Jehoshaphat of Judah: 869-848 BC

The Second ‘Good King’ of Judah  ∙  The Militant Jehoshaphat: the Reconfiguring of the Army and the Enhancement of Defensive Fortifications  ∙  Appellate Courts in Judah  ∙  An Alliance with Israel  ∙  War Against Aram  ∙  A (Failed) Quest for a Solomonic Empire  ∙  A Coalition Against Moab  ∙  Just Desserts: The Coalition Against Judah  ∙  A Good (but Imperfect) King

Jehoshaphat served as co-regent with his father Asa for three years before his father passed. Jehoshaphat would rule for around thirty-five years (including his co-regency), and he was twenty-five years old when he began his rule. His co-regency with his father was the first instance of co-regency in Judah (following the brief co-rule of David and Solomon during the days of the United Monarchy), and it was likely precipitated by Asa’s incapacitation due to his diseased feet. Jehoshaphat inherited a Judah ripe with conflict. In Israel, Ahab (King Omri’s son) was king, and his pagan wife Queen Jezebel was orchestrating a violent ‘Reign of Terror’ against the Israelites loyal to Yahweh. In sharp contrast, Jehoshaphat feared Yahweh and sought to serve him; he was the second ‘Good King’ of Judah, and because of his devotion to God, Yahweh established his control over Judah. His devotion didn’t mean he was perfect: time and again he became entangled with the godless leaders of northern Israel, and prophets rebuked him for it. Jehoshaphat built upon Rehoboam’s defensive strategies, stationing troops in major Judean fortified towns, adding garrisons to major towns (as well as to captured towns in southern Israel), creating storage depots, and plugging up ‘missing links’ among the border fortresses. Archaeological excavations have revealed a line of highway forts in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea that date to Jehoshaphat’s reign. Jehoshaphat also stationed elite troops in Jerusalem; the style of the list of these elite troops suggests that the king initiated a form of regimentation with proper protocol in regards to rank and organization. Jehoshaphat’s power was so great that he built up an army three times the size of those of his predecessors; his army consisted of three parts Judean soldiers and two parts Benjamite soldiers.

Jehoshaphat was a charismatic leader; people were drawn to him and pleased to give him voluntary gifts from their own wealth. He didn’t ‘consult (or seek) the Baals’: that is, he didn’t ask the pagan gods for oracles. The pagan kings of Israel consulted after the Baals; they would’ve done this at a shrine dedicated to the god, and the oracle would be mediated by the deity’s priests. In the ancient world, oracular answers were often given by diviners, who would read favorable or unfavorable answers in the entrails of a sacrificed animal. That Jehoshaphat did not do this emphasizes his contrast with the religiously corrupt kings of the Israelite Omride Dynasty. Even though many Israelites acknowledged Yahweh as their patron deity, more and more began associating Baal with fertility and consulting him regarding agricultural issues (Baal, remember, was the god who oversaw agricultural fertility). In issues of sickness and health, Israelites were increasingly seeking help from Baal rather than from Yahweh. Jehoshaphat wasn’t like that: he instituted a program to remove pagan ‘high places’ and Asherah poles that were springing up in the Judean hinterland; and in hopes of stemming the pagan tide, he commissioned five royal officers, nine Levites, and two priests to travel throughout Judah teaching the people the law of God. Yahweh blessed him for this: He gripped foreign enemies in fear of Him, and the Philistines and Arabs (desert tribes south of Judah and close to Philistia, extending into the Negev and the Arabian Peninsula) brought Jehoshaphat gifts, further increasing his power and prestige. Some scholars speculate that Jehoshaphat received such gifts because his territory engulfed major trade routes from Arabia to the Mediterranean. Jehoshaphat restructured the Judean justice system: he appointed judges in each city and created an appellate system that brought difficult cases to one of two supreme courts in Jerusalem. The religious Supreme Court, presided over by the high priest Amariah, dealt with religious issues; the civic Supreme Court, overseen by the government official Zebadiah, judged civil matters.

