(1) There was a lull of three years, with no war between Aram and Israel. (2) In the third year, King Jehoshaphat of Judah came to visit the king of Israel. (3) The king of Israel said to his courtiers, “You know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and yet we do nothing to recover it from the hands of the king of Aram.” (4) And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you come with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “I will do what you do; my troops shall be your troops, my horses shall be your horses.” (5) But Jehoshaphat said further to the king of Israel, “Please, first inquire of the LORD.”
(6) So the king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Shall I march upon Ramoth-gilead for battle, or shall I not?” “March,” they said, “and the Lord will deliver [it] into Your Majesty’s hands.” (7) Then Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there another prophet of the LORD here through whom we can inquire?” (8) And the king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is one more man through whom we can inquire of the LORD; but I hate him, because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only misfortune—Micaiah son of Imlah.” But King Jehoshaphat said, “Don’t say that, Your Majesty.” (9) So the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”
(17) When Ahab caught sight of Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” (18) He retorted, “It is not I who have brought trouble on Israel, but you and your father’s House, by forsaking the commandments of the LORD and going after the Baalim. (19) Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, together with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
יהושפט הוה התם וקאמר להו דכתיב (מלכים א כב, ז) ויאמר יהושפט האין פה נביא (עוד לה') אמר ליה הא איכא כל הני אמר ליה כך מקובלני מבית אבי אבא סיגנון אחד עולה לכמה נביאים ואין שני נביאים מתנבאים בסיגנון אחד
Jehoshaphat, king of Judea, was there, and he said to them that they were false prophets, as it is written: “But Jehoshaphat said: Is there not here besides a prophet of the Lord, that we might inquire of him?” (I Kings 22:7). Ahab said to him: But aren’t there all these prophets here? Why seek others? Jehoshaphat said to Ahab: This is the tradition that I received from the house of the father of my father, the house of David: A prophetic vision relating to one and the same subject matter may appear to several prophets, but two prophets do not prophesy employing one and the same style of expression. They are false prophets, as they employed the same language when stating their prophecy.
(10) The king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were seated on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, on the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them. (11) Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had provided himself with iron horns; and he said, “Thus said the LORD: With these you shall gore the Arameans till you make an end of them.” (12) And all the other prophets were prophesying similarly, “March upon Ramoth-gilead and triumph! The LORD will deliver it into Your Majesty’s hands.” (13) The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him: “Look, the words of the prophets are with one accord favorable to the king. Let your word be like that of the rest of them; speak a favorable word.” (14) “As the LORD lives,” Micaiah answered, “I will speak only what the LORD tells me.”
(17) Like a firstling bull in his majesty, He has horns like the horns of the wild-ox; With them he gores the peoples, The ends of the earth one and all. These are the myriads of Ephraim, Those are the thousands of Manasseh.
(15) When he came before the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we march upon Ramoth-gilead for battle, or shall we not?” He answered him, “March and triumph! The LORD will deliver [it] into Your Majesty’s hands.” (16) The king said to him, “How many times must I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?” (17) Then he said, “I saw all Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd; and the LORD said, ‘These have no master; let everyone return to his home in safety.’” (18) “Didn’t I tell you,” said the king of Israel to Jehoshaphat, “that he would not prophesy good fortune for me, but only misfortune?”
(19) But [Micaiah] said, “I call upon you to hear the word of the LORD! I saw the LORD seated upon His throne, with all the host of heaven standing in attendance to the right and to the left of Him. (20) The LORD asked, ‘Who will entice Ahab so that he will march and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ Then one said thus and another said thus, (21) until a certain spirit came forward and stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ‘How?’ the LORD asked him. (22) And he replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then He said, ‘You will entice and you will prevail. Go out and do it.’ (23) So the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours; for the LORD has decreed disaster upon you.”
(24) Thereupon Zedekiah son of Chenaanah stepped up and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and demanded, “Which way did the spirit of the LORD pass from me to speak with you?” (25) And Micaiah replied, “You’ll find out on the day when you try to hide in the innermost room.” (26) Then the king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah and turn him over to Amon, the city’s governor, and to Prince Joash, (27) and say, ‘The king’s orders are: Put this fellow in prison, and let his fare be scant bread and scant water until I come home safe.’” (28) To which Micaiah retorted, “If you ever come home safe, the LORD has not spoken through me.” He said further, “Listen, all you peoples!”
(29) So the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah marched upon Ramoth-gilead. (30) The 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 went into the battle disguised. (31) Now the king of Aram had instructed his thirty-two chariot officers: “Don’t attack anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.” (32) So when the chariot officers saw Jehoshaphat, whom they took for the king of Israel, they turned upon him to attack him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. (33) And when the chariot officers became aware that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.
(34) Then a man drew his bow at random and he hit the king of Israel between the plates of the armor; and he said to his charioteer, “Turn the horses around and get me behind the lines; I’m wounded.” (35) The battle raged all day long, and the king remained propped up in the chariot facing Aram; the blood from the wound ran down into the hollow of the chariot, and at dusk he died.
(36) As the sun was going down, a shout went through the army: “Every man to his own town! Every man to his own district.” (37) So the king died and was brought to Samaria. They buried the king in Samaria, (38) and they flushed out the chariot at the pool of Samaria. Thus the dogs lapped up his blood and the whores bathed [in it], in accordance with the word that the LORD had spoken. (39) The other events of Ahab’s reign, and all his actions—the ivory palace that he built and all the towns that he fortified—are all recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel. (40) Ahab slept with his fathers, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.
Ahab, king of Israel, did only one good thing that is explicitly mentioned in the Bible, as it is written: “And the king was propped up in his chariot facing Aram” (I Kings 22:35), as he did not want the Jewish people to see that he was mortally wounded and flee, and for this he was greatly mourned.
(42) He said to him, “Thus said the LORD: Because you have set free the man whom I doomed, your life shall be forfeit for his life and your people for his people.”
(19) Say to him, ‘Thus said the LORD: Would you murder and take possession? Thus said the LORD: In the very place where the dogs lapped up Naboth’s blood, the dogs will lap up your blood too.’”
(28) Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: (29) “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the disaster in his lifetime; I will bring the disaster upon his house in his son’s time.”