2 Chronicles 20:1-37 - Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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2 Chronicles 20:1. With them other, the LXX, Μιναιοι, mixed people.

2 Chronicles 20:5. Jehosphaphat stood in the house of the Lord. This was proceeding in the good and ancient way. He prayed in open courts; the men of Judah also stood with their wives and little ones.

2 Chronicles 20:14. Then, when the king had prayed, came the Spirit of the Lord upon Jahaziel, a man of distinction and piety, as is indicated by this act, and by his genealogy. He prophesied openly in the temple, and the prophecies were all fulfilled the next day! They were most remarkable prophecies, that the enemies should kill one another; for wicked men once taken in the net are furious as the wild beasts. Had these prophecies proved to be the mere reveries of insanity, Jahaziel had forfeited his life, as the law directs, and all his house and order would have been covered with a reproach that could never be wiped away. In that case the king, deceived and angry, would have ordered him for execution. But seeing all was fulfilled, how could the Jews ever after this doubt the truth of revelation.

2 Chronicles 20:36. Ships to g o to Tarshish. See on Isaiah 23:6; Ezekiel 27:12.

REFLECTIONS.

When nations become populous, haughty, and insupportably licentious, God permits war to follow, that the land, oppressed by their crimes, may disgorge them from its bosom. The cause which induced Ammon, Moab, and Edom, to form a league against Judah, and to hire all the Mehunims, or mixed nations they could, we are not told. But so secret was the plot, and so concerted the descent, that Jehoshaphat knew nothing of it till the enemy was entering his country at Engedi.

Oppressed with sudden and tremendous danger, his measures were prompt and wise. Instructed by his father's error, he sent no treasures to Benhadad; and warned by his own folly, he asked no help of Ahab; but according to the example of Samuel, he convoked his whole people, first for devotion, and then for defence. In like manner, when assailed by sudden and great calamities, let us run to God, the refuge and hidingplace of his saints; for we have no might against the multitude which cometh against us. Thus our blessed Lord met his agony on his knees, and he conquered in the fight.

The prayers of Jehoshaphat on this eventful crisis was the language of an enlightened heart. He pleads the sovereignty and omnipotence of God, he urges the covenant claims that Israel had in his defence, he asks present aids from former favours in giving Abraham the land, and in the record of his glorious name in the temple; and he forgets not the ingratitude of the invading nations whom Israel had spared on leaving Egypt, and who were now come to cut them off. These prayers were urged with the greater effect, by a sight of the little ones present before the Lord: how happy to have recourse to Him in the day of trouble. The deliverance which a believer then feels in his soul, is a pledge to him of the future deliverance from all his foes.

No sooner had the king closed his devotion than God gave him a present answer. Jahaziel, impelled by a divine impetus, could scarcely contain himself till Jehoshaphat had ended his supplication, but promised the devout assembly a victory on the morrow, even without a battle. His words were as fire among stubble. The king and all his people caught the same spirit; and passing in a moment from sorrow to joy they fell prostrate, and already celebrated the victory over the alien host. And the music joining the shouts, banished sorrow from the courts of the Lord to the camps of Moab. Tremble, oh alien hosts, for JEHOVAH is coming against you; his sword shall be bathed in blood, and carnage shall mark the wheels of his car. Where now were the lurking idolaters and infidels who would complain that a day was lost in fasting and prayer, which ought to have been employed in going forth to meet the enemy before he reached the capital? That day is not lost which gains heaven for an auxiliary. Surely they could not but now feel, that the devotion of the nation was inspired from above.

The army, divinely animated, left the city long before the break of day; and the king, standing in the gate, delivered to every man as he passed, if I may so speak, “the shield of faith,” the best barrier, and the surest pledge of victory. Hear, oh Judah, said he; believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. This was armour from the Lord; and their carnal weapons were now but an encumbrance.

Mark how the Lord managed for his people, and entangled the wicked in their own net. The enemy expecting Jehoshaphat in the plain, had arranged his plans of battle, and caused Seir or Edom circuitously to advance in ambush, and take the king in the rear. But it was God that set the ambush; for the host of Ammon and Moab, mistaking the Edomites for the army of Judah, cut them off; and on the dawn of day perceiving their mistake, and seeing the army of Judah daringly approach, both those nations fled to the defiles, where for want of room the one cut its way through the other. Thus the Lord gave them the victory, and the enemies' spoil for a reward. How happy for a nation when God undertakes its defence. Let our fears subside, and let us rejoice, for God will defend his Zion, and make her his inheritance for ever.

But after all this reformation and fasting, and after this most signal victory, we lament to find in Judah the roots of secret idolatry, ready to germinate whensoever the civil power should remit its vigour. Well, oh land, if neither judgments nor mercies will root out thine idols, go on, go on in thy sins; but remember the threatenings of the covenant, that God will root out thine inhabitants. Jehoshaphat had not resolution to remain firm in keeping separate from Ahab. Having taken the bloody daughter of the bloody Jezebel to be wife to his son, he seemed entangled. Though on the first solicitations to renew the fleet at Ezion-gaber to go to Tarshish, he refused, yet he yielded to future applications. But God, who would not prosper the covenant, wrecked the fleet on its leaving the port. Learn, believer, to persevere in keeping clean hands from improper connections with the wicked, and God will give thee a pure heart.

Related Commentaries of 2 Chronicles 20:1

2 Chronicles 20:1-37

1 It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.

2 Then 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 Hazazontamar, which is Engedi.

3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himselfa to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

4 And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.

5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court,

6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest 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?

7 Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?

8 And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying,

9 If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.

10 And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not;

11 Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit.

12 O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.

13 And all Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

14 Then 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, came the Spirit of the LORD in the midst of the congregation;

15 And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.

16 To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliffb of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel.

17 Ye 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: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you.

18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshipping the LORD.

19 And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

20 And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.

21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.

22 And whenc they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.

23 For the children of Ammon 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 to destroyd another.

24 And 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.

25 And 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 precious 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.

26 And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah;e for there they blessed the LORD: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day.

27 Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefrontf of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the LORD had made them to rejoice over their enemies.

28 And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the LORD.

29 And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that the LORD fought against the enemies of Israel.

30 So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about.

31 And 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.

32 And 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.

33 Howbeit the high places were not taken away: for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers.

34 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Jehug the son of Hanani, who is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel.

35 And after this 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 Eziongeber.

37 Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the LORD hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish.