2 Chronicles 17:8

2Ch_17:8

And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat.

The great companionship

I. Jehoshaphat secured the great companionship by following true example. Because he walked in the first ways of David his father. Beautiful those first ways of David. Turn to the eighteenth Psalm, which David sang in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. These first ways of David were ways of love to God (2Ch_17:1) of trust in God (2Ch_17:2); of prayer to God (2Ch_17:3); of strength in God (verse 29) of thanks to God (verses 49, 50). But the later ways of David--the ways concerning Bathsheba, etc., Jehoshaphat would not walk in. This matter of true example for the ways of life is a great thing. Such following will surely lead us into the great companionship of God.

II. The Lord was with Jehoshaphat; he secured the great companionship by standing out against the evil spirit of his time. And sought not unto the Baalim. The Baalim represented the popular religious tendency.

III. And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat; he secured the great companionship by right affection. But sought to the God of his father. Do not imagine the set of the supreme affection a light matter And when our heart supremely sets towards God, God answers with companionship.

IV. And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat; he secured the great companionship by right practice. And walked in His commandments, and not after the doings of Israel. Jehoshaphat did not mean about it, and dream about it, and think about it; he vigorously did it. Do not imagine that inward and sentimental intention which never finds expression in corresponding action amounts to anything. What vigorous volition and right practise sound in that walked! Man is three things--intellect, affection, will. Jehoshaphat turned these three toward God. Intellectually, he recognised Jehovah as God, not the Baalim; affectionately, he sought to God; volitionally, he practised for God. What wonder he was wrapped about with the great companionship? (Homiletic Review.)

Because he walked in the first ways of his father David.--

The first ways of David

1. We have here a pattern and a warning. It is an eulogy heightened by a limitation. The merit of the copy is advanced at the expense of the pattern. It is intimated that Davids first ways were his best ways. This is in contradiction of the true order of the spiritual life. A retrograde motion in it is a violation of its nature and a frustration of its intent. Deterioration in goodness is a disease and an anomaly.

2. Notice the impartiality and candour which characterise the accounts of good men in Scripture. The Bible has no human idols. Fault and virtue it sets forth with equal distinctness and prominence. Herein it shows itself Divine. The Bible in its way of dealing with the lives and characters of men, almost as much as in anything, bespeaks itself the voice of God.

3. The change in Davids spiritual course was connected with an equally marked change in his outward condition.

4. See here the danger of prosperity.

5. We infer that men are not to be our patterns, but only the man Christ Jesus. Him alone we can look up to with unqualified admiration.

6. Let us always be looking out for the symptoms and beginnings of spiritual decline. (R. A. Hallam, D.D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 8. 2Ch 17:7.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(8) And with them he sent Levites.—Rather, And with them were the Levites. The construction being changed. So LXX. and the Syriac. (Comp. 1Ch_16:41-42; 1Ch_15:18, for the same mode of enumeration, which is characteristic of the style of the chronicler.

Zebadiah.—Some MSS. and Syriac and Arabic read Zechariah.

Shemiramoth.—So LXX. and Vulg. (see 1Ch_16:5; 1Ch_15:18). The Heb. text is probably incorrect. Syriac and Arabic read instead Natûra.

Tob-adonijah.—This curious name occurs only here, and is perhaps a mere mistake arising out of the preceding Adonijah and Tobijah. The Syriac and Arabic omit it.

Priests.—The priests.

The commission was a mixed one of civil and ecclesiastical persons (comp. 1Ch_13:1-2; 1Ch_23:2; 1Ch_24:6.)

And had the book of the law of the Lord.—And with them was the book of the law (teaching) of Jehovah. For the construction, compare 1Ch_16:42. The writer evidently means the Pentateuch; and if this notice was derived by him from a contemporary source, e.g., the “words of Jehu the son of Hanani,” to which he refers as an authority for the reign (2Ch_20:34), it would constitute an important testimony to the existence, if not of the five books, at least of an ancient collection of laws at this early date (circ. 850 B.C. ).

And taught the people.—Taught among the people.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And with them he sent Levites,.... With the five princes he sent nine Levites:

even Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asahel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and Tobadonijah, Levites; of whom we nowhere else read; no doubt they were principal persons, and fit for the work they were sent about:

and with them Elishama and Jehoram, priests; whose lips were to keep knowledge, and at whose mouth the law was to be sought, Mal 2:7.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

And with them of the Levites were Shemaiah, Nethaniah, etc.

and with them were Elishama and Jehoram, the priests because it is incumbent upon the priests and the Levites to teach and to instruct, as it is written (Deut. 24:8): “in accordance with everything the priests, the Levites teach you.” The officers went with them because they [the people] would not disobey their orders, and [the officers went] to coerce them [the people] to heed them [the priests] and to observe [and] to do in accordance with the order of the judges. An example (ibid. 15:18): “Judges and law-enforcing officials shall you appoint for yourself”: Judges to judge the people, and law-enforcing officials to coerce them to comply with the orders of the judges.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.