1   There passed therfore three yeares without warre betwen Syria aud Israel.

2   And in the third yeare, Iosaphat the king of Iuda went downe to the king of Israel.

3   (And the king of Israel sayd to his seruantes: are you ignorant that Ramoth Galaad is ours, and we neglect to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?)

4   And he sayd to Iosaphat: Wilt thou come with me to fight into Ramoth Galaad?

5   And Iosaphat sayd to the king of Israel: As I am, so thou also: my people and thy people are one: and my horsemen thy horsmen. And Iosaphat sayd to the king of Israal: Aske, I besech thee, this day the word of our Lord.

6   The king of Israel therfore assembled the prophetes, about foure hundred men, and he sayd to them: Shal I goe into Ramoth Galaad to fight, or sitte stil? Who answered: Goe vp, and our Lord wil geue it into the kinges hand.

7   And Iosaphat sayd: ^note Is there not

Achab. Micheas a prophet here some prophete of our Lord, that we may aske by him?

8   And the king of Israel sayd to Iosaphat: There is one man leaft, by whom we may aske our Lord: but I hate him, because he doeth not prophecie vnto me good, but euil, Micheas the sonne of Iemla. To whom Iosaphat sayd: Speake not so ô king.

9   The king of Israel therfore called a certaine eunuch, and sayd to him: Make hast, and bring hither Micheas the sonne of Iemla.

10   And the king of Israel, and Iosaphat the king of Iuda sate eche in his throne clothed with royal attyre, in a court beside the doore of the gate of Samaria, and al the prophetes prophecied before them.

11   Sedecias the sonne of Chanaana made him self ^note hornes of yron, and sayd: Thus sayth our Lord: With these shalt thou strike Syria, til thou destroy it.

12   And al the prophetes in like maner prophecied, saying: Ascend into Ramoth Galaad, and goe prosperousely, & our Lord wil deliuer it into the Kinges handes.

13   But the messenger, that went to cal Micheas, spake to him, saying: Behold the wordes of the prophetes with one mouth preach good thinges to the king: let thy word therfore be like to theirs, and speake good thinges.

14   To whom Micheas sayd: Our Lord liueth, whatsoeuer our Lord shal tel me, that wil I speake.

15   He therfore came to the king, and the king sayd to him: Micheas, shal we goe into Ramoth Galaad to fight, or sitte stil? To whom he answered: ^note Ascend, and goe prosperousely, and our Lord wil deliuer it into the kinges handes.

16   But the king sayd to him: I adiure thee agayne and agayne, that thou speake not to me but that which is true in the name of our Lord.

17   And he sayd: I saw al Israel dispersed in the mountaynes, as sheepe not hauing a shepeheard, and our Lord sayd: These haue no maister: let euerie man returne into his house in peace.

18   (Therfore the king of Israel sayd to Iosaphat: Did I not tel thee, that he doeth not prophecie me good, but alwaies euil?)

19   But he adding, sayd: Therfore heare the word of our Lord: I saw our Lord sitting vpon his throne, and al the hoste of heauen assisting him on the right hand and on the left:

20   and our Lord sayd: Who shal deceiue Achab the king of Israel, that he may goe vp, and fal in Ramoth Galaad? And one sayd these maner of wordes, and an other otherwise.

21   And there came forth a spirit, and stood before our Lord, and sayd: I wil deceiue him. To whom our Lord spake: Wherein?

22   And he sayd: I

Achab slaine. wil goe forth, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of al his prophetes. And our Lord sayd: Thou shalt deceiue, and shalt preuayle: ^note goe forth, and doe so.

23   Now therfore behold our Lord hath geuen the spirite of lying in the mouth of al thy prophetes, that are here, and our Lord hath spoken euil agaynst thee.

24   And Sedecias the sonne of Chanaana came, and smote Micheas on the cheeke, and sayd: Hath the Spirit of our Lord leaft me, and hath it spoken to thee?

25   And Micheas sayd: Thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt enter into thy chamber, ^note within the chamber to be hid.

