2 Chronicles 17:3

3 And the Lord was with Josaphat, because he walked in the first ways of David his father: and trusted not in Baalim,

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 And Josaphat his son reigned in his stead, and grew strong against Israel.

2 And he placed numbers of soldiers in all the fortified cities of Juda. And he put garrisons in the land of Juda, and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken.

3 And the Lord was with Josaphat, because he walked in the first ways of David his father: and trusted not in Baalim,

4 But in the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not according to the sins of Israel.

5 And the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Juda brought presents to Josaphat: and he acquired immense riches, and much glory.