2 Chronicles 17:3

“And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, etc.] 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…”

“he walked in the first ways of his father David--He imitated the piety of his great ancestor in the early part of his reign before he made those unhappy lapses which dishonored his character. and sought not unto Baalim--a term used for idols generally in contradistinction to the Lord God of his father.”

“The first ways of his father David - The Septuagint and several Hebrew manuscripts omit “David,” which has probably crept in from the margin, for David’s “first ways” are nowhere else contrasted with his later ways. The real meaning of the writer is, that Jehoshaphat followed the example set by his father Asa in his earlier years 2 Chronicles 14:1-15; 2 Chronicles 15:0. Baalim - On the plural form, see 1 Kings 18:18 note. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Sought not, &c. - It is true, he recovered from that fall. "Yet perhaps, says Mr. Henry, he never, while he lived, fully retrieved the spiritual strength he lost by it." 2 Chronicles 17:5”

“17:3-4 For the first time, the Chronicler compares Judah’s practices with those of northern Israel, showing his awareness that the Baal cult from Tyre had been introduced into northern worship (see 1 Kgs 16:31-32).”

“the Lord: Ch2 15:2, Ch2 15:9; Gen 39:2, Gen 39:3, Gen 39:21; Exo 3:12, Exo 4:12; Jos 1:5, Jos 1:9; Jdg 2:18, Jdg 6:12; Sa2 5:10; Ch1 22:18; Psa 46:7, Psa 46:11; Isa 8:10, Isa 41:10; Mat 1:23, Mat 18:20; Mat 28:20; Ti2 4:22 he walked: Sa2 8:15; Kg1 11:6, Kg1 15:3, Kg1 15:4; Kg2 14:3, Kg2 16:2, Kg2 18:3, Kg2 22:2; Psa 132:1-5 his father David: or, his father, and of David, Ch2 14:2-5, Ch2 14:11, Ch2 15:8-13 sought: Jdg 2:11, Jdg 8:33; Jer 2:23 2 Chronicles 17:4”