Jehoshaphat's reign is marked by three prominent entanglements with the kings of northern Israel. He went to war against Aram with King Ahab as an ally; he tried to build a resurgent ‘Solomonic Fleet’ with Ahab’s son King Ahaziah; and he went to war against Moab with Ahaziah’s brother (and Ahab’s second son) King Jehoram. In all these instances, Jehoshaphat was acting ‘out of line’ with his devotion to Yahweh. Prophets spoke against these entanglements, and divine sabotage would wreck his efforts to revive the Solomonic Fleet.

Jehoshaphat’s adventures with King Ahab of Israel began when he sealed an alliance with Ahab by marrying his son Jehoram to Ahab and Jezebel’s daughter Athaliah. Athaliah embraced the pagan ways of her mother and would have an undue influence on her husband. This alliance – deemed sinful by God’s prophet Jehu, who had a knack for giving Yahweh’s oracles to kings of both Judah and Israel – was the beginning of Jehoshaphat’s decline. The Judean and Israelite kings likely set aside their historic differences in light of the growing power of Aram (a.k.a. Damascus or Syria) to the north. Jehoshaphat’s alliances with Israel would, each in their turn, lead to three unsavory situations with three different Israelite kings. The first was a Judean-Israelite coalition against Ben-hadad II of Aram (who had been a thorn in King Ahab’s reign). 

In the 18th year of his reign, Jehoshaphat made a state visit to Ahab in Israel at the capital of Samaria. Ahab was delighted: he needed his southern ally’s help to recover territory that Ben-hadad had failed to return to Israel in compliance with the Treaty of Aphek (1 Kings 20.34; read more about this in the next chapter). Ahab’s eyes were on the fortress of Ramoth-gilead, located east of the Sea of Galilee on the frontier with Aram. He wanted the Judean king to join him in a joint campaign to recapture the city. When the subject was breached, Jehoshaphat was thrilled with the idea. It’s likely he was nervous about the growing power of Aram and considered it in his best interests to dislodge Ben-hadad from his stronghold in Gilead. Jehoshaphat, however, feared Yahweh, and he valued what God had to say; he wanted to ensure that Yahweh supported the campaign. So he asked Ahab if he had any prophets on hand.

Ahab knew that Jehoshaphat was devoted to God and was likely to request such a word from a prophet, so he’d coached his four hundred prophets in what to say. These ‘prophets of Yahweh’ had escaped Jezebel’s persecution by bending to her purposes. The prophets called into the court of Ahab were those who’d saved their own skin by making themselves amenable to the pagan queen and submitting to her and Ahab’s bidding. These four hundred renegade prophets gave unanimous predictions of victory. Jehoshaphat was no fool, for he knew a game was afoot: these prophets were king-appointed, not God-appointed. He insisted that a true prophet of Yahweh be called in to verify the optimism of the four hundred renegades. Ahab begrudgingly confessed that, yes, there was a prophet of Yahweh around: his name was Micaiah son of Imlah, but Ahab hated him because he was constantly prophesying ill-fortune for the royal family. Jehoshaphat rebuked Ahab for insinuating that a genuine prophet of God could be motivated by personal dislike for the king. Ahab knew he wouldn’t get anywhere without acquiescing to Jehoshaphat, so he summoned Micaiah to be brought to the court (presumably from the jail cell to which he would return). As they were awaiting Micaiah’s arrival, Zedekiah, the leader of the four hundred renegades, constructed ‘horns of iron’ (likely symbols of power that were nothing more than two iron spikes held to the forehead) and announced, ‘With these you shall thrust through Aram until you have consumed them!’ The rest of the renegades continued repeating their promises of success, and they followed Zedekiah’s lead in underpinning their proclamations with ‘thus says Yahweh.’ 

