1 Kings 22:46
He banished from the land the male shrine prostitutes who remained from the days of his father Asa.
He banished
The act of banishment here is significant in the context of ancient Israelite society. The Hebrew root word for "banished" is "ba'ar," which means to remove or purge. This action reflects a decisive and forceful removal of elements that were considered impure or contrary to the worship of Yahweh. In a spiritual sense, this can be seen as a call for believers to actively remove sin and idolatry from their lives, aligning with the biblical theme of holiness and separation from worldly influences.

from the land
The "land" in this context refers to the territory of Judah, over which Jehoshaphat reigned. The land was not just a physical space but a covenantal gift from God to the Israelites, meant to be a place where His laws and worship were upheld. The cleansing of the land from idolatrous practices was essential to maintain its sanctity and fulfill its purpose as a holy dwelling for God's people.

the male cult prostitutes
The Hebrew term used here is "qadesh," which refers to those involved in ritualistic sexual practices associated with pagan worship. These practices were abominations in the sight of God, as they directly violated the commandments given to Israel. The presence of such individuals was a sign of the infiltration of Canaanite religious customs, which were often linked to fertility rites. The removal of these practices was crucial for restoring true worship and obedience to God's law.

who remained
This phrase indicates that despite previous reforms, remnants of these practices persisted. It highlights the ongoing struggle against idolatry and the need for continual vigilance and reform. Spiritually, it serves as a reminder that believers must be persistent in their efforts to root out sin and remain faithful to God's commandments.

from the days of his father Asa
Asa, Jehoshaphat's father, was known for his own religious reforms, as recorded earlier in 1 Kings. However, the fact that some practices remained suggests that complete eradication of idolatry was a challenging task. This continuity underscores the generational battle against sin and the importance of each generation taking responsibility for their spiritual environment. It also reflects the biblical principle that while one generation may begin a good work, it often falls to the next to continue and complete it.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Jehoshaphat
The king of Judah who continued the religious reforms initiated by his father, Asa. He is noted for his efforts to rid the land of idolatry and practices contrary to the worship of Yahweh.

2. Asa
Jehoshaphat's father, who was also a king of Judah. Asa began reforms to remove idolatry and pagan practices, but some elements persisted into Jehoshaphat's reign.

3. Male Cult Prostitutes
These individuals were associated with pagan worship practices, often linked to fertility rites and idolatry. Their presence in Judah was contrary to the worship of Yahweh.

4. Judah
The southern kingdom of Israel, where Jehoshaphat reigned. It was distinct from the northern kingdom of Israel and had its own religious and political challenges.

5. Religious Reforms
The efforts by both Asa and Jehoshaphat to purify the worship practices in Judah, aligning them more closely with the laws given to Moses.
Teaching Points
Commitment to Purity
Jehoshaphat's actions demonstrate a commitment to spiritual purity and obedience to God's commands. Believers today are called to examine and remove any practices or influences that compromise their faith.

Continuity of Reform
Spiritual reform is often a process that spans generations. Like Jehoshaphat building on Asa's work, Christians are encouraged to continue the work of faith and reform in their own lives and communities.

Courage in Leadership
Jehoshaphat's decision to remove entrenched practices required courage and conviction. Leaders in the church and community are called to make difficult decisions that honor God, even when they are unpopular.

Influence of Idolatry
The persistence of male cult prostitutes highlights the pervasive nature of idolatry. Believers must remain vigilant against subtle forms of idolatry in their own lives, such as materialism or self-worship.

Legacy of Faithfulness
The actions of Asa and Jehoshaphat remind us of the importance of leaving a legacy of faithfulness. Our actions today can influence future generations in their walk with God.
Bible Study Questions
1. What steps can we take to identify and remove "idols" or ungodly influences in our own lives, similar to Jehoshaphat's removal of male cult prostitutes?

2. How can we ensure that the spiritual reforms and commitments we make are passed on to the next generation, as seen in the continuity between Asa and Jehoshaphat?

3. In what ways can we demonstrate courage in our faith, especially when faced with societal pressures that contradict biblical teachings?

4. How does the prohibition of male cult prostitutes in Deuteronomy 23:17 inform our understanding of God's desire for holiness among His people?

5. Reflect on a time when you had to make a difficult decision to honor God. What can you learn from Jehoshaphat's example that might help you in future situations?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Deuteronomy 23:17
This verse explicitly prohibits the presence of male and female cult prostitutes in Israel, providing a legal basis for Jehoshaphat's actions.

1 Kings 15:12
Describes Asa's initial efforts to remove male cult prostitutes, showing a continuity of reform between Asa and Jehoshaphat.

