2 Chronicles 19-23New King James Version (NKJV)
19 Then Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned
safely to his house in Jerusalem. 2 And Jehu the
son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to King Jehoshaphat,
“Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Therefore
the wrath of the Lord is upon you. 3 Nevertheless
good things are found in you, in that you have removed the wooden images from
the land, and have prepared your heart to seek God.”
The Reforms of Jehoshaphat
4 So Jehoshaphat dwelt at Jerusalem;
and he went out again among the people from Beersheba to the mountains of
Ephraim, and brought them back to the Lord God of their
fathers. 5 Then he set judges in the land
throughout all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, 6 and
said to the judges, “Take heed to what you are doing, for you do not judge for
man but for the Lord, who is with you in the
judgment. 7 Now therefore, let the fear of
the Lord be upon you; take care and do it, for there
is no iniquity with the Lord our God, no partiality, nor
taking of bribes.”
8 Moreover in Jerusalem, for the
judgment of the Lord and for controversies, Jehoshaphat appointed
some of the Levites and priests, and some of the chief fathers of Israel, when
they returned to Jerusalem.[a] 9 And
he commanded them, saying, “Thus you shall act in the fear of the Lord,
faithfully and with a loyal heart: 10 Whatever case
comes to you from your brethren who dwell in their cities, whether of bloodshed
or offenses against law or commandment, against statutes or ordinances, you shall
warn them, lest they trespass against the Lord and wrath come upon
you and your brethren. Do this, and you will not be guilty. 11 And
take notice: Amariah the chief priest is over you in all
matters of the Lord; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the
house of Judah, for all the king’s matters; also the Levites will be officials
before you. Behave courageously, and the Lord will be with the good.”
Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir Defeated
20 It happened after this that the
people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them
besides the Ammonites,[b] came to battle against
Jehoshaphat. 2 Then some came and told Jehoshaphat,
saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from
Syria;[c] and they are in
Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi). 3 And
Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a
fast throughout all Judah. 4 So Judah gathered
together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the
cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.
5 Then Jehoshaphat stood in the
assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new
court, 6 and said: “O Lord God of our
fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule
over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power
and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? 7 Are You
not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before
Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend
forever? 8 And they dwell in it, and have built You
a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, 9 ‘If
disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand
before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in
this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and
save.’ 10 And now, here are the people of Ammon,
Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of
the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them— 11 here
they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You
have given us to inherit. 12 O our God, will You
not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is
coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon
You.”
13 Now all Judah, with their little
ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord.
14 Then the Spirit of
the Lord came 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, in the
midst of the assembly. 15 And he said, “Listen, all
you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus
says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this
great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow
go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you
will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. 17 You
will not need to fight in this battle. Position
yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with
you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out
against them, for the Lord is with you.”
18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. 19 Then
the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the
Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud
and high.
20 So they rose early in the morning
and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat
stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in
the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His
prophets, and you shall prosper.” 21 And when he
had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to
the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out
before the army and were saying:
22 Now when they began to sing and to
praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and
Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. 23 For
the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to
utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end
of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.
24 So when Judah came to a place
overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their
dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.
25 When Jehoshaphat and his people
came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables
on the dead bodies,[e] and precious jewelry,
which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away; and
they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much. 26 And
on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, for there they
blessed the Lord; therefore the name of that place was called The Valley
of Berachah[f] until this day. 27 Then
they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat in front of
them, to go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them
rejoice over their enemies. 28 So they came to
Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of
the Lord. 29 And the fear of God was on all
the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that
the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. 30 Then
the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around.
The End of Jehoshaphat’s Reign
31 So Jehoshaphat was king over
Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and
he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah
the daughter of Shilhi. 32 And he walked in the way
of his father Asa, and did not turn aside from it, doing what was right
in the sight of the Lord. 33 Nevertheless the
high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not directed their
hearts to the God of their fathers.
34 Now the rest of the acts of
Jehoshaphat, first and last, indeed they are written in the
book of Jehu the son of Hanani, which is mentioned in the book
of the kings of Israel.
35 After this Jehoshaphat king of
Judah allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who acted very
wickedly. 36 And he allied himself with him to make
ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion Geber. 37 But
Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying,
“Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the Lord has
destroyed your works.” Then the ships were wrecked, so that they were not able
to go to Tarshish.
Jehoram Reigns in Judah
21 And Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers, and
was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Jehoram his son reigned
in his place. 2 He had brothers, the sons of
Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azaryahu, Michael, and Shephatiah; all
these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel. 3 Their
father gave them great gifts of silver and gold and precious things, with
fortified cities in Judah; but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram, because he was the
firstborn.
4 Now when Jehoram was established
over the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself and killed all his
brothers with the sword, and also others of the princes of
Israel.
5 Jehoram was thirty-two
years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 6 And
he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had
done, for he had the daughter of Ahab as a wife; and he did evil in the sight
of the Lord. 7 Yet the Lord would
not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that He had made with
David, and since He had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.
8 In his days Edom revolted against
Judah’s authority, and made a king over themselves. 9 So
Jehoram went out with his officers, and all his chariots with him. And he rose
by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of
the chariots. 10 Thus Edom has been in revolt
against Judah’s authority to this day. At that time Libnah revolted against his
rule, because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. 11 Moreover
he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of
Jerusalem to commit harlotry, and led Judah astray.