26   And the king of Israel sayd: Take Micheas, and let him tarie with Amon the gouernour of the citie, and with Ioab the sonne of Amelech,

27   and tel them: Thus sayth the king: Cast this man into prison, and feede him with bread of tribulation, and water of distresse, til I returne in peace.

28   And Micheas sayd: If thou returne in peace, our Lord hath not spoken in me. And he sayd: Heare al ye peoples.

29   Therfore the king of Israel went vp, and Iosaphat the king of Iuda into Ramoth Galaad.

30   The king of Israel therfore sayd to Iosaphat: Take armour, and goe into the battel, and put on thyne owne garmentes. Moreouer the king of Israel changed his habite, and went into the battel.

31   And the king of Syria had commanded the princes of his chariotes thirtie and two, saying: You shal not fight agaynst any lesser, or greater, but agaynst the king of Israel onlie.

32   When therfore the princes of the chariotes had seene Iosaphat, they suspected that he was the king of Israel, and making a violent assault they fought agaynst him: & Iosaphat cried out.

33   And the princes of the chariotes perceiued that he was not the king of Israel, and they ceased from him.

34   And a certaine man bent his bow, directing the arrow at al aduenture, and ^noteby chance he stroke the king of Israel betwen the lunges and the stomacke. But he sayd to his cochere: Turne thy hand, and carrie me out of the armie, because I am greuousely wounded.

35   The battel therfore was fought that day, and the king of Israel stood in his chariote agaynst the Syrians, and he died in the euening: & the bloud of the wound ranne into the middes of the chariote,

36   and the herauld sounded in al the armie before the sunne sette, saying: Euerie man returne into his citie, and into his countrie.

37   And the king died, and was carried into Samaria: and they buried the king

Of Iuda Iosaphat. Ioram. in Samaria,

38   and washed his chariote in the poole of Samaria, and the dogges licked his bloud, and they washed the raynes of the bridle, according to the word of our Lord which he had spoken.

39   But the rest of the wordes of Achab, and al that he did, and the house of yuorie, that he built, and of al the cities that he built, are not these thinges written in the Booke of the wordes of the daies of the kinges of Israel?

40   Achab therfore slept with his fathers, and Ochozias his sonne reigned for him.

41   But Iosaphat the sonne of Asa began to reigne ouer Iuda the fourth yeare of Achab the king of Israel.

42   Fiue and thirtie yeares old was he when he began to reigne, and fiue and twentie yeares he reigned in Ierusalem: the name of his mother was Azuba the daughter of Salai.

43   And he walked in al the way of Asa his father, and he declined not from it: and he did that which was right in the sight of our Lord.

44   But yet he tooke not away the excelses: for as yet the people did sacrifice, and burnt incense in the excelses.

45   And Iosaphat had peace with the king of Israel.

46   But the rest of the wordes of Iosaphat, and his workes, which he did, and his battels, are not these thinges written in the Booke of the wordes of the daies of the kinges of Iuda?

47   Yea and the remnant of the effeminate, which remayned in the daies of Asa his father, he tooke out of the land.

48   Neither was there then a king appoynted in Edom.

49   But king Iosaphat had made nauies on the sea, which should saile into Ophir for gold: and they could not goe, because they were broken in Asiongaber.

50   Then sayd Ochozias the sonne of Achab to Iosaphat: Let my seruantes goe with thy seruantes in the shippes. And Iosaphat would not.

51   And Iosaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with them in the Citie of Dauid his father: and Ioram his sonne reigned for him.

52   And Ochozias the sonne of Achab began to reigne ouer Israel in Samaria, in the seuententh yeare of Iosaphat the king of Iuda, and he reigned ouer Israel two yeares.

53   And he did euil in the sight of our Lord, and walked in the way of his father and his mother, and in the way of Ieroboam the sonne of Nabat, who made Israel to sinne.

54   He serued also Baal, and adored him, and prouoked our Lord the God of Israel, according to al thinges which his father had done.

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