1Rois (NAB) 17
171 Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab: "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, during these years there shall be no dew or rain except at my word." 2 The LORD then said to Elijah:3 "Leave here, go east and hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.4 You shall drink of the stream, and I have commanded ravens to feed you there."5 So he left and did as the LORD had commanded. He went and remained by the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.6 Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the stream.7 After some time, however, the brook ran dry, because no rain had fallen in the land.
8 So the LORD said to him:9 "Move on to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have designated a widow there to provide for you."10 He left and went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the entrance of the city, a widow was gathering sticks there; he called out to her, "Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink."11 She left to get it, and he called out after her, "Please bring along a bit of bread."12 "As the LORD, your God, lives," she answered, "I have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar and a little oil in my jug. Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die."13 "Do not be afraid," Elijah said to her. "Go and do as you propose. But first make me a little cake and bring it to me. Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son.14 For the LORD, the God of Israel, says, 'The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'"15 She left and did as Elijah had said. She was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well;16 The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the LORD had foretold through Elijah.
17 Some time later the son of the mistress of the house fell sick, and his sickness grew more severe until he stopped breathing.18 So she said to Elijah, "Why have you done this to me, O man of God? Have you come to me to call attention to my guilt and to kill my son?"19 "Give me your son," Elijah said to her. Taking him from her lap, he carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.20 He called out to the LORD: "O LORD, my God, will you afflict even the widow with whom I am staying by killing her son?"21 Then he stretched himself out upon the child three times and called out to the LORD: "O LORD, my God, let the life breath return to the body of this child."22 The LORD heard the prayer of Elijah; the life breath returned to the child's body and he revived.23 Taking the child, Elijah brought him down into the house from the upper room and gave him to his mother. "See!" Elijah said to her, "your son is alive."24 "Now indeed I know that you you are a man of God," the woman replied to Elijah. "The word of the LORD comes truly from your mouth."
181 Long afterward, in the third year, the LORD spoke to Elijah, "Go, present yourself to Ahab," he said, "that I may send rain upon the earth."2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.3 Now the famine in Samaria was bitter,4 and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, his vizier, who was a zealous follower of the LORD. When Jezebel was murdering the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took a hundred prophets, hid them away fifty each in two caves, and supplied them with food and drink.5 Ahab said to Obadiah, "Come, let us go through the land to all sources of water and to all the streams. We may find grass and save the horses and mules, so that we shall not have to slaughter any of the beasts."6 Dividing the land to explore between them, Ahab went one way by himself, Obadiah another way by himself.7 As Obadiah was on his way, Elijah met him. Recognizing him, Obadiah fell prostrate and asked, "Is it you, my lord Elijah?"8 "Yes," he answered. "Go tell your master, 'Elijah is here!'"9 But Obadiah said, "What sin have I committed, that you are handing me over to Ahab to have me killed?10 As the LORD, your God, lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent in search of you. When they replied, 'He is not here,' he made each kingdom and nation swear they could not find you.11 And now you say, 'Go tell your master: Elijah is here!'12 After I leave you, the spirit of the LORD will carry you to some place I do not know, and when I go to inform Ahab and he does not find you, he will kill me. Your servant has revered the LORD from his youth.13 Have you not been told, my lord, what I did when Jezebel was murdering the prophets of the LORD-- that I hid a hundred of the prophets of the LORD, fifty each in two caves, and supplied them with food and drink?14 And now you say, 'Go tell your master: Elijah is here!' He will kill me!"15 Elijah answered, "As the LORD of hosts lives, whom I serve, I will present myself to him today."16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and informed him. Ahab came to meet Elijah,17 and when he saw Elijah, said to him, "Is it you, you disturber of Israel?"18 "It is not I who disturb Israel," he answered, "but you and your family, by forsaking the commands of the LORD and following the Baals.19 Now summon all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, as well as the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table."
