Reference: Micaiah
American
1. A faithful and fearless prophet, consulted by King Ahab at the demand of Jehoshaphat as to the issue of their proposed campaign against the Syrians. He was imprisoned to abide the event, which coincided with his predictions and probably secured his release, 1Ki 22:8-38. Ahab's conduct in this matter displays the amazing folly of sins against light.
2. A prince of Judah, who seconded the efforts of Jehoshaphat to instruct and reform the people of Judah, 2Ki 17:7-9.
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Ahab answered: There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, always something bad. The king should not say such things! Jehoshaphat replied. Then Ahab called a court official and told him to get Micaiah at once. read more. They dressed in their royal robes and sat on their thrones at the threshing place near the gate of Samaria. The two kings listened to all the prophets prophesy in front of them. One of them, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, made iron horns and said to Ahab: Jehovah says: 'With these you will fight the Syrians and totally defeat them.' All the other prophets said the same thing: March against Ramoth and you will win, they said. Jehovah will give you victory. The messenger who went to get Micaiah said to him: All the other prophets have prophesied success for the king. You had better do the same. Micaiah answered: By the living God Jehovah I promise that I will say what he tells me to say! He appeared before King Ahab. The king asked him: Micaiah, should King Jehoshaphat and I go and attack Ramoth, or not? Attack! Micaiah answered. You will win. Jehovah will give you victory. But Ahab replied: Tell the truth when you speak to me in the name of Jehovah! How many times do I have to tell you that? Micaiah answered: I can see the army of Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd. Jehovah said: These men have no leader. Let them go home in peace. Israel's king said to Jehoshaphat: Did I not say to you, He will prophesy about me? It is always something bad! Micaiah continued: Now listen to what Jehovah says! I saw Jehovah sitting on his throne in heaven, with all his angels standing beside him. Jehovah 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, until a spirit stepped forward, approached Jehovah, and said: I will deceive him. How will you deceive him? Jehovah asked. The spirit replied: I will make all of Ahab's prophets tell lies. Jehovah said: Go and deceive him. You will succeed. Micaiah concluded: This is what has happened. Jehovah made these prophets of yours lie to you. He has decreed that you will meet with disaster! The prophet Zedekiah went to Micaiah and slapped his face. He asked: Since when did Jehovah's spirit leave me and speak to you? You will see when you go into an inner chamber to hide. Micaiah replied. 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. Tell them: 'It is the king's order that this man is to be put in prison and given prison food till I come again in peace.' Micaiah said: If you come back at all in peace, Jehovah has not sent his word by me. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went to Ramoth-gilead. The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat: I will change my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king. Then I will go into the fight. You put on your royal robes. So the king of Israel changed his dress and went into the battle. Now the king of Aram had given orders to the thirty-two captains of his war-carriages, saying: Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel. So when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said: Truly, this is the king of Israel. They turned against him and surrounded him. Jehoshaphat gave a cry. When the captains of the chariots saw that he was not the king of Israel they withdrew from him. A stray arrow wounded the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing. He said to the chariot driver: Go to the side. Take me away from the fight for I am badly wounded. The fight grew more violent as the day went on. The king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians (Aramaeans). The floor of the chariot was covered with the blood from his wound. By evening he died. About sundown a cry went up from all parts of the army, saying: Let every man go back to his town and his country, for the king is dead. They traveled to Samaria and buried the king there. The chariot was washed at the pool of Samaria the bathing-place of the loose women. Dogs were drinking his blood there, as Jehovah said.
The wrath (intense anger) of Jehovah came on Israel because they had done evil against Jehovah their God, who took them out of the land of Egypt from under the yoke of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. They worshipped other gods. They lived by the rules of the nations whom Jehovah sent out from before the children of Israel. read more. The children of Israel secretly did things that were not right according to Jehovah their God. They built high places for themselves in all their towns, from the watchtower to the walled towns.
