Commentaria in II Paralipomenon
Chapter 19
The prophet Jehu rebukes Josaphat for having made a league with the impious Achab; whence Josaphat increases his zeal for divine worship, and admonishes the judges to observe justice, and the priests and Levites to instruct the people piously.
1. And Josaphat king of Juda returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem.
2. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to him: Thou givest help to the wicked, and thou art joined in friendship with them that hate the Lord, and therefore thou didst deserve indeed the wrath of the Lord;
3. but good works are found in thee, because thou hast taken away the groves out of the land of Juda, and hast prepared thy heart to seek the Lord the God of thy fathers.
4. And Josaphat dwelt in Jerusalem: and he went out again to the people from Bersabee to mount Ephraim, and brought them back to the Lord the God of their fathers.
5. And he appointed judges of the land in all the fenced cities of Juda, in every place,
6. and charging the judges: Take heed, said he, what you do; for you exercise not the judgment of man, but of the Lord: and whatsoever you judge, it shall redound to you.
7. Let the fear of the Lord be with you, and do all things with diligence: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor desire of gifts.
8. In Jerusalem also Josaphat appointed Levites, and priests, and chiefs of the families of Israel, that they should judge the judgment and cause of the Lord for the inhabitants thereof.
9. And he charged them, saying: Thus shall you do in the fear of the Lord faithfully, and with a perfect heart.
10. Every cause that shall come to you of your brethren, who dwell in their cities, between kindred and kindred, wherever there is question the Lord, and that wrath come not upon you, and upon your brethren: and so doing you shall not sin.
11. And Amarias the priest and your high priest shall be chief in the things that regard God: and Zabadias the son of Ismahel, who is ruler in the house of Juda, shall be over those matters that belong to the king’s office: and you have before you Levites for masters, take courage, and do diligently, and the Lord will be with you in good things.
Verse 2. Thou givest help to the wicked, and art joined in friendship with them that hate the Lord—and in affinity, by giving the daughter of the impious Achab, namely Athalia, to wife to thy son Joram. For this is unworthy, that we should make friends of those who are enemies of God, and whose enemy God is; unless necessity or great advantage compel; and it is equally dangerous, as was shown by the event. For Athalia perverted Joram and the Jews.
Whence David, Psalm CXXXVIII, 21, professes himself the enemy of the enemies of God: “Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated thee? and pined away because of thy enemies? I have hated them with a perfect hatred, and they are become enemies to me.” Wherefore God adds by the prophet Jehu:
And therefore thou didst deserve indeed the wrath (chastisement and sharp vengeance) of the Lord; but good works are found in thee—namely of piety, and of zeal in overthrowing idolatry, and in guarding and promoting the worship of God, on account of which God forgives thee every fault as well as the punishment.
Verse 6. For you exercise not the judgment of man, but of the Lord—as if to say: You are not so much my vicars as God’s; that is, you have been appointed by God through me judges of his people, that you may judge them justly and holily; wherefore he himself will exact from you a strict account of justice, either rendered or neglected, and will reward or punish according to your deserts. Let princes and judges think of this, and often ruminate on it: that they exercise the judgment of God, and therefore should judge before God as truly and sincerely as God himself would judge, and as he will himself show them it ought to be judged on the day of judgment. He who thinks of this lets himself be bent from the straight path of justice neither by favour, nor friendship, nor gifts, nor threats. For as he adds:
Verse 7. For there is no iniquity with the Lord our God—that is, as the Septuagint have it, injustice; the Hebrew avlah, that is, perverseness, or the perversion and overthrow of justice, so as to accept persons or gifts, as follows. So Vatablus.