2 Chronicles 20–21

CHAPTER 20

War Against Judah

¹Now it happened after this, that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the ^1aAmmonites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat.

²Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, out of ¹Aram and behold, they are in ^aHazazon-tamar (that is Engedi).”

³And Jehoshaphat was afraid and ^1aset his face to seek Yahweh, and ^bcalled for a fast throughout all Judah.

⁴So Judah gathered together to ^aseek help from Yahweh; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek Yahweh.

Jehoshaphat Before the Assembly

⁵Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of Yahweh before the new court,

⁶and he said, “O Yahweh, the God of our fathers, ^aare You not God in the heavens? And ^bare You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can take their stand against You.

⁷“Did You not, O our God, dispossess the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and ^agive it to the seed of ^bAbraham Your friend forever?

⁸“And they have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying,

⁹‘^aShould evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for ^bYour name is in this house) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and save us.’

¹⁰“So now, behold, ^athe sons of Ammon and Moab and ¹Mount Seir, ^bwhom You did not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt (they turned aside from them and did not destroy them),

¹¹and behold, they are rewarding us by ^acoming to drive us out from Your possession which You have caused us to possess.

¹²“O our God, ^awill You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; and we do not know what we should do, but ^bour eyes are on You.”

¹³Now all Judah was standing before Yahweh, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

Yahweh’s Spirit Comes upon Jahaziel

¹⁴Then in the midst of the assembly ^athe Spirit of Yahweh came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite of the sons of Asaph;

¹⁵and he said, “Pay attention, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: thus says Yahweh to you, ‘^aDo not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for ^bthe battle is not yours but God’s.

¹⁶‘Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the valley in front of the wilderness of Jeruel.

¹⁷‘You need not fight in this battle; take your stand—^astand and see the salvation of Yahweh on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, ^bfor Yahweh is with you.”

¹⁸So Jehoshaphat ^abowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before Yahweh, worshiping Yahweh.

¹⁹Then the Levites, from the sons of the Kohathites and of the sons of the Korahites, rose up to praise Yahweh, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.

Yahweh Eradicates the Multitude

²⁰And they rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa; and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, ^aestablish your faith in Yahweh your God and you will be established. Establish your faith in His prophets and succeed.”

²¹When he had taken counsel with the people, he caused those who sang to Yahweh and those who ^apraised Him to stand in holy attire, as they went out before the army, saying, “^bGive thanks to Yahweh, for His lovingkindness endures forever.”

²²When they began singing for joy and praising, Yahweh ^aset ambushes against the sons of ^bAmmon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were ¹defeated.

²³Indeed, the sons of Ammon and Moab stood against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to devote them to destruction and to utterly eradicate them; and when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, ^athey helped to bring one another to ruin.

²⁴Now Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness, and they turned toward the multitude, and behold, they were corpses fallen on the ground, and no one had escaped.

²⁵So Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil and found much among them, including goods, ¹garments, and valuable things which they took for themselves, more than they could carry. And they were three days taking the spoil because there was so much.

Jehoshaphat Returns to Jerusalem

²⁶Then on the fourth day they assembled in the valley of ¹Beracah, for there they blessed Yahweh. Therefore they have named that place “The Valley of ²Beracah” until today.

²⁷And every man of Judah and Jerusalem returned with Jehoshaphat at their head, returning to Jerusalem with gladness, ^afor Yahweh had made them glad over their enemies.

²⁸And they came to Jerusalem with harps, lyres, and trumpets to the house of Yahweh.

²⁹And ^athe dread of God was on all the kingdoms of the lands when they heard that Yahweh had fought against the enemies of Israel.

³⁰So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was quiet, ^afor his God gave him rest all around.

^31aThus Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years. And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.

³²And he walked in the way of his father Asa and did not turn away from it, doing what is right in the sight of Yahweh.

^33aThe high places, however, were not taken away; ^bthe people had not yet set their hearts to the God of their fathers.

³⁴Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first ¹to last, behold, they are written in the chronicles of ^aJehu the son of Hanani, which is ²recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel.

Jehoshaphat Allies with Ahaziah

^35aAfterwards, Jehoshaphat king of Judah allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel. He acted wickedly ¹in so doing.

³⁶So he allied himself with him to make ships to go ^ato Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion-geber.

³⁷Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat saying, “Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, Yahweh has destroyed your works.” So the ships were broken and could not go to Tarshish.

CHAPTER 21

Jehoram Reigns over Judah

^1aAnd Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Jehoram his son became king in his place.

²Now he had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, ¹Azaryahu, Michael, and Shephatiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king ^aof Israel.

³And their father gave them many gifts of silver, gold, and precious things, ^awith fortified cities in Judah, but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn.

⁴So Jehoram arose over the kingdom of his father and strengthened himself, and he ^akilled all his brothers with the sword, and some of the commanders of Israel also.

^5aJehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

^6aAnd he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, ^bfor Ahab’s daughter was his wife; and he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

⁷However, Yahweh was not willing to make the house of David a ruin because of the covenant which He had cut with David, ^aand since He had promised to give a lamp to him and his sons forever.

Revolt Against Judah

⁸In his days ^aEdom revolted from under the hand of Judah and made a king over themselves.

⁹Then Jehoram crossed over with his commanders and all his chariots with him. And he arose by night and struck down the Edomites who were surrounding him and the commanders of the chariots.

¹⁰So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time from under his hand, because he had forsaken Yahweh, the God of his fathers.

¹¹Moreover, ^ahe made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem ^bto play the harlot and drove Judah astray.

¹²Then a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David, ‘Because ^ayou have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father ^band the ways of Asa king of Judah,

¹³but ^ahave walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot ^bas the house of Ahab played the harlot, and you ^chave also killed your brothers, ¹your own family, who were better than you,

¹⁴behold, Yahweh is going to smite your people, your sons, your wives, and all your possessions with a great ¹calamity;

¹⁵and ^ayou will suffer ¹severe sickness, a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the sickness, day by day.’”

¹⁶Then ^aYahweh stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and ^bthe Arabs who ¹bordered the Ethiopians;

¹⁷and they went up against Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions found in the king’s house together with his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except ^1aJehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.

¹⁸So after all this Yahweh smote him ^ain his bowels with an incurable sickness.

¹⁹Now it happened in the course of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels came out because of his sickness and he died with this greatly painful disease. And his people made no fire for him like ^athe fire for his fathers.

²⁰He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years; and he departed ^1awith no one’s regret, and they buried him in the city of David, ^bbut not in the tombs of the kings.