2 Chronicles 18:19

And after certain years,.... Two years, according to the Syriac and Arabic versions, or in the third year after the affinity was contracted, see 1 Kings 22:2 , he went down to Ahab to Samaria; to pay him a visit upon the alliance, civil and matrimonial, contracted between them: and Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the people that he had with him; entertained him and his retinue in a very grand and liberal manner: and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramothgilead; from hence, to the end of the chapter, it is the same with 1 Kings 22:4.

18:1-34 Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab. - This history we read in 1Ki 22. Abundant riches and honour give large opportunities of doing good, but they are attended with many snares and temptations. Men do not know much of the artifices of Satan and the deceitfulness of their own hearts, when they covet riches with the idea of being able to do good with them. What can hurt those whom God will protect? What can shelter those whom God will destroy? Jehoshaphat is safe in his robes, Ahab killed in his armour; for the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. We should be cautious of entangling ourselves in the worldly undertakings of evil men; and still more we should avoid engaging in their sinful projects. But, when they call upon him, God can and will bring his faithful people out of the difficulties and dangers into which they have sinfully run themselves. He has all hearts in his hand, so that he easily rescues them. Blessed is the man that putteth his trust in the Lord.

19 . Who shall entice Ahab ] So 1 Kin. (R.V.). The same Heb. word is used in Jeremiah 20:7 , “thou hast deceived (mg. ‘enticed’) me,” where Jeremiah complains that he has been called to the fruitless labour of a hated prophet. For the underlying thought that delusion is sometimes a preliminary part of Divine punishment cp. 2 Thessalonians 2:11 (cp. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 ). It should be noted however that the “lying spirit” in the month of the 400 prophets played only a subordinate part in Ahab’s fall, and indeed could have played no part at all, but for the fact that the king was more than willing to be enticed. Ahab had already made up his mind; he consulted the 400 only as an afterthought to satisfy Jehoshaphat ( 2 Chronicles 18:4 ), he excluded the plain-speaking Micaiah until Jehoshaphat insisted on his presence ( 2 Chronicles 18:6-7 ), and he scorned the true prophet’s warning of the falseness of the 400 ( 2 Chronicles 18:26 ). Delusion as a Divine punishment comes only upon the man who is willing to be deluded.

Verse 19. - Who shall entice , etc.? Hebrew piel future פָתָח . This and the following three verses must have told, manifestly did tell, with fearful force of faithful preaching, upon the unreal prophets and the wicked king. How it was that their contents did not avail with Jehoshaphat to throw full energy again into his conscience, and to enable him to break at once with Ahab and his expedition, is inexplicable (and the more as it was his own pressing suggestion that the true prophet should be summoned), except as another illustration of the fearful difficulty that lies so often to human weakness, in the way of retracing a false step. Both these visions (vers. 16, 18-22) well illustrate how God revealed his truth, will and specific messages to his true prophets in vision . The vision of the throne, grand in all the majesty of its simplicity, of the psalmists (9, 11, 45, 103.), of Isaiah ( Isaiah 6:1-5 ), of Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 1:26 ), of Daniel ( Daniel 7:9 ), of Stephen ( Acts 7:56 ), of St. John ( Revelation 4:2 ), is part of heaven's own stamp of authentication of the Bible. 2 Chronicles 18:19

The campaign undertaken along with Ahab against the Syrians at Ramoth in Gilead, with its origin, course, and results for Ahab, is narrated in 1 Kings in the history of Ahab) in agreement with our narrative, only the introduction to the war being different here. In 1 Kings 22:1-3 it is remarked, in connection with the preceding wars of Ahab with the Syrians, that after there had been no war for three years between Aram and Israel, in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah came up to the king of Israel; and the latter, when he and his servants had determined to snatch away from the Syrians the city Ramoth in Gilead, which belonged to Israel, called upon Jehoshaphat to march with him to the war against Ramoth. In the Chronicle the more exact statement, "in the third year," which is intelligible only in connection with the earlier history of Ahab, is exchanged for the indefinite שׁנים לקץ, "at the end of years;" and mention is made of the festal entertainment which Ahab bestowed upon his guest and his train (עמּו אשׁר העם), to show the pains which Ahab took to induce King Jehoshaphat to take part in the proposed campaign. He killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, ויסיתהוּ ,ecnadn, and enticed, seduced him to go up with him to Ramoth. הסית, to incite, entice to anything ( Judges 1:14 ), frequently to evil; cf. Deuteronomy 13:7 , etc. עלה, to advance upon a land or a city in a warlike sense.

The account which follows of the preparations for the campaign by inquiring of prophets, and of the war itself, vv. 4-34, is in almost verbal agreement with 1 Kings 22:5-35 . Referring to 1 Kings or the commentary on the substance of the narrative, we will here only group together briefly the divergences. Instead of 400 men who were prophets, 2 Chronicles 18:5 , in 1 Kings 22:5 we have about 400 men. It is a statement in round numbers, founded not upon exact enumeration, but upon an approximate estimate. Instead of אהדּל אם...הנלך, 2 Chronicles 18:5 , in Kings, 1 Kings 22:6 , we have אהדּל אם...האלך, both verbs being in the same number; and so too in 2 Chronicles 18:14 , where in Kings. 1 Kings 22:15 , both verbs stand in the plural, notwithstanding that the answer which follows, והצלח עלה, is addressed to Ahab alone, not to both the kings, while in the Chronicle the answer is given in the plural to both the kings, והצליחוּ עלוּ. in 2 Chronicles 18:7 , "he prophesies me nothing good, but all his days (i.e., so long as he has been a prophet) evil," the meaning is intensified by the כּל־ימיו, which is not found in 1 Kings 22:8 . In 2 Chronicles 18:9 , the ויושׁבים, which is introduced before the בּגרן, "and sitting upon the threshing-floor," is due to difference of style, for it is quite superfluous for the signification.