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: behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. 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. And all Judah stood before Jehovah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.* In answer to this earnest supplication, the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Jahaziel, a Levite, of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the congregation, and he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye, inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou, king Jehoshaphat: thus saith Jehovah unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed, by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. To-morrow go ye down against them : behold, they came up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of Jehovah with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed: to-morrow go out against them; for Jehovah will be with you.† Surely it is not possible to imagine a more interesting and impressive scene, than a whole nation thus waiting upon the supreme majesty of heaven: well might David say, How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Jehovah of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of Jehovah: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.+ At this annunciation of divine mercy, the monarch bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before Jehovah, worshipping + 2 Chron. xx. 14-17. * 2 Chron. xx. 1—13. Jehovah. And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise Jehovah, God of Israel, with a loud voice on high.* ye be 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 Jehovah, your God, so shall established: believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto Jehovah, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise Jehovah : And when they began to for his mercy endureth for ever. sing and to praise, Jehovah set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. 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 destroy another. 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. 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.t But Jehoshaphat not only besought Jehovah in the hour of danger, but remembered also to offer up praises and thanksgiving for his deliverance; for on the fourth day, the army assembled in the valley of Berachah, for there they blessed Jehovah therefore the name of the same place was called the 2 Chron. xx. 18, 19. + 2 Chron. xx. 20-25. valley of Berachah unto this day. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for Jehovah had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem, with psalteries, and harps, and trumpets, unto the house of Jehovah. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they heard that Jehovah fought against the enemies of Israel. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet for his God gave him rest round about.* Pious and devoted to the worship of God as this monarch unquestionably was, and notwithstanding the narrow escape and warning he had so lately experienced from his imprudent and culpable affinity with Ahab; he was now induced to enter into relations of friendship with his son, Ahaziah, who had succeeded him, and united with that monarch in building some ships in Eziongaber, in order to go to Tarshish and Ophir for gold. But Eliezer, the son of Dodavah, of Mareshah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, Jehovah hath broken thy works. Whereupon the ships were broken or wrecked at Eziongaber, and were rendered unable to go to Tarshish. But Ahaziah having applied to Jehoshaphat to resume their purpose, the latter having now seen his error, positively refused.† Jehoshaphat, however, fell into a similar error even once more; for Jehoram, another son of Ahab, having succeeded Ahaziah, Jehoshaphat made peace with him, and formed an alliance with him and the king of Edom, against Mesha, king of Moab. After a long march of seven days through the wilderness of Edom, the allied army became greatly distressed for water, * 2 Chron. xx. 26-30, +2 Chron. xx. 35-37. 1 Kings, xxii. 48, 49. and Jehoram began to despair; but Jehoshaphat said, Is there not a prophet of Jehovah. Upon being told that Elisha was in the neighbourhood, Jehoshaphat said, The word of Jehovah is with him; upon which all the three kings went down to wait upon the prophet. Upon seeing them, Elisha said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? Get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother. And the king of Israel said unto him, Nay, for Jehovah hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, As Jehovah of Hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of Jehovah came upon him. And he said, thus saith Jehovah, make this valley full of ditches. For thus saith Jehovah, ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of Jehovah ; he will deliver the Moabites also into your hand, and ye shall smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones. And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered, that behold there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.* The Moabites having been deceived by a miraculous appearance of the water, attacked the allied army in their camp, expecting to find them unprepared, but met with a signal defeat, and were pursued to their own country.† 2 Kings, iii. 13—20. + 2 Kings, iii. 21-27. It is not said what became of Jehoshaphat upon this occasion. This monarch walked in the way of Asa, his father, and departed not from it, doing that which was right in the sight of Jehovah. Howbeit, the high places were not taken away; for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers.* And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.† And after having reigned twenty-five years, Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers, in the city of David, his father, and was succeeded by his son, JEHORA M. A. C. 889. Besides this prince, Jehoshaphat had left six other sons, viz: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah; to whom the deceased monarch had given great gifts of silver, gold, and precious things, with fenced cities in Judah. The first act of Jehoram's reign, after he had strengthened himself, was to slay all his brethren with the sword, and divers also of the princes of Israel.§ We are not informed what was the motive for this atrocious conduct; but as it is afterwards said,|| that his brethren were better characters than himself, it is not unreasonable to imagine that they were true worshippers of God, and that therefore Jehoram was determined to put them out of his way. * 1 Kings, xxii. 43. 2 Chron. xx. 32, 33. 1 Kings, xxii. 42. 2 Chron. xx. 31. § 2 Chron. xxi. 2. 4. || 2 Chron. xxi. 13. |