Bible Commentaries

A.M. 3107. — B.C. 897.

Jehoshaphat joins affinity with Ahab, and consents to go with him to Ramoth- gilead, 2 Chronicles 18:1-3. The false prophets promise them success, 2 Chronicles 18:4-11. Micaiah foretels the death of Ahab, 2 Chronicles 18:6-27. Jehoshaphat hardly escapes, 2 Chronicles 18:28-32. Ahab slain, 2 Chronicles 18:33, 2 Chronicles 18:34.

2 Chronicles 18:1. And joined affinity with Ahab — For Joram, his eldest son, married Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter. This chapter is, for substance, the same with 1 Kings 22., where it is explained.

2 Chronicles 18:4. Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord — This we should do, whatever we undertake, by particular, believing prayer, by an unbiased consulting of the Scriptures, and our own consciences and by a close regard to the hints of Providence.

2 Chronicles 18:21. I will go out and be a lying spirit, &c. — See the power of Satan! One lying spirit can make four hundred lying prophets. And thus he frequently becomes a murderer by being a liar, and destroys men by deceiving them.

2 Chronicles 18:26. Put this fellow in the prison, &c. — How frequently has this been the lot of faithful ministers, to be hated and ill treated merely for being true to God, and just and kind to the souls of men! But that day will declare who is in the right and who is in the wrong, when Christ appears, to the unspeakable consolation of the persecuted, and the everlasting confusion of their persecutors.

2 Chronicles 18:31. Jehoshaphat cried out — He cried out, either to his friends to help, or to his enemies, to let them know he was not the king of Israel, or to God, and not in vain; for he moved the captains to depart from him —

Many are moved in a manner unaccountable both to themselves and others; but an invisible power moves them.

2 Chronicles 18:34. He died — Who can hurt those whom God will protect? And what can shelter those whom God will destroy? Jehoshaphat is saved in his robes; Ahab is killed in his armour!