Third Book of Kings 439
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.
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.
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.
33 And the captains of the chariots perceived
that he was not the king of Israel, and they
turned away from him.
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.
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.
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.
37 And the king died, and was carried into
Samaria: and they buried the king in Samaria.
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.
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 writ-
ten in the book of the words of the days of the
kings of Israel?
40 So Achab slept with his fathers; and
Ochozias, his son, reigned in his stead.
41 But Josaphat, the son of Asa, began to
reign over Juda, in the fourth year of Acbab,
king of Israel.
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.
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.
44 Nevertheless, he took not away the high
places for as yet the people offered sacrifice, and
burnt incense in the high places.
45 And Josaphat had peace with the king of
Israel.
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?
47 And the remnant also of the effeminate,
who remained in the days of Asa, his father, he
took out of the land.
48 And there was then no king appointed in
Edom.
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.
50 Then Ochozias, the son of Achab, said to
Josaphat: Let my servants go with thy servants
in the ships. And Josaphat would not.
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.
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.
53 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and
walked in the way of his father and his mother,