Study Desk

`O our God, dost Thou not execute judgment upon them? for there is no power in us before this great multitude that hath come against us, and we know not what we do, but on Thee [are] our eyes.'

and he saith, `Attend, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and O king Jehoshaphat, Thus said Jehovah to you, Ye fear not, nor are afraid of the face of this great multitude, for not for you [is] the battle, but for God.

Not for you to fight in this; station yourselves, stand, and see the salvation of Jehovah with you, O Judah and Jerusalem -- be not afraid nor fear ye -- to-morrow go out before them, and Jehovah [is] with you.'

And he taketh counsel with the people, and appointeth singers to Jehovah, and those giving praise to the honour of holiness, in the going out before the armed [men], and saying, `Give ye thanks to Jehovah, for to the age [is] His kindness.'

and Jehoshaphat cometh in, and his people, to seize their spoil, and they find among them, in abundance, both goods and carcases, and desirable vessels, and they take spoil to themselves without prohibition, and they are three days seizing the spoil, for it [is] abundant.

And on the fourth day they have been assembled at the valley of Blessing, for there they blessed Jehovah: therefore they have called the name of that place, `Valley of Blessing,' unto this day.

And they turn back, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat at their head, to go back unto Jerusalem with joy, for Jehovah hath made them rejoice over their enemies.

Only, the high places have not turned aside, and still the people have not prepared their heart for the God of their fathers.

and prophesy doth Eliezer son of Dodavah, of Mareshah, against Jehoshaphat, saying, `For thy joining thyself with Ahaziah, Jehovah hath broken up thy works;' and the ships are broken, and have not retained [power] to go unto Tarshish.

and their father giveth to them many gifts of silver and of gold, and of precious things, with fenced cities in Judah, and the kingdom he hath given to Jehoram, for He [is] the first-born.

and he walketh in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab, for a daughter of Ahab hath been to him for a wife, and he doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah,

and Jehovah hath not been willing to destroy the house of David, for the sake of the covenant that He made with David, and as He had said to give to him a lamp, and to his sons -- all the days.

And after all this hath Jehovah plagued him in his bowels by a disease for which there is no healing,

and it cometh to pass, from days to days, and at the time of the going out of the end of two years, his bowels have gone out with his sickness, and he dieth of sore diseases, and his people have not made for him a burning like the burning of his fathers.

And the inhabitants of Jerusalem cause Ahaziah his youngest son to reign in his stead, (for all the elder had the troop slain that came in with the Arabians to the camp,) and Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah reigneth.

he also hath walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother hath been his counsellor to do wickedly.

And he doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, like the house of Ahab, for they have been his counsellors, after the death of his father, for destruction to him.

and he turneth back to be healed in Jezreel because of the wounds with which they had smitten him in Ramah, in his fighting with Hazael king of Aram. And Azariah son of Jehoram king of Judah hath gone down to see Jehoram son of Ahab, in Jezreel, for he [is] sick;

And he seeketh Ahaziah, and they capture him, (and he is hiding himself in Samaria), and bring him in unto Jehu, and put him to death, and bury him, for they said, `He [is] son of Jehoshaphat, who sought Jehovah with all his heart;' and there is none to the house of Ahaziah to retain power for the kingdom.

`This [is] the thing that ye do: The third of you, going in on the sabbath, of the priests, and of the Levites, [are] for gatekeepers of the thresholds,