2 Chronicles 20–21

20It came to pass after this also, that the children of ^aMoab, and the children of ^bAmmon, and with them other beside the ^cAmmonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. ²Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they be in ^dHazazon-tamar, which is ^eEn-gedi. ³And Jehoshaphat feared, and set ^†himself to ^fseek the Lord, and ^gproclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. ⁴And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the Lord: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. ⁵And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, ⁶And said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou ^hGod in heaven? and ⁱrulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? ⁷Art not thou ^kour God, ^†who ^ldidst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy ^mfriend for ever? ⁸And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, ⁹ⁿIf, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand ^obefore this house, and in thy presence, (for ^pthy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help. ¹⁰And now, behold, the children of ^qAmmon and Moab and ^rmount Seir, whom thou ^swouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but ^tthey turned from them, and destroyed them not; ¹¹Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come ^uto cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. ¹²O our God, wilt thou not ^xjudge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but ^your eyes are upon thee. ¹³And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

¹⁴Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of ^zAsaph, ^acame the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation; ¹⁵And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, ^bBe not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for ^cthe battle is not yours, but God’s. ¹⁶To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the ^†cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the ^||brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. ^17dYe shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: ^bfear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: ^efor the Lord will be with you. ¹⁸And Jehoshaphat ^fbowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord. ¹⁹And the Levites, of the children of the ^gKohathites, and of the children of the ^hKorhites, stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

²⁰And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into ⁱthe wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; ^kBelieve in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. ²¹And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and ^†that should praise ^lthe beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, ^mPraise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever. ^22†And when they began ^†to sing and to praise, the Lord set ⁿambushments against the children of ^oAmmon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and ^||they were smitten. ²³For the children of ⁿAmmon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped ^†pto destroy another. ²⁴And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and ^†none escaped. ²⁵And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and ^qprecious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much. ²⁶And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of ^||Berachah; for there they blessed the Lord: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day. ²⁷Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the ^†forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; ^rfor the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. ²⁸And they came to Jerusalem with ^spsalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord. ²⁹And ^tthe fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel. ³⁰So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his ^uGod gave him rest round about.

^31xAnd Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah: he was thirty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. ³²And he walked in the way of Asa his father, and departed not from it, doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord. ³³Howbeit ^ythe high places were not taken away: for as yet the people had not ^zprepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers. ³⁴Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, ^afirst and last, behold, they are written in the ^†book of Jehu the son of Hanani, ^bwho ^†is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel. ³⁵And after this ^c*did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly: ^36||And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish: and they made the ships in Ezion-geber. ³⁷Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of ^dMareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, ^eBecause thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they ^fwere not able to go to Tarshish.

21^*Now Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Jehoram his son ^||reigned in his stead. ²And he had brethren the sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah, and Jehiel, and Zechariah, and Azariah, and Michael, and Shephatiah: all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of ^aIsrael. ³And their father gave them great gifts of silver, and of gold, and of ^bprecious things, with ^cfenced cities in Judah: but the kingdom gave he to ^||Jehoram; because he was the firstborn. ⁴Now when Jehoram was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself, and slew all his brethren with the sword, and divers also of the princes of ^aIsrael.

^5dJehoram was thirty and two years old when he ^||began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. ⁶And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab: for he had ^ethe daughter of Ahab to wife: and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord. ⁷Howbeit the Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he promised to give a ^†light to him and to his sons for ever. ^8*In his days the Edomites revolted from under the ^†dominion of Judah, and made themselves a king. ⁹Then Jehoram went forth ^fwith his princes, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and smote the Edomites which compassed him in, and the captains of the chariots. ¹⁰So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. The same time also did Libnah revolt from under his hand; because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. ¹¹Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and ^gcaused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and ^hcompelled Judah thereto.

¹²And there came a ^||writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in ⁱthe ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in ^kthe ways of Asa king of Judah, ¹³But hast walked in ^lthe way of the kings of Israel, and hast ^gmade Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the ^mwhoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also hast ⁿslain thy brethren of thy father’s house, which were ^obetter than thyself: ^14*Behold, with ^†a great plague will the Lord smite thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods: ¹⁵And thou shalt have great sickness by ^pdisease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day. ¹⁶Moreover the Lord ^qstirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the ^rPhilistines, and of the ^rArabians, that were near the ^*sEthiopians: ¹⁷And they came up into Judah, and brake into it, and ^†carried away all the ^tsubstance that was found in the king’s house, and ^uhis sons also, and his wives; so that there was never a son left him, save ^x||*Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. ^18||And after all this the Lord smote him in ^yhis bowels with an incurable disease. ¹⁹And it came to pass, that in process of time, after the end of two ^zyears, his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness: so he died of sore diseases. And his people made no burning for him, like ^athe burning of his fathers. ^20bThirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and departed ^†without being desired. Howbeit they buried him in the city of David, ^cbut not in the sepulchres of the kings.