And after this. — The chronicler has omitted the notice that “Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel” (1 Kings 22:44), and now he omits two other short verses of the parallel account, viz., 1 Kings 22:46-47 : “And the remnant of the sodomites, which had remained in the days of his father Asa, he consumed out of the land. There was then no king in Edom: a deputy was king.” The former omission is perfectly natural, as the Qĕdçshîm were not mentioned in Asa’s reign (comp. 1 Kings 15:12); and the latter is probably due to the fact that it was the religious aspect, and not the political antecedents, of Jehoshaphat s conduct that most interested the chronicler. Hence also the didactic tone of the following verses as compared with 1 Kings 22:48-49. The expression, “after this,” can only mean after the overthrow of the three nations (2 Chronicles 20:1-30). As Ahaziah began to reign in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat, and reigned two years (1 Kings 22:51), the league between them was formed in the seventeenth or eighteenth year of the king of Judah.
Join himself (‘ethchabbar). — An Aramaism (here only). This verse is peculiar to the chronicle.
Who did very wickedly. — He (viz., Ahaziah, the pronoun is emphatic) did very wickedly. The implied thought is: And, therefore, Jehoshaphat’s alliance was wrong. (Comp. 2 Chronicles 19:2.)