Easton
who is like Jehovah?, the son of Imlah, a faithful prophet of Samaria (1Ki 22:8-28). Three years after the great battle with Ben-hadad (1Ki 20:29-34), Ahab proposed to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, that they should go up against Ramoth-Gilead to do battle again with Ben-hadad. Jehoshaphat agreed, but suggested that inquiry should be first made "at the word of Jehovah." Ahab's prophets approved of the expedition; but Jehoshaphat, still dissatisfied, asked if there was no other prophet besides the four hundred that had appeared, and was informed of this Micaiah. He was sent for from prison, where he had been confined, probably on account of some prediction disagreeable to Ahab; and he condemned the expedition, and prophesied that it would end, as it did, in disaster. We hear nothing further of this prophet. Some have supposed that he was the unnamed prophet referred to in 1Ki 20:35-42.
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The two armies kept their positions facing one another for seven days. The seventh day the fight was started. The children of Israel put to the sword a hundred thousand Aramaean footmen in one day. The rest went in flight to Aphek, into the town, where a wall came down on the twenty-seven thousand who were still living. Benhadad went in flight into the town, into an inner room. read more. His servants said to him: It is said that the kings of Israel are full of mercy: let us then put on haircloth, and cords on our heads, and go to the king of Israel. Maybe he will give you your life. So they put on haircloth, and cords on their heads, and went to the king of Israel and said: Your servant Benhadad says: 'Let me now keep my life.' And he said: Is he still living? He is my brother. Now the men took it as a sign, and were quick to pick up on his word. They said: Benhadad is your brother. Then he said: Go and get him. So Ben-hadad came out to him and he made him get up into his carriage. Benhadad said: The towns my father took from your father I will give back. You may name streets for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria. As for me, at the price of this agreement you will let me go. So he made an agreement with him and let him go. A man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbors by the word of Jehovah: Give me a wound. But the man would not. Then he said: Because you have not listened to the voice of Jehovah, immediately after you leave me a lion will kill you. When he went away a lion came rushing at him and killed him. Then he came across another man, and said: Give me a wound. And the man gave him a blow wounding him. So the prophet went away, and pulling his headband over his eyes to keep his face covered. He took his place by the road waiting for the king. When the king went by he cried out to him: Your servant went out into the fight. A man came to me. He brought a man to me and said: 'guard this man. Do not let him get away. Your life is the price of his life or you will have to give a talent of silver in payment.' But while your servant was turning this way and that, he was gone. Then the king of Israel said to him: 'You are responsible; you have given the decision against yourself.' He quickly took the headband from his eyes. The king of Israel saw that he was one of the prophets. He said to him: These are the words of Jehovah: 'Because you have let go from your hands the man whom I had put to the curse, your life will be taken for his life, and your people for his people.'
Ahab answered: There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, always something bad. The king should not say such things! Jehoshaphat replied. Then Ahab called a court official and told him to get Micaiah at once. read more. They dressed in their royal robes and sat on their thrones at the threshing place near the gate of Samaria. The two kings listened to all the prophets prophesy in front of them. One of them, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, made iron horns and said to Ahab: Jehovah says: 'With these you will fight the Syrians and totally defeat them.' All the other prophets said the same thing: March against Ramoth and you will win, they said. Jehovah will give you victory. The messenger who went to get Micaiah said to him: All the other prophets have prophesied success for the king. You had better do the same. Micaiah answered: By the living God Jehovah I promise that I will say what he tells me to say! He appeared before King Ahab. The king asked him: Micaiah, should King Jehoshaphat and I go and attack Ramoth, or not? Attack! Micaiah answered. You will win. Jehovah will give you victory. But Ahab replied: Tell the truth when you speak to me in the name of Jehovah! How many times do I have to tell you that? Micaiah answered: I can see the army of Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd. Jehovah said: These men have no leader. Let them go home in peace. Israel's king said to Jehoshaphat: Did I not say to you, He will prophesy about me? It is always something bad! Micaiah continued: Now listen to what Jehovah says! I saw Jehovah sitting on his throne in heaven, with all his angels standing beside him. Jehovah 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, until a spirit stepped forward, approached Jehovah, and said: I will deceive him. How will you deceive him? Jehovah asked. The spirit replied: I will make all of Ahab's prophets tell lies. Jehovah said: Go and deceive him. You will succeed. Micaiah concluded: This is what has happened. Jehovah made these prophets of yours lie to you. He has decreed that you will meet with disaster! The prophet Zedekiah went to Micaiah and slapped his face. He asked: Since when did Jehovah's spirit leave me and speak to you? You will see when you go into an inner chamber to hide. Micaiah replied. 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. Tell them: 'It is the king's order that this man is to be put in prison and given prison food till I come again in peace.' Micaiah said: If you come back at all in peace, Jehovah has not sent his word by me.
