1 Kings 22
22
Ahab’s Defeat by Aram.#This chapter presents a contrasting parallel to chap. 20, where Ahab enjoyed victories over Aram’s aggression. Here Ahab is the aggressor, but falls in battle against Aram. Like the preceding chapters, it contains a story of Ahab plus an episode of prophetic condemnation. The story ends with the formulaic conclusion to Ahab’s reign (vv. 39–40). Chronicles has a parallel version of this account in 2 Chr 18:1–34. After the story of Ahab’s death come accounts of the reign of Jehoshaphat (paralleled in 2 Chr 20:31–37) and of the beginning of the reign of Ahaziah. 1Three years passed without war between Aram and Israel. 2In the third year, however, King Jehoshaphat of Judah came down to the king of Israel. 3The king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you not know that Ramoth-gilead is ours and we are doing nothing to take it from the king of Aram?” 4He asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you come with me to fight against Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “You and I are as one, and your people and my people, your horses and my horses as well.”
Prophetic Condemnation. 5Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “Seek the word of the Lord at once.” 6The king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred of them, and asked, “Shall I go to fight against Ramoth-gilead or shall I refrain?” They said, “Attack. The Lord will give it into the power of the king.”#Though Ahab is clearly intended to understand the oracle as prophesying his success, the prophets’ words are ambiguous. “The lord” (not “the Lord,” i.e., the proper name of Israel’s God) who will give victory is unidentified, as is the king to whom it will be given. 7But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no other prophet of the Lord here we might consult?” 8The king of Israel answered, “There is one other man through whom we might consult the Lord; but I hate him because he prophesies not good but evil about me. He is Micaiah, son of Imlah.” Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say that.” 9So the king of Israel called an official and said to him, “Get Micaiah, son of Imlah, at once.”
10The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were seated, each on his throne, clothed in their robes of state in the square at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. 11#Dt 33:17. Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, made himself two horns of iron#The “two” horns probably symbolize the coalition of two kings, Ahab and Jehoshaphat. and said, “The Lord says, With these you shall gore Aram until you have destroyed them.” 12The other prophets prophesied in a similar vein, saying: “Attack Ramoth-gilead and conquer! The Lord will give it into the power of the king.”
13Meanwhile, the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him, “Look now, the prophets are unanimously predicting good for the king. Let your word be the same as any of theirs; speak a good word.” 14Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, I shall speak whatever the Lord tells me.”
15When he came to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to fight at Ramoth-gilead, or shall we refrain?” He said, “Attack and conquer! The Lord will give it into the power of the king.” 16But the king answered him, “How many times must I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” 17#Micaiah’s oracle uses the common ancient metaphor of “shepherd” for the king. It means that the Israelite forces will be left leaderless because the king (or perhaps both kings: the word “master” could be singular or plural in Hebrew) will die in battle. So Micaiah said:
“I see all Israel
scattered on the mountains,
like sheep without a shepherd,
And the Lord saying,
These have no master!
Let each of them go back home in peace.”
18The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you, he does not prophesy good about me, but only evil?” 19#Since Ahab’s intention to attack Ramoth-gilead is unshaken, Micaiah reveals God’s plan to trick Ahab to his death, and thus virtually dares Ahab to walk into the trap with his eyes open. The work of the “lying spirit” explains the ambiguities of the prophets’ original oracle in v. 6. Prophets “stand in the council of the Lord” and are privy to its deliberations; cf. Jer 23:22. Micaiah continued: “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his throne, with the whole host of heaven standing to his right and to his left. 20The Lord asked: Who will deceive Ahab, so that he will go up and fall on Ramoth-gilead?#Fall on Ramoth-gilead: lit., “heights of Gilead”; even the Lord’s words are double-meaning. God wants Ahab to “fall on” (that is, attack) Ramoth-gilead so that he will “fall on” (that is, die on) Ramoth-gilead. And one said this, another that, 21until this spirit came forth and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will deceive him.’ The Lord asked: How? 22He answered, ‘I will go forth and become a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ The Lord replied: You shall succeed in deceiving him. Go forth and do this. 23So now, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours; the Lord himself has decreed evil against you.”
