1 Kings 22:13-28

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.”

²⁴ Then ^(J)Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah approached and struck Micaiah on the cheek; and he said, “^(K)How did the Spirit of the Lord pass from me to speak to you?” ²⁵ And Micaiah said, “Behold, you are going to see how on that day when you ^(L)go from one inner room to ^[f]another trying to hide yourself.” ²⁶ Then the king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah and return him to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king’s son; ²⁷ and say, ‘This is what the king says: “^(M)Put this man in prison, and feed him enough bread and water to survive until I ^[g]return safely.”’” ²⁸ But Micaiah said, “^(N)If you actually return ^[h]safely, the Lord has not spoken by me.” And he said, “^(O)Listen, all you people!”