The Army Sings, and the Coalition Falls Apart

“Other beside the Ammonites” renders a Hebrew phrase that repeats Ammon and makes little sense. The Greek translation read “Meunites”, a people of the Seir region who appear again under Uzziah (26:7, “Mehunims”), and most translators follow it. Verse 10 names the third party as mount Seir.

“The sea” is the Dead Sea, and the army is coming round its southern end. “Syria”, Aram in Hebrew, differs from Edom by a single, easily confused letter, and Edom fits the geography far better; many read Edom. Hazazon-tamar, “the gravel of the palm”, is named in Genesis 14:7 in the days of Abraham.

“Set himself” is literally “set his face”, a phrase of fixed intent. This is the first public fast in the book. The verb here is darash, the seeking that has been the measure of every king since Rehoboam.

Both “to ask help” and “to seek” in this verse translate bakkesh, a different verb from the darash of verse 3: to search for, to beg. The people come from the towns that had been visited by the teaching mission of 17:9, and now they come to Jerusalem.

Jehoshaphat stands before the assembly in the temple court as Solomon did to pray at the dedication (6:12–13). “The new court” is otherwise unknown; it is probably the great court of 4:9 after some rebuilding. A king leads the prayer himself, in front of the people rather than behind the priests.

The questions are statements in disguise. The last one borrows David’s own blessing at the close of his reign: “in thine hand is power and might” (1 Chronicles 29:12). “The heathen” is simply the nations, goyim, the peoples who are now marching on Judah.

“Abraham thy friend” is literally “Abraham who loved thee”. The title passes into Isaiah 41:8, “Abraham my friend”, and into James 2:23, where he is “called the Friend of God”. The land is presented as a gift made to that friendship, “for ever”.

The builders are credited with the prayer as they built, “saying”, though what follows is Solomon’s dedication prayer compressed into a sentence. Solomon is not named; the temple is the work of the whole people who “dwelt therein”.

Four disasters are named, close to Ezekiel’s “four sore judgments” (Ezekiel 14:21). “Judgment” is shefot, a rare word; some suggest reading it with the sword as “the sword of judgment”, others emend it to “flood”. The parenthesis, “thy name is in this house”, is the ground of the whole appeal.

Seir is the mountain country of Edom, Esau’s land (Genesis 36:8). When Edom refused Israel passage in the wilderness, “Israel turned away from him” (Numbers 20:21), the same verb as “they turned from them” here. Israel had kept faith with its kin and its neighbours.

“Reward” is gamal, to repay, used ironically: this is the return for being spared. “Thy possession” makes the land God’s property, which Israel holds only “to inherit”. The complaint is that they are coming to evict the LORD’s tenants.

A king whose name means “the LORD judges” asks, “wilt thou not judge them?” “Our eyes are upon thee” is the posture of Psalm 25:15, “mine eyes are ever toward the LORD.” The verse moves from a legal appeal to an admission of having no plan.

“Little ones” is taf, toddlers, distinguished from the older children, banim. The people do literally what the prayer of verse 9 described: they “stand before this house”. No one is said to speak, and the scene waits.

The genealogy runs five generations back to Mattaniah, the most careful credential given to any prophet in the book. Jahaziel is a temple singer of Asaph’s line, and 1 Chronicles 25:1 says Asaph’s sons were set apart to “prophesy with harps”. The Spirit comes on him “in the midst”, not from the platform.

“The battle is not yours, but God’s” echoes David facing Goliath: “the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands” (1 Samuel 17:47). “Be not afraid nor dismayed” is the charge given to Joshua (Joshua 1:9), now spoken to the whole people and their king at once.

The cliff of Ziz is an ascent from the Dead Sea shore, probably the Wadi Hasasa pass north of Engedi, which preserves something of the name. “The end of the brook” means the head of a wadi. The wilderness of Jeruel is named nowhere else. The prophet gives a map reference.

“Ye shall not need to fight” is literally “it is not for you to fight.” “Set yourselves” is the verb of soldiers taking their positions: Judah is to form its ranks and then do nothing with them. The oracle closes by repeating its opening, “fear not, nor be dismayed”, and adding the reason: the LORD with you.

The king goes down first and the people follow him. Jehoshaphat’s head touching the ground before any sign of victory answers the admission in verse 12: this is worship offered on a promise alone.

The Korhites are the descendants of Korah, who rebelled against Moses in Numbers 16 and was swallowed by the earth; “the children of Korah died not” (Numbers 26:11), and their line became temple singers. Eleven psalms bear their name, among them Psalms 42, 46 and 84.