24Thereupon Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, came up and struck Micaiah on the cheek, saying, “Has the spirit of the Lord, then, left me to speak with you?” 25Micaiah said, “You shall find out on the day you go into an inner room to hide.” 26The king of Israel then said, “Seize Micaiah and take him back to Amon, prefect of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son, 27and say, ‘This is the king’s order: Put this man in prison and feed him scanty rations of bread and water until I come back in safety.’” 28#Mi 1:2. But Micaiah said, “If you return in safety, the Lord has not spoken through me.” (He also said, “Hear, O peoples, all of you.”)#The last words of the verse are a scribal gloss attributing to Micaiah, son of Imlah, the opening words of the book of a different Micaiah (Micah), the prophet of Moresheth, the sixth of the twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament canon.
Ahab at Ramoth-gilead. 29The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-gilead, 30and the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you put on your own robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and entered the battle. 31In the meantime the king of Aram had given his thirty-two chariot commanders the order, “Do not fight with anyone, great or small, except the king of Israel alone.”
32When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they cried out, “There is the king of Israel!” and wheeled to fight him. But Jehoshaphat cried out, 33and the chariot commanders, seeing that he was not the king of Israel, turned away from him. 34But someone drew his bow at random, and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his breastplate. He ordered his charioteer, “Rein about and take me out of the ranks, for I am wounded.”
35#1 Kgs 20:42. The battle grew fierce during the day, and the king, who was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans, died in the evening. The blood from his wound flowed to the bottom of the chariot. 36At sunset a cry went through the army, “Every man to his city, every man to his land!”
37And so the king died, and came back to Samaria, and they buried him there. 38#1 Kgs 21:19. When they washed out the chariot at the pool of Samaria, the dogs licked up his blood and prostitutes bathed there, as the Lord had prophesied.
39The rest of the acts of Ahab, with all that he did, including the ivory house he built and all the cities he built, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 40Ahab rested with his ancestors, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.
Reign of Jehoshaphat. 41Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, became king of Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel. 42Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah, daughter of Shilhi.
43He walked in the way of Asa his father unceasingly, doing what was right in the Lord’s sight. 44Nevertheless, the high places did not disappear, and the people still sacrificed on the high places and burned incense there. 45Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel.
46The rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, with his valor, what he did and how he fought, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. 47He removed from the land the rest of the pagan priests who had remained in the reign of Asa his father. 48There was no king in Edom, but an appointed regent. 49Jehoshaphat made Tarshish ships to go to Ophir for gold; but in fact the ships did not go, because they were wrecked at Ezion-geber. 50That was the time when Ahaziah, son of Ahab, had said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants accompany your servants in the ships.” But Jehoshaphat would not agree. 51Jehoshaphat rested with his ancestors; he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David his father, and his son Jehoram succeeded him as king.
Reign of Ahaziah.#The account of Ahaziah’s reign continues in 2 Kings. 52Ahaziah, son of Ahab, became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year#Seventeenth year: so the present Hebrew text. This is consistent with the figures in 2 Kgs 3:1, but together those figures conflict with information in 1 Kgs 22:42 and 2 Kgs 1:17. The problem of the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah has never been convincingly resolved; it is complicated by the fact that the ancient Greek translation sometimes has different lengths of reign and different accession dates. See further note on 2 Kgs 3:1. of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah; he reigned two years over Israel.
53He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the way of his father, his mother, and Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. 54He served Baal and worshiped him, thus provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, just as his father had done.
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1 Kings 22
22
The Prophet Micaiah Warns Ahab
(2 Chr 18.2–27)
1There was peace between Israel and Syria for the next two years, 2but in the third year King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to see King Ahab of Israel.
3Ahab asked his officials, “Why is it that we have not done anything to get back Ramoth in Gilead from the king of Syria? It belongs to us!” 4And Ahab asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to attack Ramoth?”
“I am ready when you are,” Jehoshaphat answered, “and so are my soldiers and my cavalry. 5But first let's consult the LORD.”
6So Ahab called in the prophets, about 400 of them, and asked them, “Should I go and attack Ramoth, or not?”
“Attack it,” they answered. “The Lord will give you victory.”
7But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn't there another prophet through whom we can consult the LORD?”
8Ahab answered, “There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him, because he never prophesies anything good for me; it's always something bad.”
“You shouldn't say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.
9Then Ahab called in a court official and told him to go and fetch Micaiah at once.
10The two kings, dressed in their royal robes, were sitting on their thrones at the threshing place just outside the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying in front of them. 11One of them, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, made iron horns and said to Ahab, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you will fight the Syrians and totally defeat them.’ ” 12All the other prophets said the same thing. “March against Ramoth and you will win,” they said. “The LORD will give you victory.”
