2 Chronicles 20:26

2Ch 20:26 And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the LORD: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day.

Ver. 26. And on the fourth day.] Whilst the mercy was yet fresh. We must hasten our praises: no part of the thank offering might be kept until the third day.

For there they blessed the Lord.] So did our Edward III after the victory at Poictiers, where he took the French king, A.D. 1356. Polydor Virgil telleth us, {a} that speedy order was taken that eight days together should be spent in giving God the thanks and glory. The like was done by our Richard I when he had beaten the king of France at Givors, A.D. 1195. {b} But especially by our Henry V after his victory at Agincourt. He gave strict orders, saith the chronicler, {c} that no ballad or song should be made or sung, more than of thanksgiving to the Lord alone. That victorious king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, as he prayed much and often, on shipboard, on shore, in the field, in the midst of battle, so he was no less careful to glorify God the giver of victory: as making him not his refuge only, but his recompense also. {d}

Therefore the name of the place was called Berachah,] i.e., Blessing: so to perpetuate to posterity the memory of that great mercy. There are that think this valley is the same with that called the valley of Jehoshaphat, {Joe 3:2; Joe 3:12} and that there Christ shall sit in judgment.

{a} Lib. xix.

{b} Hoveden.

{c} Daniel.

{d} Speed.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ch_20:26

The valley of Berachah.

Bible valleys

The word valley is a poem in itself; it is associated with a great deal that is beautiful, comforting, and that gives the soul a sense of security and plentifulness. The Bible is full of valleys, as it is full of wells. What is this valley of Berachah? In some senses I do not care much for it; I know it means the valley of blessing, and that the people, in whom I have not the slightest confidence at all, sang themselves hoarse in the valley of Berachah because they were fed like oxen that were to be slaughtered. That is what the people were doing in the valley of Berachah. To me their blessing goes for nothing until I have deeply inquired into the motive of the hymn, the intent and the genesis of the ringing psalm. It was all right enough within given limits, but the limits themselves were wrong. No doubt there had been great victories, no doubt Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them that had been overthrown; and they found abundance of riches. I listened with reluctance to their selfish psalm. God might see some good in it; God sees good wherever it exists, in how poor soever a form. Sometimes the goodness is like a little starveling thing that has got no blood, no fire in the eyes, and no real trust in the soul--a kind of living, self-vexing speculation. Who would not sing in carrying off all these precious jewels? There is a better time for singing than the time of all this commercial aggrandisement and secular comfort. One little song of patience is worth the whole of this blaring noise. There is another valley mentioned in Num_32:9 --the valley of Eshcol. What valley is that? Tis the valley of grapes and summer fruits, all of which we may pluck, because it is the intent of Divine love that we should possess ourselves of such luxuriant vineyards. Do we not suddenly come upon the grapes intellectual, social, educational, spiritual? Is not hunger itself often surprised by unexpected plentifulness? Yet sometimes men cannot believe even in this uncrushed wine of the grape; they will hasten home and say, Do not, we beseech thee, venture in that direction; grapes enough there may be, even to abundance, but we had better remain where we are; can a man live upon grapes? We cannot tell what there may be beyond the river or on the other side of the mountain; here, you see, we have grapes enough; until we have drunken of this wine why should we strike our tents and go ahead? We may pervert some little mean proverbs of our own, and say, Better bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of. We have grapes to-day: why should we care about to-morrow? Thus enthusiasm is killed, and all daring, high exploit, and noble endeavour. Ambition may be perverted, but ambition may be one of the forms or aspects of inspiration. It is the future that draws us on, it is the prophetic assurance of some fiery man that a mile further on and we shall have it that keeps the world young and keep the rust away. You cannot silence the divinely inspired and most restless man. We could rouse him and say, Now, why not be content? why not rest and be thankful? of course there may be higher heights and wider landscapes, let us admit all that for a moment; but why worry ourselves about it? there may be something beyond the grave; when we die we shall see what there is. Perhaps not; there is a right way of dying. The world has been kept going by what foolish people would call sensationalism. The very persons who now wrap their rugs around them and enjoy the immediate comfort of the day owe the very rugs in which they wrap themselves to the sensationalism of a former time that could not be kept back from the wilderness or the jungle or the far-away land, no, not by the roaring sea and the tempest that seemed to be an embodied destruction. Do not live yourselves down into saplessness and reluctance to move. And it is easy for some persons to come and sanction such indolence, but we want the true spies to say to us, We have seen a land worth going to; it grows life, it is warm with summer, it is boundless with an illimitable hospitality. Young souls, do not be frightened by the man sitting next you, for he is no man, he is hardly a figure in wax. In Hosea there is a glorious valley--the valley of Achor (2:15). What is the meaning of Achor in this connection? what is the broad spiritual interpretation of Achor? It may be given in two little words, each word a syllable, one of the words a letter. a door of hope. I have given thee a new beginning, new chances, new opportunities, new mornings; this is not the end, this is the beginning; there is the great wall, go grope in blindness, but with finger-tips that can see; thou wilt in that great blank wall find a door; it is there, I made it, I made it for thee; I know the blankness of the wall, but on my word go thou forth and grope for the door, the Achor that will give thee visions beyond big as horizons, big as firmaments, big as outlined heavens: go forth in the spirit of hope. We are saved by hope. We are not saved by depression. There is a new beginning for you if you please to avail yourself of it. I have heard your story about lost opportunities and a wasted life and failure upon failure. That is atheistic controversy; you had better know it, it spoils your life. What the preacher is set to do is to proclaim the door of hope; salvation by hope, hope that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In the book of Isaiah we have a beautiful valley; in chapter 22:1 we read about the valley of vision. That is a large valley, that valley is worth living in. To live with people who have always seen new lights, new possibilities, and new and brighter interpretations than have ever been realised before; that is companionship, that is resurrection. Who cares for those dullards who never see new lights, new companions, and the outlines of new springs and summers in the morning sky? What a poor life it is to live without vision! In Isa_28:1 we come into fat valleys. The poor drunkards were all lying down dead drunk and choked and suffocated with their own wine of fatness. They were pampered creatures; their soul was subordinated to the body, they were all flesh and next to no spirit. There are fat valleys that have no fatness of the true sort. Then there are valleys that are spiritually rich with all manner of nutritious food. There is a wine that has no intoxication in it, there is a wine that does not carry the seal of death. Into those fat valleys, and not into the other, may God lead us. Can Ezekiel be alive and not take his position in this great question of valleys? Ezekiel saw a valley, it was a valley of dry bones. Read Eze_37:1 and the context. It was an awful valley, a valley of death. Son of man, can these bones live? And the son of man said, O Lord God, Thou knowest. The wisest answer to every Divine inquiry: refer the question back; let Him who propounds the problem solve it. I wish we could read all about the valleys. There is a beautiful historical expression: So we abode in the valley. We wanted to climb the green banks and get up to the points and coigns that catch the earliest kiss of the sun, but seeing that it was better for us to take another course, seeing that we had better obey God than obey your own fancy or whim, we abode in the valley. Abode in a dark, cold place? No; you are misinterpreting the word valley when you attach such epithets to it. I read of other valleys. The valleys are covered over with corn. That is never said about the snow mountains. Have the valleys no compensations? Is sickness itself without advantages? When you are weak are you not sometimes strong? Where did you get the little flower from? I know not that I have seen aught sweeter for many a day: what is it? The lily of the valley. Tell me there is no compensation in poverty, in sickness, in weakness, and even in failure and disappointment? It was in the valley that the lily grew. (J. Parker, D.D.)

