Jehoshaphat’s Prayer

Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the Lord’s temple before the new courtyard. He said:

Yahweh, the God of our ancestors, are You not the God who is in heaven,(A) and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations?(B) Power and might are in Your hand, and no one can stand against You. Are You not our God who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel(C) and who gave it forever to the descendants of Abraham(D) Your friend? They have lived in the land and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name and have said, “If disaster comes on us—sword or judgment, pestilence or famine(E)—we will stand before this temple and before You, for Your name is in this temple.(F) We will cry out to You because of our distress, and You will hear and deliver.”

10 Now here are the Ammonites, Moabites, and the inhabitants of Mount Seir.(G) You did not let Israel invade them when Israel came out of the land of Egypt, but Israel turned away from them and did not destroy them.(H) 11 Look how they repay us by coming to drive us out of Your possession that You gave us as an inheritance. 12 Our God, will You not judge them?(I) For we are powerless before this vast number that comes to fight against us. We do not know what to do, but we look to You.[a](J)

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 20:12 Lit but on You our eyes

And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court,

And said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?

And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying,

If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.

10 And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not;

11 Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit.

12 O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.

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