1 Kings 22

1Now for three years there was no war between Aram and Israel.

2And it came about in the third year, that Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel.

3And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you not see that Ramoth-gilead is ours? and we are doing nothing to get it back from the hands of the king of Aram.

4And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead to make war? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are: my people as your people, my horses as your horses.

5Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now get directions from the Lord.

6So the king of Israel got all the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king.

7But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the Lord here from whom we may get directions?

8And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, Micaiah, son of Imlah; but I have no love for him, for he is a prophet of evil to me and not of good. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

9Then the king of Israel sent for one of his unsexed servants and said, Go quickly and come back with Micaiah, the son of Imlah.

10Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, were seated on their seats of authority, dressed in their robes, by the doorway into Samaria; and all the prophets were acting as prophets before them.

11And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made himself horns of iron and said, The Lord says, Pushing back the Aramaeans with these, you will put an end to them completely.

12And all the prophets said the same thing, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and it will go well for you, for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king.

13Now the servant who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, See now, all the prophets with one voice are saying good things to the king; so let your words be like theirs and say good things.

14And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the Lord says to me I will say.

15When he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, are we to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And in answer he said, Go up, and it will go well for you; and the Lord will give it into the hands of the king.

16Then the king said to him, Have I not, again and again, put you on your oath to say nothing to me but what is true in the name of the Lord?

17Then he said, I saw all Israel wandering on the mountains like sheep without a keeper; and the Lord said, These have no master: let them go back, every man to his house in peace.

18And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not say that he would not be a prophet of good but of evil?

19And he said, Give ear now to the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his seat of power, with all the army of heaven in their places round him at his right hand and at his left.

20And the Lord said, How may Ahab be tricked into going up to Ramoth-gilead to his death? And one said one thing and one another.

21Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick.

22And the Lord said, How? And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so.

23And now, see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the Lord has said evil against you.

24Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, came near and gave Micaiah a blow on the side of the face, saying, Where is the spirit of the Lord whose word is in you?

25And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe.

26And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon, the ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king’s son;

27And say, It is the king’s order that this man is to be put in prison and given prison food till I come again in peace.

28And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace, the Lord has not sent his word by me.

29So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-gilead.

30And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will make a change in my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king, and will go into the fight; but do you put on your robes. So the king of Israel made a change in his dress and went into the fight.

31Now the king of Aram had given orders to the thirty-two captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel.

32So when the captains of the war-carriages saw Jehoshaphat, they said, Truly, this is the king of Israel; and turning against him, they came round him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry.

33And when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he was not the king of Israel, they went back from going after him.

34And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away out of the army, for I am badly wounded.

35But the fight became more violent while the day went on; and the king was supported in his war-carriage facing the Aramaeans, and the floor of the carriage was covered with the blood from his wound, and by evening he was dead.

36And about sundown a cry went up from all parts of the army, saying, Let every man go back to his town and his country, for the king is dead.

37And they came to Samaria, and put the king’s body to rest in Samaria.

38And the war-carriage was washed by the pool of Samaria, which was the bathing-place of the loose women, and the dogs were drinking his blood there, as the Lord had said.

39Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all he did, and his ivory house, and all the towns of which he was the builder, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

40So Ahab was put to rest with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son became king in his place.

41And Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab’s rule over Israel.

42Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he was king for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.

43He did as Asa his father had done, not turning away from it, but doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord; but the high places were not taken away: the people went on making offerings and burning them in the high places.

44And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

45Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his great power, and how he went to war, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

46He put an end to the rest of those who were used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods, all those who were still in the land in the time of his father Asa.

47At that time there was no king in Edom;

48And the representative of King Jehoshaphat made a Tarshish-ship to go to Ophir for gold, but it did not go, because it was broken at Ezion-geber.

49Then Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, Let my men go with yours in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not let them.

50Then Jehoshaphat went to rest with his fathers, and his body was put into the earth in the town of David his father; and Jehoram his son became king in his place.

51Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of the rule of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and he was king over Israel for two years.

52He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, going in the ways of his father and his mother, and in the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel do evil.

53He was a servant and worshipper of Baal, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath, as his father had done.

Amos 6

1Sorrow to those who are resting in comfort in Zion, and to those who have no fear of danger in the mountain of Samaria, the noted men of the chief of the nations, to whom the people of Israel come!

2Go on to Calneh and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: are you better than these kingdoms? or is your land wider than theirs?

3You who put far away the evil day, causing the rule of the violent to come near;

4Who are resting on beds of ivory, stretched out on soft seats, feasting on lambs from the flock and young oxen from the cattle-house;

5Making foolish songs to the sound of corded instruments, and designing for themselves instruments of music, like David;

6Drinking wine in basins, rubbing themselves with the best oils; but they have no grief for the destruction of Joseph.

7So now they will go away prisoners with the first of those who are made prisoners, and the loud cry of those who were stretched out will come to an end.

8The Lord God has taken an oath by himself, says the Lord, the God of armies: the pride of Jacob is disgusting to me, and I have hate for his great houses: so I will give up the town with everything in it.

9Then it will come about that if there are still ten men in a house, death will overtake them.

10And when a man’s relation, even the one who is responsible for burning his body, lifting him up to take his bones out of the house, says to him who is in the inmost part of the house, Is there still anyone with you? and he says, No; then he will say, Keep quiet, for the name of the Lord may not be named.

11For see, at the order of the Lord the great house will be full of cracks and the little house will be broken.

12Is it possible for horses to go running on the rock? may the sea be ploughed with oxen? for the right to be turned by you into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into a bitter plant?

13You whose joy is in a thing of no value, who say, Have we not taken for ourselves horns by the strength which is ours?

14For see, I will send against you a nation, O Israel, says the Lord, the God of armies, ruling you cruelly from the way into Hamath as far as the stream of the Arabah.

1 Corinthians 8

1Now about things offered to images: we all seem to ourselves to have knowledge. Knowledge gives pride, but love gives true strength.

2If anyone seems to himself to have knowledge, so far he has not the right sort of knowledge about anything;

3But if anyone has love for God, God has knowledge of him.

4So, then, as to the question of taking food offered to images, we are certain that an image is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.

5For though there are those who have the name of gods, in heaven or on earth, as there are a number of gods and a number of lords,

6There is for us only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we are for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we have our being through him.

7Still, all men have not that knowledge: but some, being used till now to the image, are conscious that they are taking food which has been offered to the image; and because they are not strong in the faith, their minds are troubled.

8But God’s approval of us is not based on the food we take: if we do not take it we are no worse for it; and if we take it we are no better.

9But take care that this power of yours does not give cause for trouble to the feeble.

10For if a man sees you, who have knowledge, taking food as a guest in the house of an image, will it not give him, if he is feeble, the idea that he may take food offered to images?

11And so, through your knowledge, you are the cause of destruction to your brother, for whom Christ underwent death.

12And in this way, doing evil to the brothers, and causing trouble to those whose faith is feeble, you are sinning against Christ.

13For this reason, if food is a cause of trouble to my brother, I will give up taking meat for ever, so that I may not be a cause of trouble to my brother.