2 Chronicles 17:3

3 And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, which went in the first ways of David, his father; he hoped not in Baalim, (And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, who went in the early ways of his father Asa; he did not trust in, or follow, the 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 Forsooth Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned for him; and he had the mastery against Israel.

2 And he set numbers of knights in all the cities of Judah, that were (en)compassed with walls (And he put numbers of horsemen in all the cities of Judah, that were surrounded with walls), and he disposed strongholds in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa, his father, had taken.

3 And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, which went in the first ways of David, his father; he hoped not in Baalim, (And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, who went in the early ways of his father Asa; he did not trust in, or follow, the Baalim,)

4 but he hoped in the Lord God of David, his father (but he hoped in the Lord God of his father Asa), and he went in the commandments of God, and not after the sins of Israel.

5 And the Lord confirmed the realm in his hand; and all Judah gave gifts to Jehoshaphat, and riches without number, and much glory was made to him.