Zedekiah and Micaiah before Jehoshaphat and Ahab

The man sent to retrieve Micaiah from his cell pled with the prophet to join the four hundred Yes-Men in approving the campaign. Micaiah, however, couldn’t be intimidated nor bribed. He wasn’t afraid to stand alone; he would speak only what Yahweh revealed to him. When Micaiah was led into the court, presumably in chains, King Ahab presented him with the question of the hour. Ahab’s hollow tone revealed the insincerity of his inquiry, and Micaiah responded sarcastically by parroting the Yes-Men. The narrative emphasizes Micaiah’s mockery; Ahab lost his temper over Micaiah’s sarcastic insubordination and accidentally blurted out that what he wanted to hear was the word of the Lord – a tacit admission that what they’d been hearing from the four hundred Yes-Men was not the word of the Lord. Micaiah’s tone and demeanor changed to utter seriousness, and he said that he’d seen a vision of Israel scattered upon the hills with no shepherd; he’d heard the voice of God directing those scattered ones to return to their homes in peace. Ahab waved a dismissive hand at Micaiah and turned to Jehoshaphat, suggesting that this prophecy was but further evidence of the prophet’s hostility towards his sovereign. At this Micaiah retorted that he’d seen another vision relating to Ahab: he’d seen Yahweh on his heavenly throne surrounded by all the hosts of heaven (i.e. angels), and Yahweh was asking for suggestions as to how Ahab might be enticed to go up to Ramoth-gilead to be slain there. Various schemes were presented, and the winner was an ‘evil spirit’ sent to entice Ahab to go up against Aram at Ramoth-gilead. ‘Thus,’ Micaiah said, ‘the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all Ahab’s prophets. They have spoken falsehood. Furthermore, the prediction of calamity against Ahab has not come from me, but from Yahweh who speaks through me.’

There’s debate regarding the identity of the ‘Evil Spirit’ who deceived the four hundred royal prophets. Some see the evil spirit as a personification of the ‘spirit of prophecy’ that takes hold of a man and compels him to prophesy. Others identify the spirit as none other than Satan; that Satan had (or at least did have) access to the heavenly council chambers is attested by the opening chapters of the Book of Job. A more pertinent question is, “How can God give His sanction to deceit and lying for the purpose of luring Ahab to his death?” One explanation is that God permitted the evil spirit to do the work he so desperately wanted to do; in this case, Yahweh is permitting the deceit rather than causing it. Ahab wanted to be led by false prophets; he had no interest in hearing the actual words of God (evidenced by his harsh treatment and loathing of Micaiah); perhaps the justice of God simply permitted Ahab to get his wish. Another explanation is that Yahweh was indeed the one who planted falsehoods into the prophecies of the renegade prophets; in this sense, the deceit is given to a man who wishes to be deceived, and it is for the purpose of bringing an evil man to justice. This explanation finds support in Ezekiel 14.9, where it says ‘If the prophet is deceived… I, Yahweh, have deceived that prophet.’  

At the accusation of the four hundred prophets being deceived by an ‘evil spirit’, chaos erupted in the court. Zedekiah bristled at the charge that he and his cohorts had been filled with a deceitful spirit; he’d been conscious, after all, of an outside force compelling him to speak his prophetic word; how could the spirit of Yahweh say one thing to him and another to Micaiah? He slapped Micaiah on the face and demanded, ‘Where did the spirit of Yahweh pass over from me to you?!’ He was calling Micaiah a liar, but Micaiah wasn’t intimidated; he didn’t respond directly to Zedekiah’s outburst, replying simply that one day Zedekiah would perceive the truth. Only then would Zedekiah have the prophetic vision to correctly assess the political situation. When Micaiah’s prophecy concerning the defeat of the army of Israel was fulfilled, Zedekiah would hasten into hiding out of shame and fear, perhaps afraid of reprisals from the hand of the militant Queen Jezebel. Ahab, for his part, had seen enough: he ordered Micaiah returned to his prison cell where he’d remain under the watchful eye of Amon, governor of Samaria, and Joash, one of Ahab’s sons. Before being dragged from the court, Micaiah shouted forth a call for all people to take note of the predictions that had just been made.

