2 Chronicles 18

1 Now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honour, and his son was married to Ahab's daughter.

And Jehoshaphat has riches and honor in abundance, and joins affinity to Ahab,

2 And after some years he went down to Samaria to see Ahab. And Ahab made a feast for him and the people who were with him, putting to death great numbers of sheep and oxen; and he got Jehoshaphat to go with him to Ramoth-gilead.

and goes down at the end of [certain] years to Samaria to [visit] Ahab, and Ahab sacrifices sheep and oxen in abundance for him and for the people who [are] with him, and persuades him to go up to Ramoth-Gilead.

3 For Ahab, king of Israel, said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead? And he said, I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will be with you in the war.

And Ahab king of Israel says to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, “Do you go with me [to] Ramoth-Gilead?” And he says to him, “As I—so you, and as your people—my people, and [we go] with you into the battle.”

4 Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now get directions from the Lord.

And Jehoshaphat says to the king of Israel, “Please seek the word of YHWH this day.”

5 So the king of Israel got together all the prophets, four hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for God will give it into the hands of the king.

And the king of Israel gathers the prophets, four hundred men, and says to them, “Do we go to Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or do I refrain?” And they say, “Go up, and God gives [it] into the hand of the king.”

6 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the Lord here from whom we may get directions?

And Jehoshaphat says, “[Is there] not still a prophet of YHWH here, and we seek from him?”

7 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, but I have no love for him, because he has never been a prophet of good to me, but only of evil: he is Micaiah, the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

And the king of Israel says to Jehoshaphat, “[There is] still one man to seek YHWH from him, and I have hated him, for he is not prophesying of good concerning me, but of evil [for] all his days, he [is] Micaiah son of Imlah”; and Jehoshaphat says, “Do not let the king say so.”

8 Then the king of Israel sent for one of his unsexed servants and said, Go quickly and come back with Micaiah, the son of Imla.

And the king of Israel calls to a certain officer and says, “Hurry Micaiah son of Imlah.”

9 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, were seated on their seats of authority, dressed in their robes, by the doorway into Samaria; and all the prophets were acting as prophets before them.

And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah are sitting, each on his throne, clothed with garments, and they are sitting in a threshing-floor at the opening of the Gate of Samaria, and all the prophets are prophesying before them.

10 And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made himself iron horns and said, The Lord says, Pushing back the Aramaeans with these, you will put an end to them completely.

And Zedekiah son of Chenaanah makes horns of iron for himself and says, “Thus said YHWH:

11 And all the prophets said the same thing, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and it will go well for you, for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king.

With these you push Aram until you have consumed them.” And all the prophets are prophesying so, saying, “Go up [to] Ramath-Gilead and prosper, and YHWH has given [it] into the hand of the king.”

12 Now the servant who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, See now, all the prophets with one voice are saying good things to the king; so let your words be like theirs, and say good things.

And the messenger who has gone to call for Micaiah has spoken to him, saying, “Behold, the words of the prophets [as] one mouth [are] good toward the king, and please let your word be like one of theirs: and you have spoken good.”

13 And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the Lord says to me I will say.

And Micaiah says “YHWH lives, surely that which my God says, I speak it.”

14 When he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, are we to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And he said, Go up, and it will go well for you; and they will be given up into your hands.

And he comes to the king, and the king says to him, “Micaiah, do we go to Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or do I refrain?” And he says, “Go up, and prosper, and they are given into your hand.”

15 And the king said to him, Have I not, again and again, put you on your oath to say nothing to me but what is true in the name of the Lord?

And the king says to him, “How many times am I adjuring you that you speak to me only truth in the Name of YHWH?”

16 Then he said, I saw all Israel wandering on the mountains like sheep without a keeper; and the Lord said, These have no master: let them go back, every man to his house in peace.

And he says, “I have seen all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd, and YHWH says, There are no masters for these, they each return to his house in peace.”

