2 And Jehu the son of Hanani, the seer, went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate Jehovah? Therefore is wrath upon thee from Jehovah.
But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit [done] to him, for his heart was lifted up; and there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.
And the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold, they are written in the words of Jehu the son of Hanani, which are inserted in the book of the kings of Israel.
And the word of Jehovah came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying,
(In former time in Israel, when a man went to ask counsel of God, he said, Come and let us go to the seer; for he that is now called a Prophet was in former time called a Seer.)
And they forsook the house of Jehovah the God of their fathers, and served the Asherahs and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.
Do not I hate them, O Jehovah, that hate thee? and do not I loathe them that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred; I account them mine enemies.
If the world hate you, know that it has hated me before you.
If any one come to you and bring not this doctrine, do not receive him into [the] house, and greet him not; for he who greets him partakes in his wicked works.
But if we judged ourselves, so were we not judged. But being judged, we are disciplined of [the] Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God; for neither indeed can it be:
back-biters, hateful to God, insolent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
For there is revealed wrath of God from heaven upon all impiety, and unrighteousness of men holding the truth in unrighteousness.
And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Jehovah; but I hate him, for he prophesies no good concerning me, but always evil: [it is] Micah the son of Imlah. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous ùGod, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, and upon the third and upon the fourth [generation] of them that hate me,
If I have sharpened my gleaming sword, And my hand take hold of judgment, I will render vengeance to mine adversaries, And will recompense them that hate me.
Bless, Jehovah, his substance! And let the work of his hands please thee; Crush the loins of his adversaries, And of them that hate him, that they may never rise again!
And also through the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani the word of Jehovah came against Baasha, and against his house, even for all the evil that he did in the sight of Jehovah, provoking him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam; and because he had smitten him.
And Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spoke against Baasha through Jehu the prophet,
(Surely there was none like to Ahab, who did sell himself to do evil in the sight of Jehovah, Jezebel his wife urging him on.
thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous ùGod, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and to the fourth [generation] of them that hate me,
And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-Gilead.
Thy hand shall find out all thine enemies; thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.
{To the chief Musician. Of David. A Psalm: a Song.} Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, and let them that hate him flee before him.
For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy fury are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret [sins] in the light of thy countenance.
My son, if sinners entice thee, consent not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, and whole, as those that go down into the pit; we shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: cast in thy lot among us; we will all have one purse: -- my son, walk not in the way with them, keep back thy foot from their path; for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain the net is spread in the sight of anything which hath wings. And these lay wait for their own blood; they lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the paths of every one that is greedy of gain: it taketh away the life of its possessors.
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Commentary on 2 Chronicles 19 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 19
2Ch 19:1-4. Jehoshaphat Visits His Kingdom.
1-4. Jehoshaphat … returned to his house in peace—(See 2Ch 18:16). Not long after he had resumed the ordinary functions of royalty in Jerusalem, he was one day disturbed by an unexpected and ominous visit from a prophet of the Lord [2Ch 19:2]. This was Jehu, of whose father we read in 2Ch 16:7. He himself had been called to discharge the prophetic office in Israel. But probably for his bold rebuke to Baasha (1Ki 16:1), he 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 (1Ki 22:2)—as an unholy alliance that would be conducive neither to the honor and comfort of his house nor to the best interests of his kingdom. He apprised Jehoshaphat that, on account of that grave offense, "wrath was upon him from before the Lord," a judgment that was inflicted soon after (see on 2Ch 20:1-37). The prophet's rebuke, however, was administered in a mingled strain of severity and mildness; for he interposed "a nevertheless" (2Ch 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 and life.
4. he went out again through the people—This means his reappointing the commissioners of public instruction (2Ch 17:7-9), perhaps with new powers and a larger staff of assistants to overtake every part of the land. The complement of teachers required for that purpose would be easily obtained because the whole tribe of Levites was now concentrated within the kingdom of Judah.
2Ch 19:5-7. His Instructions to the Judges.
5-7. he set judges in the land—There had been judicial courts established at an early period. But Jehoshaphat was the first king who modified these institutions according to the circumstances of the now fragmentary kingdom of Judah. He fixed local courts in each of the fortified cities, these being the provincial capitals of every district (see on De 16:18).
2Ch 19:8-11. To the Priests and Levites.
8. set of the Levites … priests, and of the chief of the fathers of Israel—A certain number of these three classes constituted a supreme court, which sat in Jerusalem to review appellate cases from the inferior courts. It consisted of two divisions: the first of which had jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters; the second, in civil, fiscal, and criminal cases. According to others, the two divisions of the supreme court adjudicated: the one according to the law contained in the sacred books; the other according to the law of custom and equity. As in Eastern countries at the present day, the written and unwritten law are objects of separate jurisdiction.