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1 Kings 22:41–50 — Jehoshaphat Reigns in Judah. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

The narrative here, so far as it is full and continuous, centres round the prophetic work of Elijah and Elisha, the scene of which was in Israel; and the compiler contents himself with the insertion of a few brief annalistic notices of the kingdom of Judah,

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The historian now resumes for a moment the history of Judah, which has dropped out of notice since 1 Kings 15:24 , where the accession of Jehoshaphat was mentioned.

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Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on the Whole Bible1706

Jehoshaphat's reign appears to have been one of the best, both as to piety and prosperity. He pleased God, and God blessed him.

Henry's Concise prints this same sentence against every verse from 41 to 50; it is a verdict on the whole unit rather than a note on this verse.

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In the fourth year of Ahab’s reign over Israel, Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’ar·ba‘ biš·naṯ lə·’aḥ·’āḇ me·leḵ yiś·rā·’êl wî·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭ ben- ’ā·sā mā·laḵ ‘al- yə·hū·ḏāh

Word by word11 · parsed

אַרְבַּ֔ע’ar·ba‘In the fourthH702

√ ʼarbaʻ — fourNumberfeminine singular

ʼarbaʻ: four The synchronism itself. Poole, Gill and Cambridge all work the arithmetic from it: Ahab reigned twenty-two years (1 Kings 16:29), so about eighteen of Jehoshaphat's twenty-five years overlapped Ahab's, and only about seven followed him. The date is not decoration; it fixes how much of a good king's reign was spent inside the shadow of a bad one.

בִּשְׁנַ֣תbiš·naṯyearH8141

√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct

לְאַחְאָ֖בlə·’aḥ·’āḇof Ahab’sH256

√ ʼAchʼâb — Achab, the name of a king of Israel and of a prophet at BabylonPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular

ʼAchʼâb: Achab, a king of Israel Ahab's name is the first proper noun in the unit and the last thing the reader has heard about, dead in his chariot at Ramoth-gilead. The compiler dates Judah's best king by Israel's worst, and will not let the two kingdoms be read apart.

מֶ֥לֶךְme·leḵreignH4428

√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct

יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃yiś·rā·’êlover IsraelH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

וִיהֽוֹשָׁפָט֙wî·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭJehoshaphatH3092

√ Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ — Jehoshaphat, the name of six IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ: Jehoshaphat The name is built on Yah plus the root of judge; Pulpit glosses it "Whom Jehovah judges." Cambridge notes that Kings gives "but a scanty record" of these twenty-five years while Chronicles devotes four chapters (2 Chronicles 17 through 20) to them. Everything the reader is about to be told is a deliberate compression.

בֶּן־ben-sonH1121

√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct

אָסָ֔א’ā·sāof AsaH609

√ ʼÂçâʼ — Asa, the name of a king and of a LeviteNounpropermasculine singular

מָלַ֖ךְmā·laḵbecame kingH4427

√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

mâlak: to reign Qal perfect. The regnal formula of the book, repeated for every king of both houses, is the skeleton on which the theology hangs: a man reigns, is weighed, dies. The verb will close the unit too, at v. 50, where Jehoram reigns in his place.

עַל־‘al-ofH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

Preposition ʻal, "over."

יְהוּדָ֑הyə·hū·ḏāhJudahH3063

√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

In-year fourth of-Ahab king-of Israel, Jehoshaphat son-of Asa reigned over Judah.

Where the English smooths the original

מָלַ֖ךְ מָלַ֖ךְ (mā·laḵ, H4427, Qal perfect 3ms) is the plain verb to reign. BSB's "became king" reads the perfect as ingressive (the moment of accession), which is defensible, but the Hebrew simply asserts the completed fact: Jehoshaphat reigned. The same root returns as a noun in melek (H4428) two words earlier, so the verse sets a reigning verb against a reigning noun across the border between the two kingdoms.
בִּשְׁנַ֣ת בִּשְׁנַ֣ת (biš·naṯ, H8141 in construct with b-) is "in-the-year-of." The English "In the fourth year of Ahab's reign" supplies the word "reign"; the Hebrew has only "in year four of-Ahab king-of Israel." Judah's clock is set by Israel's king, not by Judah's own, and that synchronism is itself the compiler's editorial confession of where his narrative has been living.
לְאַחְאָ֖ב לְאַחְאָ֖ב (lə·’aḥ·’āḇ, H256 with prefixed lamed) is "belonging to Ahab / with reference to Ahab." BSB renders it as a possessive ("of Ahab's reign"). The lamed of dating is a bookkeeper's preposition: Ahab is here a calendar, not an actor.
בֶּן־ בֶּן־ (ben, H1121) in construct is the dynastic hinge, "son-of." Two words later the same root will be absent from Ahab's name, and the contrast runs through the whole unit: Judah's kings are named by their fathers, and at v. 50 Jehoshaphat will be buried with those fathers.

Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years. His mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

yə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭ šə·lō·šîm wə·ḥā·mêš šā·nāh ben- bə·mā·lə·ḵōw mā·laḵ bî·rū·šā·lim wə·‘eś·rîm wə·ḥā·mêš šā·nāh ’im·mōw wə·šêm ‘ă·zū·ḇāh baṯ- šil·ḥî

Word by word16 · parsed

יְהוֹשָׁפָ֗טyə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭJehoshaphatH3092

√ Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ — Jehoshaphat, the name of six IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

שְׁלֹשִׁ֨יםšə·lō·šîmwas thirty-fiveH7970

√ shᵉlôwshîym — thirtyNumbercommon plural

וְחָמֵ֤שׁwə·ḥā·mêš. . .H2568

√ châmêsh — fiveConjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular

שָׁנָה֙šā·nāhyearsH8141

√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular

בֶּן־ben-oldH1121

bên: a son, in the widest sense Strong's stretches the word from literal son to grandson, subject, nation, even "quality or condition." The age idiom sits at the far end of that stretch: a man is a son of his years. Two verses, two senses of the same three letters.

בְּמָלְכ֔וֹbə·mā·lə·ḵōwwhen he became kingH4427

√ mâlak — to reignPreposition-bVerbQalInfinitive constructthird person masculine singular

mâlak: to reign (Qal infinitive construct) The accession point. Cambridge builds an entire chronology out of this figure and the twenty-five years that follow, reasoning from Ahab's twenty-two years and Ahaziah's two to conclude that Jehoram's co-regency with his father can only have fallen in the closing years of Jehoshaphat's reign.

מָלַ֖ךְmā·laḵand he reignedH4427

√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

בִּירוּשָׁלִָ֑םbî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389

√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular

וְעֶשְׂרִ֤יםwə·‘eś·rîmtwenty-fiveH6242

√ ʻesrîym — twentyConjunctive wawNumbercommon plural

וְחָמֵשׁ֙wə·ḥā·mêš. . .H2568

√ châmêsh — fiveConjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular

שָׁנָ֔הšā·nāhyearsH8141

√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular

אִמּ֔וֹ’im·mōwHis mother’sH517

√ ʼêm — a mother (as the bond of the family)Nounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular

ʼêm: a mother, as the bond of the family The lexical gloss is itself the argument: the mother is named because she binds the family, and in Judah the queen mother held real standing at court. The formula's weight lands in the next generation, when Jehoram's wife rather than his mother becomes the decisive woman in the house of David.

וְשֵׁ֣םwə·šêmnameH8034

√ shêm — an appellation, as amark or memorial of individualityConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct

עֲזוּבָ֖ה‘ă·zū·ḇāhwas AzubahH5806

√ ʻĂzûwbâh — Azubah, the name of two IsraelitessesNounproperfeminine singular

ʻĂzûwbâh: Azubah A rare name; the Verifier finds it in only four verses of the canon, two of them in the Calebite genealogy of 1 Chronicles 2:18-19, where a different Azubah is Caleb's wife. Gill notes flatly that "of what family they were is not said." The text records her, and her father Shilhi, and tells us nothing more.

בַּת־baṯ-daughterH1323

√ bath — a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms of relationship, literally and figuratively)Nounfeminine singular construct

שִׁלְחִֽי׃šil·ḥîof ShilhiH7977

√ Shilchîy — Shilchi, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

Shilchîy: Shilchi, an Israelite The rarest word in the unit: the Verifier finds this name in exactly two verses of the whole Hebrew Bible, here and in the parallel at 2 Chronicles 20:31. It is the single lexeme that makes the link between the two regnal summaries a verbal one rather than a thematic guess.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

Jehoshaphat was son-of thirty and-five year in-his-being-king, and-twenty and-five year he-reigned in-Jerusalem. And-name-of his-mother was Azubah daughter-of Shilhi.