Fausets
MICAIAH or MICHAIAH. Son of Imlah (1Ki 22:8). Consulted by Ahab at Jehoshaphat's request when undertaking the joint expedition against Ramoth Gilead, which Benhadad had engaged to restore (1Ki 20:34). The 400 prophets whom Ahab gathered together to "inquire the word of Jehovah" (1Ki 22:5) were prophets of Jeroboam's symbolic calf worship of Jehovah not of Baal. (See JEROBOAM.) Jehoshaphat begged for some "prophet of Jehovah besides," unconnected with the calf symbolism forbidden by the second commandment. Ahab mentioned Micaiah, adding "I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me but evil" (compare 1Ki 21:20; Jer 36:28).
Ahab had Micaiah already in prison, as 1Ki 22:26 implies, "carry him back ... prison." Josephus (Ant. 8:15, sec. 6) says that it was Micaiah who predicted ("in the word of Jehovah," Hag 1:13) death by a lion to the neighbor who would not smite him, and who, disguised with ashes, under the parable of one letting go a prisoner entrusted to him made Ahab in his hour of triumph, when the mortification would be the greater, condemn himself out of his own mouth, to lose his life for letting Benhadad escape (1Ki 20:35-43). Zedekiah, one of the 400, at the gate of Samaria where the two kings sat in state, symbolically putting horns or iron spikes on his head, foretold the transfer of Ephraim's blessing (De 33:17) to Ahab; "with the horns of the buffalo (or wild ox, reem) he shall push the people."
So all the rest said, "go up and prosper." Micaiah, though prompted to imitate their prophecies of good, would say only what Jehovah said (Nu 22:38). Ironically and in parody he repeated at first their parrot-like cry, "go and prosper," to show Ahab how easy such prophesying is if worldly interest were one's aim. Then, being adjured in Jehovah's name, Micaiah said "I saw all Israel scattered ... as sheep that have no shepherd (quoted by the Lord Jesus Himself, Mt 9:36, as it is previously the basis of Eze 34:5; Zec 10:2), and Jehovah said, these have no master (Ahab falling), let them return every man to his house." Instead of Moses' blessing on Ephraim awaiting Ahab, as Zedekiah had said, Moses' picture of what Israel would be at his death, "Jehovah's congregation as sheep having no shepherd," if no successor were appointed, would be realized (Nu 27:17). Ahab, though he had asked Micaiah to speak the truth, attributed it when spoken to Micaiah's ill will.
Micaiah therefore revealed the source unseen of the 400 prophets' falsehood; Jehovah, seen in real vision on His throne amidst His hosts, asked, who shall persuade Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? A lying spirit undertook to influence the 400 to Ahab's ruin (Zec 13:2; 1Jo 4:6). The access of Satan to the heavenly court in Old Testament times appears here and Job 1:6; 2:1 (but compare Re 12:7-10 as to the New Testament times). God said to the lying spirit, "go forth and do so." It was no invention of fancy, but a supernatural agency under Satan, by God's overruling appointment, which in righteous retribution gives over to a lie those who love not the truth (Jg 9:23; Job 12:16; Eze 14:9; 2Th 2:11-12).
