3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to aseek the Lord, and bproclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
4 So Judah gathered together to ask ahelp 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 aGod in heaven, and bdo You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and cin Your hand istherenot power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?
7Are You not aour God, whobdrove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham cYour friend forever?
8 And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying,
9a‘If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your bname 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 awould not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but bthey turned from them and did not destroy them—
11 here they are, rewarding us aby coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit.
12 O our God, will You not ajudge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but bour eyes are upon You.”
13 Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord.
14 Then athe 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: a‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, bfor 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 the1 brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel.
17aYou 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, bfor the Lordis with you.”
18 And Jehoshaphat abowed 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: aBelieve 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, aand who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: b“Praise the Lord, cFor His mercy endures forever.”
22 Now when they began to sing and to praise, athe 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 they1 had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, athey 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 the1 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 of1 Berachah, for there they blessed the Lord; therefore the name of that place was called The Valley of Berachah until this day.
THE FIRST AND SECOND BOOKS OF CHRONICLES were also considered as one by the ancient Jews, who called them "words of days," that is, diaries or journals, being probably compiled from those registers that were kept by the king's historiographers of passing occurrences. In the Septuagint the title given them is Paraleipomenon, "of things omitted," that is, the books are supplementary because many things unnoticed in the former books are here recorded; and not only the omissions are supplied, but some narratives extended while others are added. The authorship is commonly ascribed to Ezra, whose leading object seems to have been to show the division of families, possessions, etc., before the captivity, with a view to the exact restoration of the same order after the return from Babylon. Although many things are restated and others are exact repetitions of what is contained in Kings, there is so much new and important information that, as JEROME has well said, the Chronicles furnish the means of comprehending parts of the New Testament, which must have been unintelligible without them. They are frequently referred to by Christ and the Apostles as forming part of "the Word of God" (see the genealogies in Mat. 1:1-16; Luk. 3:23-38; compare II Chronicles 19:7 with I Peter 1:17; II Chronicles 24:19-21 with Matthew 23:32-35).
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