Where the English smooths the original

בֶּן־ בֶּן־ (ben, H1121) here means age, not descent: Hebrew says a man is "a son of thirty-five years." BSB's "was thirty-five years old" is right in sense but loses the fact that the very word which marks him Asa's son in v. 41 is the word that measures his life in v. 42. In this idiom a person is the child of the years he has lived.
בְּמָלְכ֔וֹ בְּמָלְכ֔וֹ (bə·mā·lə·ḵōw, H4427, Qal infinitive construct with b- and a 3ms suffix) is literally "in his reigning," a temporal infinitive: "at the time of his becoming king." English needs a finite clause ("when he became king") where Hebrew needs only a preposition and a verbal noun.
וְשֵׁ֣ם אִמּ֔וֹ וְשֵׁ֣ם אִמּ֔וֹ (wə·šêm ’im·mōw, H8034 + H517) is the fixed formula "and the name of his mother." Shêm (H8034) is an "appellation, as a mark or memorial of individuality"; ʼêm is the mother "as the bond of the family." Cambridge explains the formula from the standing office of the queen mother, which is why the name is recorded for every king of Judah.
מָלַ֖ךְ מָלַ֖ךְ (mā·laḵ) appears twice in one verse, once as infinitive and once as perfect, framing the reign between its first day and its full span. The English varies its wording ("became king," "he reigned"); the Hebrew simply repeats the one root.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

Probably the key to the apparent discrepancy lies in the words “and groves” (Asherah). The high places taken away were those connected with the base Asherah worship; those which were simply unauthorised sanctuaries remained, at any rate in part.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

Probably the writer of Chronicles refers to the desire and intention of the monarch, while the author of Kings records the practical failure of his efforts.

Barnes and Ellicott reach the same harmonization by different routes, Ellicott by distinguishing which shrines, Barnes by distinguishing intention from result. The FSSB records both without choosing.

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

Meaning, that he was led with an error, thinking that they might still sacrifice to the Lord in those places, as they did before the temple was built.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

He walked entirely in the way of his father Asa and departed not from it, to do what was well-pleasing to the Lord," whereas Asa's heart had become more estranged from the Lord in the last years of his reign

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And Jehoshaphat walked in all the ways of his father Asa; he did not turn away from them, but did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. The high places, however, were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yê·leḵ bə·ḵāl de·reḵ ’ā·ḇîw ’ā·sā lō- sār mim·men·nū la·‘ă·śō·wṯ hay·yā·šār bə·‘ê·nê Yah·weh hab·bā·mō·wṯ ’aḵ lō- sā·rū hā·‘ām ‘ō·wḏ mə·zab·bə·ḥîm ū·mə·qaṭ·ṭə·rîm bab·bā·mō·wṯ

Word by word21 · parsed

וַיֵּ֗לֶךְway·yê·leḵAnd [Jehoshaphat] walkedH1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

בְּכָל־bə·ḵālin allH3605

√ kôl — properly, the wholePreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct

דֶּ֛רֶךְde·reḵthe waysH1870

√ derek — a road (as trodden)Nouncommon singular construct

derek: a road, as trodden Singular and in construct. The metaphor is a beaten track: the way is Asa's because Asa walked it first. Kings judges every monarch by whose road he walks, and the compiler's highest praise for a southern king is a father's name in this slot rather than Jeroboam's.

אָבִ֖יו’ā·ḇîwof his fatherH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

אָסָ֥א’ā·sāAsaH609

√ ʼÂçâʼ — Asa, the name of a king and of a LeviteNounpropermasculine singular

לֹא־lō-he did notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

סָ֣רsārturn awayH5493

√ çûwr — to turn off (literal or figurative)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

çûwr: to turn off Qal perfect. He did not turn off. The verb is chosen for its exact echo nine words later, where the high places also do not turn off. One negated çûwr is the whole compliment; the second negated çûwr is the whole complaint.

מִמֶּ֑נּוּmim·men·nūfrom themH4480

√ min — properly, a part ofPrepositionthird person masculine singular

לַעֲשׂ֥וֹתla·‘ă·śō·wṯbut didH6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationPreposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

הַיָּשָׁ֖רhay·yā·šārwhat was rightH3477

√ yâshâr — straight (literally or figuratively)ArticleAdjectivemasculine singular

yâshâr: straight, literally or figuratively With the article, "the straight thing." The moral vocabulary of Kings is spatial before it is ethical: straight road, straight conduct, and the verdict measured "in the eyes of YHWH" rather than in the eyes of the court or the chronicler.

בְּעֵינֵ֥יbə·‘ê·nêin the eyesH5869

√ ʻayin — an eye (literally or figuratively)Preposition-bNouncdc

יְהוָֽה׃Yah·wehof the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

Yᵉhôvâh: the covenant name The standard of judgment is not prosperity, which Jehoshaphat had, but the sight of the covenant God. Pulpit notes that this reign was "alike pious and prosperous," and the text still refuses to let the second fact stand in for the first.

הַבָּמ֖וֹתhab·bā·mō·wṯThe high placesH1116

√ bâmâh — an elevationArticleNounfeminine plural

bâmâh: an elevation The root means simply a high place, a ridge, a height. Nothing in the word is idolatrous; the problem is jurisdictional, that sacrifice belongs where God has put his name. Ellicott, Poole, Barnes, Gill and Cambridge all wrestle here with 2 Chronicles 17:6, which says Jehoshaphat did take the high places away, and they divide: Ellicott and Cambridge distinguish the Asherah shrines he removed from the irregular Yahweh shrines he did not; Barnes distinguishes the king's intention from the practical failure of his efforts.

אַ֥ךְ’aḵhoweverH389

√ ʼak — a particle of affirmation, surelyAdverb

ʼak: surely, only The restrictive particle. Geneva is the bluntest of the voices on what it restricts: it calls the toleration an error, a mistaken belief that sacrifice at the old heights was still lawful after the temple was built.

לֹֽא־lō-were notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

סָ֑רוּsā·rūremovedH5493

√ çûwr — to turn off (literal or figurative)VerbQalPerfectthird person common plural

çûwr: to turn off (Qal perfect, third person common plural) The hinge of the verse, and the reason the commendation and the complaint are made of one word. The form is plural and active: they did not turn off. Pulpit records the literal force, "departed not," and traces the identical idiom through 1 Kings 15:14, 2 Chronicles 15:17, 2 Kings 12:4 and 2 Kings 14:4. Hebrew has a serviceable passive available and declines to use it; the high places are left standing as the grammatical subject of their own persistence, which is a harder sentence than "were not removed" and a truer one about how entrenched worship actually behaves.

הָעָ֛םhā·‘āmthe peopleH5971

√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)ArticleNounmasculine singular

ʻam: a people, as a congregated unit The subject shifts from the king to the people. Gill observes that "the people were fond of them, because of their antiquity, and it was difficult for religious princes to remove them"; Benson adds that the custom had the patronage of good men before it, Samuel and Solomon among them. A reform can reach a throne long before it reaches a nation.

ע֥וֹד‘ō·wḏstillH5750

√ ʻôwd — properly, iteration or continuanceAdverb

מְזַבְּחִ֥יםmə·zab·bə·ḥîmsacrificedH2076

√ zâbach — to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice)VerbPielParticiplemasculine plural

zâbach: to slaughter an animal, usually in sacrifice Piel participle, durative. The worship in view is not idolatry but real sacrifice offered in the wrong place, which is what makes the verse hard: the sin is located, not invented.

וּֽמְקַטְּרִ֖יםū·mə·qaṭ·ṭə·rîmand burned incenseH6999

√ qâṭar — to smoke, iConjunctive wawVerbPielParticiplemasculine plural

qâṭar: to smoke, to burn incense Piel participle, paired with the last. Smoke going up from the ridges of Judah for twenty-five years under a king who did what was right.

בַּבָּמֽוֹת׃bab·bā·mō·wṯon the high placesH1116

√ bâmâh — an elevationPreposition-b, ArticleNounfeminine plural

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-walked in-all the-way of-his-father Asa; he-turned-not-aside from-it, to-do the-right in-the-eyes-of YHWH. Only the-high-places departed-not; still the-people were-sacrificing and-burning-incense on-the-high-places.

Where the English smooths the original

דֶּ֛רֶךְ דֶּ֛רֶךְ (de·reḵ, H1870) is singular, a construct noun: "in all the way of his father Asa." BSB pluralizes to "the ways." Derek is "a road as trodden," and K&D keeps the singular: he walked entirely in the one way Asa walked. The plural scatters into habits what the Hebrew holds as a single road.
סָ֑רוּ סָ֑רוּ (sā·rū, H5493, Qal perfect 3cp) is active, not passive: "the high places departed not." Pulpit says so in as many words, "Heb. departed not." BSB's "were not removed" quietly inserts an agent who failed to remove them. The Hebrew instead makes the high places the subject of their own stubbornness, and uses the same verb that three words earlier said Jehoshaphat did not turn aside. The king did not depart from Asa's way; the high places did not depart from the land.
אַ֥ךְ אַ֥ךְ (’aḵ, H389) is "a particle of affirmation, surely," used restrictively: "only." BSB renders it "however." It is the hinge of every mixed verdict in Kings, the one syllable that keeps a good report from being a clean one.
מְזַבְּחִ֥ים וּֽמְקַטְּרִ֖ים מְזַבְּחִ֥ים וּֽמְקַטְּרִ֖ים (mə·zab·bə·ḥîm ū·mə·qaṭ·ṭə·rîm, H2076 and H6999) are Piel participles, plural: not two past acts but a standing practice, "sacrificing and making smoke." English past tense ("sacrificed and burned incense") closes what the participle leaves open. Cambridge notes that R.V. moves "still" to its proper place for exactly this reason.

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

Even if this friendly bearing towards Israel was laudable in itself, Jehoshaphat went beyond the bounds of what was allowable, since he formed a marriage alliance with the house of Ahab, by letting his son Joram marry a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

One great feature of his reign was this: that the hostility which had lasted, even if it sometimes slumbered, between the two kingdoms for seventy years, from the date of their separation to the time of Asa's death, gave way to peace and even alliance.