20 So Ahab sent to all the Israelites and had the prophets assemble on Mount Carmel.21 Elijah appealed to all the people and said, "How long will you straddle the issue? If the LORD is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him." The people, however, did not answer him.22 So Elijah said to the people, "I am the only surviving prophet of the LORD, and there are four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal.23 Give us two young bulls. Let them choose one, cut it into pieces, and place it on the wood, but start no fire. I shall prepare the other and place it on the wood, but shall start no fire.24 You shall call on your gods, and I will call on the LORD. The God who answers with fire is God." All the people answered, "Agreed!"25 Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one young bull and prepare it first, for there are more of you. Call upon your gods, but do not start the fire."26 Taking the young bull that was turned over to them, they prepared it and called on Baal from morning to noon, saying, "Answer us, Baal!" But there was no sound, and no one answering. And they hopped around the altar they had prepared.27 When it was noon, Elijah taunted them: "Call louder, for he is a god and may be meditating, or may have retired, or may be on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened."28 They called out louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until blood gushed over them.29 Noon passed and they remained in a prophetic state until the time for offering sacrifice. But there was not a sound; no one answered, and no one was listening.30 Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." When they had done so, he repaired the altar of the LORD which had been destroyed.31 He took twelve stones, for the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the LORD had said, "Your name shall be Israel."32 He built an altar in honor of the LORD with the stones, and made a trench around the altar large enough for two seahs of grain.33 When he had arranged the wood, he cut up the young bull and laid it on the wood.34 "Fill four jars with water," he said, "and pour it over the holocaust and over the wood." "Do it again," he said, and they did it again. "Do it a third time," he said, and they did it a third time.35 The water flowed around the altar, and the trench was filled with the water.36 At the time for offering sacrifice, the prophet Elijah came forward and said, "LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things by your command.37 Answer me, LORD! Answer me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to their senses."38 The LORD'S fire came down and consumed the holocaust, wood, stones, and dust, and it lapped up the water in the trench.39 Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said, "The LORD is God! The LORD is God!"40 Then Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Let none of them escape!" They were seized, and Elijah had them brought down to the brook Kishon and there he slit their throats.
41 Elijah then said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain."42 So Ahab went up to eat and drink, while Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, crouched down to the earth, and put his head between his knees.43 "Climb up and look out to sea," he directed his servant, who went up and looked, but reported, "There is nothing." Seven times he said, "Go look again!"44 And the seventh time the youth reported, "There is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising from the sea." Elijah said, "Go and say to Ahab, 'Harness up and leave the mountain before the rain stops you.'"45 In a trice, the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and a heavy rain fell. Ahab mounted his chariot and made for Jezreel.46 But the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, who girded up his clothing and ran before Ahab as far as the approaches to Jezreel.
191 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done-- that he had put all the prophets to the sword.2 Jezebel then sent a messenger to Elijah and said, "May the gods do thus and so to me if by this time tomorrow I have not done with your life what was done to each of them."3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life, going to Beer-sheba of Judah. He left his servant there4 and went a day's journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death: "This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers."5 He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat.6 He looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again,7 but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, "Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!"8 He got up, ate and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.9 There he came to a cave, where he took shelter. But the word of the LORD came to him, "Why are you here, Elijah?"10 He answered: "I have been most zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life."
11 Then the LORD said, "Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by." A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD-- but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake-- but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake there was fire-- but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.13 When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, "Elijah, why are you here?"14 He replied, "I have been most zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. But the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life."15 "Go, take the road back to the desert near Damascus," the LORD said to him. "When you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king of Aram. 16 Then you shall anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, as king of Israel, and Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, as prophet to succeed you.17 If anyone escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill him. If he escapes the sword if Jehu, Elisha will kill him.18 Yet I will leave seven thousand men in Israel-- all those who have not knelt to Baal or kissed him."
19 Elijah set out, and came upon Elisha, son of Shaphat, as he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen; he was following the twelfth. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak over him. 20 Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, "Please, let me kiss my father and mother good-bye, and I will follow you." "Go back!" Elijah answered. "Have I done anything to you?"21 Elisha left him and, taking the yoke of oxen, slaughtered them; he used the plowing equipment for fuel to boil their flesh, and gave it to his people to eat. Then he left and followed Elijah as his attendant.
