2Ch 17 | EE | STEP | Asa’s son Jehoshaphat ruled instead. And he made himself strong against Israel.

2 Chronicles 17

Jehoshaphat becomes king of Judah

1 Asa’s son Jehoshaphat ruled instead. And he made himself strong against Israel. 2 He put armies in all the cities of Judah that had walls. And he put groups of soldiers in places in Judah. And he put them in the towns of Ephraim that his father Asa had won. ^{▼▼17:2 Jehoshaphat was the 4th king of Judah.}

3 Jehoshaphat was like his ancestor David when he was young. He obeyed the LORD‘s rules as David had done. And Jehoshaphat did not ask the Baals for help. So the LORD was with him. 4 He went for help to the God of his father. He obeyed the LORD‘s laws. He did not do the wrong things that Israel’s people did. 5 The LORD made the kingdom safe with him as its king. And all Judah’s people brought gifts to him. So Jehoshaphat became rich and the people gave a lot of honour to him. 6 He really wanted be the LORD‘s servant. He removed from Judah the high places where people worshipped false gods. And he cut down the models of the false female god called Asherah.

The king sends men to teach the Law in all his towns and cities

7 When he had been king for nearly three years, Jehoshaphat sent his officers to teach in Judah’s towns. The names of those officers were Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel and Micaiah. 8 He sent some Levites with them. The Levites‘names were Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-Adonijah. And he sent the priests Elishama and Jehoram with them. 9 They taught the people in all parts of Judah. They took with them the Book of the LORD‘s Law. They went to all the towns in Judah and they taught the people.

People in other nations give honour to Jehoshaphat and to the LORD his God

10 The people in all the kingdoms round Judah were afraid of the LORD. So they did not fight against Jehoshaphat. 11 Some Philistines brought gifts to Jehoshaphat. Those gifts included silver as taxes. People from Arabia brought animals to him. They brought 7700 male sheep and 7700 male goats.

Jehoshaphat’s army

12 Jehoshaphat became more and more powerful. He built strong buildings. And he built towns in Judah to store his good things. 13 He stored many valuable things in the towns of Judah. And he kept strong, brave soldiers in Jerusalem. 14 These are their names for each clan.

From Judah there were officers over groups of 1000 men. Adnah was the officer over 300,000 brave soldiers.

15 Next, there was Jehohanan. He was the officer over 280,000 soldiers.

16 Next, there was Amasiah, Zichri’s son. He wanted to be the LORD‘s servant and there were 200,000 brave soldiers with him.

17 From Benjamin, there was Eliada, a brave soldier, with 200,000 men with bows and shields.

18 Next, there was Jehozabad with 180,000 men with weapons who had prepared themselves to fight.

19 All these soldiers worked for the king. He also had other soldiers that he put in all Judah’s strong cities.