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

This is noted as a blemish in his government, 2 Chronicles 19:2 , and proved of most mischievous consequence to Jehoshaphat’s posterity

Poole is reading backward from 2 Kings 9 and 10; his verdict on the peace is shaped by knowing how Athaliah's line ended. The verse itself passes no judgment.

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Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

yə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭ way·yaš·lêm ‘im- me·leḵ yiś·rā·’êl

Word by word5 · parsed

יְהוֹשָׁפָ֖טyə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭJehoshaphatH3092

√ Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ — Jehoshaphat, the name of six IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

וַיַּשְׁלֵ֥םway·yaš·lêmalso made peaceH7999

√ shâlam — to be safe (in mind, body or estate)Conjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

shâlam: to be safe in mind, body or estate (Hifil) The single verb of the verse, and the most ambiguous word in the unit. The same root gives shalom and the peace offering; here, causative, it names a political achievement that Cambridge calls unprecedented (until Jehoshaphat "the two kingdoms had been always at war") and that Poole calls "a blemish in his government." K&D holds both: laudable in itself, yet carried past the bounds of what was allowable when it became a marriage alliance with the house of Ahab.

עִם־‘im-withH5973

√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition

מֶ֥לֶךְme·leḵthe kingH4428

√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct

melek: a king In construct, deliberately anonymous. Pulpit traces the consequence: the marriage of Jehoram and Athaliah was probably both the fruit of this peace and the cement intended to hold it.

יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃yiś·rā·’êlof IsraelH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-Jehoshaphat made-peace with the-king-of Israel.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיַּשְׁלֵ֥ם וַיַּשְׁלֵ֥ם (way·yaš·lêm, H7999, Hifil consecutive imperfect) is the causative of shâlam, "to be safe in mind, body or estate." Not "there was peace" but "he made it whole." BSB's "made peace" is accurate, yet the English idiom hides that this is the shalom root put into the causative: Jehoshaphat is the one who brings the two houses to wholeness, and the rest of the unit will ask what that wholeness cost.
מֶ֥לֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל מֶ֥לֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל (me·leḵ yiś·rā·’êl) is unnamed. The narrator does not say Ahab. K&D takes the silence as deliberate and reads it distributively: peace "with every one of the Israelitish kings who were contemporaneous with him," Ahab, Ahaziah and Joram alike. The English article does the same work but readers supply Ahab anyway.
וַיַּשְׁלֵ֥ם The consecutive imperfect chains this to the preceding narrative as though it happened next. Ellicott objects that the verse "is chronologically out of place" and refers to a policy pursued from the beginning of the reign. The Hebrew narrative form carries no date; it only carries sequence, and here the sequence is topical rather than temporal.

As for the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, along with the might he exercised and how he waged war, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·ye·ṯer diḇ·rê yə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭ ū·ḡə·ḇū·rā·ṯōw ‘ā·śāh wa·’ă·šer ’ă·šer- nil·ḥām hêm hă·lō- kə·ṯū·ḇîm ‘al- sê·p̄er diḇ·rê hay·yā·mîm lə·mal·ḵê yə·hū·ḏāh

Word by word17 · parsed

וְיֶ֨תֶרwə·ye·ṯerAs for the restH3499

√ yether — properly, an overhanging, iConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct

yether: properly, an overhanging The formula word of Kings. Ellicott, Barnes, Cambridge and K&D all point past it to 2 Chronicles 17 through 20, where the overhang is written out: the teaching mission of the Levites, the judicial reform, the victory over Moab and Ammon. Kings knows all of it and prints none of it, because Kings is telling a different story.

דִּבְרֵ֧יdiḇ·rêof the actsH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct

dâbâr: a word Construct plural, "words of." The same noun heads both the deeds and the source that records them.

יְהוֹשָׁפָ֛טyə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭof JehoshaphatH3092

√ Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ — Jehoshaphat, the name of six IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

וּגְבוּרָת֥וֹū·ḡə·ḇū·rā·ṯōwalong with the mightH1369

√ gᵉbûwrâh — force (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular

gᵉbûwrâh: force, literally or figuratively K&D unpacks the word generously: it covers fortifications, the organizing of the army, the teaching of the law and the reform of the courts (2 Chronicles 17:7-19; 19:4-11), not only battle. Pulpit's point is the sharper one, that the compiler withholds this word from Ahab, who had more wars. Might, in Kings, is a moral category.

עָשָׂ֖ה‘ā·śāhhe exercisedH6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

וַאֲשֶׁ֣רwa·’ă·šerH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatConjunctive wawPronounrelative

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-and howH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

נִלְחָ֑םnil·ḥāmhe waged warH3898

√ lâcham — to feed onVerbNifalPerfectthird person masculine singular

lâcham: to feed on, hence to fight Nifal perfect. The stem is reciprocal: he fought and was fought. Cambridge records that the LXX lacks the clause entirely, which is a text-critical fact worth keeping beside the theology.

הֵ֣םhêm[are] theyH1992

√ hêm — they (only used when emphatic)Pronounthird person masculine plural

הֲלֹֽא־hă·lō-notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

כְּתוּבִ֗יםkə·ṯū·ḇîmwrittenH3789

√ kâthab — to grave, by implication, to write (describe, inscribe, prescribe, subscribe)VerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine plural

kâthab: to grave, to write Qal passive participle. The appeal to a written record outside the canon is the compiler's standing gesture of restraint. Barnes and Cambridge both identify the likely source, from 2 Chronicles 20:34, as the book of Jehu son of Hanani, the same prophet who rebuked Jehoshaphat for helping the ungodly.

עַל־‘al-inH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

סֵ֛פֶרsê·p̄erthe BookH5612

√ çêpher — properly, writing (the art or a document)Nounmasculine singular construct

çêpher: properly, writing, the art or a document Not necessarily a bound book; a document, an archive.

דִּבְרֵ֥יdiḇ·rêof the ChroniclesH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct

הַיָּמִ֖יםhay·yā·mîm. . .H3117

√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)ArticleNounmasculine plural

לְמַלְכֵ֥יlə·mal·ḵêof the KingsH4428

√ melek — a kingPreposition-lNounmasculine plural construct

יְהוּדָֽה׃yə·hū·ḏāhof JudahH3063

√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-the-rest of-the-acts of-Jehoshaphat, and-his-might which he-did, and-which he-fought: are-they not written upon the-book-of the-acts-of the-days of-the-kings-of Judah?

Where the English smooths the original

וְיֶ֨תֶר וְיֶ֨תֶר (wə·ye·ṯer, H3499) is "properly, an overhanging," what juts out past the edge. BSB's "As for the rest" flattens a picture into an accounting term. The compiler is saying that most of this reign hangs over the side of his scroll, and he is letting it hang.
דִּבְרֵ֧י דִּבְרֵ֧י (diḇ·rê, H1697, "a word") occurs twice in this verse and is translated two different ways: "the acts" of Jehoshaphat and "the Chronicles" of the kings. In Hebrew both are dibrê, and the book's title is literally "the words of the days." Deeds and words are one noun here; a reign is a thing said as much as a thing done.
וּגְבוּרָת֥וֹ וּגְבוּרָת֥וֹ (ū·ḡə·ḇū·rā·ṯōw, H1369) is "force, literally or figuratively," with a 3ms suffix. BSB's "the might he exercised" adds a verb of exercise. Pulpit makes the sharp observation that this word is not used of Ahab, "notwithstanding his wars and victories." The compiler's vocabulary is itself a verdict.
נִלְחָ֑ם נִלְחָ֑ם (nil·ḥām, H3898, Nifal perfect) is the reciprocal stem of a root whose base sense Strong's gives as "to feed on." War in Hebrew is a devouring done mutually. BSB "he waged war" makes him the sole agent of what the Nifal presents as a mutual consuming. Cambridge notes these words are absent from the LXX.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

It appears hence that Asa's removal of the religious prostitutes ( 1 Kings 15:12 ), like that of the high places, had been but partial

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John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

His father Asa removed many of these filthy creatures, but not all; as many, no doubt, as came within his knowledge, but some remained, whom this his son removed

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

This passage, down to the end of 1 Kings 22:49 , is omitted by the ( Vat. ) LXX.

A text-critical fact, not an interpretation: the Vatican manuscript of the Septuagint lacks verses 46 to 49 altogether. Readers should weigh this unit's second half knowing its Greek attestation is thinner than its Hebrew.

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He banished from the land the male shrine prostitutes who remained from the days of his father Asa.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

bi·‘êr min- hā·’ā·reṣ wə·ye·ṯer haq·qā·ḏêš ’ă·šer niš·’ar bî·mê ’ā·ḇîw ’ā·sā

Word by word10 · parsed

בִּעֵ֖רbi·‘êrHe banishedH1197

√ bâʻar — to kindle, iVerbPielPerfectthird person masculine singular

bâʻar: to kindle Piel perfect, intensive. The metaphor is deliberate and hard: Jehoshaphat does to the cult what fire does to stubble. Gill and Pulpit agree the operation was a mop-up, finishing what Asa began at 1 Kings 15:12 and could not complete; Benson adds that Asa's failure was likely ignorance rather than tolerance, some having remained "without his knowledge."