201 Ben-hadad, king of Aram, gathered all his forces, and accompanied by thirty-two kings with horses and chariotry, proceeded to invest and attack Samaria.2 He sent couriers to Ahab, king of Israel, within the city,3 and said to him, "This is Ben-hadad's message: 'Your silver and gold are mine, and your wives and your promising sons are mine.'"4 The king of Israel answered, "As you say, my lord king, I and all I have are yours."5 But the couriers came again and said, "This is Ben-hadad's message: 'I sent you word to give me your silver and gold, your wives and your sons.6 Now, however, at this time tomorrow I will send my servants to you, and they shall ransack your house and the houses of your servants. They shall seize and take away whatever they consider valuable.'"7 The king of Israel then summoned all the elders of the land and said: "Understand clearly that this man wants to ruin us. When he sent to me for my wives and sons, my silver and my gold, I did not refuse him."8 All the elders and all the people said to him, "Do not listen. Do not give in."9 Accordingly he directed the couriers of Ben-hadad, "Say to my lord the king, 'I will do all that you demanded of your servant the first time. But this I cannot do.'" The couriers left and reported this.10 Ben-hadad then sent him the message, "May the gods do thus and so to me if there is enough dust in Samaria to make handfuls for all my followers."11 The king of Israel replied, "Tell him, 'It is not for the man who is buckling his armor to boast as though he were taking it off.'"12 Ben-hadad was drinking in the pavilions with the kings when he heard this reply. "Prepare the assault," he commanded his servants; and they made ready to storm the city.
13 Then a prophet came up to Ahab, king of Israel and said: "The LORD says, 'Do you see all this huge army? When I deliver it up to you today, you will know that I am the LORD.'"14 But Ahab asked, "Through whom will it be delivered up?" He answered, "The LORD says, 'Through the retainers of the governors of the provinces.'" Then Ahab asked, "Who is to attack?" He replied, "You are."15 So Ahab called up the retainers of the governors of the provinces, two hundred thirty-two of them. Behind them he mustered all the Israelite soldiery, who numbered seven thousand.16 They marched out at noon, while Ben-hadad was drinking heavily in the pavilions with the thirty-two kings who were his allies.17 When the retainers of the governors of the provinces marched out first, Ben-hadad received word that some men had marched out of Samaria.18 He answered, "Whether they have come out for peace or for war, in any case take them alive."19 But when these had come out of the city-the soldiers of the governors of the provinces with the army following them-- 20 each of them struck down his man. The Arameans fled with Israel pursuing them, while Ben-hadad, king of Aram, escaped on a chariot steed.21 The king of Israel went out, took the horses and chariots, and inflicted a severe defeat on Aram.22 Then the prophet went up to the king of Israel and said to him: "Go, regroup your forces. Mark well what you do, for at the beginning of the year the king of Aram will attack you."
23 On the other hand, the servants of the king of Aram said to him: "Their gods are gods of mountains. That is why they defeated us. But if we fight them on level ground, we shall be sure to defeat them.24 This is what you must do: Take the kings from their posts and put prefects in their places.25 Mobilize an army as large as the army that has deserted you, horse for horse, chariot for chariot. Let us fight them on level ground, and we shall surely defeat them." He took their advice and did this.26 At the beginning of the year, Ben-hadad mobilized Aram and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.27 The Israelites, too, were called to arms and supplied with provisions; then they went out to engage the foe. The Israelites, encamped opposite them, seemed like a couple of small flocks of goats, while Aram covered the countryside.28 A man of God came up and said to the king of Israel: "The LORD says, 'Because Aram has said the LORD is a god of mountains, not a god of plains, I will deliver up to you all this large army, that you may know I am the LORD.'"29 They were encamped opposite each other for seven days. On the seventh day battle was joined, and the Israelites struck down one hundred thousand foot soldiers of Aram in one day.30 The survivors, twenty-seven thousand of them, fled into the city of Aphek, and there the wall collapsed. Ben-hadad, too, fled, and took refuge within the city, in an inside room.31 His servants said to him: "We have heard that the kings of the land of Israel are merciful kings. Allow us, therefore, to garb ourselves in sackcloth, with cords around our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life."32 So they dressed in sackcloth girded at the waist, and wearing cords around their heads, they went to the king of Israel. "Your servant Ben-hadad pleads for his life," they said. "Is he still alive?" the king asked. "He is my brother."33 Hearing this as a good omen, the men quickly took him at his word and said, "Ben-hadad is your brother." He answered, "Go and get him." When Ben-hadad came out to him, the king had him mount his chariot.34 Ben-hadad said to him, "I will restore the cities which my father took from your father, and you may make yourself bazaars in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria." "On these terms," Ahab replied, "I will set you free." So he made an agreement with him and then set him free.
35 One of the guild prophets was prompted by the LORD to say to his companion, "Strike me." But he refused to strike him.36 Then he said to him, "Since you did not obey the voice of the LORD, a lion will kill you when you leave me." When they parted company, a lion came upon him and killed him.37 The prophet met another man and said, "Strike me." The man struck him a blow and wounded him.38 The prophet went on and waited for the king on the road, having disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes.39 As the king was passing, he called out to the king and said: "Your servant went into the thick of the battle, and suddenly someone turned and brought me a man and said, 'Guard this man. If he is missing, you shall have to pay for his life with your life or pay out a talent of silver.'40 But while your servant was looking here and there, the man disappeared." The king of Israel said to him, "That is your sentence. You have decided it yourself."41 He immediately removed the bandage from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets.42 He said to him: "The LORD says, 'Because you have set free the man I doomed to destruction, your life shall pay for his life, your people for his people.'"43 Disturbed and angry, the king of Israel went off homeward and entered Samaria.
211 Some time after this, as Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel next to the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria,2 Ahab said to Naboth, "Give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden, since it is close by, next to my house. I will give you a better vineyard in exchange, or, if you prefer, I will give you its value in money."3 "The LORD forbid," Naboth answered him, "that I should give you my ancestral heritage."4 Ahab went home disturbed and angry at the answer Naboth the Jezreelite had made to him: "I will not give you my ancestral heritage." Lying down on his bed, he turned away from food and would not eat.5 His wife Jezebel came to him and said to him, "Why are you so angry that you will not eat?"6 He answered her, "Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, 'Sell me your vineyard, or, if you prefer, I will give you a vineyard in exchange.' But he refused to let me have his vineyard."7 "A fine ruler over Israel you are indeed!" his wife Jezebel said to him. "Get up. Eat and be cheerful. I will obtain the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite for you."8 So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and, having sealed them with his seal, sent them to the elders and to the nobles who lived in the same city with Naboth.9 This is what she wrote in the letters: "Proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people.10 Next, get two scoundrels to face him and accuse him of having cursed God and king. Then take him out and stone him to death."11 His fellow citizens-- the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city-- did as Jezebel had ordered them in writing, through the letters she had sent them.12 They proclaimed a fast and placed Naboth at the head of the people.13 Two scoundrels came in and confronted him with the accusation, "Naboth has cursed God and king." And they led him out of the city and stoned him to death.14 Then they sent the information to Jezebel that Naboth had been stoned to death.15 When Jezebel learned that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, "Go on, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite which he refused to sell you, because Naboth is not alive, but dead."16 On hearing that Naboth was dead, Ahab started off on his way down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
17 But the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite:18 "Start down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He will be in the vineyard of Naboth, of which he has come to take possession.19 This is what you shall tell him, 'The LORD says: After murdering, do you also take possession? For this, the LORD says: In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dogs shall lick up your blood, too.'" 20 "Have you found me out, my enemy?" Ahab said to Elijah. "Yes," he answered. "Because you have given yourself up to doing evil in the LORD'S sight, 21 I am bringing evil upon you: I will destroy you and will cut off every male in Ahab's line, whether slave or freeman, in Israel.22 I will make your house like that of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and like that of Baasha, son of Ahijah, because of how you have provoked me by leading Israel into sin."23 (Against Jezebel, too, the LORD declared, "The dogs shall devour Jezebel in the district of Jezreel.")24 "When one of Ahab's line dies in the city, dogs will devour him; when one of them dies in the field, the birds of the sky will devour him."25 Indeed, no one gave himself up to the doing of evil in the sight of the LORD as did Ahab, urged on by his wife Jezebel.26 He became completely abominable by following idols, just as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD drove out before the Israelites.27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his garments and put on sackcloth over his bare flesh. He fasted, slept in the sackcloth, and went about subdued.28 Then the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite,29 "Have you seen that Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his time. I will bring the evil upon his house during the reign of his son."
221 Three years passed without war between Aram and Israel.2 In the third year, however, King Jehoshaphat of Judah came down to the king of Israel,3 who said to his servants, "Do you not know that Ramoth-gilead is ours and we are doing nothing to take it from the king of Aram?"4 He asked Jehoshaphat, "Will you come with me to fight against Ramoth-gilead?" Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, "You and I are as one, and your people and my people, your horses and my horses as well."5 Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, "Seek the word of the LORD at once."6 The king of Israel gathered together the prophets, about four hundred of them, and asked, "Shall I go to attack Ramoth-gilead or shall I refrain?" "Go up," they answered. "The LORD will deliver it over to the king."7 But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there no other prophet of the LORD here whom we may consult?"8 The king of Israel answered, "There is one other through whom we might consult the LORD, Micaiah, son of Imlah; but I hate him because he prophesies not good but evil about me." Jehoshaphat said, "Let not your majesty speak of evil against you."9 So the king of Israel called an official and said to him, "Get Micaiah, son of Imlah, at once."10 The king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were seated, each on his throne, clothed in their robes of state on a threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them.11 Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, made himself horns of iron and said, "The LORD says, 'With these you shall gore Aram until you have destroyed them.'"12 The other prophets prophesied in a similar vein, saying: "Go up to Ramoth-gilead; you shall succeed. The LORD will deliver it over to the king."
