the Fourth Week of Advent
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Hebrew Names Version
1 Kings 22
1 They continued three years without war between Aram and Yisra'el. 2 It happened in the third year, that Yehoshafat the king of Yehudah came down to the king of Yisra'el. 3 The king of Yisra'el said to his servants, "You know that Ramot-Gil`ad is ours, and we are still, and don't take it out of the hand of the king of Aram?" 4 He said to Yehoshafat, Will you go with me to battle to Ramot-Gil`ad? Yehoshafat said to the king of Yisra'el, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. 5 Yehoshafat said to the king of Yisra'el, Please inquire first for the word of the LORD. 6 Then the king of Yisra'el gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, Shall I go against Ramot-Gil`ad to battle, or shall I forbear? They said, Go up; for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king. 7 But Yehoshafat said, Isn't there here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we may inquire of him? 8 The king of Yisra'el said to Yehoshafat, there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Mikhayahu the son of Yimlah: but I hate him; for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. Yehoshafat said, "Don't let the king say so." 9 Then the king of Yisra'el called an officer, and said, Get quickly Mikhayahu the son of Yimlah. 10 Now the king of Yisra'el and Yehoshafat the king of Yehudah were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Shomron; and all the prophets were prophesying before them. 11 Tzidkiyahu the son of Kena`anah made him horns of iron, and said, Thus says the LORD, With these shall you push the Aram, until they be consumed. 12 All the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramot-Gil`ad, and prosper; for the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king. 13 The messenger who went to call Mikhayahu spoke to him, saying, See now, the words of the prophets [declare] good to the king with one mouth: please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak you good. 14 Mikhayahu said, As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that will I speak.
15 When he was come to the king, the king said to him, Mikhayahu, shall we go to Ramot-Gil`ad to battle, or shall we forbear? He answered him, Go up and prosper; and the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king. 16 The king said to him, How many times shall I adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD? 17 He said, I saw all Yisra'el scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master; let them return every man to his house in shalom. 18 The king of Yisra'el said to Yehoshafat, Didn't I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil? 19 [Mikhayahu] said, Therefore hear you the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. 20 The LORD said, Who shall entice Ach'av, that he may go up and fall at Ramot-Gil`ad? One said on this manner; and another said on that manner. 21 There came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will entice him. 22 The LORD said to him, 'How?' He said, 'I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' He said, 'You shall entice him, and shall prevail also: go forth, and do so.' 23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the LORD has spoken evil concerning you. 24 Then Tzidkiyahu the son of Kena`anah came near, and struck Mikhayahu on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak to you? 25 Mikhayahu said, Behold, you shall see on that day, when you shall go into an inner chamber to hide yourself. 26 The king of Yisra'el said, Take Mikhayahu, and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Yo'ash the king's son; 27 and say, Thus says the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in shalom. 28 Mikhayahu said, If you return at all in shalom, the LORD has not spoken by me. He said, Hear, you peoples, all of you.
29 So the king of Yisra'el and Yehoshafat the king of Yehudah went up to Ramot-Gil`ad. 30 The king of Yisra'el said to Yehoshafat, I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but put you on your robes. The king of Yisra'el disguised himself, and went into the battle. 31 Now the king of Aram had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Yisra'el. 32 It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw Yehoshafat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Yisra'el; and they turned aside to fight against him: and Yehoshafat cried out. 33 It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Yisra'el, that they turned back from pursuing him. 34 A certain man drew his bow at a venture, and struck the king of Yisra'el between the joints of the armor: therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, Turn your hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am severely wounded. 35 The battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Aram, and died at even; and the blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot. 36 There went a cry throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his country. 37 So the king died, and was brought to Shomron; and they buried the king in Shomron. 38 They washed the chariot by the pool of Shomron; and the dogs licked up his blood (now the prostitutes washed themselves [there]); according to the word of the LORD which he spoke. 39 Now the rest of the acts of Ach'av, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he built, and all the cities that he built, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Yisra'el? 40 So Ach'av slept with his fathers; and Achazyah his son reigned in his place.
41 Yehoshafat the son of Asa began to reign over Yehudah in the fourth year of Ach'av king of Yisra'el. 42 Yehoshafat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-five years in Yerushalayim. His mother's name was `Azuvah the daughter of Shilchi. 43 He walked in all the way of Asa his father; He didn't turn aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: however the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. 44 Yehoshafat made shalom with the king of Yisra'el. 45 Now the rest of the acts of Yehoshafat, and his might that he shown, and how he warred, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Yehudah? 46 The remnant of the sodomites, that remained in the days of his father Asa, he put away out of the land. 47 There was no king in Edom: a deputy was king. 48 Yehoshafat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ofir for gold: but they didn't go; for the ships were broken at `Etzyon-Gever. 49 Then said Achazyah the son of Ach'av to Yehoshafat, Let my servants go with your servants in the ships. But Yehoshafat would not. 50 Yehoshafat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; Yehoram his son reigned in his place. 51 Achazyah the son of Ach'av began to reign over Yisra'el in Shomron in the seventeenth year of Yehoshafat king of Yehudah, and he reigned two years over Yisra'el. 52 He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Yarov`am the son of Nevat, in which he made Yisra'el to sin. 53 He served Ba`al, and worshiped him, and provoked to anger the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, according to all that his father had done.