מִן־min-fromH4480

√ min — properly, a part ofPreposition

הָאָֽרֶץ׃hā·’ā·reṣthe landH776

√ ʼerets — the earth (at large, or partitively a land)ArticleNounfeminine singular

ʼerets: the earth, or a land The object is territorial. The purge is not of persons from a temple but of a practice from a land, which is how Deuteronomy frames holiness in the first place.

וְיֶ֙תֶר֙wə·ye·ṯertheH3499

√ yether — properly, an overhanging, iConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct

yether: an overhanging, a remainder The unit's quiet refrain. Reform in Kings never finishes cleanly; there is always a remainder, in the archive and in the land.

הַקָּדֵ֔שׁhaq·qā·ḏêšmale shrine prostitutesH6945

√ qâdêsh — a (quasi) sacred person, iArticleAdjectivemasculine singular

qâdêsh: a (quasi) sacred person One of the rarest lexemes in the unit: the Verifier finds it in only six verses of the Hebrew Bible, at Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Kings 14:24, 1 Kings 15:12, here, 2 Kings 23:7 and Job 36:14. Those six occurrences trace the whole arc of a law given, broken under Rehoboam, attacked by Asa, mopped up by Jehoshaphat, found again in the temple precincts by Josiah's day, and used by Elihu as a figure for those who die young in shame. Poole and Ellicott both send the reader back along that chain.

אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerwhoH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

נִשְׁאַ֔רniš·’arremainedH7604

√ shâʼar — properly, to swell up, iVerbNifalPerfectthird person masculine singular

shâʼar: to be left over, to remain Nifal perfect. What remains is the theme; whether it remains to be saved or to be burned is decided elsewhere.

בִּימֵ֖יbî·mêfrom the daysH3117

אָבִ֑יו’ā·ḇîwof his fatherH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

אָסָ֣א’ā·sāAsaH609

√ ʼÂçâʼ — Asa, the name of a king and of a LeviteNounpropermasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-the-remnant of-the-qadesh who remained in-the-days-of his-father Asa, he-burned-away from the-land.

Where the English smooths the original

בִּעֵ֖ר בִּעֵ֖ר (bi·‘êr, H1197, Piel perfect) is from a root meaning "to kindle," and in the Piel it is the verb of burning something clean out. Pulpit glosses it bluntly, "Heb. exterminated." BSB's "banished" is the mildest of the options; Cambridge notes that "to put away" is the most frequent rendering. The image under all three is fire through a field.
הַקָּדֵ֔שׁ הַקָּדֵ֔שׁ (haq·qā·ḏêš, H6945) is singular with the article, a collective. Strong's defines it as "a (quasi) sacred person," and that is the scandal built into the consonants: the word stands on the root for holy. BSB's "male shrine prostitutes" and the older "sodomites" both name the practice; the Hebrew names the blasphemy, a consecrated one consecrated to the wrong thing.
נִשְׁאַ֔ר נִשְׁאַ֔ר (niš·’ar, H7604, Nifal perfect) is from a root Strong's glosses "properly, to swell up," the ordinary verb for a remnant left over. It is the prophets' word for the saved remnant of Israel, used here of what is left of the shrine cult. The same grammar of survival serves both.
וְיֶ֙תֶר֙ וְיֶ֙תֶר֙ (wə·ye·ṯer, H3499) is the identical word that opened v. 45 of Jehoshaphat's unrecorded acts. Two verses running, something is left over: the overhang of his deeds, and the overhang of his father's failed purge. BSB translates the first "the rest" and leaves the second almost invisible.

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Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

The “king of Edom,” of 2 Kings 3, who is evidently a subject ally, not regarded in consultation (see 1Kings 22:6-9 ), must be “the deputy” of this passage.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

This government of dependencies by means of subject-kings was the all but universal practice in the East down to the time of Cyrus

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

In the time of this king, Idumea was subject to Judah, and was governed by whom they of Judah appointed.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

This remark is introduced here merely on account of what follows, namely, to show how it was that Jehoshaphat was able to attempt to restore the maritime trade with Ophir.

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And there was no king in Edom; a deputy served as king.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’ên ū·me·leḵ be·’ĕ·ḏō·wm niṣ·ṣāḇ me·leḵ

Word by word5 · parsed

אֵ֛ין’ênAnd there was noH369

√ ʼayin — a non-entityAdverb

ʼayin: a non-entity The verse opens on an absence. Grammatically it is the cheapest word in the unit; narratively it is the load-bearing one, because Edom's empty throne is the only reason the next verse can happen at all.

וּמֶ֥לֶךְū·me·leḵkingH4428

√ melek — a kingConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular

בֶּאֱד֖וֹםbe·’ĕ·ḏō·wmin EdomH123

√ ʼĔdôm — Edom, the elder twin-brother of JacobPreposition-bNounpropermasculine singular

ʼĔdôm: Edom, the elder twin-brother of Jacob The lexical gloss carries the theology. Edom's subjection to Judah is the oracle of Genesis 25:23 still holding, and the compiler notes it in passing, in the year before Jehoram lost it (2 Kings 8:20).

נִצָּ֥בniṣ·ṣāḇa deputyH5324

√ nâtsab — to station, in various applications (literally or figuratively)VerbNifalParticiplemasculine singular

nâtsab: to station, literally or figuratively Nifal participle. K&D is explicit that the whole notice exists for the sake of what follows, to explain how Jehoshaphat could build a fleet at Ezion-geber, which lay in Edomite territory. Cambridge concedes what nobody knows: what became of Hadad's royal line, and by whom the deputy was appointed, "we are nowhere told."

מֶֽלֶךְ׃me·leḵserved as kingH4428

√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular

melek: a king The second occurrence, now as predicate. Barnes reads the arrangement as standard ancient practice, subject-kings governing dependencies, the all but universal pattern in the East down to Cyrus.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-king there-was-none in-Edom; one-stationed was king.

Where the English smooths the original

אֵ֛ין אֵ֛ין (’ên, H369) is not a verb at all. Strong's calls it "a non-entity," a particle of absence. BSB must supply "there was" to make an English sentence. Hebrew can simply set a vacancy beside a noun and be done.
נִצָּ֥ב נִצָּ֥ב (niṣ·ṣāḇ, H5324, Nifal participle of nâtsab, "to station") is not a title but a passive participle: "one who has been stationed." BSB's "deputy" reads it as an office. Pulpit identifies it as the same word used of Solomon's officers in 1 Kings 4:7 and infers that the man was appointed by the king of Judah. The grammar itself says he did not stand there on his own account; someone posted him.
מֶ֥לֶךְ ... מֶֽלֶךְ מֶ֥לֶךְ (me·leḵ, H4428) appears twice in a sentence of five words, first denied and then predicated: no king, yet a posted man is king. BSB's "a deputy served as king" smooths the paradox with a verb of serving. The Hebrew leaves the contradiction standing on the page, which is exactly why Ellicott can identify this man with the so-called "king of Edom" who appears as a subject ally in 2 Kings 3.

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Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

These ships were not to go to Tharshish, but Ophir. But, it appears, they were called ships of Tharshish from their form, being made after the model of the ships which traded to that place.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The Chethib has עשר ten, obviously a clerical error for עשה made

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John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

the reason of this shipwreck was, because Jehoshaphat joined himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, for which he was reproved by the prophet Eliezer, and this was his punishment

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

And Eliezer the prophet rebuked Jehoshaphat for this alliance, and said, ‘because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works.’ Thus the breaking of the ships, however it came to pass, by storm or otherwise, was regarded as brought about by divine interposition.

Cambridge's inner quotation is from 2 Chronicles 20:37, not from 1 Kings; Kings itself reports the wreck without naming a cause.

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Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail, because they were wrecked at Ezion-geber.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

yə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭ ʿå̄·śå̄r ’o·nî·yō·wṯ tar·šîš lā·le·ḵeṯ ’ō·w·p̄î·rāh laz·zā·hāḇ wə·lō hā·lāḵ kî- ’o·nî·yō·wṯ bə·‘eṣ·yō·wn niš·bə·rå̄h gā·ḇer

Word by word14 · parsed

יְהוֹשָׁפָ֡טyə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭJehoshaphatH3092

√ Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ — Jehoshaphat, the name of six IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

עָשָׂרʿå̄·śå̄rbuiltH6237

√ ʻâsar — to tithe, iVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

ʻâsâh: to do or make (Qere) / ʻâsar: ten (Kethib) The unit's one live textual variant. Three independent voices (Pulpit, K&D, Gill) treat the written form as a scribal slip for the read form, and the FSSB follows the Qere with BSB while recording that the Berean interlinear's Strong's number is attached to the unread consonants.

אֳנִיּ֨וֹת’o·nî·yō·wṯshipsH591

√ ʼŏnîyâh — a shipNounfeminine plural construct

תַּרְשִׁ֜ישׁtar·šîšof TarshishH8659

√ Tarshîysh — Tarshish, a place on the Mediterranean, hence, the ephithet of a merchant vessel (as if for or from that port)Nounpropermasculine singular

Tarshîysh: a place on the Mediterranean, hence a merchant vessel A ship class named for a trade route, like "Indiaman," the comparison Barnes actually draws. Geneva takes Tharshish for Cilicia and the Mediterranean generally; the lexicon allows both the port and the vessel type.