12 And a letter came to him from
Elijah the prophet, saying,
Thus says the Lord God of your father David:
Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your
father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, 13 but
have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of
Ahab, and also have killed your brothers, those of your father’s
household, who were better than yourself, 14 behold,
the Lord will strike your people with a serious affliction—your
children, your wives, and all your possessions; 15 and
you will become very sick with a disease of your intestines,
until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness, day by day.
16 Moreover
the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and
the Arabians who were near the Ethiopians. 17 And
they came up into Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions
that were found in the king’s house, and also his sons and his wives, so that
there was not a son left to him except Jehoahaz,[g] the youngest of his
sons.
18 After all this
the Lord struck him in his intestines with an incurable
disease. 19 Then it happened in the course of time,
after the end of two years, that his intestines came out because of his
sickness; so he died in severe pain. And his people made no burning for him,
like the burning for his fathers.
20 He was thirty-two years old when
he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem eight years and, to no one’s sorrow,
departed. However they buried him in the City of David, but not in the tombs of
the kings.
Ahaziah Reigns in Judah
22 Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made
Ahaziah his youngest son king in his place, for the raiders who came with the
Arabians into the camp had killed all the older sons. So
Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, reigned. 2 Ahaziah was forty-two[h] years old when he
became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah
the granddaughter of Omri. 3 He also walked in the
ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother advised him to do wickedly. 4 Therefore
he did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab; for they
were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction. 5 He
also followed their advice, and went with Jehoram[i] the son of Ahab king
of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth Gilead; and the Syrians
wounded Joram. 6 Then he returned to Jezreel to
recover from the wounds which he had received at Ramah, when he fought against
Hazael king of Syria. And Azariah[j] the son of Jehoram,
king of Judah, went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he
was sick.
7 His going to Joram was God’s
occasion for Ahaziah’s downfall; for when he arrived, he went out with Jehoram
against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to cut off
the house of Ahab. 8 And it happened, when Jehu was
executing judgment on the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah and the
sons of Ahaziah’s brothers who served Ahaziah, that he killed them. 9 Then
he searched for Ahaziah; and they caught him (he was hiding in Samaria), and
brought him to Jehu. When they had killed him, they buried him, “because,” they
said, “he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his
heart.”
So the house of Ahaziah had no one to assume power over the
kingdom.
Athaliah Reigns in Judah
10 Now when Athaliah the mother of
Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs
of the house of Judah. 11 But Jehoshabeath,[k] the daughter of the
king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s
sons who were being murdered, and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. So Jehoshabeath,
the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the
sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah so that she did not kill him. 12 And
he was hidden with them in the house of God for six years, while Athaliah
reigned over the land.
Joash Crowned King of Judah
23 In the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened
himself, and made a covenant with the captains of hundreds:
Azariah the son of Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, Azariah the son of
Obed, Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri. 2 And
they went throughout Judah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of
Judah, and the chief fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.
3 Then all the assembly made a
covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said to them, “Behold, the
king’s son shall reign, as the Lord has said of the sons of
David. 4 This is what you shall
do: One-third of you entering on the Sabbath, of the priests and the
Levites, shall be keeping watch over the doors; 5 one-third shall
be at the king’s house; and one-third at the Gate of the Foundation.
All the people shall be in the courts of the house of
the Lord. 6 But let no one come into the house
of the Lord except the priests and those of the Levites who serve.
They may go in, for they are holy; but all the people shall
keep the watch of the Lord. 7 And the Levites
shall surround the king on all sides, every man with his weapons in his hand;
and whoever comes into the house, let him be put to death. You are to be with
the king when he comes in and when he goes out.”
8 So the Levites and all Judah did
according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. And each man took his men
who were to be on duty on the Sabbath, with those who were going off
duty on the Sabbath; for Jehoiada the priest had not dismissed the
divisions. 9 And Jehoiada the priest gave to the
captains of hundreds the spears and the large and small shields which had
belonged to King David, that were in the temple of
God. 10 Then he set all the people, every man with
his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the temple to the left side of
the temple, along by the altar and by the temple, all around the king. 11 And
they brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, gave him the
Testimony,[l] and made him king.
Then Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, “Long live the
king!”
Death of Athaliah
12 Now when Athaliah heard the noise
of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people in the
temple of the Lord. 13 When she
looked, there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance; and the
leaders and the trumpeters were by the king. All the people of
the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets, also the singers with musical
instruments, and those who led in praise. So Athaliah tore her clothes and
said, “Treason! Treason!”
14 And Jehoiada the priest brought
out the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them,
“Take her outside under guard, and slay with the sword whoever follows her.”
For the priest had said, “Do not kill her in the house of the Lord.”
15 So they seized her; and she went
by way of the entrance of the Horse Gate into the king’s
house, and they killed her there.
16 Then Jehoiada made a covenant
between himself, the people, and the king, that they should be the Lord’s
people. 17 And all the people went to the temple[m]of Baal, and tore it down.
They broke in pieces its altars and images, and killed Mattan the priest of
Baal before the altars. 18 Also Jehoiada appointed
the oversight of the house of the Lord to the hand of the priests,
the Levites, whom David had assigned in the house of the Lord, to offer
the burnt offerings of the Lord, as it is written in the
Law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as it was established by
David. 19 And he set the gatekeepers at the gates
of the house of the Lord, so that no one who was in any
way unclean should enter.
20 Then he took the captains of
hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the
land, and brought the king down from the house of the Lord; and they went
through the Upper Gate to the king’s house, and set the king on the throne of
the kingdom. 21 So all the people of the land
rejoiced; and the city was quiet, for they had slain Athaliah with the sword.