20:26 On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, where 5 they praised the Lord. So that place is called the Valley of Berachah 6 to this very day. 20:27 Then all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem with Jehoshaphat leading them; the Lord had given them reason to rejoice over their enemies. 20:28 They entered Jerusalem to the sound of stringed instruments and trumpets and proceeded to the temple of the Lord. 20:29 All the kingdoms of the surrounding lands were afraid of God 7 when they heard how the Lord had fought against Israel’s enemies. 20:30 Jehoshaphat’s kingdom enjoyed peace; his God made him secure on every side. 8
20:31 Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. 9 His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. 20:32 He followed in his father Asa’s footsteps and was careful to do what the Lord approved. 10 20:33 However, the high places were not eliminated; the people were still not devoted to the God of their ancestors. 11
20:34 The rest of the events of Jehoshaphat’s reign, from start to finish, are recorded in the Annals of Jehu son of Hanani which are included in Scroll of the Kings of Israel. 12
20:35 Later King Jehoshaphat of Judah made an alliance with King Ahaziah of Israel, who 13 did evil. 20:36 They agreed 14 to make large seagoing merchant ships; 15 they built the ships in Ezion Geber. 20:37 Eliezer son of Dodavahu from Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, “Because 16 you made an alliance with Ahaziah, the Lord will shatter what you have made.” The ships were wrecked and unable to go to sea. 17
1 tn Or “army.”
2 tc The MT reads פְגָרִים (fÿgarim, “corpses”), but this seems odd among a list of plunder. A few medieval Hebrew
3 tn Heb “and they snatched away for themselves so that there was no carrying away.”
4 tn Heb “and they were three days looting the plunder for it was great.”
5 tn Heb “for there.”
6 sn The name Berachah, which means “blessing” in Hebrew, is derived from the verbal root “to praise [or “to bless”],” which appears earlier in the verse.
7 tn Heb “and the terror of God [or “a great terror”] was upon all the kingdoms of the lands.” It is uncertain if אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) should be understood as a proper name here (“God”), or taken in an idiomatic superlative sense.
8 tn Heb “and his God gave him rest all around.”
9 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
10 tn Heb “he walked in the way of his father Asa and did not turn from it, doing what is right in the eyes of the
11 tn Heb “and still the people did not set their heart[s] on the God of their fathers.”
12 tn Heb “the rest of the events of Jehoshaphat, the former and the latter, look, they are written in the records of Jehu son of Hanani, which are taken up in the scroll of the kings of Israel.”
13 tn Heb “he.” The pronoun has been translated as a relative pronoun for stylistic reasons.
14 tn Heb “he made an alliance with him.”
15 tn Heb “make ships to go to Tarshish.” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish; a “Tarshish-ship” was essentially a large seagoing merchant ship.
16 tn Heb “when.”
17 tn Heb “to go to Tarshish.”