1 Kings 22:1-12

International Standard Version

King Ahab Invites Jehoshaphat to Invade Aram^(A)

22 Three years passed without war between Aram and Israel. ² During that third year, King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to visit the king of Israel. ³ The king of Israel asked his servants, “Were you aware that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, but we aren’t doing anything to remove it from the control of the king of Aram?”

⁴ Then he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you join me in battle against Ramoth-gilead?”

“I’m with you,” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel. “My army will join yours, and my cavalry will be your cavalry.” ⁵ But Jehoshaphat also asked the king of Israel, “Please ask for a message from the Lord, first.”

⁶ So the king of Israel called in about 400 prophets and asked them, “Should we go attack Ramoth-gilead, or should I call off the attack?”^[a]

“Go attack them,” they all said, “because the Lord will drop them right into the king’s hand!”

⁷ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the Lord left here that we could talk to?”

⁸ “There is still one man left by whom we could ask the Lord what to do,”^[b] the king of Israel replied to Jehoshaphat, “but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me. Instead, he prophesies evil. He is Imla’s son Micaiah.”

But Jehoshaphat rebuked Ahab, “Kings^[c] should never talk like that.”

⁹ Nevertheless, the king of Israel called one of his officers and ordered him, “Bring me Imla’s son Micaiah quickly.”

¹⁰ Now the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were each sitting on their respective thrones, arrayed in their robes, on the threshing floor at the entrance to the city gate of Samaria, and all of the prophets were prophesying in front of them. ¹¹ Chenaanah’s son Zedekiah made iron horns for himself and told them, “This is what the Lord says, ‘With these horns you are to gore the Arameans until they are eliminated!’”

¹² All the other prophets were saying similar things, like “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and you will be successful, because the Lord will hand it over to the king!”