1 Kings 22:41-50 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

Reigns of Jehoshaphat of Judah and Ahaziah of Israel, These reigns are related in the usual annalistic style.

1 Kings 22:47, which says there was no king in Edom, is very obscure. It seems to imply that Jehoshaphat owned Edom, and ruled by his own nominee, but in 2 Kings 3 we read of a king of Edom.

1 Kings 22:48. On Ophir and Ezion-geber, see 1 Kings 9:26; 1 Kings 9:28. The Chronicler (2 Chronicles 20:37) says that the ships were wrecked as a punishment for Jehoshaphat's alliance with the king of Israel. The book concludes abruptly, and there is no real gap between 1 and 2 K.; indeed 1 Kings 22:51-53 should really be joined to 2 Kings 1:1.

1 Kings 22:41-50

41 And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.

42 Jehoshaphat 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.

43 And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: nevertheless the high places were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places.

44 And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

45 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he shewed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

46 And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.

47 There was then no king in Edom: a deputy was king.

48 Jehoshaphat madef ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at Eziongeber.

49 Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not.

50 And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Jehoram his son reigned in his stead.