What does Micheas say about Achab’s return from Ramoth Galaad, and what happens?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Micheas says that if Achab returns in peace, the Lord has not spoken by him. Achab goes into battle in changed dress, is struck by an arrow shot at a venture, and dies that evening.

Chapter breakdown

Three years pass without war between Syria and Israel. In the third year Josaphat, king of Juda, comes down to Israel’s king. Israel’s king tells his servants that Ramoth Galaad belongs to them and that they neglect to take it from Syria’s king. He asks Josaphat to join him in battle there. Josaphat says they, their people and their horsemen are one, and asks that they inquire of the Lord’s word that day.

Israel’s king assembles about four hundred prophets and asks whether to go to Ramoth Galaad to fight or to forbear. They tell him to go, saying the Lord will deliver it into the king’s hand. Josaphat asks whether another prophet of the Lord is there to inquire by. The king names Micheas son of Jemla, but says he hates him because he prophesies evil rather than good to him. Josaphat tells him not to speak so. The king calls an eunuch and orders him to bring Micheas quickly.

The two kings sit on their thrones in royal robes in a court at Samaria’s gate entrance, with all the prophets prophesying before them. Sedecias son of Chanaana makes iron horns and says the Lord declares that with them the king will push Syria until he destroys it. All the prophets likewise tell him to go to Ramoth Galaad and prosper. The messenger urges Micheas to speak good like the prophets whose words agree. Micheas swears by the living Lord that he will speak whatever the Lord says to him. When he comes, the king asks whether they should go to battle or forbear. Micheas answers that they should go and prosper, and the Lord will deliver it into the king’s hands.

Challoner’s separate note says Micheas’s answer is ironic, jesting at the false prophets’ flattering speeches. It says the king understood it this way, as shown by his demand in the next verse for truth in the Lord’s name.

The king adjures Micheas again and again to tell only what is true in the Lord’s name. Micheas says he saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd. The Lord said they had no master and each should return home in peace. The king tells Josaphat that, as he had said, Micheas prophesies no good to him, but always evil. Micheas tells him to hear the Lord’s word: he saw the Lord on his throne, with all heaven’s army standing on his right and left. The Lord asked who would deceive Achab so he would go up and fall at Ramoth Galaad. One spoke in one way, and another differently.

Challoner’s separate note says God needs no counsellor and that events in heaven should not be supposed to occur in the manner described. This representation was made to the prophet for him to deliver in a way suited to people’s common ways and notions.

A spirit comes forward, stands before the Lord and offers to deceive Achab. Asked by what means, it says it will go out as a lying spirit in all his prophets’ mouths. The Lord says it will deceive him and prevail, and tells it to go forth and do so.

Challoner’s separate note explains “Go forth, and do so” as permission rather than a command. It says God never ordains lies, though he often permits a lying spirit to deceive those who do not love truth. It cites 2 Thess. 2.10 and says the next verse’s statement that the Lord has given a lying spirit must be read in this sense.

Micheas says the Lord has given a lying spirit in the mouths of all the prophets there and has spoken evil against Achab. Sedecias son of Chanaana strikes Micheas’s cheek and asks whether the Lord’s spirit has left him and spoken to Micheas. Micheas says he will see on the day he goes into a chamber within a chamber to hide.

Challoner’s separate note says the hiding happened when Sedecias heard the king was slain and rightly feared punishment for his false prophecy.

Israel’s king orders Micheas taken to remain with Amon, the city’s governor, and Joas son of Amalech. They are to imprison him and feed him bread of affliction and water of distress until the king returns in peace. Micheas answers that if the king returns in peace, the Lord has not spoken by him, and calls all the people to hear. The kings of Israel and Juda go up to Ramoth-Galaad.

Israel’s king tells Josaphat to take his armour, enter battle and put on his own garments. Israel’s king changes his dress and enters battle. Syria’s king has ordered the thirty-two chariot captains to fight only Israel’s king, and no other, small or great. Seeing Josaphat, they suspect he is Israel’s king and attack him violently. Josaphat cries out. They perceive that he is not Israel’s king and turn away.

A man bends his bow, shoots at a venture and happens to strike Israel’s king between the lungs and stomach. The king tells his chariot driver to turn and carry him out of the army because he is grievously wounded. Battle continues that day. Israel’s king stands in his chariot against the Syrians and dies in the evening; blood runs from the wound into the chariot. Before sunset a herald tells everyone in the army to return to his own city and country. The dead king is carried to Samaria and buried there. His chariot is washed in Samaria’s pool; dogs lick up his blood, and the reins are washed according to the Lord’s spoken word.

The chapter asks whether Achab’s remaining acts, all he did, his house of ivory and the cities he built are written in the book of the words of the days of Israel’s kings. Achab sleeps with his fathers, and his son Ochozias reigns in his place.

Josaphat son of Asa begins to reign over Juda in Achab’s fourth year. He is thirty-five years old and reigns twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother is Azuba daughter of Salai. He follows all his father Asa’s way, does not turn from it and does what is right in the Lord’s sight. Nevertheless, he does not remove the high places, where the people still sacrifice and burn incense.

Challoner’s separate note says Josaphat left some high places where the true God was worshipped but removed all the others. It cites 2 Par. 17.6 and the note on verse 14 of chapter 15 of 3 Kings.

Josaphat has peace with Israel’s king. The chapter asks whether his remaining acts, works and battles are written in the book of the words of the days of Juda’s kings. He removes from the land the remaining men called “the effeminate” who had remained in Asa his father’s days. At that time no king is appointed in Edom.

Josaphat makes navies on the sea to sail to Ophir for gold. They cannot go because the ships are broken at Asiongaber. Ochozias son of Achab asks that his servants go with Josaphat’s servants in the ships, but Josaphat refuses.

Challoner’s separate note says Josaphat had previously been rebuked for admitting such a partner and therefore would have no more to do with him.

Josaphat sleeps with his fathers and is buried with them in the city of David his father. His son Joram reigns in his place. Ochozias son of Achab begins to reign over Israel in Samaria in Josaphat’s seventeenth year and reigns two years. He does evil in the Lord’s sight, follows his father’s and mother’s way and Jeroboam son of Nabat’s way, who made Israel sin. He serves and worships Baal and provokes the Lord God of Israel as his father had done.

The story inside

Josaphat agrees to join the battle but requests the Lord’s word. About four hundred prophets promise victory; his further inquiry brings Micheas, whom Achab says he hates. The messenger’s pressure to agree meets Micheas’s oath to speak the Lord’s word. Micheas’s first answer leads to the king’s demand for truth, the shepherdless-sheep report and the vision of a lying spirit. Three separate Challoner notes explain irony, representation and permission. Sedecias strikes him and receives a hiding prediction, explained separately by another note. The prison order and Micheas’s condition about a peaceful return precede the expedition. The Syrian captains target the king, attack Josaphat in error and turn away. A venture-shot arrow wounds Achab, who dies that evening; burial and the washing follow. The record then gives Achab’s succession, Josaphat’s reign with its high-place qualification and note, his other acts and failed ships, the partnership refusal and note, and the successions of Joram and Ochozias.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Micheas’s answer must be read with the separate explanation of irony. The king repeatedly demands truth; Micheas then gives the sheep report and vision. Challoner also qualifies the heavenly representation and explains permission rather than a command to lie. Leaving out those notes would change the explanation readers receive.
2
The peaceful-return condition connects Micheas’s words to the recorded battle. The king orders prison until he returns in peace; Micheas says such a return would mean the Lord had not spoken by him. The changed dress, mistaken attack on Josaphat, venture-shot arrow and evening death are each recorded. The chapter supplies these events without a private motive for disguise or an alternative outcome.
3
Josaphat’s record combines what was right with particular limits and failures. He follows Asa’s way, but people still sacrifice and burn incense at high places; Challoner qualifies which places remain. His ships cannot depart, and he refuses Ochozias’s request; the separate note supplies the earlier rebuke. Names, dates and successions keep these events attached to the stated reigns rather than a general rule about alliances.

