Micaiah and the Death of Ahab

This, then, was how things stood with Ahab. But I now return to Jehoshaphat, the king of Jerusalem. He had enlarged his kingdom and placed garrisons in the cities of the lands belonging to his subjects, and he put garrisons no less into the cities of the tribe of Ephraim that his grandfather Abijah had taken when Jeroboam reigned over the ten tribes. And he had God favorable to him and helping him, because he was both righteous and devout, and sought every day to do something that would be pleasing and acceptable to God. The kings around him also honored him with the gifts they brought him, until the riches he had gathered were immensely great and the glory he had won was of the most exalted kind.

In the third year of his reign he called together the rulers of the country and the priests, and ordered them to go around the land and teach all the people under him, city by city, the laws of Moses, both to keep them and to be diligent in the worship of God. The whole people was so pleased with this that there was nothing they were so eager for, or cared about so much, as keeping the laws. The neighboring nations also continued to love Jehoshaphat and to be at peace with him. The Philistines paid their appointed tribute, and the Arabians supplied him every year with three hundred and sixty lambs and as many young goats. He also fortified the great cities, which were many in number and of great importance, and he prepared a mighty army of soldiers and weapons against their enemies. The army of men who wore armor numbered three hundred thousand from the tribe of Judah, of whom Adnah was the chief; but Johanan was chief of two hundred thousand. The same man was chief of the tribe of Benjamin, and had two hundred thousand archers under him. There was another chief, named Jehozabad, who had a hundred and eighty thousand armed men. This multitude was arranged so as to be ready for the king’s service, besides those he sent to the best-fortified cities. [a]

Jehoshaphat took Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab king of the ten tribes, as a wife for his son Joram. Some time later he went to Samaria. Ahab received him courteously and entertained the army that came with him splendidly, with great plenty of grain and wine and slaughtered animals. He asked him to join him in his war against the king of Syria, so that he could recover from him the city of Ramoth in Gilead; for though it had belonged to Ahab’s father, the king of Syria’s father had taken it away from him. Jehoshaphat promised his help — and indeed his army was not inferior to Ahab’s — and sent for his army from Jerusalem to Samaria. Then the two kings went out of the city, each sat on his own throne, and each handed out pay to his own soldiers. Jehoshaphat told them to call some of the prophets, if there were any there, and ask them about this expedition against the king of Syria, whether they would advise them to make it at this time; for there was peace and friendship at that time between Ahab and the king of Syria, and it had lasted three years, from the time Ahab had taken him captive and let him go until that day. [c]

So Ahab called his own prophets, about four hundred in number, and told them to ask God whether he would give him the victory if he made an expedition against Ben-hadad, and let him take the city for whose sake he was going to war. These prophets advised him to make the expedition, and said that he would beat the king of Syria and bring him under his power as before. But Jehoshaphat, perceiving from their words that they were false prophets, asked Ahab whether there was not some other prophet, one belonging to the true God, so that they might have surer information about what was to come. Ahab said there was indeed such a man, but that he hated him, because he had prophesied evil to him and had foretold that he would be defeated and killed by the king of Syria; for that reason he now had him in prison; his name was Micaiah son of Imlah. But at Jehoshaphat’s wish that he be brought out, Ahab sent a eunuch, who brought Micaiah to him. [d]

On the way the eunuch told him that all the other prophets had foretold that the king would win the victory; but he said it was not lawful for him to lie against God, and that he must say whatever God told him about the king, whatever it might be. When he came to Ahab, and Ahab had put him under oath to tell him the truth, he said that God had shown him the Israelites running away, pursued by the Syrians and scattered by them over the mountains, as flocks of sheep are scattered when their shepherd is killed. He said further that God had made known to him that those Israelites would return in peace to their own homes, and that Ahab alone would fall in the battle. When Micaiah had said this, Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “I told you a little while ago how the man is disposed toward me, and that he always prophesies evil to me.” Micaiah answered that he ought to hear everything God foretells, whatever it is; and in particular that those who encouraged him to make this war in hope of victory were false prophets, whereas he would fight and be killed.

