2 Chronicles 17:3

3 ADONAI was with Y'hoshafat, because he lived according to the first ways of his ancestor David, not seeking the ba'alim,

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 Then Y'hoshafat his son became king in his place. He strengthened his position against Isra'el

2 by placing forces in all the fortified cities of Y'hudah, and by garrisoning troops in the territory of Y'hudah and in the cities of Efrayim that Asa his father had captured.

3 ADONAI was with Y'hoshafat, because he lived according to the first ways of his ancestor David, not seeking the ba'alim,

4 but seeking the God of his father and living by his mitzvot, not by what Isra'el did.

5 Therefore ADONAI consolidated his rulership; all Y'hudah brought presents to Y'hoshafat, so that he had wealth and honor in abundance.