1 Kings 22:13-23

New American Standard Bible

Micaiah Predicts Defeat

¹³ Then the messenger who went to summon Micaiah spoke to him saying, “Behold now, the words of the prophets are ^[a]unanimously favorable to the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” ¹⁴ But Micaiah said, “^(A)As the Lord lives, whatever ^(B)the Lord says to me, I shall speak it.”

¹⁵ When he came to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, should we go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or should we refrain?” And he said, “^(C)Go up and succeed, for the Lord will hand it over to the king!” ¹⁶ Then the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear that you will tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” ¹⁷ So he said,

¹⁸ Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “^(E)Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy anything good regarding me, but only bad?”

¹⁹ And Micaiah said, “Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. ^(F)I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and ^(G)all the ^[b]angels of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left. ²⁰ And the Lord said, ‘Who will ^[c]entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one spirit said this, while another said that. ²¹ Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will ^[d]entice him.’ ²² And the Lord said to him, ‘How?’ And he said, ‘I will go out and ^(H)be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ Then He said, ‘You shall ^[e]entice him, and you will also prevail. Go and do so.’ ²³ Now then, behold, ^(I)the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours; and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”