לָלֶ֧כֶתlā·le·ḵeṯto goH1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

אוֹפִ֛ירָה’ō·w·p̄î·rāhto OphirH211

√ ʼÔwphîyr — Ophir, the name of a son of Joktan, and of a gold region in the EastNounproperfeminine singularthird person feminine singular

ʼÔwphîyr: Ophir, a gold region in the East Solomon's gold source (1 Kings 9:28; 2 Chronicles 8:18). Jehoshaphat is attempting a restoration, not an innovation, and the attempt is measured against the reign it imitates.

לַזָּהָ֖בlaz·zā·hāḇfor goldH2091

√ zâhâb — gold, figuratively, something gold-colored (iPreposition-l, ArticleNounmasculine singular

zâhâb: gold With the article and lamed of purpose: "for the gold." The stated object of the whole enterprise, and the one thing it never obtained.

וְלֹ֣אwə·lōbut they neverH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle

הָלָ֑ךְhā·lāḵset sailH1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

hâlak: to walk, in a great variety of applications Qal perfect singular. The verb of v. 43 returns as the verb of failure. In Kings a reign is a walking, and this is the one journey in Jehoshaphat's reign that did not go.

כִּֽי־kî-becauseH3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

אֳנִיּ֖וֹת’o·nî·yō·wṯ[they]H591

√ ʼŏnîyâh — a shipNounfeminine plural construct

בְּעֶצְי֥וֹןbə·‘eṣ·yō·wnvvvH6100

√ ʻEtsyôwn Geber — Etsjon-Geber, a place on the Red SeaPreposition

נִשְׁבְּרָהniš·bə·rå̄hwere wreckedH7665

√ shâbar — to burst (literally or figuratively)VerbNifalPerfectthird person common plural

shâbar: to burst, literally or figuratively Nifal, passive: the ships were burst. Gill locates the wreck at the harbour mouth itself, on rocks that stood "like a man's backbone, whence the port had its name," and Pulpit cites Stanley on the jagged ranges on either side. Cambridge and K&D both read the storm as the instrument of a prophetic word, not as weather alone.

גָּֽבֶר׃gā·ḇerat Ezion-geberH6100

√ ʻEtsyôwn Geber — Etsjon-Geber, a place on the Red SeaPrepositionNounproperfeminine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

Jehoshaphat made ships-of Tarshish to-go to-Ophir for-the-gold, and-it-went not, for the-ships were-broken at-Ezion-geber.

Where the English smooths the original

עָשָׂר עָשָׂר (‘å̄·śå̄r) is the Kethib, the consonants as written, and they spell "ten," not "made." The Qere directs the reader to עָשָׂה (‘āśāh, H6213, "to do or make"), which is what BSB translates and K&D calls "an error of the pen." Pulpit agrees it is "obviously a clerical error." Gill preserves both, noting the Tigurine version's combination, "he made ten ships to go by sea." The interlinear's Strong's tag here (H6237, ʻâsar, "to tithe") follows the written consonants rather than the read word, which is worth knowing before anyone builds a sermon on it.
הָלָ֑ךְ הָלָ֑ךְ (hā·lāḵ, H1980, Qal perfect 3ms) is singular: "it went not." Pulpit flags it, "Heb. it went not." BSB's plural "they never set sail" repairs the number for English ears. The Hebrew treats the fleet as one venture, and it is the same verb hâlak that in v. 43 said Jehoshaphat walked in the way of Asa. One walking prospers and one does not go at all.
נִשְׁבְּרָה נִשְׁבְּרָה (niš·bə·rå̄h, H7665, Nifal) is from shâbar, "to burst, literally or figuratively," and the form is singular against a plural subject. K&D declines to emend it, noting that a singular verb before a following plural subject "is by no means rare" and citing Ewald. Cambridge supplies the theological weight from 2 Chronicles 20:37, where the prophet Eliezer uses this same idea of breaking for what the LORD did to Jehoshaphat's works.
תַּרְשִׁ֜ישׁ תַּרְשִׁ֜ישׁ (tar·šîš, H8659) is a place on the Mediterranean, and Strong's records the secondary sense: "hence, the epithet of a merchant vessel." Benson and Barnes both insist the phrase names a class of ship, not a destination, which is how Kings can say Tarshish ships sailing to Ophir without contradicting itself. It also explains the divergence at 2 Chronicles 20:36, which K&D attributes to "an erroneous interpretation of the expression."

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

And good Jehoshaphat being warned and chastised by God for this sin, would not be persuaded to repeat it; whereby he showed the sincerity of his repentance.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

This proposal Jehoshaphat refused, either offended at the reflection on his subjects' skill, or accepting the wreck of the ships, which Eliezer had prophesied, as a proof that God was against the entire undertaking.

Barnes deliberately leaves the motive open. The FSSB keeps both of his options because the Hebrew supplies neither.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

but Jehoshaphat did not agree to it any more, because it was impossible for him, after the fulfilment of Eliezer's prediction, to expect a more favourable result.

source ↗

At that time Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants sail with your servants,” but Jehoshaphat refused.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’āz ’ă·ḥaz·yā·hū ḇen- ’aḥ·’āḇ ’ā·mar ’el- yə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭ ‘ă·ḇā·ḏay yê·lə·ḵū bā·’o·nî·yō·wṯ ‘im- ‘ă·ḇā·ḏe·ḵā yə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭ wə·lō ’ā·ḇāh

Word by word15 · parsed

אָ֠ז’āzAt that timeH227

√ ʼâz — at that time or placeAdverb

ʼâz: at that time or place The temporal hinge, sentence-initial. Barnes and Pulpit both reconstruct the sequence from 2 Chronicles 20:35-37: the first fleet was built jointly, manned by Jehoshaphat's men, and wrecked; Ahaziah now proposes a second attempt with Israelite sailors, "men probably accustomed to the sea, perhaps trained at Tyre."

אֲחַזְיָ֤הוּ’ă·ḥaz·yā·hūAhaziahH274

√ ʼĂchazyâh — Achazjah, the name of a Jewish and an Israelite kingNounpropermasculine singular

ʼĂchazyâh: Achazjah The son of Ahab, named here with his patronymic. The alliance that v. 44 made with the unnamed "king of Israel" now has a face and a proposition.

בֶן־ḇen-sonH1121

אַחְאָב֙’aḥ·’āḇof AhabH256

√ ʼAchʼâb — Achab, the name of a king of Israel and of a prophet at BabylonNounpropermasculine singular

אָמַ֞ר’ā·marsaidH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

יְה֣וֹשָׁפָ֔טyə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭJehoshaphatH3092

√ Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ — Jehoshaphat, the name of six IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

עֲבָדַ֛י‘ă·ḇā·ḏayLet my servantsH5650

√ ʻebed — a servantNounmasculine plural constructfirst person common singular

ʻebed: a servant First person plural construct with suffix. The offer is of personnel, which is exactly what makes it a partnership rather than a purchase.

יֵלְכ֧וּyê·lə·ḵūsailH1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbQalImperfectthird person masculine plural

בָּאֳנִיּ֑וֹתbā·’o·nî·yō·wṯ. . .H591

√ ʼŏnîyâh — a shipPreposition-bNounfeminine plural

עִם־‘im-withH5973

√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition

עֲבָדֶ֖יךָ‘ă·ḇā·ḏe·ḵāyour servantsH5650

√ ʻebed — a servantNounmasculine plural constructsecond person masculine singular

יְהוֹשָׁפָֽט׃yə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭbut JehoshaphatH3092

√ Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ — Jehoshaphat, the name of six IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

וְלֹ֥אwə·lōrefusedH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle

אָבָ֖ה’ā·ḇāh. . .H14

√ ʼâbâh — to breathe after, iVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

ʼâbâh: to breathe after, to be willing Qal perfect, negated. The unit's last verb of decision, and the only one in which Jehoshaphat says no to Israel. The voices agree on why and differ on the accent: Barnes offers two possibilities, offense at the slight to his sailors or acceptance of the wreck as God's verdict; Poole and Benson read repentance; K&D reasons that after Eliezer's prediction had been fulfilled, no better result could be expected. Kings itself gives no reason at all, only the refusal.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

Then said Ahaziah son-of-Ahab to Jehoshaphat, “Let-my-servants go with thy-servants in-the-ships,” and-Jehoshaphat was- not -willing.

Where the English smooths the original

אָ֠ז אָ֠ז (’āz, H227) is "at that time or place," a demonstrative of moment rather than a conjunction. BSB's "At that time" is faithful; what it cannot show is that the word stands first in the sentence, pinning the proposal to the wreck immediately preceding. The offer comes while the timbers are still on the rocks.
אָבָ֖ה אָבָ֖ה (’ā·ḇāh, H14) is glossed by Strong's "to breathe after," that is, to be willing, to consent with desire. BSB renders the negated verb simply "refused." The Hebrew says something finer: he did not want to. The refusal is appetite, not only policy, which is why Poole can read it as evidence of "the sincerity of his repentance."
עֲבָדַ֛י ... עֲבָדֶ֖יךָ עֲבָדַ֛י and עֲבָדֶ֖יךָ (ʻebed, H5650, with first and second person suffixes) set "my servants" against "your servants" in the same breath. Ahaziah's whole proposal is a pair of pronouns. BSB keeps them, but the Hebrew's symmetry, two identical nouns differing only in who owns them, is the shape of every entangling alliance in this chapter.
יֵלְכ֧וּ יֵלְכ֧וּ (yê·lə·ḵū, H1980, Qal imperfect 3mp) is a jussive use of the imperfect: "let them go." It is hâlak again, for the third time in the unit. Ahaziah asks for a going; the previous verse has just said it did not go.

