³Ahab asked his officials, “Why is it that we have not done anything to get back Ramoth in Gilead from the king of Syria? It belongs to us!” ⁴And Ahab asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to attack Ramoth?”

“I am ready when you are,” Jehoshaphat answered, “and so are my soldiers and my cavalry. ⁵But first let’s consult the Lord.”

⁶So Ahab called in the prophets, about 400 of them, and asked them, “Should I go and attack Ramoth, or not?”

“Attack it,” they answered. “The Lord will give you victory.”

⁷But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there another prophet through whom we can consult the Lord?”

⁸Ahab answered, “There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him, because he never prophesies anything good for me; it’s always something bad.”

“You shouldn’t say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.

⁹Then Ahab called in a court official and told him to go and fetch Micaiah at once.

¹⁰The two kings, dressed in their royal robes, were sitting on their thrones at the threshing place just outside the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying in front of them. ¹¹One of them, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, made iron horns and said to Ahab, “This is what the Lord says: ‘With these you will fight the Syrians and totally defeat them.’ ” ¹²All the other prophets said the same thing. “March against Ramoth and you will win,” they said. “The Lord will give you victory.”

¹³Meanwhile, the official who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, “All the other prophets have prophesied success for the king, and you had better do the same.”

¹⁴But Micaiah answered, “By the living Lord I promise that I will say what he tells me to!”

¹⁵When he appeared before King Ahab, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should King Jehoshaphat and I go and attack Ramoth, or not?”

“Attack!” Micaiah answered. “Of course you’ll win. The Lord will give you victory.”

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