And [Ahab] was brought to Samaria, where they buried him.

38. And they washed [his] chariot by the pool of Samaria, where the harlots bathed, and the dogs licked up his blood, as the Lord had predicted. [I Kings 21:19.]

39. The rest of Ahab's acts, all he did, the ivory palace and all the cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

40. So Ahab slept with his fathers. Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead.

41. Jehoshaphat son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.

42. Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.

43. He walked in all the ways or customs of Asa his father, never swerving from it, doing right in the sight of the Lord. However, the [idolatrous] high places were not taken away; for the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.

44. And Jehoshaphat made peace with Israel's king.

45. The rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, 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. And the remnant of the sodomites (the male cult prostitutes) who remained in the days of his father Asa, [Jehoshaphat] expelled from the country.

47. There was no king in Edom; a deputy was acting king.

48. Jehoshaphat ordered ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they did not go, for the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber.

49. When Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with your servants in the ships, Jehoshaphat refused.

50. Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of David his father [forefather]. And Jehoram his son reigned in his stead.

51. Ahaziah son of Ahab began his two-year reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah.

52. He did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of his father [Ahab] and of his mother [Jezebel] and of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin.

53. He served Baal and worshiped him and provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger in all the ways his father had done.