The Voices✦ 2 public domain

John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

In the city of Sion, where David, Rehoboam, Abijam, and Asa, were buried: and Jehoram his son reigned in his stead; who was now thirty two years of age, and he reigned ten years.

source ↗

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

The corpse was conveyed to Samaria; and, as the chariot which brought it was being washed, in a pool near the city, from the blood that had profusely oozed from the wound, the dogs, in conformity with Elijah's prophecy, came and licked it [1Ki 21:19]. Ahab was succeeded by his son Ahaziah

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown attach no separate note to verses 41 through 50; the entry printed here is their comment on the battle of verses 29 through 38, repeated by the source. It is included only for the contrast it draws with this verse: two kings, two burials, one washed out of a chariot in Samaria and one laid down in the city of David.

source ↗

And Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of his father David. And his son Jehoram reigned in his place.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

yə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭ way·yiš·kaḇ ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw way·yiq·qā·ḇêr ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw bə·‘îr ’ā·ḇîw dā·wiḏ bə·nōw yə·hō·w·rām way·yim·lōḵ taḥ·tāw

Word by word14 · parsed

יְהֽוֹשָׁפָט֙yə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭAnd JehoshaphatH3092

√ Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ — Jehoshaphat, the name of six IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

וַיִּשְׁכַּ֤בway·yiš·kaḇrestedH7901

√ shâkab — to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

shâkab: to lie down The peaceful-death formula of Kings, withheld from those who die violently. Ahab, eleven verses earlier, did not lie down with his fathers; he was propped up in a chariot until sunset. The formula here is the compiler's last verdict on Jehoshaphat, and he grants it without qualification.

עִם־‘im-withH5973

√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition

אֲבֹתָ֔יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāwhis fathersH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular

וַיִּקָּבֵר֙way·yiq·qā·ḇêrand was buriedH6912

√ qâbar — to interConjunctive wawVerbNifalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

qâbar: to inter Nifal, agentless. Gill fills in the company: the city of Sion, where David, Rehoboam, Abijam and Asa were buried before him.

עִם־‘im-withH5973

√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition

אֲבֹתָ֔יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāwthemH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular

בְּעִ֖ירbə·‘îrin the cityH5892

√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct

אָבִ֑יו’ā·ḇîwof his fatherH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

דָּוִ֣דdā·wiḏDavidH1732

√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular

Dâvid: David, the youngest son of Jesse The last thing said of the place is whose city it is. Every Judahite regnal notice ends by measuring a king against this name, and the promise attached to it (1 Kings 11:36; 15:4) is the reason the dynasty survives what the next verse begins.

בְּנ֖וֹbə·nōwAnd his sonH1121

יְהוֹרָ֥םyə·hō·w·rāmJehoramH3088

√ Yᵉhôwrâm — Jehoram, the name of a Syrian and of three IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

Yᵉhôwrâm: Jehoram Gill computes that he was thirty-two at accession and reigned ten years. He is the son whose marriage to Athaliah sealed the peace of v. 44, and the unit closes by handing the throne to the fruit of its most questioned decision. Kings states it without comment.

וַיִּמְלֹ֛ךְway·yim·lōḵreignedH4427

√ mâlak — to reignConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

תַּחְתָּֽיו׃סtaḥ·tāwin his placeH8478

√ tachath — the bottom (as depressed)Prepositionthird person masculine singular

tachath: the bottom, as depressed The succession preposition. Six syllables of Hebrew carry the whole machinery of dynasty: one man goes under the ground, another stands in the depression he leaves.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-Jehoshaphat lay-down with his-fathers, and-was-buried with his-fathers in-the-city-of David his-father; and-Jehoram his-son reigned under-him.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיִּשְׁכַּ֤ב וַיִּשְׁכַּ֤ב (way·yiš·kaḇ, H7901) is shâkab, "to lie down," and Strong's lists its range without embarrassment: for rest, for sexual connection, for decease, for any other purpose. BSB's "rested" is an interpretation of a posture. The Hebrew only says he lay down, and lets the company he lies down with ("with his fathers") do the rest of the work.
אֲבֹתָ֔יו אֲבֹתָ֔יו (’ă·ḇō·ṯāw, H1, plural with 3ms suffix) occurs twice, and אָבִ֑יו ("his father," of David) a third time in the same verse. BSB varies the second to "with them." Hebrew repeats: fathers, fathers, father. A king who walked in all the way of his father Asa (v. 43) is laid down among them and under the name of the father of them all.
תַּחְתָּֽיו תַּחְתָּֽיו (taḥ·tāw, H8478) is from a noun meaning "the bottom, as depressed," so literally "in the place beneath him." BSB's "in his place" is the standard and correct idiom, but the spatial picture is worth seeing: the successor stands where the dead king stood, on the ground the dead king has just gone under.
וַיִּקָּבֵר֙ וַיִּקָּבֵר֙ (way·yiq·qā·ḇêr, H6912, Nifal) is passive, "and he was buried," from a root meaning simply "to inter." No agent is named. Two chapters have now ended with a burial: Ahab's corpse conveyed to Samaria and a chariot washed in a pool, and this one, laid quietly in the city of David.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The compiler turns south — 41-42

Ahab is dead and the narrative pivots. Ellicott states the editorial principle plainly: the book's continuous narrative "centres round the prophetic work of Elijah and Elisha," whose scene was Israel, and the compiler "contents himself with the insertion of a few brief annalistic notices of the kingdom of Judah." Barnes and Pulpit both tell the reader exactly where to tie the thread back on, at 1 Kings 15:24, where Jehoshaphat's accession was first mentioned and then dropped. Benson explains the alternation as the writer's method: he gives the house of David first, interweaves the kings of Israel, and returns south when a northern reign closes. ⚙ The result is that a twenty-five year reign which Chronicles needs four chapters to tell (2 Chronicles 17 through 20, as Ellicott, Cambridge, Pulpit and K&D all note) is here given ten verses, and the very first datum is a synchronism with Ahab. Poole and Gill do the arithmetic: about eighteen of those years ran alongside Ahab, about seven after him. Cambridge, who calls the record "scanty," nonetheless insists from the Chronicler that "clearly Jehoshaphat was a king of much influence." The queen mother's name follows, and Cambridge accounts for the formula from the standing office of the queen mother in Oriental kingdoms. Gill concedes what the text will not supply: of Azubah's family and Shilhi's, "of what family they were is not said."

ii. One road, and one word that will not depart — 43

The verdict verse turns on a single verb used twice. סָ֣ר (çûwr, H5493) first says what Jehoshaphat did not do, he did not turn aside from his father's road, and then says what the high places did not do, they did not depart. K&D holds the first half firmly, that he walked entirely in the way of his father Asa and departed not from it, and sharpens the compliment by adding that Asa's own heart had grown estranged in his last years. Pulpit makes the same point in an aside: he turned not aside "as Asa was tempted to do in his old age." Then the restrictive אַ֥ךְ lands. Four voices divide over how to square v. 43 with 2 Chronicles 17:6. Ellicott finds the key in the words "and groves" (Asherah), so that the shrines removed were the Asherah shrines and the merely unauthorised sanctuaries remained "at any rate in part"; Cambridge argues the same case at length from the Ashêrim; Poole makes the identical distinction and adds a second option, that he took them away "but not fully; or not in the very beginning of his reign"; Barnes proposes instead that Chronicles records the monarch's desire and intention while Kings records "the practical failure of his efforts." Geneva alone will not harmonize: it says simply that the king "was led with an error." Gill and Benson locate the resistance in the people rather than the throne, Gill because they were "fond of them, because of their antiquity," Benson because the custom had the patronage of good men, Samuel and Solomon among them, and was so deeply rooted that "the best of their kings, till Hezekiah's time, connived at it."

iii. He made it whole with the king of Israel — 44-45

One Hifil verb, וַיַּשְׁלֵ֥ם (shâlam, H7999), and the commentators split over it more sharply than anywhere else in the unit. Cambridge reports it as simple novelty: "up to his time the two kingdoms had been always at war." Pulpit calls it "one great feature of his reign," ending a hostility of seventy years, and observes that Judah now recognized the division as an accomplished fact and "no longer treated Israel, even theoretically, as in rebellion." Poole calls the same act "a blemish in his government" and reads it forward to 2 Kings 9 and 10. K&D holds both edges at once: laudable in itself, yet Jehoshaphat "went beyond the bounds of what was allowable" when he let his son marry a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Pulpit thinks that marriage was both the fruit of the peace and the cement intended to hold it, while judging from the analogy of 2 Chronicles 19:2 and 20:37 that it "was ill advised and displeasing to God." Ellicott adds the chronological caution that the verse "is chronologically out of place" and describes a policy pursued from the start. ⚙ Then the archive formula, and with it a pointed omission: Pulpit notices that גְּבוּרָה, "might," is "not used of Ahab, notwithstanding his wars and victories." K&D fills the word out with the fortifications, the teaching of the law and the reform of the courts. Barnes and Cambridge both name the likely source behind it, the book of Jehu son of Hanani (2 Chronicles 20:34), which is a quiet irony: the reign's biographer is the prophet who rebuked it.