Berachah

Suppose every place were to receive its name from what is done in it! How startling and varied would be some of the names! Berashah means a valley of blessing.

I. After prayer. Jehoshaphat pleads with God on various grounds.

II. After conflict in the spirit of praise.

III. After victory. The triumph was speedy, signal, and complete. Let the valley of our life often be made a Berachah. (H. Gammage.)

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

2Ch 20:26. On the fourth day, &c. — Undoubtedly many thanksgivings were offered to God immediately, and perhaps even a day of praise was kept in the camp, before they drew their forces out of the field: but in the fourth day they assembled in a valley, and blessed God with so much zeal and fervency, that a name was thereby given to the place, and the remembrance of that work of wonder perpetuated for the encouragement of succeeding generations to trust in God. Of Berachah — Hebrew, of blessing, so called, from the solemn blessings and praises given to God on that occasion.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To give thanks to the Lord for the victory: and therefore the valley was called Berachah, that is, blessing or thanksgiving, which was also called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, Joel 3:2,12, because the Lord judged the enemies according to Jehoshaphat’s prayer.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 26. Assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah] "The valley of Benediction;" and so in the latter clause. - Targum.

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

(26) Valley of Berachah—i.e., blessing. The place is still called Wady Beraikut, a wide, open valley west of Tekoa, near the road from Hebron to Jerusalem. St. Jerome speaks of a Caphar Barucha, “village of blessing,” in the same neighbourhood.

For there . . . unto this day.—A notice after the manner of the ancient historians (Gen_11:9; Gen_28:19; Exo_17:7; 2Sa_5:20).

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

26–30 (no parallel in Kings). The Sequel of the Deliverance

26. valley of Berachah] A wâdi Bereikût south of Tekoa is mentioned by Robinson. It is probable that also the “valley of Jehoshaphat” mentioned by Joel (3. [4. Heb.] 2) is to be identified with the scene of Jehoshaphat’s deliverance.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah,.... As it was afterwards called from what they did there, as follows, which was the reason of its name:

for there they blessed the Lord; returned thanks to him for this wonderful appearance on their behalf, and gave him the glory of it; no doubt but they had given him praise before in some sort and manner, but now in a set, solemn, and public manner, with one heart and voice they united in ascribing honour, blessing, and glory to him:

therefore the name of the same place was called the valley of Berachah unto this day; the valley of Blessing; this name it bore in the times of Ezra, the writer of this book, even after the Jews returned from the Babylonish captivity; it is thought to be the same that is called by Jerom (w) Cepharbarucha, which he speaks of as not far from Engedi, see Ch2 20:2, others will have it to be the same with the valley of Jehoshaphat, but not so likely, that seems to be nearer Jerusalem.