2 Chronicles 17:6
Highlights Jehoshaphat's commitment to following the ways of the Lord, including removing high places and Asherah poles, which complements his actions in 1 Kings 22:46.
Character of JehoshaphatR. S. Candlish, D. D.1 Kings 22:2-50
The Character of AhabR. S. Candlish, D. D.1 Kings 22:2-50
SurvivalJ.A. Macdonald 1 Kings 22:39, 40, 51-53
JehoshaphatJ.A. Macdonald 1 Kings 22:41-50
Two Life StoriesJ. Urquhart 1 Kings 22:41-53
People
Ahab, Ahaziah, Amon, Aram, Asa, Azubah, Chenaanah, David, Geber, Imlah, Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, Jeroboam, Joash, Micah, Micaiah, Nebat, Ophir, Shilhi, Sodomites, Syrians, Tarshish, Tharshish, Zedekiah
Places
Edom, Ezion-geber, Jerusalem, Ophir, Ramoth-gilead, Samaria, Syria, Tarshish
Topics
Asa, Cult, Expelled, Exterminated, Gods, Male, Prostitutes, Purposes, Reign, Remainder, Remnant, Removed, Rest, Sex, Shrine, Sodomites, Whoremongers, Worship
Dictionary of Bible Themes
1 Kings 22:41-53

     5366   king

1 Kings 22:45-46

     6239   prostitution

Library
Unpossessed Possessions
'And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?'--1 KINGS xxii. 3. This city of Ramoth in Gilead was an important fortified place on the eastern side of the Jordan, and had, many years before the date of our text, been captured by its northern neighbours in the kingdom of Syria. A treaty had subsequently been concluded and broken a war followed thereafter, in which Ben-hadad, King of Syria,
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Ahab and Micaiah
'And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might enquire of him? 8. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.'--1 KINGS xxii. 7,8. An ill-omened alliance had been struck up between Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah. The latter, who would have been much better in Jerusalem, had come down to Samaria
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Prophet Micah.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Micah signifies: "Who is like Jehovah;" and by this name, the prophet is consecrated to the incomparable God, just as Hosea was to the helping God, and Nahum to the comforting God. He prophesied, according to the inscription, under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We are not, however, entitled, on this account, to dissever his prophecies, and to assign particular discourses to the reign of each of these kings. On the contrary, the entire collection forms only one whole. At
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Poetical Books (Including Also Ecclesiastes and Canticles).
1. The Hebrews reckon but three books as poetical, namely: Job, Psalms, and Proverbs, which are distinguished from the rest by a stricter rhythm--the rhythm not of feet, but of clauses (see below, No. 3)--and a peculiar system of accentuation. It is obvious to every reader that the poetry of the Old Testament, in the usual sense of the word, is not restricted to these three books. But they are called poetical in a special and technical sense. In any natural classification of the books of the
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

The Assyrian Revival and the Struggle for Syria
Assur-nazir-pal (885-860) and Shalmaneser III. (860-825)--The kingdom of Urartu and its conquering princes: Menuas and Argistis. Assyria was the first to reappear on the scene of action. Less hampered by an ancient past than Egypt and Chaldaea, she was the sooner able to recover her strength after any disastrous crisis, and to assume again the offensive along the whole of her frontier line. Image Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief at Koyunjik of the time of Sennacherib. The initial cut,
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 7

Use to be Made of the Doctrine of Providence.
Sections. 1. Summary of the doctrine of Divine Providence. 1. It embraces the future and the past. 2. It works by means, without means, and against means. 3. Mankind, and particularly the Church, the object of special care. 4. The mode of administration usually secret, but always just. This last point more fully considered. 2. The profane denial that the world is governed by the secret counsel of God, refuted by passages of Scripture. Salutary counsel. 3. This doctrine, as to the secret counsel of
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

The Shepherd of Our Souls.
"I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."--John x. 11. Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them," says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered."
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

Of Councils and their Authority.
1. The true nature of Councils. 2. Whence the authority of Councils is derived. What meant by assembling in the name of Christ. 3. Objection, that no truth remains in the Church if it be not in Pastors and Councils. Answer, showing by passages from the Old Testament that Pastors were often devoid of the spirit of knowledge and truth. 4. Passages from the New Testament showing that our times were to be subject to the same evil. This confirmed by the example of almost all ages. 5. All not Pastors who
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