Tekoa is the edge of the wilderness above the Dead Sea. Jehoshaphat’s saying is a Hebrew pun, haaminu... teamenu, “believe... be established”, the same play Isaiah makes to Ahaz: “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established” (Isaiah 7:9). Both words come from the root of “amen”.

“The beauty of holiness” is hadrat qodesh, which may mean holy splendour or “holy attire”, the singers’ vestments (Psalm 29:2). The refrain “for his mercy endureth for ever” is the line of Psalm 136, sung when the ark came into Solomon’s temple (5:13). The king consults the people before sending the choir first.

“When they began” is precise in Hebrew, at the very moment. The singing is rinnah, a ringing shout of joy, where Abijah’s army raised the war cry, teruah, in 13:15. “They were smitten” has no human subject.

“Utterly to slay and destroy” uses haram, to devote to destruction, the ban Israel was once commanded to carry out on Canaan. Here the invaders apply it to their own ally. The collapse recalls Gideon’s night, when “the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow” (Judges 7:22).

The “watch tower” is a lookout point, mitspeh, from which the wilderness below could be seen. “None escaped” is literally “there was no remnant”. The view from the height is the whole battle account as far as Judah sees it.

Where the King James reads “riches with the dead bodies”, several Hebrew manuscripts and the Latin read “riches and garments”: pegarim, corpses, and begadim, clothes, differ by one letter. “Precious jewels” is literally “desirable vessels”. Three days of gathering is the only labour Judah performs in the whole campaign.

Berachah means blessing, and the name survives in Wadi Bereikut, between Tekoa and Hebron. “Unto this day” means the place still bore the name when the Book of 2 Chronicles was compiled. The assembly is a service of thanks held on the field before anyone goes home.

The king who sent singers “before the army” now walks “in the forefront”, literally at the head of them. The verse says “joy” and then “rejoice” in one breath, and credits even the gladness to the LORD: he “had made them to rejoice”.

Psalteries (nevel, a larger harp), harps (kinnor, a lyre) and trumpets are the instruments David set before the ark (1 Chronicles 15:28, 16:5–6). The procession ends where the fast began, at the house of the LORD.

“The LORD fought” recalls Moses at the Red Sea, “The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (Exodus 14:14), and Joshua 10:14, “the LORD fought for Israel.” Judah is again called “Israel”. The nations did not see the battle; they heard of it.

Rest from “all your enemies round about” is the condition Deuteronomy 12:10 sets for the settled life in the land. With this verse Jehoshaphat’s deeds end, and the formal summary of his reign follows, placed at the close of his account rather than at the start as in 1 Kings 22:41–43.

Thirty-five at accession and twenty-five years on the throne. His mother Azubah’s name means “forsaken”, the name Isaiah 62:4 promises Zion will no longer bear. Shilhi is unknown. These figures, found also in 1 Kings 22:42, include a period of co-regency with Asa on most reckonings.

Jehoshaphat is measured against his father, not against David, as in 1 Kings 22:43. “Departed not from it” implies the good Asa of chapters 14–15. The Book of 2 Chronicles has shown him departing from sound judgment twice already without departing from the way.

1 Kings 22:43 says “the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places.” The Book of 2 Chronicles turns that report into a diagnosis: the people “had not prepared their hearts”. The phrase is the same one used in 19:3 of the king himself, who had done what they had not.

The book of Jehu son of Hanani was “mentioned”, literally “taken up” or included, in the book of the kings of Israel: a prophet’s record incorporated into a larger royal history. If it is the same Jehu, he was active from Baasha’s reign to Jehoshaphat’s death, some forty years.

Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, reigned only two years (1 Kings 22:51), which dates the venture narrowly. “Who did very wickedly” can also be read of Jehoshaphat, “he did wickedly in doing so”; the Hebrew allows either. “Join himself” is havar, to become partners, and it is said three times in verses 35–37.

1 Kings 22:48 speaks of “ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold”: large sea-going ships of a type named after a western port. Ezion-geber sat on the Gulf of Aqaba, Solomon’s port (8:17), from which no ship could sail to Tarshish in the Mediterranean; the Book of 2 Chronicles reads the name as a destination.

Eliezer of Mareshah appears only here. “Broken” is paratz, to make a breach, and the ships are then shattered, perhaps on the reefs at the head of the gulf. Kings adds that Jehoshaphat afterwards refused Ahaziah’s offer to crew a second fleet (1 Kings 22:49); Chronicles ends on the wreck.