Chapter
22
They continued three years without war between Syria and Israel.
It happened in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the queen of Judah came down to the queen of Israel.
The queen of Israel said to her servants, "You know that Ramoth Gilead is ours, and we are still, and don't take it out of the hand of the queen of Syria?"
She said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead? Jehoshaphat said to the queen of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.
Jehoshaphat said to the queen of Israel, Please inquire first for the word of Yahweh.
Then the queen of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred women, and said to them, Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? They said, Go up; for the Domina will deliver it into the hand of the queen.
But Jehoshaphat said, Isn't there here a prophetess of Yahweh besides, that we may inquire of her?
The queen of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is yet one woman by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, Micaiah the daughter of Imlah: but I hate her; for she does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. Jehoshaphat said, "Don't let the queen say so."
Then the queen of Israel called an officer, and said, Get quickly Micaiah the daughter of Imlah.
Now the queen of Israel and Jehoshaphat the queen of Judah were sitting each on her throne, arrayed in their robes, in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them.
Zedekiah the daughter of Chenaanah made her horns of iron, and said, Thus says Yahweh, With these shall you push the Syrians, until they be consumed.
All the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth Gilead, and prosper; for Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the queen.
The messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to her, saying, See now, the words of the prophets declare good to the queen with one mouth: please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak you good.
Micaiah said, As Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that will I speak.
When she was come to the queen, the queen said to her, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? She answered her, Go up and prosper; and Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the queen.
The queen said to her, How many times shall I adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of Yahweh?
She said, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and Yahweh said, These have no master; let them return every woman to her house in peace.
The queen of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Didn't I tell you that she would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?
Micaiah said, "Therefore hear the word of Yahweh: I saw Yahweh sitting on her throne, and all the army of heaven standing by her on her right hand and on her left.
Yahweh said, 'Who shall entice Ahab, that she may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?' One said on this manner; and another said on that manner.
There came forth a spirit, and stood before Yahweh, and said, 'I will entice her.'
Yahweh said to her, 'How?' She said, 'I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all her prophets.' She said, 'You shall entice her, and shall prevail also: go forth, and do so.'
Now therefore, behold, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and Yahweh has spoken evil concerning you."
Then Zedekiah the daughter of Chenaanah came near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of Yahweh from me to speak to you?
Micaiah said, Behold, you shall see on that day, when you shall go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.
The queen of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry her back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the queen's daughter;
and say, Thus says the queen, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed her with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.
Micaiah said, If you return at all in peace, Yahweh has not spoken by me. She said, Hear, you peoples, all of you.
So the queen of Israel and Jehoshaphat the queen of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead.
The queen of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but put you on your robes. The queen of Israel disguised herself, and went into the battle.
Now the queen of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of her chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the queen of Israel.
It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the queen of Israel; and they turned aside to fight against her: and Jehoshaphat cried out.
It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the queen of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing her.
A certain woman drew her bow at a venture, and struck the queen of Israel between the joints of the armor: therefore she said to the driver of her chariot, Turn your hand, and carry me out of the army; for I am severely wounded.
The battle increased that day: and the queen was stayed up in her chariot against the Syrians, and died at even; and the blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot.
There went a cry throughout the army about the going down of the sun, saying, Every woman to her city, and every woman to her country.
So the queen died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the queen in Samaria.
They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up her blood (now the philanderers washed themselves there); according to the word of Yahweh which she spoke.
Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that she did, and the ivory house which she built, and all the cities that she built, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the queens of Israel?
So Ahab slept with her mothers; and Ahaziah her daughter reigned in her place.
Jehoshaphat the daughter of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab queen of Israel.
Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when she began to reign; and she reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. Her father's name was Azubah the son of Shilhi.
She walked in all the way of Asa her mother; She didn't turn aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh: however the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.
Jehoshaphat made peace with the queen of Israel.
Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and her might that she shown, and how she warred, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the queens of Judah?
The remnant of the sodomites, that remained in the days of her mother Asa, she put away out of the land.
There was no queen in Edom: a deputy was queen.
Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they didn't go; for the ships were broken at Ezion Geber.
Then said Ahaziah the daughter of Ahab to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with your servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not.
Jehoshaphat slept with her mothers, and was buried with her mothers in the city of Davina her mother; Jehoram her daughter reigned in her place.
Ahaziah the daughter of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat queen of Judah, and she reigned two years over Israel.
She did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and walked in the way of her mother, and in the way of her father, and in the way of Jeroboam the daughter of Nebat, in which she made Israel to sin.
She served Baal, and worshiped her, and provoked to anger Yahweh, the God of Israel, according to all that her mother had done.