2 *Chronicles 18

₁King Jehoshaphat was very rich and everyone respected him. His son married a daughter of King Ahab of Israel. ₂After a few years Jehoshaphat went to visit Ahab in the city of Samaria. Ahab killed a lot of sheep, goats and cattle for Jehoshaphat and the people with him to eat. Ahab talked to Jehoshaphat and he asked Jehoshaphat to go with him to attack the town of Ramoth in Gilead, and Jehoshaphat said yes. ₃King Ahab of Israel asked King Jehoshaphat of Judah: ‘Will you come with me to attack the town Ramoth in Gilead?’

Jehoshaphat said: ‘I will go with you and my men will fight with your men.’

₄Jehoshaphat said to the king_of_Israel: ‘But please, you must first ask the Lord and listen to what He says.’

₅The king_of_Israel then called all the prophets to come to him. There were 400 prophets and he asked them: ‘Must we go to war_against Ramoth in Gilead or not?’

The prophets said: ‘You must go. God will help you win.’

₆Then Jehoshaphat asked: ‘Is there another prophet of God here? We must also ask him.’

₇The king_of_Israel said to Jehoshaphat: ‘Yes, there is another prophet. His name is Micaiah, son of Imlah. We can ask him what the Lord says, but I do not like him because he never says anything good to me. He always has bad news for me.’

Jehoshaphat said to the king_of_Israel: ‘You must not talk like that.’

₈The king_of_Israel called an officer and he told him: ‘Go quickly to Micaiah, son of Imlah, and bring him here.’

₉The king_of_Israel and Jehoshaphat, king_of_Judah, were wearing their royal clothes and each of them sat on a throne at the threshing-floor near the gate of Samaria. All the prophets were telling them what would happen. ₁₀Zedekiah, son of Kenaanah, made a pair of horns from iron and he said: ‘The Lord says: “With these horns you will push the Arameans away and you will defeat all of them.” ’

₁₁All the prophets said the same thing. They said: ‘Your_Majesty, you must go to the town of Ramoth in Gilead. You will win. God gives the town to you.’

₁₂The messenger who went to call Micaiah said to him: ‘All the prophets have said that the king will win. You must please say the same. Say that the king will win.’

₁₃Micaiah said: ‘As sure as God lives, I will say what God tells me to say.’

₁₄When Micaiah went to the king, the king asked him: ‘Micaiah, must we go to war_against the town of Ramoth in Gilead?’

Micaiah said: ‘Your_Majesty, you must go. You will win. God gives the town to you.’

₁₅But the king said to Micaiah: ‘I have told you many of times that you must tell only the truth when God sends you. Why aren't you telling the truth?’

₁₆Then Micaiah said: ‘I saw the enemy defeating the Israelites and chasing them all over the mountains. They were like sheep without a shepherd. Then the Lord said: “These people do not have a king. They must go back home. Every man must go to his home.” ’

₁₇The king_of_Israel said to Jehoshaphat: ‘I told you that the prophet Micaiah always says bad things to me, and never anything good.’

₁₈Micaiah talked again and he said: ‘Listen to the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and everyone in heaven was standing on his right hand side and on his left hand side. ₁₉And the Lord said: “I want to send someone to deceive Ahab. Whom can I send? He must go and tell Ahab to go to Ramoth in Gilead. I want him to die there.”

Everyone in heaven was talking to each other ₂₀and then an angel came and he stood before the Lord and he said: “I will deceive him.”

Then the Lord asked him: “What will you do?”

₂₁And he said: “I will go and I will be a lying spirit. I will tell all the prophets to lie to King Ahab.”

The Lord said: “Yes, you will deceive him, and you will succeed. Go and do it.”

₂₂Your_Majesty, you must know this: The Lord has sent a spirit which lies to come into the mouths of all of your prophets. But do you want to know what God really said? The Lord said that something very bad will happen to you.’

₂₃Then Zedekiah, son of Kenaanah, went to Micaiah and he hit him in the face and he asked: ‘Do you think the Spirit of God left me and went to you to talk to you?’

₂₄Micaiah said to Zedekiah: ‘You will see it on that day when you go from one room to another room to try and hide.’

₂₅Then the king_of_Israel said: ‘Take Micaiah to Amon, the chief of the city, and to prince Joash ₂₆and tell them the king said: “You must put this man in jail. Give him a little food and water and keep him there until I come back here.” ’

₂₇Micaiah said: ‘King Ahab, if you really come back home, then the words that I have said do not come from the Lord.’

Micaiah also said: ‘Men, you must all listen to what I say.’

₂₈Then the king_of_Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to the town of Ramoth in Gilead. ₂₉The king_of_Israel said to Jehoshaphat: ‘I will change my clothes so that the enemy will not know who I am and then I will go to war with the men. You must not take off your royal clothes.’

The king_of_Israel put on other clothes and he went to war with his men.

₃₀The king of Aram told his officers of the war-chariots: ‘You must kill only the king_of_Israel. Do not shoot the other men, not the important men or the unimportant men.’

₃₁When the officers of the war-chariots saw King Jehoshaphat, they thought that he was the king_of_Israel. They came from all sides to shoot him. Jehoshaphat shouted and he asked the Lord to help him and God made them go away from him. ₃₂When the officers saw it was not the king_of_Israel, they stopped chasing Jehoshaphat. ₃₃One of the Aramean soldiers shot an arrow. He did not want to shoot at something. He just shot the arrow into the air and he did not know where the arrow would go. But the arrow hit the king_of_Israel and the arrow went in under the plates of his armour. The king said to the man who drove his war-chariot: ‘Turn_around and take me home because someone has shot me.’

₃₄But everyone was fighting so hard against the Arameans that the king_of_Israel had to stand in his war-chariot until that evening. He died when the sun went down.