At this the king was in two minds. But Zedekiah, one of those false prophets, came near and urged him not to listen to Micaiah, for he did not speak the truth at all. As proof he pointed to what Elijah had said, who was a better prophet than Micaiah at foretelling the future: Elijah had foretold that the dogs would lick Ahab’s blood in the city of Jezreel, in the field of Naboth, as they had licked the blood of Naboth, who through Ahab’s doing had been stoned to death there by the crowd. So it was plain, Zedekiah said, that this Micaiah was a liar, since he contradicted a greater prophet than himself by saying that Ahab would be killed three days’ journey away. “And you will soon know whether he is a true prophet and has the power of the divine Spirit. For I will strike him, and then let him injure my hand, as Jadon made the hand of King Jeroboam wither when he tried to seize him. I suppose you have certainly heard of that event.” So when Zedekiah struck Micaiah and no harm came to him, Ahab took courage and readily led his army against the king of Syria. For, as I suppose, fate was too strong for him, and made him believe that the false prophets spoke more truly than the true one, so that it might find an occasion to bring him to his end. Zedekiah also made horns of iron and told Ahab that God had made those horns a sign that by them he would overthrow all Syria. But Micaiah replied that in a few days Zedekiah would go from one secret room to another to hide himself, trying to escape the punishment of his lying. Then the king gave orders to take Micaiah away and keep him under guard with Amon, the governor of the city, and to give him nothing but bread and water.

Then Ahab and Jehoshaphat king of Jerusalem took their forces and marched to Ramoth, a city of Gilead. When the king of Syria heard of this expedition, he brought out his army against them and pitched his camp not far from Ramoth. Now Ahab and Jehoshaphat had agreed that Ahab would lay aside his royal robes, but that the king of Jerusalem would put on Ahab’s own dress and stand in front of the army, to disprove by this trick what Micaiah had foretold. But Ahab’s fate found him out even without his robes. For Ben-hadad, the king of the Syrians, had ordered his army, through their commanders, to kill no one but the king of Israel. So when the Syrians joined battle with the Israelites and saw Jehoshaphat standing in front of the army, they guessed that he was Ahab, fell on him violently and surrounded him. But when they came near and saw that it was not he, they all turned back. And though the fighting lasted from morning till late in the evening, and the Syrians were winning, they killed no one, as their king had commanded them. They were trying to kill Ahab alone but could not find him. Then a young nobleman of King Ben-hadad’s, named Amanus, drew his bow against the enemy and wounded the king through his breastplate, in the lungs. Ahab decided not to let his army know of his misfortune, in case they ran away; he told the driver of his chariot to turn around and carry him out of the battle, because he was severely and mortally wounded. Still, he stood in his chariot and endured the pain until sunset; then he fainted from loss of blood and died. [h]

With nightfall the Syrian army withdrew to its camp, and when the camp’s herald announced that Ahab was dead, they went home. Ahab’s body was taken to Samaria and buried there. But when they washed his chariot, which was bloody from the king’s body, in the spring of Jezreel, they acknowledged that Elijah’s prophecy was true, for the dogs licked his blood, and the prostitutes went on washing themselves in that spring afterward. Yet he died at Ramoth, as Micaiah had foretold. [k]

Since what the two prophets foretold would happen to Ahab came to pass, we ought to learn from it to think highly of God, and everywhere to honor and worship him. We should never suppose that what is pleasant and agreeable deserves belief before what is true, and should count nothing more useful than prophecy and the foreknowledge of future events that comes from it, since by it God shows people what they ought to avoid. We may also judge from what happened to this king, and have reason to consider, the power of fate: there is no way of escaping it, even when we know it beforehand. It creeps up on human souls and flatters them with pleasant hopes, until it leads them around to the place where it will overpower them. So Ahab appears to have been deceived by it, until he disbelieved those who foretold his defeat; and by believing those who foretold what pleased him, he was killed. His son Ahaziah succeeded him.