Jehoshaphat, despite these dire predictions from Micaiah, decided to throw in with Ahab against Aram. This seems like a foolish move, and several theories have arisen as to why Jehoshaphat would do such a thing. Perhaps the terms of the alliance obligated Jehoshaphat to participate; in this case, Ahab’s entreaties are nothing more than political hospitality, and Jehoshaphat – despite being disturbed by Micaiah’s words – was still honor-bound to forge a coalition with his ally. Some theorize that Jehoshaphat feared being labeled a coward; it was known that he had a massive army, three times larger than any army Judah had ever put into the field, so what kind of man would be hesitant to use such power? A third possibility is that those in the assembly were treating Micaiah’s prophecy with disdain, and Jehoshaphat may have succumbed to peer pressure. Some argue that Ahab convinced Jehoshaphat to dismiss Micaiah’s threats in view of the longstanding animosity between Micaiah and the royal house. A fifth explanation is that Jehoshaphat disregarded the prophet’s words because he knew Aram was a growing power that had to be checked, and the opportunity of a joint operation was just too good to pass up. A sixth theory is that Jehoshaphat did believe the prophet but read between the lines: Micaiah proclaimed doom to Ahab and Israel’s army, but he’d said nothing about Jehoshaphat and Judah’s army. If Ahab was killed and the Israelite army scattered, perhaps that would leave Jehoshaphat king of the field – and imagine the wealth and booty he could bring home! 

Ramoth-Gilead today isn't much to look at, but in Bible times it boasted
a massive fortress and was the epicenter of several battles.

With the coalition forged, the joint armies were summoned and they marched on Ramoth-gilead. On the eve of battle, Ahab came up with a plan to thwart the dismal predictions lodged against him: he would pass leadership of the armies to Jehoshaphat, strip himself of his royal robes, and fight on the frontline as a lesser officer. Ahab must’ve had confidence in his martial ability! His way of thinking is seen in Assyrian superstition: in Assyria, when a bad omen, such as an eclipse, warned of evil tidings for the king, the ritual of a substitute king was sometimes performed. As early as 800 BC, an individual would be dressed in kingly robes and then take the brunt of the ill-fate thought to be reserved for the king. Ahab did something similar; at the least, he was hoping that his fate would be shoveled onto Jehoshaphat! What a boon it would be, Ahab no doubt surmised, if Jehoshaphat were to fall in battle! Perhaps then he could bring Judah into Israel’s fold. Jehoshaphat was thus left commanding the army in battle. When the battle erupted, the thirty-two chariot officers of Ben-hadad’s Aramean forces spied Jehoshaphat and made a beeline for him. Ben-hadad had instructed his officers to keep an eye out for the Israelite king and focus on him; if they were to cut off the snake’s head, they could immobilize the Israelite army. Had Ahab seen the Aramean chariots charging Jehoshaphat, he might’ve thought his plan worked: the Judean king was about to bear the brunt of the prophecy! But when Jehoshaphat saw the chariots lunging towards him, he called out for Yahweh to rescue him, and Yahweh answered: the charioteers realized that their target wasn’t Ahab, so they turned away to continue their search. 

A wounded Ahab commands from his chariot

Ahab, on the front-lines, was struck by a random arrow between the joints of his armor. The armor described in the text was made up of two parts: a solid breastplate and a scale-armor kit. The arrow struck either between the two or between the joints of Ahab’s scale armor. Ancient depictions of scale armor come from the Mesopotamian Nuzi tablets from the second millennium BC, in which a coat of mail was constructed from between seven hundred to more than a thousand bronze scales of varying sizes. These were sewn onto a jerkin of leather or cloth; the front and back were then sewn together at the shoulders (leaving, of course, a space for the head), and the whole kit probably reached to the knees. By the 9th century BC more elaborate scale armor kits were beginning to utilize iron; Ahab’s may have been such a one – but despite the stronger metal, it didn’t save him. Ahab, wounded by the arrow, retreated behind the Israelite lines, propped himself in the chariot, and continued directing the battle. His awful wound seeped blood, and come evening he finally succumbed to blood loss; he’d lost so much blood that it coated the floor of his chariot. When the Israelites learned that their king had fallen, despair swept through their ranks, and they abandoned the battlefield, fleeing for their homes – just as Micaiah had predicted (we can assume, though the text doesn’t mention it, that Jehoshaphat high-tailed it back to Judah without making any real gains against Aram). Ahab’s body was buried in Samaria and the chariot was washed in the city pool where whores customarily bathed. Packs of scavenger dogs licked up the blood that had been flushed from the chariot, fulfilling the word that Yahweh had spoken concerning Ahab through Micaiah. A full treatment of Ahab’s reign is given to the next chapter.