iv. Burned out of the land, and an empty throne in Edom — 46-47

Two notices that look like filler and are not. The first uses בִּעֵ֖ר (bâʻar, H1197), a kindling verb; Pulpit renders it "exterminated," Cambridge prefers "put away" as the commonest rendering of the root. The object, הַקָּדֵ֔שׁ (H6945), is a lexeme the Verifier finds in only six verses of the canon, and Poole, Ellicott, Gill and Cambridge all send the reader back along that chain to Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Kings 14:24 and 1 Kings 15:12. Gill and Pulpit agree this is a mop-up of Asa's unfinished purge; Benson supposes Asa's remainder survived "without his knowledge." The second notice, K&D insists, exists "merely on account of what follows": Edom's throne is empty, so Ezion-geber is available. Barnes explains the arrangement as the near-universal Eastern practice of governing dependencies by subject-kings, and Ellicott makes the sharpest identification, that the so-called "king of Edom" of 2 Kings 3, who is evidently a subject ally not regarded in consultation, "must be 'the deputy' of this passage." Geneva says it in a line: Idumea was subject to Judah and governed by whom Judah appointed. Cambridge is honest about the limit, that by whom the deputy was appointed "we are nowhere told." ⚙ Cambridge also records the text-critical fact that the Vatican Septuagint omits this passage down to the end of v. 49 entirely.

v. The fleet that never went — 48-49

Here Kings reports a disaster and withholds the reason; Chronicles supplies it, and every voice reaches for it. Cambridge quotes Eliezer's oracle from 2 Chronicles 20:35-37 and concludes that "the breaking of the ships, however it came to pass, by storm or otherwise, was regarded as brought about by divine interposition." Gill says outright that the shipwreck happened "because Jehoshaphat joined himself with Ahaziah king of Israel," and locates the wreck on the rocks at the harbour mouth. K&D reconstructs the whole sequence, including the textual divergence between Ophir here and Tarshish there, which he traces to "an erroneous interpretation of the expression 'ships of Tarshish.'" Benson and Barnes both explain the phrase as a ship class rather than a destination, Barnes comparing the English use of "India-man." Pulpit and K&D handle the two textual oddities directly, the Kethib עשר for עשה and the singular נִשְׁבְּרָה with a plural subject, which K&D refuses to emend on Ewald's authority. Then Ahaziah's offer, and the unit's one refusal. Barnes leaves the motive open, either offense at the slight to his sailors or acceptance of the wreck "as a proof that God was against the entire undertaking." Poole and Benson both call it repentance, Poole saying the refusal showed "the sincerity of his repentance." K&D reasons coldly that after Eliezer's prediction had been fulfilled, no better result could be expected. ⚙ The Hebrew itself gives no reason: only וְלֹ֥א אָבָ֖ה, "and he was not willing."

vi. He lay down with his fathers — 50

The formula is withheld from violent deaths, and Kings has just spent a chapter on one. ⚙ Eleven verses earlier a chariot was being washed in a pool at Samaria; here a king lies down עִם־אֲבֹתָ֔יו, with his fathers, and is buried in the city of David his father. Gill names the company in that tomb: David, Rehoboam, Abijam, Asa. Henry's single sentence on the whole unit, repeated by his source against every verse of it, stands as the summary verdict: Jehoshaphat's reign was "one of the best, both as to piety and prosperity. He pleased God, and God blessed him." And then the last clause hands the throne to Jehoram, the son whose marriage sealed the peace of v. 44, and the compiler does not pause. Pulpit's note ends by simply turning the page: "Reign of Ahaziah."

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested. Read the unit by its verbs and it stops being an annalistic filler and becomes an argument about how far a good man's reform reaches. Jehoshaphat walks (hâlak, v. 43), he does not turn aside (çûwr), he makes whole (shâlam, v. 44), he burns out (bâʻar, v. 46). Four strong verbs, and every one of them lands somewhere short. The çûwr he refuses becomes the çûwr the high places refuse in the same breath. The shâlam he achieves is the peace that Poole calls a blemish and K&D calls laudable and excessive at once. The bâʻar he performs is a remainder (yether) left by his father, and the same word yether opens v. 45 for everything about him that never got written down. And the hâlak of v. 43, the walking that is his whole commendation, comes back in v. 48 as the one thing his fleet could not do: it did not go. The text is not sneering at him. It grants him the peaceful burial it denies Ahab, and it grants him a word, gᵉbûwrâh, that Pulpit notices it will not spend on Ahab. What it refuses is the round number. Kings knows no reign that finishes its own work, because every reform in it is a remainder management problem: something is always left over in the land, and something is always left over in the archive. The one refusal in the unit is the honest center of it. When Ahaziah asks for a second voyage, Jehoshaphat is not willing, and Kings gives no reason. The commentators supply repentance, offense, resignation, and they may all be right; the Hebrew supplies a negated ʼâbâh, a man who did not breathe after it any more. ⚙ It may be that the most instructive thing about this king is not the alliance he made but the second one he declined after the first had been broken for him, and that Scripture's refusal to explain the refusal is itself the mercy: it lets a repentance be counted without requiring it to be narrated.

Not a verse, a fallible synthesis line: he did not turn aside, and the high places did not depart, and the Hebrew uses one verb for both.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same summary, written twice: Kings and the Chronicler verbal / quotation: confirmed

K&D states the relation exactly: verses 41 through 44, "which give the age of Jehoshaphat when he ascended the throne, and the duration and character of his reign, are also found with slight deviations in 2 Chronicles 20:31-33, in the closing summary of the history of his reign." The Verifier confirms the link lexically, and the decisive item is not the common words but the rare one: שִׁלְחִֽי (Shilchîy, H7977), Azubah's father, occurs in exactly two verses of the Hebrew Bible, here and at 2 Chronicles 20:31. A name that appears twice in the canon and appears in both of these two verses is not coincidence; it is the same sentence copied or drawn from the same archive.

2 Chronicles 20:31

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H7977 Shilchîy (in 2 vv, the rarest lexeme in the unit and the whole basis of the claim), H3092 Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ (in 75 vv), H4427 mâlak (in 284 vv). The rare name carries the verbal tier; the common words alone would not.

Six verses and one word: the whole history of the qâdêsh verbal / quotation: confirmed

קָדֵשׁ (qâdêš, H6945), the "quasi sacred person" of v. 46, is one of the rarest lexemes in the Hebrew Bible: the Verifier finds it in six verses total, and this unit holds one of them. The other five trace a complete arc. Deuteronomy 23:17 forbids it. 1 Kings 14:24 reports it flourishing under Rehoboam. 1 Kings 15:12 has Asa put it away, using the same verb çûwr that governs v. 43 here. This verse has Jehoshaphat burn out what Asa left. 2 Kings 23:7 finds it still lodged in the temple precincts in Josiah's day. Job 36:14 uses the word figuratively, of those whose life ends among them. Poole and Ellicott both send the reader down this chain without spelling it out; Gill ties this verse to 1 Kings 15:12 explicitly, and K&D's note on v. 46 is nothing but that cross-reference.

Deuteronomy 23:17 · 1 Kings 14:24 · 1 Kings 15:12 · 2 Kings 23:7 · Job 36:14

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H6945 qâdêsh (in 6 vv), rare enough that the six occurrences are effectively a single lexical dossier; 1 Kings 15:12 additionally shares H5493 çûwr (in 281 vv). No quotation is claimed between the passages, only a genuinely rare shared word.

Ezion-geber: what Kings withholds and the Chronicler supplies verbal / quotation: confirmed

Kings reports the wreck and states no cause. 2 Chronicles 20:36-37 supplies both the partnership and the oracle, and every commentator in this brief reaches across for it. Cambridge quotes Eliezer's word and concludes the breaking "was regarded as brought about by divine interposition"; Gill names the alliance as the reason; K&D reconstructs the harmonization in full, including the Ophir-for-Tarshish divergence. The verbal basis is solid and includes a genuinely restricted term: ʻEtsyôwn Geber occurs in only seven verses of the canon. ⚙ Worth stating plainly: the theological explanation of the shipwreck is the Chronicler's, not this text's. Kings leaves a storm and a silence.

2 Chronicles 20:36 · 2 Chronicles 20:37

basis: Verifier on 2 Chronicles 20:36: shared Hebrew lexemes H6100 ʻEtsyôwn Geber (in 7 vv, rare), H8659 Tarshîysh (in 24 vv), H591 ʼŏnîyâh (in 28 vv); 2 Chronicles 20:37 shares H3092 Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ (in 75 vv). Three low-frequency lexemes co-occurring in one clause; this is the same event told twice, not a quotation of one text by the other.

Solomon's fleet and Jehoshaphat's: the same harbour, the same gold, a different outcome structural / thematic: confirmed

Jehoshaphat is not inventing an enterprise, he is attempting a restoration. K&D calls it "his attempt to restore the maritime trade with Ophir"; Barnes notes that the fleet was built at Ezion-Geber "where Solomon had previously built a navy" and that Jehoshaphat, as lord-paramount of Edom, had the right of using the harbour. Pulpit reads the motive from the reign's prosperity, that it "had suggested to him the idea of emulating Solomon's naval exploits." 2 Chronicles 8:18 records Solomon's ships and the gold of Ophir with the same vocabulary. ⚙ The link is real and lexical, but the shared words are common ones and the point is a pattern rather than a quotation: the same harbour, the same destination, the same commodity, and a wreck where Solomon had a return.