(w) Epitaph. Paulae.

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

The valley of Berachah - Probably, the Wady Bereikut, which lies at a short distance from Tekoa toward the northwest.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Blessing. Sts. Jerom and Epiphanius place Caphar-barucha, "the field of blessing," near Hebron, on the east. Hither Abraham attended the Lord, when he was going to destroy Sodom. Epist. Paulæ.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The valley of Berachah, Heb. of blessing; so called from their solemn blessings and praises given to God in it upon this occasion.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

26. The valley of Berachah — That is, the valley of blessing, so called from the blessings and rejoicings of that day. This valley is doubtless to be identified with the modern Wady Bereikut, lying a little west of Tekoa.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Berachah. This is just the Hebrew fern. subst, from a verb. It is used in 1Ch_12:3 as the name of a man. The present name of the valley survives in the Waddy Bereikat on the Hebron road, beyond, therefore, the date unto this day of the writer.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Berachah - Hebrew. of blessing; so called from their solemn blessings and praises given to God in it upon this occasion.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

On the fourth day the men of Judah gathered themselves together, to give thanks to God the Lord for this blessing, in a valley which thence received the name בּרכה עמק (valley of blessing), and which cannot have been far from the battle-field. Thence they joyfully returned, with Jehoshaphat at their head, to Jerusalem, and went up, the Levites and priests performing solemn music, to the house of God, to render further thanks to the Lord for His wondrous help (Ch2 20:27.). The ancient name בּרכה still exists in the Wady Bereikut, to the west of Tekoa, near the road which leads from Hebron to Jerusalem. "A wide, open valley, and upon its west side, on a small rising ground, are the ruins of Bereikut, which cover from three to four acres" (Robinson's New Biblical Researches, and Phys. Geogr. S. 106; cf. v. de Velde, Memoir, p. 292). Jerome makes mention of the place in Vita Paulae, where he narrates that Paula, standing in supercilio Caphar baruca, looked out thence upon the wide desert, and the former land of Sodom and Gomorrah (cf. Reland, Pal. illustr. pp. 356 and 685). There is no ground, on the other hand, for the identification of the valley of blessing with the upper part of the valley of Kidron, which, according to Joe 3:2, Joe 3:12, received the name of Valley of Jehoshaphat (see on Joe 3:2). - On Ch2 20:27, cf. Ezr 6:22; Neh 12:43.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Summary of Jehoshaphat’s Reign

v. 26. And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the Valley of Berachah (blessing, praise); for there they blessed the Lord, in this beautiful little valley west of Tekoa they expressed their gratitude to Jehovah in prayers of praise and thanksgiving; therefore the name of the same place was called the Valley of Berachah unto this day.

v. 27. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, the entire procession which had left Jerusalem four days before, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, taking the lead in praising, as he had taken the lead in trusting the Lord’s promise, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies, and their gladness was expressed in the proper manner, in thanksgiving to Jehovah, who gave the victory.

v. 28. And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets, the usual instruments used for the Temple music, unto the house of the Lord.

v. 29. . And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, they were deterred from undertaking hostilities by their dread of the God of Israel, when they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel.

v. 30. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet; for his God gave him rest round about. Peace in the land is ever a gift of God’s bountiful goodness.

v. 31. And Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah, over the southern kingdom only; he was thirty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.

v. 32. And he walked in the way of Asa, his father, in the fear of Jehovah, and departed not from it, being even more consistently faithful to Jehovah than his father, doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord.

v. 33. Howbeit, the high places were not taken away, the altars erected on the hills contrary to the will of God, whether expressly dedicated to idolatry or not; for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers.

v. 34. Now, the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold, they are written in the Book of Jehu, the son of Hanani, who is mentioned in the Book of the Kings of Israel, 1Ki 16:1-7.

v. 35. And after this did Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, join himself with Ahaziah, king of Israel, as he had made a league with his father before him, who did very wickedly.

v. 36. And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, most likely Tartessus in Spain, after Ahazah had overcome the reluctance of Jehoshaphat, 1Ki 22:49; and they made the ships in Ezion-gaber, the harbor at the head of the Elanitic Gulf.

v. 37. Then Eliezer, the son of Dodavah of Mareshah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, wrecked before they left the harbor, that they were not able to go to Tarshish. God has ways and means to keep men from yielding too much to pride and arrogance and thus losing their trust in Him.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

they congregated to the valley of Berachah To the valley which was later called the valley of Berachah, because of the incident [that took place there], as is explained immediately following, as Scripture states for there they blessed the Lord and gave thanks for all the good that He had done for them, that He saved them from their enemies.

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.