Study Desk

Then the prophet came near to the king of Israel, and he said to him, "Go, strengthen yourself; consider well what you should do, for the king of Aram is coming against you at the turn of the year."

You must muster an army for yourself as the army you have lost, and horses and chariots as the horses and chariots you lost, then we will fight them in the plain. Surely we will be stronger than they." So he listened to their voice and did so.

It happened at the turning of the year that Ben-Hadad mustered Aram and went up to Aphek for the war with Israel.

These encamped opposite for seven days, and it happened on the seventh day that the battle began, and the Israelites killed the Arameans, one hundred thousand infantry in one day.

Ben-Hadad said to him, "The cities which my father took from your father I shall return. You may set up streets with stalls for yourself in Damascus just as my father set up in Samaria." Then Ahab said, "On these terms I will let you go," So he made a covenant with him and let him go.

Then the prophet went and waited for the king along the road and disguised himself with a headband over his eyes.

He said to him, "Thus says Yahweh: ‘Because you have let the man I devoted for destruction go from your hand, your life shall be in place of his life and your people in place of his people.'"

Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, "Give me your vineyard that it may be mine for a garden of vegetable plants, because it is near, beside my house, and I will give to you a better vineyard in place of it. If it is better in your eyes, I will give you the money of its price."

Then he said to her, "When I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and asked him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or it you prefer, I will give you a vineyard in place of it,' he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.'"

It happened at the moment Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and died, Jezebel said to Ahab, "Get up, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite which he had refused to give to you for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead."

‘Look, I am bringing disaster on you, and I will sweep away after you. I will cut off for Ahab every male in Israel, bond or free.

The one who dies for Ahab in the city, the dogs will eat; the one who dies in the open country, the birds of heaven will eat."

Then he said to Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to the battle for Ramoth-Gilead?" Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "I am like you; my people are like your people; my horses are like your horses."

Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, "Please inquire for the word of Yahweh today."

Then the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and he said to them, "Shall I go against Ramoth-Gilead for the battle, or should I refrain?" Then they said, "Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king."

Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man to inquire from Yahweh, but I despise him, for he never prophesies anything good concerning me, but only bad: Micaiah the son of Imlah." Then Jehoshaphat said, "The king should not say so."

Zedekiah son of Kenaanah made horns of iron for himself and said, "Thus says Yahweh: ‘With these you shall gore the Arameans until finishing them.'"

So he said, "I saw all of Israel scattering to the mountains, like the sheep without a shepherd. Yahweh also said, ‘There are no masters for these, let them return in peace, each to his house.'"

But another man drew his bow fully and struck the king of Israel between the armor scales and the breastplate; so he said to his chariot driver, "Turn the chariot and bring me out from the camp, for I am wounded."

Jehoshaphat built ships of the Tarshish type to go to Ophir for the gold; but he did not go because the ships were destroyed at Ezion-Geber.