2 Chronicles 17:3

3 Now the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the former ways of his father David.^[a] He did not seek the Baals

2 Chronicles 17:3 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 17:3

And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat
Guiding and directing, prospering and succeeding him in all things; he had, no doubt, his gracious presence in spiritual things, as well as his powerful and directing presence in things civil; the Targum is,

``the Word of the Lord was for his help;''

because he walked in the first ways of his father David;
which were his best; some of his last ways not being good, as in the affair of Uriah and Bathsheba, and his numbering of the people; Jehoshaphat followed him in the one, but not in the other: or, "in the ways of David and his father, the first"; the first of them both; for the latter ways of his father Asa were not so good as his first, as the preceding chapter shows; and the Septuagint version leaves out the word "David", and so restrains it to his own father:

and sought not unto Baalim;
as did Ahab king of Israel, who now reigned there; ( 1 Kings 15:24 ) ( 16:32 ) .

2 Chronicles 17:3 In-Context

1 His son Jehoshaphat became king in his place and strengthened himself against Israel.

2 He stationed troops in every fortified city of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured.

3 Now the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the former ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals

4 but sought the God of his father and walked by His commands, not according to the practices of Israel.

5 So the Lord established the kingdom in his hand. Then all Judah brought him tribute, and he had riches and honor in abundance.

Footnotes

• [a]. Some Hb mss, LXX omits David