13Meanwhile, the official who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, “All the other prophets have prophesied success for the king, and you had better do the same.”
14But Micaiah answered, “By the living LORD I promise that I will say what he tells me to!”
15When he appeared before King Ahab, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should King Jehoshaphat and I go and attack Ramoth, or not?”
“Attack!” Micaiah answered. “Of course you'll win. The LORD will give you victory.”
16But Ahab replied, “When you speak to me in the name of the LORD, tell the truth! How many times do I have to tell you that?”
17 #
Num 27.17; Mt 9.36; Mk 6.34 Micaiah answered, “I can see the army of Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These men have no leader; let them go home in peace.’ ”
18Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn't I tell you that he never prophesies anything good for me? It's always something bad!”
19 #
Is 6.1; Job 1.6 Micaiah went on: “Now listen to what the LORD says! I saw the LORD sitting on his throne in heaven, with all his angels standing beside him. 20The LORD asked, ‘Who will deceive Ahab so that he will go and be killed at Ramoth?’ Some of the angels said one thing, and others said something else, 21until a spirit stepped forward, approached the LORD, and said, ‘I will deceive him.’ 22‘How?’ the LORD asked. The spirit replied, ‘I will go and make all Ahab's prophets tell lies.’ The LORD said, ‘Go and deceive him. You will succeed.’ ”
23And Micaiah concluded: “This is what has happened. The LORD has made these prophets of yours lie to you. But he himself has decreed that you will meet with disaster!”
24Then the prophet Zedekiah went up to Micaiah, slapped his face, and asked, “Since when did the LORD's spirit leave me and speak to you?”
25“You will find out when you go into some back room to hide,” Micaiah replied.
26Then King Ahab ordered one of his officers, “Arrest Micaiah and take him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Prince Joash. 27Tell them to throw him in prison and to put him on bread and water until I return safely.”
28“If you return safely,” Micaiah exclaimed, “then the LORD has not spoken through me!” And he added, “Listen, everyone, to what I have said!”
The Death of Ahab
(2 Chr 18.28–34)
29Then King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to attack the city of Ramoth in Gilead. 30Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “As we go into battle, I will disguise myself, but you wear your royal garments.” So the king of Israel went into battle in disguise.
31The king of Syria had ordered his 32 chariot commanders to attack no one else except the king of Israel. 32So when they saw King Jehoshaphat, they all thought that he was the king of Israel, and they turned to attack him. But when he cried out, 33they realized that he was not the king of Israel, and they stopped their attack. 34By chance, however, a Syrian soldier shot an arrow which struck King Ahab between the joints of his armour. “I'm wounded!” he cried out to his chariot driver. “Turn round and pull out of the battle!”
35While the battle raged on, King Ahab remained propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrians. The blood from his wound ran down and covered the bottom of the chariot, and at evening he died. 36Near sunset the order went out through the Israelite ranks: “Every man go back to his own country and city!”
37So died King Ahab. His body was taken to Samaria and buried. 38His chariot was cleaned up at the pool of Samaria, where dogs licked up his blood and prostitutes washed themselves, as the LORD had said would happen.
39Everything else that King Ahab did, including an account of his palace decorated with ivory and all the cities he built, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. 40At his death his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.
King Jehoshaphat of Judah
(2 Chr 20.31—21.1)
41In the fourth year of the reign of King Ahab of Israel, Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah 42at the age of 35, and he ruled in Jerusalem for 25 years. His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. 43Like his father Asa before him, he did what was right in the sight of the LORD; but the places of worship were not destroyed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. 44Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
45Everything else that Jehoshaphat did, all his bravery and his battles, are recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. 46He got rid of all the male and female prostitutes serving at the pagan altars who were still left from the days of his father Asa.
47The land of Edom had no king; it was ruled by a deputy appointed by the king of Judah.
48King Jehoshaphat built ocean-going ships to sail to the land of Ophir for gold; but they were wrecked at Eziongeber and never sailed. 49Then King Ahaziah of Israel offered to let his men sail with Jehoshaphat's men, but Jehoshaphat refused the offer.
50Jehoshaphat died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Jehoram succeeded him as king.
King Ahaziah of Israel
51In the seventeenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for two years. 52He sinned against the LORD, following the wicked example of his father Ahab, his mother Jezebel, and King Jeroboam, who had led Israel into sin. 53He worshipped and served Baal, and like his father before him, he aroused the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel.
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.