Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir Defeated
1 It happened after thisthatthe people ofMoab with the people ofAmmon, andotherswith them besides theAmmonites, 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; and they arein Hazazon Tamar” (whichisEn Gedi).
3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself toseek theLord, andproclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
4 So Judah gathered together to askhelpfrom theLord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek theLord.
5 Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of theLord, before the new court,
6 and said: “OLordGod of our fathers,areYou notGod in heaven, anddo Younotrule over all the kingdoms of the nations, andin Your handistherenotpower and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?
7 AreYou notour God,whodrove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of AbrahamYour 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 Yournameisin 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 Youwould not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, butthey turned from them and did not destroy them—
11 here they are, rewarding usby coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit.
12 O our God, will You notjudge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, butour eyesareupon You.”
13 Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before theLord.
14 Thenthe Spirit of theLordcame 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 theLordto you:‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude,for the battleisnot 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 notneedto fight in thisbattle.Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of theLord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them,for theLordiswith you.”
18 And Jehoshaphatbowed his head withhisface to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before theLord, worshiping theLord.
19 Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise theLordGod 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 theLordyour 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 theLord,and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:
# “Praise theLord,
# For His mercyenduresforever.”
22 Now when they began to sing and to praise,theLordset 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 destroythem.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 thereweretheir 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, 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 theLord; therefore the name of that place was called The Valley of Berachah 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 theLordhadmade them rejoice over their enemies.
28 So they came to Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of theLord.
29 Andthe fear of God was on all the kingdoms ofthosecountries when they heard that theLordhad fought against the enemies of Israel.
30 Then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for hisGod gave him rest all around.
The End of Jehoshaphat’s Reign
31 So Jehoshaphat was king over Judah.Hewasthirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s namewasAzubah the daughter of Shilhi.
32 And he walked in the way of his fatherAsa, and did not turn aside from it, doingwhatwasright in the sight of theLord.
33 Neverthelessthe high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had notdirected their hearts to the God of their fathers.
34 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, indeed theyarewritten in the book of Jehu the son of Hanani,whichismentioned in the book of the kings of Israel.
35 After thisJehoshaphat king of Judah allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel,who acted verywickedly.
36 And he allied himself with himto 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, theLordhas destroyed your works.”Then the ships were wrecked, so that they were not able to goto Tarshish.