Page:03.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.B.vol.3.LaterProphets.djvu/35

Jeroboam in his speech with his defection from Jahve, and concludes with the words, “O children of Israel, fight not ye against the Lord God of your fathers, for ye shall not prosper” (2Ch 13:12); and when the men of Judah cried unto the Lord in the battle, and the priests blew the trumpets, then did God smite Jeroboam and all Israel (2Ch 13:15). “Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers” (2Ch 13:18). King Asa commanded his subjects to seek Jahve the God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandments (2Ch 14:3). In the war against the Cushites, he cried unto Jahve his God, “Help us, for we rest on Thee;” and Jahve smote the Cushites before Judah (2Ch 14:10). After this victory Asa and Judah sacrificed unto the Lord of their spoil, and entered into a covenant to seek Jahve the God of their fathers with all their heart, and with all their soul. And the Lord was found of them, and the Lord gave them rest round about (2Ch 15:11.). But when Asa afterwards, in the war against Baasha of Israel, made an alliance with the Syrian king Benhadad, the prophet Hanani censured this act in the words, “Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on Jahve thy God, therefore has the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand... Herein thou hast done foolishly,” etc. (2Ch 16:7-9). Jehoshaphat became mighty against Israel, and Jahve was with him; for he walked in the ways of his father David, and sought not unto the Baals, but sought the God of his father, and walked in His commandments, and not after the doings of Israel. And Jahve established his kingdom in his hand, and he attained to riches and great splendour (2Ch 17:1-5).
After this fashion does the chronicler show how God blessed the reigns and prospered all the undertakings of all the kings of Judah who sought the Lord and walked in His commandments; but at the same time also, how every defection from the Lord brought with it misfortune and chastisement. Under Joram of Judah, Edom and Libnah freed themselves from the supremacy of Judah, “because Joram had forsaken Jahve the God of his fathers” (2Ch 21:10). Because Joram had walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and had seduced the inhabitants of Jerusalem to whoredom (i.e., idolatry), and had slain his brothers, God punished him in the invasion of Judah by the Philistines and Arabs, who stormed Jerusalem, took away with them all the furniture