Commentaria in II Paralipomenon
Chapter 20. Synopsis of the chapter
Josaphat overcomes and despoils the Moabites, Ammonites, and Syrians not so much by arms as by prayer and fasting. Finally, verse 35, the prophet Eleazar rebukes Josaphat for the league made with Ochozias the impious king of Israel, and declares that on that account the ships of both were broken at Tharsis.
1. After this the children of Moab and the children of Ammon, and with them some of the Ammonites, came against Josaphat to fight against him.
2. And there came messengers, and told Josaphat, saying: There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea, and from Syria: and behold they are in Asasonthamar, which is Engaddi.
3. And Josaphat, being struck with fear, betook himself wholly to pray to the Lord, and proclaimed a fast for all Juda.
4. And Juda was gathered together to pray to the Lord; and all of them came out of their cities to beseech him.
5. And when Josaphat stood in the midst of the assembly of Juda and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord before the new court,
6. he said: O Lord God of our fathers, thou art God in heaven, and rulest over all the kingdoms of the Gentiles; in thy hand is strength and power, and no one can resist thee.
7. Didst not thou, our God, slay all the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?
8. And they dwelt in it, and built therein a sanctuary to thy name, saying:
9. If evils fall upon us, the sword of judgment, pestilence, and famine, we will stand before this house in thy sight, in which thy name is invoked, and we will cry to thee in our tribulations; and thou wilt hear and save us.
10. Now therefore behold the children of Ammon, and Moab, and mount Seir, through whom thou wouldst not let Israel pass when they came out of Egypt, but they turned aside from them, and slew them not:
11. on the contrary they do the opposite, and endeavour to cast us out of the possession which thou hast delivered to us.
12. O our God, wilt thou not then judge them? As for us, we have not strength enough to be able to resist this multitude, which is rushing in upon us. But as we know not what to do, we have only this remaining, to direct our eyes to thee.
13. And all Juda stood before the Lord, with their little ones, and their wives, and their children.
14. And Jahaziel the son of Zacharias, the son of Banaias, the son of Jehiel, the son of Mathanias, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, was there, upon whom came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the multitude,
15. and he said: Hearken, all Juda, and you that dwell in Jerusalem, and thou king Josaphat: Thus saith the Lord to you: Fear ye not, and be not dismayed at this multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
16. Tomorrow you shall go down against them: for they will come up by the hill called Sis, and you shall find them at the end of the torrent, which is over against the wilderness of Jeruel.
17. It shall not be you that shall fight, but only stand with confidence, and you shall see the help of the Lord over you, O Juda and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow you shall go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.
18. Then Josaphat and Juda, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, fell down flat on the ground before the Lord, and adored him.
19. And the Levites of the sons of Caath and of the sons of Core praised the Lord the God of Israel with a loud voice on high.
20. And when they rose in the morning, they went out by the desert of Thecue; and as they went, Josaphat standing in the midst of them said: Hear me, ye men of Juda, and all ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be secure; believe his prophets, and all things shall succeed well.
21. And he gave counsel to the people, and appointed singers of the Lord, to praise him in their companies, and to go before the army, and with one voice to say: Give glory to the Lord, for his mercy endureth for ever.
22. And when they began to sing praises, the Lord turned their ambushes upon themselves, that is, of the children of Ammon, and Moab, and mount Seir, who were come out to fight against Juda, and they were slain.
23. For the children of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, to kill and destroy them: and when they had accomplished this, they also turned against one another, and fell by mutual wounds.
24. And Juda, when he was come to the watch tower that looketh toward the wilderness, saw afar off all the country full of dead bodies, and that none had escaped who could avoid death.
25. So Josaphat came, and all the people with him, to take the spoils of the dead: and they found among the dead bodies divers kinds of furniture, and garments, and most precious vessels, and they took them away, so that they could not carry all, nor in three days take away the spoils for the greatness of the booty.
26. And on the fourth day they were assembled in the valley of Blessing: for because there they had blessed the Lord, they called that place the valley of Blessing, unto this day.
27. And every man of Juda returned, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and Josaphat before them, to Jerusalem with great joy, because the Lord had given them joy over their enemies.
28. And they came into Jerusalem with psalteries, and harps, and trumpets, into the house of the Lord.
29. And the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the countries, when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel.
30. And the kingdom of Josaphat was quiet, and God gave him peace round about.
31. And Josaphat reigned over Juda, and he was thirty-five years old when he began to reign: and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother was Azuba the daughter of Selahi.
32. And he walked in the way of his father Asa, and declined not from it, doing the things that were pleasing before the Lord.
33. But the high places he took not away, and the people had not yet directed their heart to the Lord the God of their fathers.
34. Now the rest of the acts of Josaphat first and last are written in the words of Jehu the son of Hanani, which he digested into the books of the kings of Israel.