Test your recall

How do Josaphat’s request to inquire, the summons of Micheas and the prison order lead to the peaceful-return condition tested by Achab’s battle and death?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 37735–37757
3 Kings Chapter 22 Achab believing his false prophets, rather than Micheas, is slain in Ramoth Galaad. Ochozias succeedeth him. Good king Josaphat dieth, and his son Joram succeedeth him. 22:1. And there passed three years without war between Syria and Israel. 22:2. And in the third year, Josaphat, king of Juda, came down to the king of Israel. 22:3. (And the king of Israel said to his servants: Know ye not that Ramoth Galaad is ours, and we neglect to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?) 22:4. And he said to Josaphat: Wilt thou come with me to battle to Ramoth Galaad? 22:5. And Josaphat said to the king of Israel: As I am, so art thou: my people and thy people are one: and my horsemen are thy horsemen. And Josaphat said to the king of Israel: Inquire, I beseech thee, this day the word of the Lord.
Lines 37759–37773
22:6. Then the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and he said to them: Shall I go to Ramoth Galaad to fight, or shall I forbear? They answered: Go up, and the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king. 22:7. And Josaphat said: Is there not here some prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire by him? 22:8. And the king of Israel said to Josaphat. There is one man left, by whom we may inquire of the Lord; Micheas, the son of Jemla: but I hate him, for he doth not prophecy good to me, but evil. And Josaphat said: Speak not so, O king. 22:9. Then the king of Israel called an eunuch, and said to him: Make haste, and bring hither Micheas, the son of Jemla.
Lines 37775–37798
22:10. And the king of Israel, and Josaphat, king of Juda, sat each on his throne, clothed with royal robes, in a court, by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets prophesied before them. 22:11. And Sedecias, the son of Chanaana, made himself horns of iron, and said: Thus saith the Lord: With these shalt thou push Syria, till thou destroy it. 22:12. And all the prophets prophesied in like manner, saying: Go up to Ramoth Galaad, and prosper, for the Lord will deliver it into the king’s hands. 22:13. And the messenger that went to call Micheas, spoke to him, saying: Behold the words of the prophets with one mouth declare good things to the king: let thy word, therefore, be like to theirs, and speak that which is good. 22:14. But Micheas said to him: As the Lord liveth, whatsoever the Lord shall say to me, that will I speak. 22:15. So he came to the king, and the king said to him: Micheas, shall we go to Ramoth Galaad to battle, or shall we forbear? He answered him: Go up, and prosper, and the Lord shall deliver it into the king’s hands.
Lines 37800–37803
Go up, etc.... This was spoken ironically, and by way of jesting at the flattering speeches of the false prophets: and so the king understood it, as appears by his adjuring Micheas, in the following verse, to tell him the truth in the name of the Lord.
Lines 37805–37821
22:16. But the king said to him: I adjure thee again and again, that thou tell me nothing but that which is true, in the name of the Lord. 22:17. And he said: I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, like sheep that have no shepherd; and the Lord said: These have no master: let every man of them return to his house in peace. 22:18. (Then the king of Israel said to Josaphat: Did I not tell thee, that he prophesieth no good to me, but always evil?) 22:19. And he added and said: Hear thou, therefore, the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on the right hand and on the left: 22:20. And the Lord said: Who shall deceive Achab, king of Israel, that he may go up, and fall at Ramoth Galaad? And one spoke words of this manner, and another otherwise.
Lines 37823–37827
The Lord said, etc.... God standeth not in need of any counsellor; nor are we to suppose that things pass in heaven in the manner here described: but this representation was made to the prophet, to be delivered by him in a manner adapted to the common ways and notions of men.
Lines 37829–37834
22:21. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said: I will deceive him. And the Lord said to him: By what means? 22:22. And he said: I will go forth, and be a lying spirit, in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said: Thou shalt deceive him, and shalt prevail: go forth, and do so.
Lines 37836–37840
Go forth, and do so.... This was not a command, but a permission: for God never ordaineth lies; though he often permitteth the lying spirit to deceive those who love not the truth. 2 Thess. 2.10. And in this sense it is said in the following verse, The Lord hath given a lying spirit in the mouth of all thy prophets.
Lines 37842–37851
