(2 Chronicles 18:1–11)
1
And they sit still three years; there is no war between Aram and Israel.
2
And it comes to pass in the third year, that Jehoshaphat king of Judah comes down to the king of Israel,
3
and the king of Israel says to his servants, “Have you not known that Ramoth-Gilead [is] ours? And we are keeping silent from taking it out of the hand of the king of Aram!”
4
And he says to Jehoshaphat, “Do you go with me to battle [against] Ramoth-Gilead?” And Jehoshaphat says to the king of Israel, “As I am, so [are] you; as my people, so your people; as my horses, so your horses.”
5
And Jehoshaphat says to the king of Israel, “Please seek the word of YHWH today”;
6
and the king of Israel gathers the prophets, about four hundred men, and says to them, “Do I go to battle against Ramoth-Gilead, or do I refrain?” And they say, “Go up, and the Lord gives [it] into the hand of the king.”
7
And Jehoshaphat says, “[Is there] not a prophet of YHWH still here that we may seek from him?”
8
And the king of Israel says to Jehoshaphat, “Yet one man [remains] to seek YHWH from him, and I have hated him, for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil—Micaiah son of Imlah”; and Jehoshaphat says, “Do not let the king say so.”
9
And the king of Israel calls to a certain eunuch and says, “Hurry along Micaiah son of Imlah.”
10
And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah are sitting, each on his throne, clothed with garments, in a threshing-floor, at the opening of the Gate of Samaria, and all the prophets are prophesying before them.
11
And Zedekiah son of Chenaanah makes horns of iron for himself and says, “Thus said YHWH: By these you push the Arameans until they are consumed”;
12
and all the prophets are prophesying so, saying, “Go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper, and YHWH has given [it] into the hand of the king.”
Micaiah Prophesies against Ahab
(2 Chronicles 18:12–27)
13
And the messenger who has gone to call Micaiah has spoken to him, saying, “Now behold, the words of the prophets, with one mouth, [are] good toward the king; please let your word be as the word of one of them—and you have spoken good.”
14
And Micaiah says, “YHWH lives; surely that which YHWH says to me—it I speak.”
15
And he comes to the king, and the king says to him, “Micaiah, do we go to Ramoth-Gilead, to battle, or do we refrain?” And he says to him, “Go up, and prosper, and YHWH has given [it] into the hand of the king.”
16
And the king says to him, “How many times am I adjuring you that you speak nothing to me but truth in the Name of YHWH?”
17
And he says, “I have seen all Israel scattered on the hills as sheep that have no shepherd, and YHWH says, These have no master; let them return—each to his house in peace.”
18
And the king of Israel says to Jehoshaphat, “Have I not said to you, He does not prophesy of me good, but evil?”
19
And he says, “Therefore, hear a word of YHWH! I have seen YHWH sitting on His throne, and all the host of the heavens standing by Him, on His right and on His left;
20
and YHWH says, Who entices Ahab, and he goes up and falls in Ramoth-Gilead? And this one says thus, and that one is saying thus.
21
And the spirit goes out and stands before YHWH, and says, I entice him; and YHWH says to him, By what?
22
And he says, I go out, and have been 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.
23
And now, behold, YHWH has put a spirit of falsehood in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and YHWH has spoken calamity concerning you.”
24
And Zedekiah son of Chenaanah draws near and strikes Micaiah on the cheek, and says, “Where [is] this [that] the spirit [from] YHWH has passed over from me to speak with you?”
25
And Micaiah says, “Behold, you are seeing on that day when you go into the innermost chamber to be hidden.”
26
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,
27
and you have said, Thus said the king: Place this one in the house of restraint, and cause him to eat bread of oppression, and water of oppression, until my coming in peace.”
28
And Micaiah says, “If you return in peace at all, YHWH has not spoken by me”; and he says, “Hear, O peoples, all of them.”
Ahab’s Defeat and Death
(2 Chronicles 18:28–34)
29
And the king of Israel goes up—and Jehoshaphat king of Judah—to Ramoth-Gilead.
30
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 goes into battle.
31
And the king of Aram commanded the thirty-two heads of the charioteers whom he has, saying, “You do not fight with small or with great, but with the king of Israel by himself.”
32
And it comes to pass, at the heads of the charioteers seeing Jehoshaphat, that they said, “He [is] surely the king of Israel!” And they turn aside to him to fight, and Jehoshaphat cries out,
33
and it comes to pass, at the heads of the charioteers seeing that he [is] not the king of Israel, that they turn back from after him.
34
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 his charioteer, “Turn your hand, and take me out from the camp, for I have become sick.”
35
And the battle increases on that day, and the king has been caused to stand in the chariot, in front of Aram, and he dies in the evening, and the blood of the wound runs out to the midst of the chariot,
36
and he causes the cry to pass over through the camp, at the going in of the sun, saying, “Each to his city, and each to his land!”
37
And the king dies, and comes into Samaria, and they bury the king in Samaria;
38
and [one] rinses the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs lick his blood when they had washed the armor, according to the word of YHWH that He spoke.
39
And the rest of the matters of Ahab, and all that he did, and the house of ivory that he built, and all the cities that he built, are they not written on the scroll of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
40
And Ahab lies with his fathers, and his son Ahaziah reigns in his stead.
Jehoshaphat Reigns in Judah
(2 Chronicles 20:31–34)
41
And Jehoshaphat son of Asa has reigned over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel,
42
Jehoshaphat [is] a son of thirty-five years in his reigning, and he has reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother [is] Azubah daughter of Shilhi.
43
And he walks in all the way of his father Asa, he has not turned aside from it, to do that which [is] right in the eyes of YHWH; only, the high places have not been removed—the people are still sacrificing and making incense in high places.
44
And Jehoshaphat makes peace with the king of Israel;
45
and the rest of the matters of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he exercised, and with which he fought, are they not written on the scroll of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
46
And the remnant of the whoremongers who were left in the days of his father Asa he took away out of the land;
47
and there is no king in Edom; he set up a king.
48
Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, and they did not go, for the ships were broken in Ezion-Geber.
49
Then Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants go with your servants in the ships”; and Jehoshaphat was not willing.
50
And Jehoshaphat lies with his fathers, and is buried with his fathers in the city of his father David, and his son Jehoram reigns in his stead.
Ahaziah Reigns in Israel
(2 Kings 1:1–16)
51
Ahaziah son of Ahab has reigned over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigns over Israel two years,
52
and does evil in the eyes of YHWH, and walks in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat who caused Israel to sin,
53
and serves the Ba‘al, and bows himself to it, and provokes YHWH, God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.
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