2 Chronicles 19:8

_MOREOVER IN JERUSALEM DID JEHOSHAPHAT SET OF THE LEVITES, AND OF THE PRIESTS, AND OF THE CHIEF OF THE FATHERS OF ISRAEL, FOR THE JUDGMENT OF THE LORD, AND FOR CONTROVERSIES, WHEN THEY RETURNED TO JERUSALEM._ Set of the Levites ... priests, and ... chief of the fathers of Israel. A certain number of these three classes constituted a supreme court, which sat in Jerusalem to review appellate cases from the inferior courts. It consisted of two divisions: the first of which had jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters; the second, in civil, fiscal, and criminal cases. According to others, the two divisions of the supreme court adjudicated: the one according to the law contained in the sacred books; the other, to the law of custom and equity-as in Eastern countries at the present day the written and unwritten law are objects of separate jurisdiction. It would thus appear that in Jehoshaphat's...

Verse 2 Chronicles 19:8. _AND FOR CONTROVERSIES, WHEN THEY RETURNED TO_ _JERUSALEM._] Who were they that returned to Jerusalem? Some suppose that it means _Jehoshaphat and his courtiers_, who returned to Jerusalem after the expedition mentioned 2 Chronicles 19:4: but if this were so, or if the text spoke of any person _returning to_ _Jerusalem_, would not לירושלם _lirushalem, TO Jerusalem_, and not the simple word ירושלם _Yerushalem_, without the preposition, be used? Learned men have supposed, with great plausibility, that the word וישבו _vaiyashubu_, "and they returned," should be written יושבי _yoshebey_, "the _inhabitants_," and that the words should be read, And for the controversies of the inhabitant

The “fathers of Israel” are the heads of families; the chief of the fathers” are the great patriarchal chiefs, the admitted heads of great houses or clans. They were now admitted to share in the judicial office which seems in David’s time to have been confined to the Levites 1 Chronicles 23:4. FOR THE JUDGMENT OF THE LORD, AND FOR CONTROVERSIES - By the former are meant disputed cases concerning the performance of religious obligations. In “controversies” are included all the ordinary causes, whether criminal or civil. WHEN THEY RETURNED TO JERUSALEM - Rather, “and they returned to Jerusalem,” a clause which if detached from the previous words and attached to 2 Chronicles 19:9, gi

EXPOSITION The matter of this chapter is preserved for us by the writer of Chronicles alone, and is of much significance. After glancing at the moment's outward "peace" (2 Chronicles 19:1), which Jehoshaphat had on his return to Jerusalem, the narrative, leaving in deep oblivion all he must have thought and felt and may have spoken of the end of his brother-king, and of his own late private intimacy and public alliance with him, tells how he was reined up by Jehu, the son of Hanani the seer (2 Chronicles 19:2, 2 Chronicles 19:3); and thereupon how he wisely revisited his kingdom, as it were through its length and breadth, sought to "bring them back to the Lord God of their fathers

MOREOVER, IN JERUSALEM DID JEHOSHAPHAT SET OF THE LEVITES, AND OF THE PRIESTS, AND OF THE CHIEF OF THE FATHERS OF ISRAEL,.... This was the great court of judicature, consisting of princes, priests, and Levites, of ecclesiastics and political persons; for causes of both sorts were brought thither: FOR THE JUDGMENT OF THE LORD; in things sacred, which related to the worship of God, and the support of it: AND FOR CONTROVERSIES; of a civil kind between man and man, whether pecuniary or capital, of a more private or public kind: WHEN THEY RETURNED TO JERUSALEM; that is, this court was set up at Jerusalem, when Jehoshaphat, the priests, Levites, and chief men that went with him, returned thither....

CHAPTER 19 REBUKE AND RESTORATION _ 1. The rebuke by the prophet (2 Chronicles 19:1)_ 2. Further revival and restoration (2 Chronicles 19:4) At sun-down Ahab, the King of Israel died, while his ally Jehoshaphat, saved through the mercy of God, returned to his home in peace in Jerusalem. Then Jelin, the son of Hanani, met him. Asa, the father of Jehoshaphat, had been rebuked by Hanani, and had put him in prison for it. The son of Hanani rebukes Jehoshaphat. We read no answer from the king, but his actions show that the rebuke went home to his conscience. He must have repented of the unholy alliance with the enemy of the Lord. Jehu said to him, “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD.”

Jehu the prophet reproves Jehoshaphat for having allied himself with Ahab. These verses are mainly from the Chronicler, but see 1 Kings 16:1 ff. 2 CHRONICLES 19:4. This section, a kind of _midrash_ on the name Jehoshaphat (= Yahweh judgeth), is also from the Chronicler; he imagines the judicial arrangements of his own day to have been already in existence in much earlier times. The section is, in a sense, analogous to 2 Chronicles 17:7....

MOREOVER, &C. Compare Deuteronomy 17:8. CHIEF. head....

_the chief of the fathers of Israel_ R.V. THE HEADS OF THE FATHERS" HOUSES OF ISRAEL. _for the judgment of the Lord, and for controversies_ By the first expression the Chronicler no doubt refers to matters regarding which some decision could be found in the Law of the Lord (i.e. the Pentateuch). The second ("controversies") probably means civil disputes for which arbitration rather than a strictly legal decision was suitable. _when they returned_to _Jerusalem_ R.V. AND THEY RETURNED TO JERUSALEM. These words seem to be corrupt; read, AND THEY (i.e. the judges appointed by Jehoshaphat) DWELT IN JERUSALEM. The most difficult cases could _always_be decided in Jerusalem, because the judges were always there....

5. THE REIGN OF JEHOSHAPHAT (17-21:3) TEXT 2 Chronicles 17:1. And Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened himself against Israel. 2. And he placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken. 3. And Jehovah was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto the Baalim, 4. but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel. 5. Therefore Jehovah established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat tribute; and he had riches and honor in abundance. 6. And his heart was lifted up in the ways of Jehovah: and furthermore he took away the high places and the Asherim out of Judah. 7. Also in the third year of his reign he sent his pri