Upon reaching Jerusalem, the prophet Jehu (who had rebuked King Baasha of Israel) confronted Jehoshaphat. He lodged two criticisms against the king: first, Jehoshaphat hadn’t removed the illegal ‘high places’ devoted to Yahweh outside Jerusalem; and second, he’d made peace with the paganized Ahab of Israel. Jehu rebuked Jehoshaphat for entering into an alliance with those ‘who hate Yahweh,’ and he warned that such compromises could bring forth the wrath of God. However, because of his reform efforts and his personal striving to seek after Yahweh, God was lenient with Jehoshaphat. He got off (for now) with a warning.

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a 'Tarshish Ship' (or seagoing vessel for long voyages)

Jehoshaphat didn't take Jehu's words to heart: he renewed the Judean alliance with Israel with King Ahab’s son and successor, King Ahaziah. They linked hands to build a joint trading fleet at the port of Ezion-geber on the Red Sea. It’s likely they aimed to revive the maritime enterprise of Solomon. They had ‘Tarshish ships’ (large seagoing vessels) built, and they intended to sail to Ophir and Tarshish. Tarshish was located in southern Spain just past the Straits of Gibraltar; Ophir’s location is unknown, but suggestions have been made that place it in India, Africa, and even in South America. A prophet named Eliezer rebuked Jehoshaphat, saying that because he made an alliance with Ahaziah, Yahweh would destroy his work. When the sailing ships were launched, they were dashed to pieces in a furious storm and never got out of the harbor. King Ahaziah of Israel attributed the fleet’s destruction to the inexperience of Jehoshaphat’s sailors; he proposed a second venture in which Israelite sailors would join the seamen of Judah. Because of their close affiliation with the seagoing Phoenicians, Israelite sailors were likely far more skilled than those Judah could provide. Jehoshaphat, however, accepted Eliezer’s explanation of the disaster and put an end to their joint commercial enterprise. Ahaziah, whose access to the Red Sea was only through Judah or hostile countries, was not happy about Jehoshaphat’s decision – but there was little he could do.

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King Mesha of Moab

Old habits die hard. Judah’s alliance with Israel was renewed with Jehoram of Israel, who succeeded his heirless brother Ahaziah after he passed. The Moabites to the east had been placed under heavy tribute by the Israelite Omride Dynasty, forced to send the wool of a hundred thousand sheep and goats to Samaria. This maddeningly heavy tribute drove the Moabites to rebellion at the death of Ahab. Ahaziah failed to deal effectively with Moab, and Jehoram hoped to succeed where his brother had failed. He mobilized Israel’s army for an invasion of Moab, and he linked hands with Jehoshaphat of Judah. Jehoshaphat suggested they take the hundred-mile out-of-the-way circuitous route around the southern tip of the Dead Sea to attack Moab from the south. Jehoshaphat reasoned that if they did this, the King of Edom – who was currently a vassal to Judah – could contribute a contingent of troops; furthermore, Moab didn’t expect a southern invasion from Edom, so their defensive fortifications were weaker in that sector. Jehoram concurred, and they linked their armies and began the grueling march. 

