And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem.
Jehoshaphat ... returned to his house in peace - (see the note at 2 Chronicles 18:16.) Not long after he had resumed the ordinary functions of royalty Jerusalem, he was one day disturbed by an unexpected and ominous visit from a prophet of the Lord. This was Jehu, of whose father a notice occurred, 2 Chronicles 16:7. He himself had been called to discharge the prophetic office in Israel; but probably for his bold rebuke to Baasha (1 Kings 16:1) had been driven by that arbitrary monarch within the territory of Judah, where we now find him, with the privileged license of his order, taking the same religious supervision of Jehoshaphat's proceedings as he had formerly done of Baasha's.
At the interview here described, he condemned in the strongest terms the king of Judah's imprudent and incongruous league with Ahab, God's open enemy (1 Kings 22:2), as an unholy alliance that would be conducive neither to the honour and comfort of his house nor to the best interests of his kingdom; and he apprized Jehoshaphat that, on account of that grave offence, 'wrath was upon him from before the Lord'-a judgment that was inflicted soon after, (see the note at 2 Chronicles 20:1-37.) The prophet's rebuke, however, was administered in mingled strain of severity and mildness; because he interposed a "nevertheless" (2 Chronicles 19:3), which implied that the threatened storm would be averted, in token of the divine approval of his public efforts for the promotion of the true religion, as well as of the sincere piety of his personal character life.