God does not will or tempt to evil (Jas 1:13); but, as Ahab would not heed the true prophet, gives him over to the false (Ro 1:24-28; 9:17-23; Ex 7:3,13; 14:4,17; 10:20,27). The words "thou shalt persuade and prevail also" show that the human will was left free; God makes one stage in the sinner's downward course the sequel and punishment of the foregoing one; Ahab might have resisted the tempter. Zedekiah, conscious that he had not invented his lying prophecy, smote Micaiah on the cheek, asking "which way went the Spirit of Jehovah from me to speak unto thee? .... Thou shalt see in the day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide," namely, from the vengeance of those misled by thee to their defeat.
Ahab commanded, "take Micaiah back unto Amon ... in the prison, feed him with bread and water of affliction (in more severe imprisonment than before) until I come in peace." Micaiah replied: "if thou return at all in peace Jehovah hath not spoken by me; hearken, O nations, every one of you"; appealing not only to Israel but to the Gentile world, to which Ahab had conformed, and which may heed, since Israel will not, so as when the event should come to pass to discern the truth of Jehovah (Mic 1:2).
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I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.
Pharaoh continued to be stubborn. Just as Jehovah had predicted, he would not listen to them.
But Jehovah made the king stubborn. He did not let the Israelites go.
I will make him stubborn. He will pursue you. My victory over the king and his army will bring me honor. Then the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah! The Israelites did as they were told.
I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.
Balaam answered: I am here now. But now, what power do I have? I can say only what God tells me to say.
and can command them in battle. Do not allow your congregation to be like sheep without a shepherd.
As the firstborn of his bulls, majesty is his. His horns are the horns of the wild bull. With them he will push the peoples, all at once, to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh.
This may be a sign among you when your children ask their fathers what is the meaning of these stones?
God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem. The men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:
Benhadad said: The towns my father took from your father I will give back. You may name streets for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria. As for me, at the price of this agreement you will let me go. So he made an agreement with him and let him go. A man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbors by the word of Jehovah: Give me a wound. But the man would not. read more. Then he said: Because you have not listened to the voice of Jehovah, immediately after you leave me a lion will kill you. When he went away a lion came rushing at him and killed him. Then he came across another man, and said: Give me a wound. And the man gave him a blow wounding him. So the prophet went away, and pulling his headband over his eyes to keep his face covered. He took his place by the road waiting for the king. When the king went by he cried out to him: Your servant went out into the fight. A man came to me. He brought a man to me and said: 'guard this man. Do not let him get away. Your life is the price of his life or you will have to give a talent of silver in payment.' But while your servant was turning this way and that, he was gone. Then the king of Israel said to him: 'You are responsible; you have given the decision against yourself.' He quickly took the headband from his eyes. The king of Israel saw that he was one of the prophets. He said to him: These are the words of Jehovah: 'Because you have let go from your hands the man whom I had put to the curse, your life will be taken for his life, and your people for his people.' Then the king of Israel went back to his house, bitter and angry, he went to Samaria.
Ahab said to Elijah: Have you come face to face with me, O my enemy? Elijah said: I have come to you because you have given yourself up to do evil in the eyes of Jehovah.
Ahab answered: There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, always something bad. The king should not say such things! Jehoshaphat replied.
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.
The day came when heavenly beings appeared before Jehovah (YHWH). Satan was there among them.
One day when the sons of God came to present themselves in front of Jehovah, Satan the Accuser came along with them.
To him belong strength and victory. Both deceived and deceivers are his.
Take another scroll, and write on it everything that was written on the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned.
If a prophet is tricked into giving a prophecy, it is I, Jehovah, who tricked the prophet. I will use my power against you and destroy you from among my people Israel.
They were scattered because there was no shepherd. They became food for every wild animal at the time they were scattered.
Hear, all you peoples! Listen, O earth, and all who are in it! Let the Sovereign Lord Jehovah (YHWH) be a witness against you, Jehovah from his Holy Temple.
Then Haggai gave Jehovah's message to the people: I am with you!
For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie. They have told false dreams! They comfort in vain. They go their way like sheep. They are afflicted because there is no shepherd.
Jehovah of Hosts declared: I will remove the names of the idols from the land! They will no longer be remembered. I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to leave the land.
When he saw the large crowds of people, he was moved with compassion for them. He knew they were distressed and scattered like sheep not having a shepherd.
God gave them up to uncleanness because of the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. They changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creation more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. read more. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections for even their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature. Also the men left the natural use of the woman and burned in their lust, one toward another; men with men working that which is obscene. They receive full recompense due for their error. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, so God gave them over to a reprobate (depraved) mind, to do things that are not fitting.
The scripture says to Pharaoh: For this reason I have raised you up, that I might through you, show my power and declare my name in all the earth. He shows mercy to the one he chooses, and he allows others to be stubborn. read more. You say to me: Why does he yet find fault? Who resists his purpose (will)? Yes, but you, O man, who are you to answer back to God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it: Why have you made me this way? (Isaiah 45:9) Or does the potter not have authority over the clay? Can he make out of the same lump one vessel to honor, and another for common use? (Jeremiah 18:6) If God decided to show his wrath and make his power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fit for destruction. In that way he could make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy that he had prepared in advance for glory.
Let no man say when he is tempted: God tempts me. God cannot be tempted with evil, and he tempts (entices) (tests) (trys) no one.
War broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. The dragon lost and no place in heaven was found for him any longer. read more. The great dragon was thrown down, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was hurled down to the earth, and his angels with him. I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now has come the salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power (authority) of his Christ: for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accused them before our God day and night.
Hastings
Morish
Micai'ah
Son of Imla. When Ahab was joined by Jehoshaphat, and all Ahab's prophets foretold his success against Ramoth-gilead, Jehoshaphat asked if there was not yet another prophet of Jehovah of whom they could inquire. Then Micaiah was sent for, though Ahab said that he hated him, for he always prophesied evil unto him. At first Micaiah said, "Go ye up, and prosper, and they shall be delivered into your hand." The way in which this was said apparently convinced Ahab that it was spoken in irony, for he said, "How many times shall I adjure thee that thou say nothing but the truth to me in the name of the Lord?" Micaiah at once said that he saw all Israel scattered, having no shepherd. Jehovah said they had no master.
Then he relates that he had seen, probably in a vision, Jehovah sitting on His throne, and asking who would persuade Ahab to go to Ramoth-gilead and fall there. A spirit volunteered to accomplish it by being a lying spirit in the mouth of all Ahab's prophets. This had come to pass. Zedekiah, one of Ahab's prophets, struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, "Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee?" Micaiah replied, "Behold, thou shalt see on that day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself." Ahab disguised himself, but was wounded by an arrow and died. Ahab's four hundred prophets, and Jehovah's one prophet are an instance of the conflict of spirits, which the Christian is now called upon to try. 1Ki 22:8-28; 2Ch 18:7-27.
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Ahab answered: There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, always something bad. The king should not say such things! Jehoshaphat replied. Then Ahab called a court official and told him to get Micaiah at once. read more. They dressed in their royal robes and sat on their thrones at the threshing place near the gate of Samaria. The two kings listened to all the prophets prophesy in front of them. One of them, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, made iron horns and said to Ahab: Jehovah says: 'With these you will fight the Syrians and totally defeat them.' All the other prophets said the same thing: March against Ramoth and you will win, they said. Jehovah will give you victory. The messenger who went to get Micaiah said to him: All the other prophets have prophesied success for the king. You had better do the same. Micaiah answered: By the living God Jehovah I promise that I will say what he tells me to say! He appeared before King Ahab. The king asked him: Micaiah, should King Jehoshaphat and I go and attack Ramoth, or not? Attack! Micaiah answered. You will win. Jehovah will give you victory. But Ahab replied: Tell the truth when you speak to me in the name of Jehovah! How many times do I have to tell you that? Micaiah answered: I can see the army of Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd. Jehovah said: These men have no leader. Let them go home in peace. Israel's king said to Jehoshaphat: Did I not say to you, He will prophesy about me? It is always something bad! Micaiah continued: Now listen to what Jehovah says! I saw Jehovah sitting on his throne in heaven, with all his angels standing beside him. Jehovah 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, until a spirit stepped forward, approached Jehovah, and said: I will deceive him. How will you deceive him? Jehovah asked. The spirit replied: I will make all of Ahab's prophets tell lies. Jehovah said: Go and deceive him. You will succeed. Micaiah concluded: This is what has happened. Jehovah made these prophets of yours lie to you. He has decreed that you will meet with disaster! The prophet Zedekiah went to Micaiah and slapped his face. He asked: Since when did Jehovah's spirit leave me and speak to you? You will see when you go into an inner chamber to hide. Micaiah replied. 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. Tell them: 'It is the king's order that this man is to be put in prison and given prison food till I come again in peace.' Micaiah said: If you come back at all in peace, Jehovah has not sent his word by me.
