Ben-hadad also fled and took refuge inside the town, in an inner chamber. 31His ministers said to him, “We have heard that the kings of the House of Israel are magnanimous kings. Let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and surrender to the king of Israel; perhaps he will spare your life.” 32So they girded sackcloth on their loins and wound ropes around their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘I beg you, spare my life.’ ” He replied, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.” 33The men divined his meaning and quickly d-caught the word from him,-d saying, “Yes, Ben-hadad is your brother.” “Go, bring him,” he said. Ben-hadad came out to him, and he invited him into his chariot. 34Ben-hadad said to him, “I will give back the towns that my father took from your father, and you may set up bazaars for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria.” “And I, for my part,” [said Ahab,] “will let you go home under these terms.” So he made a treaty with him and dismissed him.
35A certain man, a disciple of the prophets, said to another, at the word of the LORD, “Strike me”; but the man refused to strike him. 36He said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the LORD, a lion will strike you dead as soon as you leave me.” And when he left, a lion came upon him and killed him. 37Then he met another man and said, “Come, strike me.” So the man struck him and wounded him. 38Then the prophet, disguised by a cloth over his eyes, went and waited for the king by the road. 39As the king passed by, he cried out to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the thick of the battle. Suddenly a man came over and brought a man to me, saying, ‘Guard this man! If he is missing, it will be your life for his, or you will have to pay a talent of silver.’ 40While your servant was busy here and there, [the man] got away.” The king of Israel responded, “You have your verdict; you pronounced it yourself.” 41Quickly he removed the cloth from his eyes, and the king recognized him as one of the prophets. 42He said to him, “Thus said the LORD: Because you have set free the man whom I doomed, your life shall be forfeit for his life and your people for his people.” 43Dispirited and sullen, the king of Israel left for home and came to Samaria.
21 [The following events] occurred sometime afterward: Naboth the Jezreelite owned a vineyard in Jezreel, adjoining the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. 2Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it as a vegetable garden, since it is right next to my palace. I will give you a better vineyard in exchange; or, if you prefer, I will pay you the price in money.” 3But Naboth replied, “The LORD forbid that I should give up to you what I have inherited from my fathers!” 4Ahab went home dispirited and sullen because of the answer that Naboth the Jezreelite had given him: “I will not give up to you what I have inherited from my fathers!” He lay down on his bed and turned away his face, and he would not eat. 5His wife Jezebel came to him and asked him, “Why are you so dispirited that you won’t eat?” 6So he told her, “I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and proposed to him, ‘Sell me your vineyard for money, or if you prefer, I’ll give you another vineyard in exchange’; but he answered, ‘I will not give my vineyard to you.’ ” 7His wife Jezebel said to him, “Now is the time to show yourself king over Israel. Rise and eat something, and be cheerful; I will get the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite for you.”
8So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who lived in the same town with Naboth. 9In the letters she wrote as follows: “Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the front of the assembly. 10And seat two scoundrels opposite him, and let them testify against him: ‘You have reviled God and king!’ Then take him out and stone him to death.”
11His townsmen—the elders and nobles who lived in his town—did as Jezebel had instructed them, just as was written in the letters she had sent them: 12They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the front of the assembly. 13Then the two scoundrels came and sat down opposite him; and the scoundrels testified against Naboth publicly as follows: “Naboth has reviled God and king.” Then they took him outside the town and stoned him to death. 14Word was sent to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned to death.” 15As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, “Go and take possession of the vineyard which Naboth the Jezreelite refused to sell you for money; for Naboth is no longer alive, he is dead.” 16When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab set out for the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it.
17Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: 18“Go down and confront King Ahab of Israel who [resides] in Samaria. He is now in Naboth’s vineyard; he has gone down there to take possession of it. 19Say to him, ‘Thus said the LORD: Would you murder and take possession? Thus said the LORD: In the very place where the dogs lapped up Naboth’s blood, the dogs will lap up your blood too.’ ”
20Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy?” “Yes, I have found you,” he replied. “Because you have committed yourself to doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD, 21I will bring disaster upon you. I will make a clean sweep of you, I will cut off from Israel every male belonging to Ahab,a-bond and free.-a 22And I will make your house like the House of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the House of Baasha son of Ahijah, because of the provocation you have caused by leading Israel to sin. 23And the LORD has also spoken concerning Jezebel: ‘The dogs shall devour Jezebel in the fieldb of Jezreel. 24All of Ahab’s line who die in the town shall be devoured by dogs, and all who die in the open country shall be devoured by the birds of the sky.’ ”
(25Indeed, there never was anyone like Ahab, who committed himself to doing what was displeasing to the LORD, at the instigation of his wife Jezebel. 26He acted most abominably, straying after the fetishes just like the Amorites, whom the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites.)
27When Ahab heard these words, he rent his clothes and put sackcloth on his body. He fasted and lay in sackcloth and walked about subdued. 28Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: 29“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the disaster in his lifetime; I will bring the disaster upon his house in his son’s time.”
22 a-There was a lull of-a three years, with no war between Aram and Israel. 2In the third year, King Jehoshaphat of Judah came to visit the king of Israel. 3The king of Israel said to his courtiers, “You know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and yet we do nothing to recover it from the hands of the king of Aram.” 4And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you come with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “I will do what you do; my troops shall be your troops, my horses shall be your horses.” 5But Jehoshaphat said further to the king of Israel, “Please, first inquire of the LORD.”
6So the king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Shall I march upon Ramoth-gilead for battle, or shall I not?” “March,” they said, “and the LORD will deliver [it] into Your Majesty’s hands.” 7Then Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there another prophet of the LORD here through whom we can inquire?” 8And the king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is one more man through whom we can inquire of the LORD; but I hate him, because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only misfortune—Micaiah son of Imlah.” But King Jehoshaphat said, “Don’t say that, Your Majesty.” 9So the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”
10The king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were seated on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, on the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them. 11Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had provided himself with iron horns; and he said, “Thus said the LORD: With these you shall gore the Arameans till you make an end of them.” 12And all the other prophets were prophesying similarly, “March upon Ramoth-gilead and triumph! The LORD will deliver it into Your Majesty’s hands.”
13The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him: “Look, the words of the prophets are with one accord favorable to the king. Let your word be like that of the rest of them; speak a favorable word.” 14“As the LORD
