21. Then a spirit went and stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will fool him!’ The Lord asked, ‘How will you do it?’
22. The spirit answered, ‘I will go to Ahab’s prophets and cause them to tell lies.’ So the Lord said, ‘Yes, that will fool Ahab. Go out and do that.’
23. “So that is what has happened here. The Lord made your prophets lie to you. The Lord himself decided to bring this disaster to you.”
24. Then the prophet Zedekiah went to Micaiah and hit him on the face. Zedekiah said, “How is it that the Spirit of the Lord left me to speak through you?”
25. Micaiah answered, “Look, what I said will happen! And you will see it one day when you are in a secret room somewhere hiding.”
26. Then King Ahab ordered one of his officers to arrest Micaiah. Ahab said, “Arrest him and take him to Amon the governor of the city and prince Joash.
27. Tell them to put Micaiah in prison. Give him nothing but bread and water to eat. Keep him there until I come home from the battle.”
28. Micaiah said, “Listen to me, everyone! Ahab, if you come back alive from the battle, the Lord has not spoken through me.”
29. King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to fight the Arameans at Ramoth Gilead.
30. Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Disguise yourself when you go into battle, but wear your own clothes. And I will disguise myself.” The king of Israel went into battle dressed like an ordinary soldier.
31. The king of Aram had 32 chariot commanders. He gave them this command, “Don’t go after anyone except the king of Israel, no matter how important they are.”
32. When the commanders saw King Jehoshaphat, they thought he was the king of Israel, and so they went to kill him. Jehoshaphat started shouting.
33. When the commanders saw that he was not King Ahab, they stopped chasing him.
34. Then a soldier in the distance pulled back as far as he could on his bow and shot an arrow into the air. The arrow happened to hit the king of Israel in a small hole where his armor was fastened together. King Ahab said to his chariot driver, “I’ve been hit! Turn the chariot around and take me off the battlefield!”
35. The armies continued to fight while King Ahab was propped up in his chariot. He was leaning against the sides of the chariot, looking out toward the Arameans. His blood ran down onto the floor of the chariot. Later in the evening, he died.
36. At sunset all the Israelites cheered when they were told to go home. So they all went back to their hometowns.
37. And that is how King Ahab died. Some men carried his body to Samaria and buried him there.
38. They took his chariot to the large pool in Samaria to clean it. The dogs licked up Ahab’s blood while the prostitutes washed the chariot. This happened just as the Lord said it would.