Smith
Mica'iah
(who is like God?). Micahiah, the son of Imlah, was a prophet of Samaria, who in the last year of the reign of Ahab king of Israel predicted his defeat and death, B.C. 897.
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There was peace between Israel and Syria for the next two years. In the third year King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to see King Ahab of Israel. read more. Ahab asked his officials: Why have we not done anything to get back Ramoth in Gilead from the king of Syria? It is ours! 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. First let us inquire of Jehovah. So Ahab called in the prophets, about four hundred of them, and asked them: Should I attack Ramoth, or not? They answered: Attack, Jehovah will give you victory. Jehoshaphat asked: Is there another prophet through whom we can consult Jehovah? Ahab answered: There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, always something bad. The king should not say such things! Jehoshaphat replied. Then Ahab called a court official and told him to get Micaiah at once. They dressed in their royal robes and sat on their thrones at the threshing place near the gate of Samaria. The two kings listened to all the prophets prophesy in front of them. One of them, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, made iron horns and said to Ahab: Jehovah says: 'With these you will fight the Syrians and totally defeat them.' All the other prophets said the same thing: March against Ramoth and you will win, they said. Jehovah will give you victory. The messenger who went to get Micaiah said to him: All the other prophets have prophesied success for the king. You had better do the same. Micaiah answered: By the living God Jehovah I promise that I will say what he tells me to say! He appeared before King Ahab. The king asked him: Micaiah, should King Jehoshaphat and I go and attack Ramoth, or not? Attack! Micaiah answered. You will win. Jehovah will give you victory. But Ahab replied: Tell the truth when you speak to me in the name of Jehovah! How many times do I have to tell you that? Micaiah answered: I can see the army of Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd. Jehovah said: These men have no leader. Let them go home in peace. Israel's king said to Jehoshaphat: Did I not say to you, He will prophesy about me? It is always something bad! Micaiah continued: Now listen to what Jehovah says! I saw Jehovah sitting on his throne in heaven, with all his angels standing beside him. Jehovah 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, until a spirit stepped forward, approached Jehovah, and said: I will deceive him. How will you deceive him? Jehovah asked. The spirit replied: I will make all of Ahab's prophets tell lies. Jehovah said: Go and deceive him. You will succeed. Micaiah concluded: This is what has happened. Jehovah made these prophets of yours lie to you. He has decreed that you will meet with disaster! The prophet Zedekiah went to Micaiah and slapped his face. He asked: Since when did Jehovah's spirit leave me and speak to you? You will see when you go into an inner chamber to hide. Micaiah replied. 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. Tell them: 'It is the king's order that this man is to be put in prison and given prison food till I come again in peace.' Micaiah said: If you come back at all in peace, Jehovah has not sent his word by me. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went to Ramoth-gilead. The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat: I will change my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king. Then I will go into the fight. You put on your royal robes. So the king of Israel changed his dress and went into the battle. Now the king of Aram had given orders to the thirty-two captains of his war-carriages, saying: Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel. So when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said: Truly, this is the king of Israel. They turned against him and surrounded him. Jehoshaphat gave a cry. When the captains of the chariots saw that he was not the king of Israel they withdrew from him. A stray arrow wounded the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing. He said to the chariot driver: Go to the side. Take me away from the fight for I am badly wounded. The fight grew more violent as the day went on. The king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians (Aramaeans). The floor of the chariot was covered with the blood from his wound. By evening he died.