¹⁸ Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “^(A)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. ^(B)I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and ^(C)all the ^[a]angels of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left. ²⁰ And the Lord said, ‘Who will ^[b]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 ^[c]entice him.’ ²² And the Lord said to him, ‘How?’ And he said, ‘I will go out and ^(D)be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ Then He said, ‘You shall ^[d]entice him, and you will also prevail. Go and do so.’ ²³ Now then, behold, ^(E)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 ^(F)Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah approached and struck Micaiah on the cheek; and he said, “^(G)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 ^(H)go from one inner room to ^[e]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: “^(I)Put this man in prison, and feed him enough bread and water to survive until I ^[f]return safely.”’” ²⁸ But Micaiah said, “^(J)If you actually return ^[g]safely, the Lord has not spoken by me.” And he said, “^(K)Listen, all you people!”