³The king of Israel had spoken to his officials. He had said, “Don’t you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us? And we aren’t even doing anything to take it back from the king of Aram.”

⁴So Ahab asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?”

Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, “Yes. I’ll go with you. My men will go with you. My horses will also go with you.” ⁵Jehoshaphat continued, “First ask the Lord for advice.”

⁶So the king of Israel brought about 400 prophets together. He asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth Gilead? Or should I stay here?”

“Go,” they answered. “The Lord will hand it over to you.”

⁷But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the Lord here? If there is, ask him what we should do.”

⁸The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat. He said, “There is still one other man we can go to. We can ask the Lord for advice through him. But I hate him. He never prophesies anything good about me. He only prophesies bad things. His name is Micaiah. He’s the son of Imlah.”

“You shouldn’t say bad things about him,” Jehoshaphat replied.

⁹So the king of Israel called for one of his officials. He told him, “Bring Micaiah, the son of Imlah, at once.”

¹⁰The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, were wearing their royal robes. They were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor. It was near the entrance of the gate of Samaria. All of the prophets were prophesying in front of them.

¹¹Zedekiah was the son of Kenaanah. Zedekiah had made horns out of iron. They looked like animal horns. He announced, “The Lord says, ‘With these horns you will drive back the men of Aram until they are destroyed.’ ”

¹²All of the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead,” they said. “Win the battle over it. The Lord will hand it over to you.”

¹³A messenger went to get Micaiah. He said to him, “Look. The other prophets agree. All of them are saying the king will have success. So agree with them. Say the same thing they do.”

¹⁴But Micaiah said, “You can be sure that the Lord lives. And you can be just as sure that I can only tell the king what the Lord tells me to say.”

¹⁵When Micaiah arrived, the king spoke to him. He asked, “Should we go to war against Ramoth Gilead? Or should I stay here?”

“Attack,” he answered. “You will win. The Lord will hand Ramoth Gilead over to you.”

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