2 Chronicles 18:1

Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(1) Now Jehoshaphat had.—And Jehoshaphat got.

Riches and honour in abundance.—Repeated from 2Chronicles 17:5.

And joined affinity with Ahab.—He married his son Jehoram to Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (2Chronicles 21:6; 1Kings 18:8). The high degree of prosperity to which the king of Judah had attained is indicated by the fact that so powerful a monarch as Ahab entered into such an intimate connection with him. (The vav of the second clause is not adversative, as Zöckler asserts, but rather consecutive.)

Benson Commentary

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!

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:1-34 Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab. - This history we read in 1Ki 22. Abundant riches and honour give large opportunities of doing good, but they are attended with many snares and temptations. Men do not know much of the artifices of Satan and the deceitfulness of their own hearts, when they covet riches with the idea of being able to do good with them. What can hurt those whom God will protect? What can shelter those whom God will destroy? Jehoshaphat is safe in his robes, Ahab killed in his armour; for the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. We should be cautious of entangling ourselves in the worldly undertakings of evil men; and still more we should avoid engaging in their sinful projects. But, when they call upon him, God can and will bring his faithful people out of the difficulties and dangers into which they have sinfully run themselves. He has all hearts in his hand, so that he easily rescues them. Blessed is the man that putteth his trust in the Lord.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The present chapter runs parallel with Kings, which it closely follows, only adding a few touches.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 18

2Ch 18:1-34. Jehoshaphat and Ahab Go against Ramoth-gilead.Jehoshaphat, joined in affinity with Ahab, is persuaded to go with him against Ramoth-gilead, 2 Chronicles 18:1-3. Ahab, seduced by false prophets, according to the word of Micaiah, is slain there, 2 Chronicles 18:4-34.

For Jehoram, his eldest son, married Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter, 2 Chronicles 21:6 2 Kings 8:18. This chapter is for substance the same with 1 Kings 22, where it is explained.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance,.... Still more and more, see 2 Chronicles 17:5, and which moved Ahab to desire friendship and affinity with him, to which Jehoshaphat agreed:

and joined affinity with Ahab; king of Israel, married his son Joram to Athaliah, a daughter of Ahab by Jezebel of Zidon; which marriage proved of bad consequence to Jehoshaphat and his family.

Geneva Study Bible

Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance, and joined {a} affinity with Ahab.

(a) For Joram Jehoshaphat's son married Ahab's daughter.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Ch. 2 Chronicles 18:1-3 (cp. 1 Kings 22:1-4). The Alliance between Jehoshaphat and Ahab

1. joined affinity] Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat married Athaliah the daughter of Ahab (2 Kings 8:16; 2 Kings 8:18; 2 Kings 8:26). Athaliah though called “daughter” of Omri in 2 Kings 8:26 was really his grand-daughter.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 1. - The purport of the verse is to let us into the secret that the riches and honour in abundance of Jehoshaphat were, in fact, the snare by which he was led to entangle himself with one who, probably only on that account, was willing to be entangled by affinity with him (2 Chronicles 21:6; 2 Chronicles 22:2-4; 2 Kings 8:25-29). It is not hard to see how they would both lead him, if not always out of big and patronizing thoughts, to seek and also lay him open to be sought. When this verse says Jehoshaphat joined affinity, etc., it means that he had done so. to wit, not fewer than nine years before, in promoting or allowing, whichever it was, the marriage of his son Jehoram with Ahab's and Jezebel's daughter Athaliah. For the issue of this marriage, Ahaziah, took the throne at the age of twenty-two years, thirteen years hence from this seventeenth year of his grandfather Jehoshaphat's reign, the year of Ahab's death. But as we are told that Ahaziah was the youngest son of Jehoram and Athaliah (for explanation of which see 2 Chronicles 21:17), the "joining affinity" must have been something earlier than nine years, and very probably came yet nearer the prosperity of the earlier years of Jehoshaphat's reign, with which would agree well the keynote touched again significantly here from our 2 Chronicles 17:5. Comp. 2 Kings 8:17, 26; 2 Chronicles 21:20; 2 Chronicles 22:2 (which needs the correction of twenty-two to forty-two). Although it is certain that the act of Jehoshaphat was wrong in principle, disastrous in practice (2 Chronicles 19:2, 3), and threatened fatal consequences to himself (2 Chronicles 18:31, 32), yet it is not impossible to suppose his motives were for the most part good, and he may naturally have thought that the sunshine of his own peace and abundance might be the set time to win influence in and over Israel, rather than strengthen Israel in its ungodly independence. On the other hand, nothing could justify Jehoshaphat risking such intimacy of relationship with such a family, heedless of consequences, looking towards idolatry, which he should have known were overwhelmingly probable. 2 Chronicles 18:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jehoshaphat's marriage alliance with Ahab, and his campaign with Ahab against the Syrians at Ramoth in Gilead. - 2 Chronicles 18:1. Jehoshaphat came into connection by marriage with Ahab through his son Joram taking Athaliah, a daughter of Ahab, to wife (2 Chronicles 21:6); an event which did not take place on the visit made by Jehoshaphat to Ahab in his palace at Samaria, and recorded in 2 Chronicles 18:2, but which had preceded that by about nine years. That visit falls in the beginning of the year in which Ahab was mortally wounded at Ramoth, and died, i.e., the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat's reign. But at that time Ahaziah, the son of Joram and Athaliah, was already from eight to nine years old, since thirteen years later he became king at the age of twenty-two; 2 Kings 8:26, cf. with the chronol. table to 1 Kings 12. The marriage connection is mentioned in order to account for Jehoshaphat's visit to Samaria (2 Chronicles 18:2), and his alliance with Ahab in the war against the Syrians; but it is also introduced by a reference to Jehoshaphat's riches and his royal splendour, repeated from 2 Chronicles 17:5. In the opinion of many commentators, this is stated to account for Ahab's willingness to connect his family by marriage with that of Jehoshaphat. This opinion might be tenable were it Ahab's entering upon a marriage connection with Jehoshaphat which is spoken of; but for Jehoshaphat, of whom it is related that he entered into a marriage connection with Ahab, his own great wealth could not be a motive for his action in that matter. If we consider, first, that this marriage connection was very hurtful to the kingdom of Judah and the royal house of David, since Athaliah not only introduced the Phoenician idolatry into the kingdom, but also at the death of Ahaziah extirpated all the royal seed of the house of David, only the infant Joash of all the royal children being saved by the princess, a sister of Ahaziah, who was married to the high priest Jehoiada (2 Chronicles 22:10-12); and, second, that Jehoshaphat was sharply censured by the prophet for his alliance with the criminal Ahab (2 Chronicles 19:2.), and had, moreover, all but forfeited his life in the war (2 Chronicles 18:34.), - we see that the author of the Chronicle can only have regarded the marriage connection between Jehoshaphat and Ahab as a mistake. By introducing this account of it by a second reference to Jehoshaphat's riches and power, he must therefore have intended to hint that Jehoshaphat had no need to enter into this relationship with the idolatrous house of Ahab, but had acted very inconsiderately in doing so. Schmidt has correctly stated the contents of the verse thus: Josaphatus cetera dives et gloriosus infelicem adfinitatem cum Achabo, rege Israelis, contrahit. With which side the proposals for thus connecting the two royal houses originated we are not anywhere informed. Even if the conjecture of Ramb., that Ahab proposed it to Jehoshaphat, be not well founded, yet so much is beyond doubt, namely, that Ahab not only desired the alliance, but also promoted it by every means in his power, since it must have been of great importance to him to gain in Jehoshaphat a strong ally against the hostile pressure of the Syrians. Jehoshaphat probably entered upon the alliance bono animo et spe firmandae inter duo regna pacis (Ramb.), without much thought of the dangers which a connection of this sort with the idolatrous Ahab and with Jezebel might bring upon his kingdom.