1. Three years passed without war between Aram and Israel.
2. In the third year, however, King Jehoshaphat of Judah came down to the king of Israel.
3. The king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you not know that Ramoth-gilead is ours and we are doing nothing to take it from the king of Aram?”
4. He asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you come with me to fight against Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “You and I are as one, and your people and my people, your horses and my horses as well.”
5. Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “Seek the word of the Lord at once.”
6. The king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred of them, and asked, “Shall I go to fight against Ramoth-gilead or shall I refrain?” They said, “Attack. The Lord will give it into the power of the king.”
7. But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no other prophet of the Lord here we might consult?”
8. The king of Israel answered, “There is one other man through whom we might consult the Lord; but I hate him because he prophesies not good but evil about me. He is Micaiah, son of Imlah.” Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say that.”
9. So the king of Israel called an official and said to him, “Get Micaiah, son of Imlah, at once.”
10. The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were seated, each on his throne, clothed in their robes of state in the square at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them.
11. Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, made himself two horns of iron and said, “The Lord says, With these you shall gore Aram until you have destroyed them.”
12. The other prophets prophesied in a similar vein, saying: “Attack Ramoth-gilead and conquer! The Lord will give it into the power of the king.”
13. Meanwhile, the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him, “Look now, the prophets are unanimously predicting good for the king. Let your word be the same as any of theirs; speak a good word.”
14. Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, I shall speak whatever the Lord tells me.”