22:23. Now, therefore, behold the Lord hath given a lying spirit in the mouth of all thy prophets that are here, and the Lord hath spoken evil against thee. 22:24. And Sedecias, the son of Chanaana, came, and struck Micheas on the cheek, and said: Hath then the spirit of the Lord left me, and spoken to thee? 22:25. And Micheas said: Thou shalt see in the day when thou shalt go into a chamber within a chamber to hide thyself.
Lines 37853–37855
Go into a chamber, etc.... This happened when he heard the king was slain, and justly apprehended that he should be punished for his false prophecy.
Lines 37857–37868
22:26. And the king of Israel said: Take Micheas and let him abide with Amon, the governor of the city, and with Joas, the son of Amalech; 22:27. And tell them: Thus saith the king: Put this man in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction, and water of distress till I return in peace. 22:28. And Micheas said: If thou return in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said: Hear, all ye people. 22:29. So the king of Israel, and Josaphat, king of Juda, went up to Ramoth-Galaad.
Lines 37870–37883
22:30. And the king of Israel said to Josaphat: Take thy armour, and go into the battle, and put on thy own garments. But the king of Israel changed his dress, and went into the battle. 22:31. And the king of Syria had commanded the two and thirty captains of the chariots, saying: You shall not fight against any, small or great, but against the king of Israel only. 22:32. So when the captains of the chariots saw Josaphat, they suspected that he was the king of Israel, and making a violent assault, they fought against him: and Josaphat cried out. 22:33. And the captains of the chariots perceived that he was not the king of Israel, and they turned away from him.
Lines 37885–37903
22:34. And a certain man bent his bow, shooting at a venture, and chanced to strike the king of Israel, between the lungs and the stomach. But he said to the driver of his chariot: Turn thy hand, and carry me out of the army, for I am grievously wounded. 22:35. And the battle was fought that day, and the king of Israel stood in his chariot against the Syrians, and he died in the evening: and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. 22:36. And the herald proclaimed through all the army, before the sun set, saying: Let every man return to his own city, and to his own country. 22:37. And the king died, and was carried into Samaria: and they buried the king in Samaria. 22:38. And they washed his chariot in the pool of Samaria and the dogs licked up his blood, and they washed the reins according to the word of the Lord which he had spoken.
Lines 37905–37911
22:39. But the rest of the acts of Achab, and all that he did, and the house of ivory that he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel? 22:40. So Achab slept with his fathers; and Ochozias, his son, reigned in his stead.
Lines 37913–37924
22:41. But Josaphat, the son of Asa, began to reign over Juda, in the fourth year of Achab, king of Israel. 22:42. He was five and thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned five and twenty years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Azuba, the daughter of Salai. 22:43. And he walked in all the way of Asa, his father, and he declined not from it: and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. 22:44. Nevertheless, he took not away the high places for as yet the people offered sacrifice, and burnt incense in the high places.
Lines 37926–37928
He took not away, etc.... He left some of the high places, viz., those in which they worshipped the true God: but took away all others, 2 Par. 17.6, and note ver. 14 of chap. 15. 3 Kings.
Lines 37930–37939
22:45. And Josaphat had peace with the king of Israel. 22:46. But the rest of the acts of Josaphat, and his works which he did, and his battles, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda? 22:47. And the remnant also of the effeminate, who remained in the days of Asa, his father, he took out of the land. 22:48. And there was then no king appointed in Edom.
Lines 37941–37945
22:49. But king Josaphat made navies on the sea, to sail into Ophir for gold: but they could not go, for the ships were broken in Asiongaber. 22:50. Then Ochozias, the son of Achab, said to Josaphat: Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. And Josaphat would not.
Lines 37947–37948
Would not.... He had been reprehended before for admitting such a partner: and therefore would have no more to do with him.
Lines 37950–37967
22:51. And Josaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with them in the city of David, his father: and Joram, his son, reigned in his stead. 22:52. And Ochozias, the son of Achab, began to reign over Israel, in Samaria, in the seventeenth year of Josaphat, king of Juda, and he reigned over Israel two years. 22:53. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father and his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin. 22:54. He served also Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.