Now then, get up! Go out and speak kindly to your servants. I swear by the Lord that if you do not go out, not a single man will remain with you overnight, and this will be a far greater disaster for you than any that has come upon you from your youth until now.”
When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king: “What share have we in David? We have no heritage in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now look to your own house, David.” So Israel went off to their tents.
Thus says the Lord: You must not go out to war against your fellow Israelites. Return home, each of you, for it is I who have brought this about. They obeyed the word of the Lord and turned back, according to the word of the Lord.
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.”
In the meantime the king of Aram had given his thirty-two chariot commanders the order, “Do not fight with anyone, great or small, except the king of Israel alone.”
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.
The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; everyone fled to their own tents. It was a disastrous defeat; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers.