2 Chronicles 19:2

And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer.—The seer whose father had suffered for his reproof of Asa (2Chronicles 16:7-10), and who had himself already witnessed against Baasha, king of Israel (1Kings 16:1-7).

To meet him.—Unto his presence (1Chronicles 12:17; 2Chronicles 15:2).

King.—The king. The prophets never shrank from facing the highest representatives of earthly power (comp. 1Kings 21:20).

Shouldest thou help.—Literally, to help the ungodly. The infinitive (as in 1Chronicles 5:1; 1Chronicles 9:25), i.e., oughtest thou to help.

The ungodly.—.The emphatic word. (See Psalm 139:21-22; Psalm 119:158 : “I beheld the transgressors with loathing.”)

Them that hate the Lord.—And haters of Jehovah lovest thou? (The particle le prefixed to the word for “haters” is characteristic of the chronicler’s style.)

Therefore is wrath upon thee.—See the same phrase, 1Chronicles 27:24. In the case of David, the Divine wrath was embodied in pestilence; what form did it take with Jehoshaphat? The following chapters seem to supply the answer. His land suffered invasion and his fleet shipwreck; his posterity was evil, and came to an evil end (2 Chronicles 20, 21, 22). There may be reference also to the failure of the campaign in which Jehoshaphat had engaged, and his inglorious return to his own land.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:1-11 Jehoshaphat visits his kingdom. - Whenever we return in peace to our houses, we ought to acknowledge God's providence in preserving our going out and coming in. And if we have been kept through more than common dangers, we are, in a special manner, bound to be thankful. Distinguishing mercies lay us under strong obligations. The prophet tells Jehoshaphat he had done very ill in joining Ahab. He took the reproof well. See the effect the reproof had upon him. He strictly searched his own kingdom. By what the prophet said, Jehoshaphat perceived that his former attempts for reformation were well-pleasing to God; therefore he did what was then left undone. It is good when commendations quicken us to our duty. There are diversities of gifts and operations, but all from the same Spirit, and for the public good; and as every one has received the gift, so let him minister the same. Blessed be God for magistrates and ministers, scribes and statesmen, men of books, and men of business. Observe the charge the king gave. They must do all in the fear of the Lord, with a perfect, upright heart. And they must make it their constant care to prevent sin, as an offence to God, and what would bring wrath on the people.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Jehu ... went out to meet him - Compare 2 Chronicles 15:2. The monarch was therefore rebuked at the earliest possible moment, and in the most effective way, as he was entering his capital at the head of his returning army. Jehu, 35 years previously, had worked in the northern kingdom, and prophesied against Baasha 1 Kings 16:1-7, but had now come to Jerusalem, as prophet and historian (compare 2 Chronicles 20:34).

Shouldest thou help ... - As a matter of mere human policy, the conduct of Jehoshaphat in joining Ahab against the Syrians was not only justifiable but wise and prudent. And the reasonings upon which such a policy was founded would have been unexceptionable but for one circumstance. Ahab was an idolater, and had introduced into his kingdom a false religion of a new and most degraded type. This should have led Jehoshaphat to reject his alliance. Military success could only come from the blessing and protection of Yahweh, which such an alliance, if persisted in, was sure to forfeit.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 19

2Ch 19:1-4. Jehoshaphat Visits His Kingdom.

1-4. Jehoshaphat … returned to his house in peace—(See 2Ch 18:16). Not long after he had resumed the ordinary functions of royalty in Jerusalem, he was one day disturbed by an unexpected and ominous visit from a prophet of the Lord [2Ch 19:2]. This was Jehu, of whose father we read in 2Ch 16:7. He himself had been called to discharge the prophetic office in Israel. But probably for his bold rebuke to Baasha (1Ki 16:1), he had been driven by that arbitrary monarch within the territory of Judah, where we now find him with the privileged license of his order, taking the same religious supervision of Jehoshaphat's proceedings as he had formerly done of Baasha's. At the interview here described, he condemned, in the strongest terms, the king of Judah's imprudent and incongruous league with Ahab—God's open enemy (1Ki 22:2)—as an unholy alliance that would be conducive neither to the honor and comfort of his house nor to the best interests of his kingdom. He apprised Jehoshaphat that, on account of that grave offense, "wrath was upon him from before the Lord," a judgment that was inflicted soon after (see on [442]2Ch 20:1-37). The prophet's rebuke, however, was administered in a mingled strain of severity and mildness; for he interposed "a nevertheless" (2Ch 19:3), which implied that the threatened storm would be averted, in token of the divine approval of his public efforts for the promotion of the true religion, as well as of the sincere piety of his personal character and life.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Jehu the son of Hanani the seer; of whom see 1 Kings 16:1.

Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? was this agreeable to thy duty and love which thou professest to God and godliness, that thou hast entered into so strict an alliance and friendship with wicked Ahab, my sworn enemy, and given such assistance to him?

Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord; therefore God is angry with thee, and will chastise thee for this miscarriage: which he did, partly, by stirring up the Moabites and others to invade him, 2 Chronicles 20; partly, by permitting his eldest son Jehoram to kill all his brethren, 2 Chronicles 21:4; and principally, by bringing that sore and almost general destruction upon his grandchildren by Jehu, 2 Kings 9:27 10:13,14, which was the proper fruit of his alliance with Ahab.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer,.... The son of him that reproved Asa, for which he put him in prison, 2 Chronicles 17:7, but that did not deter this his son from reproving Jehoshaphat:

went out to meet him; as he was returning:

and said to King Jehoshaphat, shouldest thou help the ungodly; such an one as Ahab, an idolater, murderer, and persecutor:

and love them that hate the Lord? his laws, worship, and ordinances, as he had; intimating, that he had done wrong, by entering into alliance and affinity with him, by showing him friendship, and assisting him in his war against the Syrians:

therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord; which appeared in the war of the Ammonites and Moabites with him, related in the next chapter, and in the calamities that came upon his family, his sons being slain by Jehoram that succeeded him, and his grandsons by Jehu.

Geneva Study Bible

And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, {a} Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD.

(a) He declares that the wrath of God is over everyone who supports the wicked and does not show in their actions that they are enemies to everyone that hates the Lord.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. Jehu the son of Hanani] He must have been an old man at this time for he had prophesied against Baasha (1 Kings 16:1), since whose time two kings had reigned in Israel, viz., Omri (12 years) and Ahab (22 years).

the ungodly] R.V. the wicked.

and love them that hate the Lord] Cp. Psalm 139:21-22.

therefore is wrath upon thee] R.V. for this thing wrath is upon thee, i.e. a visitation of wrath is impending. The visitation is described in chap. 20. For “wrath” (Heb. qeçeph) cp. 2 Kings 3:27 R.V. mg.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him. For Hanani, the faithful father of a faithful son, see 2 Chronicles 16:7-10, where we read that he "came to Asa King of Judah," etc. Also for Jehu, see 1 Kings 16:1-4, where we read of his commission at the word of the Lord to rebuke Baasha the King of Israel, at a date upwards of thirty years before the present; and see 2 Chronicles 20:34, which would lead us to infer, though not with certainty, that he outlived Jehoshaphat. The book called by his name, however, was not necessarily finished by him. It is evident that neither the word of the Lord nor the messengers and prophets of the Lord were bound by the orthodox limits of the divided kingdom. The powerful character and the moral force of the true prophet is again seen (comp. 2 Chronicles 15:1-8) in the way in which he was wont to go out to meet the evil-doer, though he were a king. We are accustomed to set the whole of this down to the account of the special inspiration of the prophet of old; yet that was but typical of the intrinsic force that truth faithfully spoken should wield in its own right in later times. Religion is established in the nation and people that know and do this, by the accredited teachers of it, vie. the plain rebuke of the wrong. Shouldest thou... love them that hate the Lord? Strong suspicion must attend upon Jehoshaphat, that he had been not a little misled by answering to some personal fascination in Ahab. The prophet's rebuke is not that Jehoshaphat helped both Israel and therein Judah also against a common foe, but that he helped the ungodly, etc. Therefore wrath upon thee, etc. The significance of this sentence was probably not merely retrospective, glancing at the fact that Jehoshaphat returned to Jerusalem minus the victory for which he had bid, but was probably an intimation of troubles that should ripen, were already ripening for Jehoshaphat, in the coming invasion of his own kingdom (2 Chronicles 20:1-3). 2 Chronicles 19:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The prophet Jehu's declaration as to Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab, and Jehoshaphat's further efforts to promote the fear of God and the administration of justice in Judah. - 2 Chronicles 19:1-3. Jehu's declaration. Jehoshaphat returned from the war in which Ahab had lost his life, בּשׁלום, i.e., safe, uninjured, to his house in Jerusalem; so that the promise of Micah in 2 Chronicles 18:16 was fulfilled also as regards him. But on his return, the seer Jehu, the son of Hanani, who had been thrown into the stocks by Asa (2 Chronicles 16:7.), met him with the reproving word, "Should one help the wicked, and lovest thou the haters of Jahve!" (the inf. with ל, as in 1 Chronicles 5:1; 1 Chronicles 9:25, etc.). Of these sins Jehoshaphat had been guilty. "And therefore is anger from Jahve upon thee" (על קצף as in 1 Chronicles 27:24). Jehoshaphat had already had experience of this wrath, when in the battle of Ramoth the enemy pressed upon him (2 Chronicles 18:31), and was at a later time to have still further experience of it, partly during his own life, when the enemy invaded his land (2 Chronicles 20), and when he attempted to re-establish the sea trade with Ophir (2 Chronicles 20:35.), partly after his death in his family (2 Chronicles 21 and 2 Chronicles 22:1-12). "But," continues Jehu, to console him, "yet there are good things found in thee (cf. 2 Chronicles 12:12), for thou hast destroyed the Asheroth..." אשׁרות equals אשׁרים, 2 Chronicles 17:6. On these last words, comp. 2 Chronicles 12:14 and 2 Chronicles 17:4.