3 Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face lto seek the Lord, and mproclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, 6 and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not nGod in heaven? You orule over all the kingdoms of the nations. pIn your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. 7 Did you not, our God, qdrive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of rAbraham your friend? 8 And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, 9 s‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment,3 or pestilence, or famine, twe will stand before this house and before you—ufor your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’ 10 And now behold, the men of vAmmon and Moab and wMount Seir, whom xyou would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, yand whom they avoided and did not destroy— 11 behold, they reward us zby coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. 12 O our God, will you not aexecute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but bour eyes are on you.”

13 Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.