Micaiah
Micaiah the son of Imlah is the prophet of Yahweh whom Ahab refuses to consult and finally summons only under Jehoshaphat's pressure. The episode is preserved in two parallel narratives — 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18 — which together give the prophet his single, sustained appearance in scripture: a courtroom-style scene in which he overturns four hundred court prophets, narrates a vision of Yahweh's heavenly council, names a lying spirit at work in his rivals, takes a blow on the cheek, and goes to prison still insisting on the truth of his word.
The king who hates him
When Jehoshaphat asks for a prophet of Yahweh, Ahab admits that one remains but warns that he detests him: "There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, Micaiah the son of Imlah: but I hate him; for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Don't let the king say so" (1Ki 22:8). The Chronicler frames the same exchange a little more sharply, with Ahab's complaint recast as a settled pattern: "There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh: but I hate him; for he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil: the same is Micaiah the son of Imla" (2Ch 18:7).
The setting is given before he arrives. Both kings sit in their robes at the gate of Samaria with all the court prophets prophesying before them, and Zedekiah son of Chenaanah enacts a sign with iron horns: "Thus says Yahweh, With these you will push the Syrians, until they are consumed" (1Ki 22:11; 2Ch 18:10). The four hundred speak with one mouth: "Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper; for Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king" (1Ki 22:12; 2Ch 18:11).
"What Yahweh says to me, that I will speak"
The messenger who fetches Micaiah pressures him toward unanimity: "Look now, the words of the prophets [declare] good to the king with one mouth: let your word, I pray you, be like the word of one of them, and speak good" (1Ki 22:13). His reply is the rule by which he will speak the rest of the scene: "As Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that I will speak" (1Ki 22:14). The Chronicler renders the answer with a slight variation: "As Yahweh lives, what my God says, that I will speak" (2Ch 18:13).
The mocking oracle and the true vision
His first answer to the king repeats the court prophets' line word for word — "Go up and prosper; and Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king" (1Ki 22:15) — and Ahab senses the mockery at once: "How many times shall I adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of Yahweh?" (1Ki 22:16). Pressed for the truth, Micaiah delivers his real word as a vision of a routed army without a commander: "I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and Yahweh said, These have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace" (1Ki 22:17; 2Ch 18:16). Ahab turns to Jehoshaphat: "Didn't I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?" (1Ki 22:18).
The heavenly council and the lying spirit
Micaiah then opens the second and weightier vision — a glimpse into Yahweh's throne-room council, where the king's defeat is already being arranged: "Therefore hear the word of Yahweh: I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And Yahweh said, Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner; and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before Yahweh, and said, I will entice him. And Yahweh said to him, How? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, You will entice him, and will prevail also: go forth, and do so" (1Ki 22:19-22).
The vision closes with the verdict turned outward on the four hundred and on Ahab himself: "Now therefore, look, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours; and Yahweh has spoken evil concerning you" (1Ki 22:23; 2Ch 18:22).
The blow and the prison
Zedekiah, head of the court prophets, strikes him: "Which way did the Spirit of Yahweh go from me to speak to you?" (1Ki 22:24). Micaiah's reply is a small, exact prediction of Zedekiah's coming flight: "Look, you will see on that day, when you will go into an inner chamber to hide yourself" (1Ki 22:25).
Ahab orders his arrest. The sentence is harsh and presumes Ahab's own safe return: "Thus says the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace" (1Ki 22:27); the Chronicler's wording shifts only the final clause: "until I return in peace" (2Ch 18:26).
"If you return at all in peace, Yahweh has not spoken by me"
Micaiah stakes his prophetic credentials on Ahab's death and turns from the king to the gathered crowd: "If you return at all in peace, Yahweh has not spoken by me. And he said, Hear, you⁺ peoples, all of you⁺" (1Ki 22:28; 2Ch 18:27). The plural address ends the scene by widening the audience past the two kings to all who have heard him.