35. After this Josaphat king of Juda made friendship with Ochozias king of Israel, whose works were most wicked.
36. And he was partner with him in making ships that should go to Tharsis: and they made a fleet in Asiongaber.
37. And Eliezer the son of Dodau of Maresa prophesied to Josaphat, saying: Because thou hast made a league with Ochozias, the Lord hath broken thy works, and the ships were destroyed, and could not go to Tharsis.
Verse 5. The new court—namely renewed, or
Verse 1. The children of Ammon, and with them some of the Ammonites,—that is, of the Idumeans; for these, that they might not seem to fight against the Jews their brethren, called themselves Ammonites. So the author of the Traditions, in St. Jerome here: “By Ammonites,” he says, “he means the Idumeans, who out of reverence for the name of their father (Esau, who was brother of Jacob, the father of the Israelites) were unwilling in their former dress to take up arms against Israel; but transformed themselves into the dress of the Ammonites.”
Verse 2. From beyond the sea (namely the Dead Sea, or the lake Asphaltites, and having crossed it they encamp in) Engaddi—that is, on the borders of the kingdom of Juda; for Syria was separated from Juda by the Dead Sea, says Vatablus (a).
added anew to the temple: for when Solomon had made the courts of the temple very ample, that it might hold the whole people of the 12 tribes; but afterwards the ten tribes made a schism from Roboam and the temple, hence many parts of the court, as empty, were shut up or assigned to other uses. But under Josaphat, the multitude of the faithful growing, and of the people both of Juda and of those who had fled over from the ten tribes to Juda, it was necessary that some of them be opened again and renewed, to hold so great a people; and this is: “the new court,” that is, renewed, and anew adapted to the uses of the temple and the people. (a) What Cornelius a Lapide asserts here, following Vatablus, namely that Syria is separated from Juda by the Dead Sea, I would say, with the leave of so learned a man, wanders a little from geographical truth. For whoever looks once at a description of the Holy Land sees at once that neither the tribe nor the kingdom of Juda is immediately separated from Syria by the Dead Sea, which lies to the east of the kingdom of Juda, whereas Syria lies rather to the north of the kingdom of Juda, and is far removed from the kingdom of Juda by the whole kingdom of Israel. Moreover from the progress of this history we nowhere see the Syrians coming into an alliance of arms with the Moabites and Ammonites, whose region is very far distant from the places here described. I should therefore prefer to read, with Calmet, “of Edom,” for
Verse 12. But as we know not what to do, we have only this remaining, to direct our eyes to thee.—Note this most pious and most useful counsel of Josaphat: “When therefore thou art destitute of all human help, divine help is near,” as Philo, ambassador to Caius, says, “of Aram,” or “of Syria,” which is in the text. Moreover that copyists should be deceived by the likeness of the letters between Edom and Aram does not now happen for the first time, and verses 10, 22, 23, which seem to correspond to this, plainly demand this correction. It is certain that there were not wanting in the enemy’s army Idumeans, or inhabitants of mount Seir, nor did they hold there so slight a place as not to deserve to be reckoned among the rest.
if thou invoke it; for it is proper to God to succour in straits, and to restore what is despaired of: for there above all he shows his clemency and power. This work, therefore, as it is fitting to the Godhead, is also proper to God.
Verse 13. And all Juda stood before the Lord, with their little ones, and their wives, and their children.—Behold, here is clear the antiquity of the Litany, or public and common Prayer, in which in a public calamity all of every sex and age come together publicly; that with one voice, and as it were with one lamentation of all, they may implore the mercy and help of God, and as it were do violence to God: “For this violence,” says Tertullian in the Apology, “is pleasing to God.” The Ninivites did the same, and the Jews in the time of Judith, chapter IV, verse 9. And this is what Joel, chapter II, admonishes to be done: “Assemble the ancients, gather together the little ones, and them that suck at the breasts.” The same did St. Gregory in the plague that was ravaging Rome and Italy. For he appointed public Litanies of all orders, and distributed them into various classes, and, all crying out for the help of God, God stayed the plague, as his Life relates.
Verse 33. But the high places he took not away.—Understand the high places dedicated to the true God; for the high places of idols he took away, as was said. The reason he adds:
And the people had not yet directed their heart to the Lord—namely perfectly and wholly; for as yet they sacrificed to God on the high places, though God had commanded that sacrifice be offered to him in the temple of Jerusalem alone.
Verse 34. Are written in the words of Jehu the son of Hanani, which he digested into the books of the kings of Israel—namely into the books of the Chronicles or Diaries, in which he wrote the acts of the kings of Israel. Hence it is clear that Jehu is the author, at least in part, of the book so often cited, namely the chronicles of the kings of Israel, and that it is different from this book of Paralipomenon, since it is cited here in it.
Verse 36. Ships that should go to Tharsis.—See what I said on chapter IX, verse 21. Note from this place that God often frustrates the endeavours of pious princes, because they make use of the help of impious kings or soldiers. For therefore he broke the ships of the pious Josaphat, because they were joined with the ships of Ochozias the impious king of Israel. In like manner God by the prophet commanded Amasias to send the impious Israelites, though already hired for a hundred talents of silver, home from the army, chapter XXV, 6.