They marched for seven days through the harsh wilderness. They planned on refilling their water supplies and refreshing their pack animals at a known perennial stream, but when they reached it they discovered that it’d dried out because of a drought. This was worse than staggering blindfolded into an enemy army: they were exhausted and dehydrated and stuck in a desert void of water. There was no question about it: if they didn’t figure something out soon, everyone would die. Jehoram, despairing, assumed that Yahweh meant to deliver their armies into the hands of Moab; Jehoshaphat, however, wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. He wanted to confer with a prophet of God, and he was delighted to learn that the prophet Elisha (who had succeeded Elijah) had accompanied the expedition unannounced. Jehoshaphat knew of Elijah’s fame and had respect for Elijah’s successor; he was convinced that Yahweh spoke through Elisha. He, King Jehoram, and the King of Edom (who, because of his obligations as vassal to Judah, had been forced to tag along in the coalition) scoured the worn-out encampment looking for the prophet. When they found him, Elisha turned on Jehoram – ‘If you want prophetic counsel, why not go to the false prophets of your mommy and daddy?’ Elisha eventually agreed to give a word of the Lord, but only because the godly Jehoshaphat was present. Elisha called for a musician to play some soothing song so that he could bring himself into the right frame of mind to receive a word from Yahweh. While the musician played, the power of the Spirit overcome Elisha, and he instructed the three kings to dig pits in the valley by means of which the water they needed might be collected. A great storm would rise many miles from the allied camp; the parched valley would then be filled with the storm’s runoff, and the pits would capture the rainwater. ‘And not only will Yahweh deliver you from death by thirst,’ Elisha said, ‘he will also deliver Moab into your hands!’

The three kings did as Elisha instructed, and by next morning at about sunrise (‘when the morning meal was offered’), a massive stream of water filled the pits dug the day before. The Moabite army, alerted to the coalition’s presence and hurrying to meet them, saw the reddish early morning sun reflecting off the water. Because there’d been no rain during the night (the storm, remember, had been a ways away), the Moabites suspected that the wadi near the allied camp was full of water. They saw what looked like confused movement among soldiers and pack animals around the ‘pools of blood’ and were convinced that Israel, Judah, and Edom had turned against one another in bloody slaughter (coalitions back then could be quite fragile things). There was nothing left to do but run the remnants ragged and collect the spoils. The Moabite soldiers surged forward, desperate to get their hands on loot – and they rushed headlong into a trap. The coalition had planned on this reaction, and had concealed most of their men from sight, instructing the others to ‘play act’ among the pits of water. When the first Moabites reached the camp, the hidden soldiers rose up and met them. The Moabite army, unorganized and facing stiff resistance, disintegrated, and the allies – refreshed and rejuvenated – pursued them deep into Moabite territory. The coalition cut through southern Moab, putting cities to fire, spreading stones over fields, stopping up wells, and cutting down fruit trees. 

Ki-haraseth Under Siege

The devastation cut a swathe up to the Moabite stronghold of Kir-haraseth, where the Moabite soldiers and their king bunkered down behind towering walls. Coalition slingers began hurling their stones over the walls, grievously hurting the defenders. The King of Moab – likely King Mesha – was wedged inside his fortress. He decided to strike out at the King of Edom; the three allies were encircling his fortress, and he figured the Edomites would be the easiest to break in order to escape: the Edomites were only there because of their obligation to Judah; they didn’t have a real bone to fight. The Moabite king summoned seven hundred expert swordsmen and made his attempt against the Edomite lines; when it failed, he was forced back behind the walls with his blood-ragged survivors. Desperate for deliverance, the king turned to the chief of the Moabite gods, Chemosh, and sought to earn his deliverance by offering his oldest son as a sacrifice. He took the crown prince and sacrificed him as a burnt offering upon the fortress wall in full view of the besiegers and besieged alike. 

