2 Chronicles 20

¹It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat.

²Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi).

³And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord

⁴So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord

⁵Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord

⁶and said: “O Lord

⁷Are 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?

⁸And 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.’

¹⁰And 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—

¹¹here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit.

¹²O 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.”

¹³Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord

¹⁴Then the Spirit of the Lord

¹⁵And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord

¹⁶Tomorrow 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.

¹⁷You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord

¹⁸And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord

¹⁹Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord

²⁰So 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

²¹And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord “Praise the Lord For His mercy endures forever.”

²²Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord

²³For 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.

²⁴So 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.

²⁵When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on the dead bodies, 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.

²⁶And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, for there they blessed the Lord

²⁷Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat in front of them, to go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord

²⁸So they came to Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of the Lord

²⁹And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the Lord

³⁰Then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around.

³¹So 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.

³²And 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

³³Nevertheless the high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not directed their hearts to the God of their fathers.

³⁴Now 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.

³⁵After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who acted very wickedly.

³⁶And he allied himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion Geber.

³⁷But Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the Lord