2 Chronicles 8:18

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H591 ʼŏnîyâh (in 28 vv), H2091 zâhâb (in 336 vv), H702 ʼarbaʻ (in 277 vv). Two of the three are high-frequency, so the shared vocabulary confirms a common subject matter, not a verbal dependence; tiered structural rather than verbal for that reason.

Picking up a dropped thread: 1 Kings 15:24 and the alternating frame structural / thematic: confirmed

Ellicott, Barnes and Pulpit all say the same thing independently: this verse is to be connected with 1 Kings 15:24, where Jehoshaphat's accession was first recorded and then left. Pulpit: "The historian now resumes for a moment the history of Judah, which has dropped out of notice since 1 Kings 15:24." Benson describes the compiler's whole method by it. The frame keeps alternating past this unit too, at 1 Kings 22:51 (Ahaziah) and 2 Kings 3:1 (Joram), and closes on the Judahite side at 2 Kings 8:16, where Jehoram is dated by Jehoshaphat exactly as Jehoshaphat was dated by Ahab here.

1 Kings 15:24 · 1 Kings 22:51 · 2 Kings 3:1 · 2 Kings 8:16

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H4427 mâlak (in 284 vv), H3092 Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ (in 75 vv), H609 ʼÂçâʼ (in 52 vv) at 1 Kings 15:24; H256 ʼAchʼâb (in 81 vv) with H4427 and H3092 at 1 Kings 22:51, 2 Kings 3:1 and 2 Kings 8:16. All are common regnal-formula words, so the shared vocabulary evidences a repeated literary frame rather than a quotation. Three named commentators (Ellicott, Barnes, Pulpit) state the 15:24 connection explicitly.

Two women named Azubah flagged: verify source

עֲזוּבָה (ʻĂzûwbâh, H5806) is rare, four verses in the canon, and the Verifier surfaces two of them: 1 Chronicles 2:18 and 2:19, where an Azubah is the wife of Caleb. ⚙ It would be easy to make something of this and it should not be made. The rarity is real, but a shared personal name borne by two different women in two unrelated genealogies is an onomastic coincidence, not a link between texts. It is recorded here only so that a reader who runs the concordance and finds the other Azubah knows the FSSB has already looked and found nothing to claim.

1 Chronicles 2:18 · 1 Chronicles 2:19

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H5806 ʻĂzûwbâh (in 4 vv). The lexeme is rare enough to trigger a verbal tier mechanically, but it is a personal name borne by two demonstrably different women in unrelated genealogies, so the computed basis supports no link at all. Flagged rather than tiered: the entry exists to record that the FSSB checked this and declined it, and anyone minded to build on it should verify it independently.

Joined to the ungodly: a pattern the apostle later names structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The narrative shape of verses 44 through 49 is a complete cycle: an alliance with the house of Ahab, a venture undertaken jointly, a prophetic rebuke for the joining (Cambridge quotes Eliezer from 2 Chronicles 20:37), a work broken, and a second alliance refused. Paul's warning to the Corinthians against being yoked together with unbelievers works the same shape, and 2 Chronicles 19:2 states the principle in the Chronicler's own words, that help given to the wicked draws wrath. ⚙ This is the tool's structural observation, not a claim that Paul had this passage in view. No lexical basis is possible: the link crosses from Hebrew to Greek, and shared Strong's numbers cannot bridge the two lexicons. It is a motif, and it is offered as one.

2 Corinthians 6:14

basis: No shared lexeme and none possible: cross-Testament Greek to Hebrew, where Strong's numbers cannot establish a verbal link. The recorded basis is the narrative pattern alone (alliance with the house of Ahab, prophetic rebuke, works broken, second alliance refused), supported by Cambridge and Gill on the Eliezer oracle. No quotation is claimed.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The good king and the word that qualifies him ancient/widely-held

⚙ The regnal formula of Kings is an instrument with one moving part: after the verdict comes a qualifier. Here it is אַ֥ךְ (’aḵ, H389), "only." He did what was right; only the high places did not depart. The same "only" is spoken over Asa at 1 Kings 15:14, and it will not be lifted from a king of Judah until Hezekiah, who removes them (2 Kings 18:4), and Josiah, who has to defile the very shrines this unit's rare word qâdêš names (2 Kings 23:7). Benson sees the shape and states it without reaching for the New Testament: the corruption was "so deeply rooted, that the best of their kings, till Hezekiah's time, connived at it." ⚙ That the failing Davidic kings are read as pointing past themselves to a Son of David who does not fail is not a novelty of this tool; it is the settled reading of the church from the apostles onward, and it is what the genealogies presuppose. What this unit adds is the specific grammar of the disappointment. It is not that Jehoshaphat was wicked. It is that a real obedience, praised without irony, still leaves smoke going up on the ridges of Judah for twenty-five years, and the text will not round it off. The hope the formula generates is for a king whose verdict carries no ʼaḵ.

1 Kings 22:43 · 1 Kings 15:14 · 2 Kings 18:4 · 2 Kings 23:7

Buried in the city of his father David, and the lamp kept burning ancient/widely-held

The unit closes on a name: Jehoshaphat is buried "in the city of David his father," and his son Jehoram reigns in his place. Gill lists the company in that tomb, David, Rehoboam, Abijam, Asa. ⚙ The reader who knows what follows knows what the last clause costs. Jehoram is the son married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel whom K&D names as the bound the peace of v. 44 overstepped; Poole reads the consequence forward to 2 Kings 9 and 10, and Pulpit judges the marriage "ill advised and displeasing to God." Within two generations Athaliah will destroy the royal seed and the line of David will hang on one hidden infant (2 Kings 11:2). The promise of a lamp for David in Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:36) survives its worst hour inside the very alliance this chapter records approvingly. ⚙ And the line holds: Matthew 1:8 carries Jehoshaphat and Jehoram forward in the genealogy of Jesus Christ without comment, the compromise and the preservation both inside the same list of names. That God's covenant with David advances through, and not around, the failures of David's sons is the ordinary reading of the church.

1 Kings 11:36 · 2 Kings 11:2 · Matthew 1:8

The second alliance refused novel

⚙ This reading is the tool's own and is marked novel. The unit's last recorded act of Jehoshaphat's will is a negative: וְלֹ֥א אָבָ֖ה, "and he was not willing." The verb ʼâbâh (H14) means, at root, to breathe after a thing. Kings gives no motive; Poole and Benson supply repentance, Barnes leaves two possibilities open, K&D reasons from Eliezer's fulfilled word. ⚙ Set beside the chapter's larger shape, this is the only moment where a king of Judah is asked to join the house of Ahab and declines. Jehoshaphat had said yes at Ramoth-gilead and nearly died for it (vv. 29-33, as JFB narrates); he says no here, after the ships. ⚙ The gospels record a fuller and earlier refusal, in a wilderness, where an offer of ventures and kingdoms met a will that had never breathed after it. The comparison is analogical, not typological in any ancient sense, and no commentator in this brief draws it. It is offered to be tested, and it stands or falls on whether the reader thinks a repentant no and a sinless no belong in the same sentence at all.

1 Kings 22:49 · Matthew 4:8-10

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. This unit carries the only live textual variant in the pericope, at v. 48. The Kethib is עשר ("ten") and the Qere עשה ("made"); Pulpit calls the written form "obviously a clerical error," K&D "an error of the pen," and Gill preserves both, citing the Tigurine version's "he made ten ships to go by sea." BSB follows the Qere and so does this synthesis. Readers should note that the Berean interlinear's Strong's tag at that word (H6237, ʻâsar, "to tithe") follows the unread consonants rather than the read word; nothing in the note on that index depends on the tag. In the same verse the verb נִשְׁבְּרָה is singular against a plural subject; K&D declines to emend it to the plural, citing Ewald on the frequency of that construction.

Versions. Cambridge records two Septuagint facts that bear on this unit: the Vatican LXX omits verses 46 through 49 entirely, and the clause "and how he warred" in v. 45 is not represented in the Greek. The second half of this unit therefore rests on thinner Greek attestation than the first.

Interlinear. The supplied word list for v. 48 splits Ezion-geber oddly across indices 11 and 13, with a placeholder gloss at index 11; the synthesis treats the place name as a unit and does not build on that split. The word order of the interlinear at v. 41 follows the English rather than the Hebrew, and the literal rendering supplied here is built from the Hebrew clause order.

Sources. Two of the eleven commentators supply no verse-specific comment on this pericope. Matthew Henry's Concise prints a single sentence against all ten verses, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown print their note on verses 29 through 38 against every verse from 41 to 50; both are quoted once each with that fact stated in the editorial note rather than hidden. Poole has no entry at v. 50.

What is uncertain. The apparent conflict between v. 43 and 2 Chronicles 17:6 has no settled solution; the FSSB records Ellicott's, Cambridge's and Poole's distinction between Asherah shrines and irregular Yahweh shrines alongside Barnes's distinction between intention and result, and declines to adjudicate. Jehoshaphat's motive for refusing Ahaziah at v. 49 is not stated in Hebrew; the repentance reading is Poole's, Benson's and, in a colder form, K&D's, not the text's. The theological account of the shipwreck belongs to 2 Chronicles 20:37 and to the prophet Eliezer; 1 Kings reports only that the ships were broken. The chronology of Jehoram's co-regency, reconstructed at length by Cambridge and gestured at by Poole, depends on assumptions about whether the regnal years are complete years, which Cambridge itself flags.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)