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.
6
And when his heart had taken hardiness for the ways of the Lord, he took away also (the) high places and [maumet] woods from Judah. (And he took pride in following the ways of the Lord, and he also did away the hill shrines and the idol groves, or the sacred poles, in Judah.)
7
And in the third year of his realm, he sent of his princes (he sent his officials), Benhail, and Obadiah, and Zechariah, and Nethaneel, and Michaiah, that they should teach in the cities of Judah;
8
and with them he sent nine deacons, (or Levites,) that is, Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asahel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and Tobadonijah, deacons (all Levites); and with them Elishama and Jehoram, priests;