2 Chronicles 20–21

Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir Defeated

20It happened after this that the people of ^aMoab with the people of ^bAmmon, and others with them besides the ^cAmmonites, ¹came to battle against Jehoshaphat. ²Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from ²Syria; and they are ^din Hazazon Tamar” (which is ^eEn Gedi). ³And Jehoshaphat feared, and set ³himself to ^fseek the Lord, and ^gproclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. ⁴So Judah gathered together to ask ^hhelp from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

⁵Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, ⁶and said: “O Lord God of our fathers, are You not ⁱGod in heaven, and ^jdo You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and ^kin Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? ⁷Are You not ^lour God, who ^mdrove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham ⁿYour friend forever? ⁸And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, ^9o‘If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your ^pname is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’ ¹⁰And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You ^qwould not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but ^rthey turned from them and did not destroy them—¹¹here they are, rewarding us ^sby coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit. ¹²O our God, will You not ^tjudge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but ^uour eyes are upon You.”

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

¹⁴Then ^vthe Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. ¹⁵And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ^w‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, ^xfor the battle is not yours, but God’s. ¹⁶Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the ⁴brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. ^17yYou will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, ^zfor the Lord is with you.”

¹⁸And Jehoshaphat ^abowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. ¹⁹Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.

²⁰So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: ^bBelieve in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” ²¹And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, ^cand who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:

^d“Praise the Lord,

^eFor His mercy endures forever.”

²²Now when they began to sing and to praise, ^fthe Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. ²³For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they ⁵had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, ^gthey helped to destroy one another.

²⁴So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.

²⁵When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on the ⁶dead bodies, and precious jewelry, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much. ²⁶And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of ⁷Berachah, for there they blessed the Lord; therefore the name of that place was called The Valley of Berachah until this day. ²⁷Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat in front of them, to go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had ^hmade them rejoice over their enemies. ²⁸So they came to Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of the Lord. ²⁹And ⁱthe fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. ³⁰Then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his ^jGod gave him rest all around.

The End of Jehoshaphat’s Reign

^31kSo Jehoshaphat was king over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. ³²And he walked in the way of his father ^lAsa, and did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. ³³Nevertheless ^mthe ⁸high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not ⁿdirected their hearts to the God of their fathers.

³⁴Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, indeed they are written in the book of Jehu the son of Hanani, ^owhich is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel.

³⁵After this ^pJehoshaphat king of Judah allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, ^qwho acted very ^rwickedly. ³⁶And he allied himself with him ^sto make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion Geber. ³⁷But Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the Lord has destroyed your works.” ^tThen the ships were wrecked, so that they were not able to go ^uto Tarshish.

Jehoram Reigns in Judah

21And ^aJehoshaphat ¹rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Jehoram his son reigned in his place. ²He had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azaryahu, Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel. ³Their father gave them great gifts of silver and gold and precious things, with fortified cities in Judah; but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn.

⁴Now when Jehoram ²was established over the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself and killed all his brothers with the sword, and also others of the princes of Israel.

^5bJehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. ⁶And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for he had the daughter of ^cAhab as a wife; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. ⁷Yet the Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the ^dcovenant that He had made with David, and since He had promised to give a lamp to him and to his ^esons forever.

^8fIn his days Edom revolted against Judah’s authority, and made a king over themselves. ⁹So Jehoram went out with his officers, and all his chariots with him. And he rose by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots. ¹⁰Thus Edom has been in revolt against Judah’s authority to this day. At that time Libnah revolted against his rule, because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. ¹¹Moreover he made ³high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to ^gcommit harlotry, and led Judah astray.

¹²And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying,

Thus says the Lord God of your father David:

Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, ¹³but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have ^hmade Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to ⁱplay the harlot like the ^jharlotry of the house of Ahab, and also have ^kkilled your brothers, those of your father’s household, who were better than yourself, ¹⁴behold, the Lord will strike your people with a serious affliction—your children, your wives, and all your possessions; ¹⁵and you will become very sick with a ^ldisease of your intestines, until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness, day by day.

¹⁶Moreover the ^mLord ⁿstirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the ^oArabians who were near the Ethiopians. ¹⁷And they came up into Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions that were found in the king’s house, and also ^phis sons and his wives, so that there was not a son left to him except ⁴Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.

¹⁸After all this the Lord struck him ^qin his intestines with an incurable disease. ¹⁹Then it happened in the course of time, after the end of two years, that his intestines came out because of his sickness; so he died in severe pain. And his people made no ⁵burning for him, like ^rthe burning for his fathers.

²⁰He was thirty-two years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem eight years and, to no one’s sorrow, departed. However they buried him in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.