That the Employing Of, and Associating with the Malignant Party, According as is Contained in the Public Resolutions, is Sinful and Unlawful.
That The Employing Of, And Associating With The Malignant Party, According As Is Contained In The Public Resolutions, Is Sinful And Unlawful. If there be in the land a malignant party of power and policy, and the exceptions contained in the Act of Levy do comprehend but few of that party, then there need be no more difficulty to prove, that the present public resolutions and proceedings do import an association and conjunction with a malignant party, than to gather a conclusion from clear premises.
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Of Passages from the Holy Scriptures, and from the Apocrypha, which are Quoted, or Incidentally Illustrated, in the Institutes.
TO THE AUTHORS QUOTED IN THE INSTITUTES PREFATORY ADDRESS TO HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY, THE MOST MIGHTY AND ILLUSTRIOUS MONARCH, FRANCIS, KING OF THE FRENCH, HIS SOVEREIGN; [1] JOHN CALVIN PRAYS PEACE AND SALVATION IN CHRIST. [2] Sire,--When I first engaged in this work, nothing was farther from my thoughts than to write what should afterwards be presented to your Majesty. My intention was only to furnish a kind of rudiments, by which those who feel some interest in religion might be trained to
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

He Does Battle for the Faith; He Restores Peace among those who were at Variance; He Takes in Hand to Build a Stone Church.
57. (32). There was a certain clerk in Lismore whose life, as it is said, was good, but his faith not so. He was a man of some knowledge in his own eyes, and dared to say that in the Eucharist there is only a sacrament and not the fact[718] of the sacrament, that is, mere sanctification and not the truth of the Body. On this subject he was often addressed by Malachy in secret, but in vain; and finally he was called before a public assembly, the laity however being excluded, in order that if it were
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

Sovereignty of God in Administration
"The LORD hath prepared His Throne In the heavens; and His Kingdom ruleth over all" (Psa. 103:19). First, a word concerning the need for God to govern the material world. Suppose the opposite for a moment. For the sake of argument, let us say that God created the world, designed and fixed certain laws (which men term "the laws of Nature"), and that He then withdrew, leaving the world to its fortune and the out-working of these laws. In such a case, we should have a world over which there was no intelligent,
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God

Tit. 2:06 Thoughts for Young Men
WHEN St. Paul wrote his Epistle to Titus about his duty as a minister, he mentioned young men as a class requiring peculiar attention. After speaking of aged men and aged women, and young women, he adds this pithy advice, "Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded" (Tit. 2:6). I am going to follow the Apostle's advice. I propose to offer a few words of friendly exhortation to young men. I am growing old myself, but there are few things I remember so well as the days of my youth. I have a most
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times

General Principles of Interpretation. 1 Since the Bible Addresses Men in Human Language...
CHAPTER XXXIV. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 1. Since the Bible addresses men in human language, and according to human modes of thinking and speaking, the interpreter's first work is to ascertain the meaning of the terms employed. Here he must proceed as in the case of other writings, seeking by the aid of grammars, lexicons, cognate languages, ancient versions, ancient interpreters, and whatever other outward helps are available, to gain a thorough knowledge of the language employed by
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

Commerce
The remarkable change which we have noticed in the views of Jewish authorities, from contempt to almost affectation of manual labour, could certainly not have been arbitrary. But as we fail to discover here any religious motive, we can only account for it on the score of altered political and social circumstances. So long as the people were, at least nominally, independent, and in possession of their own land, constant engagement in a trade would probably mark an inferior social stage, and imply
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

The Figurative Language of Scripture.
1. When the psalmist says: "The Lord God is a sun and shield" (Psa. 84:11), he means that God is to all his creatures the source of life and blessedness, and their almighty protector; but this meaning he conveys under the figure of a sun and a shield. When, again, the apostle James says that Moses is read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day (Acts 15:21), he signifies the writings of Moses under the figure of his name. In these examples the figure lies in particular words. But it may be embodied
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

Instruction for the Ignorant:
BEING A SALVE TO CURE THAT GREAT WANT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHICH SO MUCH REIGNS BOTH IN YOUNG AND OLD. PREPARED AND PRESENTED TO THEM IN A PLAIN AND EASY DIALOGUE, FITTED TO THE CAPACITY OF THE WEAKEST. 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'--Hosea 4:6 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This little catechism is upon a plan perfectly new and unique. It was first published as a pocket volume in 1675, and has been republished in every collection of the author's works; and recently in a separate tract.
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Kings
The book[1] of Kings is strikingly unlike any modern historical narrative. Its comparative brevity, its curious perspective, and-with some brilliant exceptions--its relative monotony, are obvious to the most cursory perusal, and to understand these things is, in large measure, to understand the book. It covers a period of no less than four centuries. Beginning with the death of David and the accession of Solomon (1 Kings i., ii.) it traverses his reign with considerable fulness (1 Kings iii.-xi.),
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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