2 Kings 3:12

_AND JEHOSHAPHAT SAID, THE WORD OF THE LORD IS WITH HIM. SO THE KING OF ISRAEL AND JEHOSHAPHAT AND THE KING OF EDOM WENT DOWN TO HIM._ Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him. The phrase is used here as synonymous with 'a true and eminent prophet,' who will reveal God's will to us....

6-19 The king of Israel laments their distress, and the danger they were in. He called these kings together, yet he charges it upon Providence. Thus the foolishness of man perverteth his way, and then his heart fretteth against the Lord, Proverbs 19:3. It was well that Jehoshaphat inquired of the Lord now, but it had been much better if he had done it before he engaged in this war. Good men sometimes neglect their duty, till necessity and affliction drive them to it. Wicked people often fare the better for the friendship and society of the godly. To try their faith and obedience, Elisha bids them make the valley full of pits to receive water. Those who expect God's blessings, must dig pools for the rain to fill, as in the valley of Baca, and thus make even that a well, Psalms 84:6. We need not inquire whence the wa...

Verse 2 Kings 3:12. _THE WORD OF THE LORD IS WITH HIM._] He has the gift of prophecy....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 3:1 THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF JEHORAM'S REIGN OVER ISRAEL; HIS WAR WITH MOAB. 2 KINGS 3:1 NOW JEHORAM THE SON OF AHAB BEGAN TO REIGN OVER ISRAEL IN SAMARIA THE EIGHTEENTH YEAR OF JEHOSHAPHAT KING OF JUDAH. This note of time is not quite in accordance with the chronology of 1 Kings, which gives Jehoshaphat a reign of twenty-five years (1 Kings 22:42), Ahab one of twenty-two years ...

AND JEHOSHAPHAT SAID, THE WORD OF THE LORD IS WITH HIM,.... To give them an answer, which he concluded from his being a servant and disciple of Elijah, whom he succeeded in his office, and of whom he had, doubtless, heard; and from his following the camp, and being in it, which he easily imagined was not to fight, but to assist by his advice and counsel, and by his prophecies, as there might be occasion for them: SO THE KING OF ISRAEL AND JEHOSHAPHAT AND THE KING OF EDOM WENT DOWN TO HIM; descended from their chariots, and went to the tent in the camp where he was; they did not send for him to come to them, but, in honour of him, went to him themselves....

2. JEHORAM, MOAB, AND ELISHA CHAPTER 3 _ 1. Jehoram, King of Israel (2 Kings 3:1)_ 2. Moab's rebellion (2 Kings 3:4) 3. Elisha's message and prediction (2 Kings 3:10) 4. The defeat of Moab (2 Kings 3:21) In chapter 1:17 we read, “And Jehoram reigned in his stead (Ahaziah) in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah.” (He was associated with his father in the government of the kingdom. See 2 Kings 8:27;...

REIGN OF JEHORAM. WAR WITH MOAB. The only two kings of Israel on whom the censure pronounced is in any way qualified are Jehoram, the last of the house of Omri, and Hoshea (2 Kings 17:2), the last king of Israel. All the others are said to have done evil. The war with Moab is the subject of the famous inscription of Mesha discovered in 1868 (pp. 34, 69). On this Mesha states that Omri occupied the land of Mehedebah (Medeba, Numbers 21:30; Joshua 13:9; Isaiah 15:2) his days, half his son's days, forty years. In Kings it is specially said that Mesha's rebellion was after the death of Ahab. Omri and Ahab together according to Kings reigned on

JEHOSHAPHAT. Some codices, with Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, add "king of Judah"....

_is with him_ This expression seems to imply a more than ordinary participation of the divine Spirit. The more usual phrase is -The word of the Lord came to" (cf. Genesis 15:1; 1 Samuel 15:10 &c.). And even the -sons of the prophets" recognized that Elijah and after him Elisha were preeminently endowed with gifts from God. _went down to him_ Such a man was not to be lightly summoned, and at such a crisis all reverence would be shewn to one on whose words it seemed that the chance of relief greatly depended. It may be that the phrase -go down" is used here also because the tents of the kings would stand above the host. Josephus tells us that the tent of Elisha was outside the camp, which is very improbable. Bp Hall remarks here: -It was news, to see three kings going down to the servant of him

B. THE JOINT CAMPAIGN AGAINST MOAB 3:4-27 The one major effort of Jehoram's twelve-year reign was his effort to resubjugate Moab. In this effort Jehoram was able to enlist the services of Jehoshaphat of Judah. The good king from Jerusalem does not seem to have learned anything from his disastrous military alliance with Ahab (1 Kings 22) and his equally disastrous commercial alliance with Ahaziah of Israel (2 Chronicles 20:35 f.). In the present section, the Moabite campaign unfolds. The author discusses (1) how the joint effort came to be undertaken (2 Kings 3:4-8); (2) the plight of the allied forces (2 Kings 3:9-15 a); (3)