Who was Zedekiah in the Bible

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    Sulhazan
    Keymaster

    Zedekiah was the False Prophet of Israel who encouraged king Ahab to go to war against Aram, the war in which his life was lost.
    Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face.
    “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go when he went from me to speak to
    you?” he asked. 1 KINGS 22:24
    Zedekiah and his four hundred companions had an easy job. Claiming
    to speak on behalf of God, they merely told the king of Israel exactly what he wanted to hear. They did not care whether the advice they dispensed corresponded to the actual will of God.
    Ahab, the infamously evil king of Israel, had invited his counterpart from Judah to join him in going to war against Aram. There was just one catch: Jehoshaphat, the southern king, wanted confirmation from the Lord. So Ahab obligingly supplied four hundred prophets who chimed,
    as if on cue, “Go, for the Lord will give [Ramoth Gilead] into the king’s hand” (1 Kings 22:6). Jehoshaphat was not falling for it – he saw through the prophetic ruse and demanded that Ahab produce a true
    prophet of the true God.
    This alone must have been enough to set Zedekiah, the ringleader of the four hundred prophets, on edge. Unfortunately for him, though, Jehoshaphat got exactly what he wanted – and perhaps more than he bargained for when Micaiah arrived. Somewhat reluctantly, Micaiah gave Ahab the real story, revealing that God, in fact, did want Ahab to attack Aram, but that it would not end well for the Israelite king.
    Micaiah accused Zedekiah of being nothing more than a mouthpiece for the “lying spirit” (1 Kings 22:23) that God had sent in order to entice Ahab into foolish combat.
    Zedekiah had heard enough. He got up and slapped Micaiah, a move designed to humiliate, and sarcastically demanded to know when God’s spirit had suddenly stopped speaking through him in order to go and whisper into Micaiah’s ear. Not one to take things lying down, Micaiah told Zedekiah that he would find out on the day he went into hiding.
    Neither prophet was heard from again.
    It is not known how and when Micaiah’s prediction against Zedekiah came to pass. However, Micaiah accurately prophesied
    Ahab’s death in battle, so it’s reasonable to assume he was right about Zedekiah, too. Zedekiah may have feared retribution, having been the one who encouraged Ahab to go to war in the first place.
    In that case, perhaps he went into hiding upon receiving word that Ahab was dead

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