2 Chronicles 18
1 And Jehoshaphat has riches and honor in abundance, and joins affinity to Ahab,
Now Jehoshaphat was very wealthy and highly honored, and he made a marriage alliance with Ahab.
2 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.
Some years later he went to pay Ahab a visit in Samaria. Ahab sacrificed many sheep and cattle for him and the people who accompanied him, and encouraged him to attack Ramoth-gilead.
3 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.”
Ahab, king of Israel, asked Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, “Would you go with me against Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat replied, “You and I are as one, and my men and your men are as one. We will join forces with you in this war.”
4 And Jehoshaphat says to the king of Israel, “Please seek the word of YHWH this day.”
Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “But first though, please find out what the Lord says.”
5 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.”
So the king of Israel brought out the prophets—four hundred of them—and he asked them, “Should we go up and attack Ramoth-gilead, or should I not?” “Yes, go ahead,” they replied, “for God will hand it over to the king.”
6 And Jehoshaphat says, “[Is there] not still a prophet of YHWH here, and we seek from him?”
But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn't there another prophet of the Lord here that we can ask?”
7 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.”
“Yes, there's another man who could consult the Lord,” the king of Israel replied, “but I don't like him because he never prophesies anything good for me—it's always bad! His name is Micaiah, son of Imlah.” “You shouldn't talk like that,” said Jehoshaphat.
8 And the king of Israel calls to a certain officer and says, “Hurry Micaiah son of Imlah.”
The king of Israel called over one of his officials and told him, “Bring me Micaiah, son of Imlah, right away.”
9 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.
Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah, were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor beside the gate of Samaria, with all of the prophets prophesying in front of them.
10 And Zedekiah son of Chenaanah makes horns of iron for himself and says, “Thus said YHWH:
One of them, Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, had made himself iron horns. He announced, “This is what the Lord says: ‘With these horns you will gore the Arameans until they're dead!”
11 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.”
All the prophets were prophesying the same thing, saying, “Go ahead, attack Ramoth-gilead; you will be successful, for the Lord will hand it over to the king.”
12 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.”
The messenger who went to call Micaiah told him, “Look, all the prophets are unanimous in prophesying positively to the king. So please make sure to speak positively like them.”
13 And Micaiah says “YHWH lives, surely that which my God says, I speak it.”
But Micaiah replied, “As the Lord lives, I can only say what my God tells me.”
14 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.”
When he came before the king, the king asked him, “Should we go up and attack Ramoth-gilead, or should I not?” “Yes, go ahead and be victorious,” Micaiah replied, “for they will be handed over to the king.”
15 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?”
But the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me only the truth in the name of the Lord?”
16 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.”
So Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd. The Lord said, ‘These people have no master; let each of them go home in peace.’”
17 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?”
The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn't I tell you he never prophesies anything good for me, only bad?”
18 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;
Micaiah went on to say, “So listen to what the Lord says. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, surrounded by the whole army of heaven standing to his right and to his left.
19 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.
The Lord asked, ‘Who will trick Ahab, king of Israel, into attacking Ramoth-gilead so he will be killed there?’ One said this, another said that, and another said something else.
20 And the spirit goes out, and stands before YHWH, and says, I entice him; and YHWH says to him, With what?
Finally a spirit came and approached the Lord and said, ‘I will trick him.’ ‘How are you going to do that?’ the Lord asked.
21 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.
‘I will go and be a lying spirit and make all his prophets tell lies,’ the spirit replied. ‘That will work,’ the Lord responded. ‘Go and do it.’
22 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.”
As you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit into these prophets of yours, and the Lord has pronounced your death sentence.”
23 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?”
Then Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, went and slapped Micaiah in the face, and demanded, “Which way did the Spirit of the Lord go when he left me to speak to you?”
24 And Micaiah says, “Behold, you see in that day that you enter into the innermost chamber to be hidden.”
“You'll soon find out when you try and find some secret place to hide!” Micaiah replied.
25 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,
The king of Israel ordered, “Place Micaiah under arrest and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to my son Joash.
26 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.”
Tell them these are the king's instructions: ‘Put this man in jail. Give him only bread and water until my safe return.’”
27 And Micaiah says, “If you certainly return in peace, YHWH has not spoken by me”; and he says, “Hear, O peoples, all of them!”
“If you do in fact return safely then the Lord has not spoken through me,” Micaiah declared. “Pay attention everyone to all I've said!”
28 And the king of Israel goes up—and Jehoshaphat king of Judah—to Ramoth-Gilead;
The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went to attack Ramoth-gilead.
29 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.
The king of Israel told Jehoshaphat, “When I go into battle I will be in disguise, but you should wear your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
30 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.”
The king of Aram had already given these orders to his chariot commanders: “Head straight for the king of Israel alone. Don't fight with anyone else, whoever they are.”
31 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;
So when the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they shouted, “There's the king of Israel!” So they turned to attack him, but Jehoshaphat called out for help, and the Lord did help him. God redirected them away from him,
32 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.
for when the chariot commanders realized that he wasn't the king of Israel, they stopped chasing him.
33 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.”
However, an enemy archer shot an arrow at random, hitting the king of Israel between the joints of his armor by his breastplate. The king told his charioteer, “Turn around and get me out of the fight, because I've been wounded!”
34 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.
The battle lasted all day. The king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot to face the Arameans until the evening. But he died at sunset.