13 The messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him, "Look now, the prophets are unanimously predicting good for the king. Let your word be the same as any of theirs; predict good."14 "As the LORD lives," Micaiah answered, "I shall say whatever the LORD tells me."15 When he came to the king, the king said to him, "Micaiah, shall we go to fight against Ramoth-gilead, or shall we refrain?" "Go up," he answered, "you shall succeed! The LORD will deliver it over to the king."16 But the king answered him, "How many times must I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?"17 So Micaiah said: "I see all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD saying, 'These have no master! Let each of them go back home in peace.'"18 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you he prophesies not good but evil about me?"19 Micaiah continued: "Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD seated on his throne, with the whole host of heaven standing by to his right and to his left. 20 The LORD asked, 'Who will deceive Ahab, so that he will go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one said this, another that,21 until one of the spirits came forth and presented himself to the LORD, saying, 'I will deceive him.' The LORD asked, 'How?'22 He answered, 'I will go forth and become a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.' The LORD replied, 'You shall succeed in deceiving him. Go forth and do this.'23 So now, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, but the LORD himself has decreed evil against you."24 Thereupon Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, came up and slapped Micaiah on the cheek, saying, "Has the spirit of the LORD, then, left me to speak with you?"25 "You shall find out," Micaiah replied, "on that day when you retreat into an inside room to hide."26 The king of Israel then said, "Seize Micaiah and take him back to Amon, prefect of the city, and to Joash, the king's son,27 and say, 'This is the king's order: Put this man in prison and feed him scanty rations of bread and water until I return in safety.'"28 But Micaiah said, "If ever you return in safety, the LORD has not spoken through me."
29 The king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead,30 and the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you put on your own clothes." So the king of Israel disguised himself and entered the fray.31 In the meantime the king of Aram had given his thirty-two chariot commanders the order, "Do not fight with anyone at all except the king of Israel."32 When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they cried out, "That must be the king of Israel!" and shifted to fight him. But Jehoshaphat shouted his battle cry,33 and the chariot commanders, aware that he was not the king of Israel, gave up pursuit of him.34 Someone, however, drew his bow at random, and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his breastplate. He ordered his charioteer, "Rein about and take me out of the ranks, for I am disabled."35 The battle grew fierce during the day, and the king, who was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans, died in the evening. The blood from his wound flowed to the bottom of the chariot.36 At sunset a cry went through the army, "Every man to his city, every man to his land,37 for the king is dead!" So they went to Samaria, where they buried the king.38 When the chariot was washed at the pool of Samaria, the dogs licked up his blood and harlots bathed there, as the LORD had prophesied.39 The rest of the acts of Ahab, with all that he did, including the ivory palace and all the cities he built, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.40 Ahab rested with his ancestors, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.
41 Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel.42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah, daughter of Shilhi.43 He followed all the ways of his father Asa unswervingly, doing what was right in the LORD'S sight.44 Nevertheless, the high places did not disappear, and the people continued to sacrifice and to burn incense on the high places.45 Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel.46 The rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, with his prowess, what he did and how he fought, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.47 He removed from the land the rest of the cult prostitutes who had remained in the reign of his father Asa.48 There was no king in Edom, but an appointed regent.49 Jehoshaphat made Tarshish ships to go to Ophir for gold; but in fact the ships did not go, because they were wrecked at Ezion-geber.50 Then Ahaziah, son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, "Let my servants accompany your servants in the ships." But Jehoshaphat would not agree.
51 Jehoshaphat rested with his ancestors; he was buried in his forefathers' City of David. His son Jehoram succeeded him as king.52 Ahaziah, son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah; he reigned two years over Israel. 53 He did evil in the sight of the LORD, behaving like his father, his mother, and Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.54 He served and worshiped Baal, thus provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, just as his father had done.
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