King Mesha sacrifices his firstborn son to Chemosh

Upon seeing their crown prince sacrificed, the Moabites were filled with rage and surged out of the city gates, attacking the besiegers with near superhuman strength. Though the scriptures don’t tell us that the Moabite counterattack was successful, what is known is that the coalition called off the siege of Kir-haraseth and headed home. Scholars speculate a host of reasons why the siege fell apart despite its success up to that point; one theory is that the coalition feared the Moabite god Chemosh responding to Mesha’s grisly sacrifice and routing them from the fortress walls (remember that the Israelites, both north and south, were polytheists at this time; though they may have worshiped Yahweh, they didn’t go as far as to claim that he was the only god, and they may have believed – as did their contemporaries – that foreign gods had special powers in their own territories); another theory is that they believed Mesha’s sacrifice was to avert plague and, believing that sickness and death was spreading behind the fortress walls, they fled to avoid catching plague themselves. A third theory is that the Moabite counterattack was successful in that it so weakened the coalition forces that they decided they lacked the manpower and resources to see their campaign through to the end; they’d had a good run, but it was time to call it off. Thus they abandoned the siege of Kir-haraseth, leaving the Moabite king smoldering in humiliation and weeping for his lost son as he watched his enemies head home laden down with loot. 

*  *  *

King Mesha craved vengeance against the coalition that had battered him and left him without his oldest son. He turned his attention first to his nearest neighbor, Jehoshaphat of Judah. King Mesha gathered support from the Ammonites and Meunites (a nomadic people group who lived around Edom), and after amassing a large host, he led the counter-coalition into Judah, intent on bringing Moabite justice to the walls of Jerusalem. Judean messengers relayed the news to Jehoshaphat, alerting him that a massive army from Edom was moving fast and already at En-gedi on the western bank of the Dead Sea, well within Judean territory.

Jehoshaphat Prays for Deliverance

Jehoshaphat was mortified. Though the biblical text doesn’t tell us if the Moabite invasion came before or after the allied coalition against Moab, Jehoshaphat’s horror implies that it came after. His shock at the incursion was likely due to him being caught off-guard: he probably assumed the Moabites, who had been recently ravaged, couldn’t stomach nor field another confrontation. Furthermore, bearing in mind the record size of Judah’s armed forces, it doesn’t make sense for Jehoshaphat to be so unduly alarmed unless that army were wearied and thinned by the recent campaign against Moab. If Mesha attacked shortly after the successful Judean invasion, Judah’s veteran soldiers would be disbanded and unable to be called up quickly. It’s no surprise, then, that Jehoshaphat hurriedly called for a time of prayer and fasting and gathered the people in front of the Temple’s new courtyard and made a prayer to Yahweh for deliverance from the encroaching pagan coalition. The men of Judah with their wives, children, and ‘little ones’ were present for the ceremony; after the prayer, a Levitical singer named Jahaziel was overcome by the Spirit and prophesied that Yahweh would fight the battle – the warriors of Judah would just need to watch!

The Moabite Coalition Implodes

Emboldened and trusting in Yahweh, the Judean soldiers that could be summoned marched to meet the Moabites. They praised God and played musical instruments as they marched, and the Levitical choir, dressed in their ‘Sunday Best,’ led the military procession. As they neared the Moabites, Yahweh ‘set ambushes’ among the invaders. He caused violent dissent to spread through the pagan coalition’s ranks: the Ammonites and Moabites destroyed the nomadic Meunites, and then Moab and Ammon gutted each other until they were broken and bleeding. In an ironic twist, the fate which King Mesha had thought to befall the allied coalition in their invasion of Moab did befall his coalition against Judah! The Judean soldiers watched jaw-dropped as their foes killed each other. When all was said and done, the spoils of three armies were left for Judah. It took three days to gather the loot, and on the fourth day they gathered on the stripped-clean battlefield and publicly blessed God. They named the spot ‘The Valley of Baracha’ (i.e. the Valley of Blessing), and they returned to Jerusalem amidst much praise. When foreign peoples heard of how Yahweh had delivered Judah, they were filled with a reverence for Israel’s God and were intent on being amicable with Judah. 

Judah entered into another period of peace. Jehoshaphat died not long after, and the throne went to his son Jehoram. But Jehoram wasn’t made of the same mettle as his father. The son, remember, had married Athaliah, daughter of the late King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, and she’d inherited her mother’s paganism. Jehoshaphat hadn’t been a perfect king, but he’d been a good king. Jehoram would be the opposite of his father, plunging Judah into a quasi-Dark Age.