2 Chronicles 20

1 And after this the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, and with them some of the Minaeans, came against Jehoshaphat to make war. [a] 2 And men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A great multitude has come against you from beyond the sea, from Aram; and look, they are at Hazazon-tamar.” That is En-gedi. [b]

3 And Jehoshaphat was afraid, and he set his face to seek out the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast in all Judah. 4 And Judah gathered to seek out the Lord; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

5 And Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah in Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, in front of the new court, 6 and he said, “Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? And do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? In your hand is strength and power, and there is no standing against you. [c] 7 Are you not the Lord who destroyed those who lived in this land before the face of your people Israel, and gave it to the seed of Abraham, your beloved one, forever? 8 And they settled in it, and built in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, 9 ‘If evils come upon us — sword, judgment, death, famine — we will stand before this house and before you, because your name is on this house; and we will cry out to you out of our affliction, and you will hear, and you will save.’ [d]

10 And now, look: the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel pass through when they came out of the land of Egypt — for they turned aside from them and did not destroy them — 11 and now, look, they are trying to come out against us, to drive us from our inheritance, which you gave us. 12 Lord our God, will you not judge them? For we have no strength to stand against this great multitude that has come against us, and we do not know what to do to them; but our eyes are on you.” 13 And all Judah was standing before the Lord, with their little ones and their wives.

14 And on Uzziel son of Zechariah, of the sons of Benaiah, of the sons of Eleel son of Mattaniah the Levite, from the sons of Asaph — on him the Spirit of the Lord came in the assembly, [e] 15 and he said, “Listen, all Judah, and you who live in Jerusalem, and king Jehoshaphat. This is what the Lord says to you: Do not be afraid and do not be terrified before this great crowd, for the battle is not yours but God’s. [f] 16 Tomorrow go down against them. Look, they are coming up by the ascent of Asas, and you will find them at the end of the streambed, in the wilderness of Jeriel. [g] 17 It is not for you to do this fighting. Understand it, and see the rescue of the Lord with you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid and do not be terrified to go out tomorrow to meet them, and the Lord will be with you.” [h]

18 And Jehoshaphat bent down with his face to the ground, and all Judah and those living in Jerusalem fell before the Lord to bow down to the Lord. [i] 19 And the Levites, from the sons of Kohath and from the sons of Korah, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a loud voice on high.

20 And they rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and cried out and said, “Listen to me, Judah, and you who live in Jerusalem. Trust in the Lord your God, and you will be trusted; trust in his prophet, and you will do well.” [j] 21 And he took counsel with the people, and he set men to sing psalms and to praise, to give thanks and to praise the holy things as they went out in front of the army; and they were saying, “Give thanks to the Lord, for his mercy is forever.” [k]

22 And when they began the praise and the thanksgiving, the Lord set the sons of Ammon to fight against Moab and Mount Seir, who had come out against Judah; and they were routed. 23 And the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against those living in Mount Seir, to destroy them and crush them; and when they had finished off those living in Seir, they rose up against one another and were destroyed.

24 And Judah came to the lookout point over the wilderness, and looked out, and saw the multitude — and there they all were, fallen dead on the ground; not one had escaped. [l] 25 And Jehoshaphat and his people came to plunder their spoil, and they found many cattle, and baggage, and spoil, and articles worth wanting; and they took the plunder for themselves. They were three days plundering the spoil, because there was so much of it. 26 And on the fourth day they gathered at the Valley of Blessing, for there they blessed the Lord. That is why they called the name of that place the Valley of Blessing, and it is called so to this day. [m]

27 And every man of Judah returned to Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat leading them, in great gladness, because the Lord had made them glad over their enemies; 28 and they came into Jerusalem with harps and lyres and trumpets, into the house of the Lord. [n] 29 And a terror of the Lord came on all the kingdoms of the land when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. [o] 30 And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, and his God gave him rest on every side.

31 And Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. [p] 32 And he walked in the ways of Asa his father, and did not turn aside from doing what was right before the Lord. 33 But the high places were still there, and the people had still not set their heart toward the Lord, the God of their fathers. 34 And the rest of the words of Jehoshaphat, the first and the last — look, they are written in the records of Jehu son of Hanani, who wrote the book of the kings of Israel. [q]

35 And after this Jehoshaphat king of Judah made common cause with Ahaziah king of Israel — and this man acted lawlessly — [r] 36 in what he did, going to him to build ships to go to Tarshish; and he built ships at Ezion-geber. 37 And Eliezer son of Dodiah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you made yourself a friend of Ahaziah, the Lord has broken your work, and your ships have been wrecked.” And he was not able to go to Tarshish. [s]