17 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not say that he would not be a prophet of good to me, but of evil?

And the king of Israel says to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not say to you [that] he does not prophesy good concerning me, but rather of evil?”

18 Then he said, Give ear now to the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his seat of power, and all the army of heaven in their places, at his right hand and at his left.

And [Micaiah] says, “Therefore, hear a word of YHWH: I have seen YHWH sitting on His throne, and all the host of the heavens standing on His right and His left;

19 And the Lord said, How may Ahab, king of Israel, be tricked into going up to Ramoth-gilead to his death? And one said one thing and one another.

and YHWH says, Who entices Ahab king of Israel, and he goes up and falls in Ramoth-Gilead? And this speaker says thus, and that speaker thus.

20 Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick. And the Lord said to him, How?

And the spirit goes out, and stands before YHWH, and says, I entice him; and YHWH says to him, With what?

21 And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so.

And he says, I go out, and have become a spirit of falsehood in the mouth of all his prophets. And He says, You entice, and also, you are able; go out and do so.

22 And now, see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in the mouth of these prophets of yours; and the Lord has said evil against you.

And now, behold, YHWH has put a spirit of falsehood in the mouth of these prophets of yours, and YHWH has spoken calamity concerning you.”

23 Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, came near and gave Micaiah a blow on the side of his face, saying, Where is the spirit of the Lord whose word is in you?

And Zedekiah son of Chenaanah comes near and strikes Micaiah on the cheek, and says, “Where [is] this—the way the spirit [from] YHWH passed over from me to speak with you?”

24 And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe.

And Micaiah says, “Behold, you see in that day that you enter into the innermost chamber to be hidden.”

25 And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon, the ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king's son;

And the king of Israel says, “Take Micaiah, and turn him back to Amon head of the city, and to Joash son of the king,

26 And say, By the king's order this man is to be put in prison, and given prison food till I come back in peace.

and you have said, Thus said the king: Put this [one] in the house of restraint, and cause him to eat bread of oppression, and water of oppression, until my return in peace.”

27 And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace, the Lord has not sent his word by me.

And Micaiah says, “If you certainly return in peace, YHWH has not spoken by me”; and he says, “Hear, O peoples, all of them!”

28 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-gilead.

And the king of Israel goes up—and Jehoshaphat king of Judah—to Ramoth-Gilead;

29 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will make a change in my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king, and will go into the fight; but do you put on your robes. So the king of Israel made a change in his dress, and they went to the fight.

and the king of Israel says to Jehoshaphat to disguise himself, and to go into battle, “And you, put on your garments.” And the king of Israel disguises himself, and they go into battle.

30 Now the king of Aram had given orders to the captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel.

And the king of Aram has commanded the heads of the charioteers whom he has, saying, “You do not fight with small or with great, except with the king of Israel by himself.”

31 So when the captains of the war-carriages saw Jehoshaphat, they said, It is the king of Israel. And turning about, they came round him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry, and the Lord came to his help, and God sent them away from him.

And it comes to pass at the heads of the charioteers seeing Jehoshaphat, that they have said, “He is the king of Israel,” and they turn around against him to fight, and Jehoshaphat cries out, and YHWH has helped him, and God entices them from him;

32 Now when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he was not the king of Israel, they went back from going after him.

indeed, it comes to pass, at the heads of the charioteers seeing that it has not been the king of Israel—they turn back from after him.

33 And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away out of the army, for I am badly wounded.

And a man has drawn with a bow in his simplicity, and strikes the king of Israel between the joinings and the coat of mail, and he says to the charioteer, “Turn your hand, and you have brought me out of the camp, for I have become [gravely] sick.”

34 But the fight became more violent while the day went on; and the king of Israel was supported in his war-carriage facing the Aramaeans till the evening; and by sundown he was dead.

And the battle increases on that day, and the king of Israel has been propped up in the chariot in front of Aram until the evening, and he dies at the time of the going in of the sun.