Jehoshaphat rules Judah as king

17 Asa's son Jehoshaphat became the next king of Judah. He made his kingdom strong to fight against Israel. ² He put soldiers in all Judah's cities that had walls around them and in other places in Judah. He also put soldiers in the towns of Ephraim that his father Asa had taken power over.

³ Jehoshaphat obeyed the Lord as his ancestor David had done when he first ruled as king. So the Lord was with him to help him. Jehoshaphat did not worship the idols of Baal. ⁴ Instead, he served the God that his father had served. He obeyed the Lord's commands. He did not do the wrong things that Israel's people did. ⁵ The Lord gave Jehoshaphat power over the kingdom of Judah. All Judah's people brought gifts to him. So Jehoshaphat became rich and people respected him. ⁶ He served the Lord with all his strength. He removed from Judah the altars on the hills and the Asherah poles.

⁷ In the third year that Jehoshaphat ruled Judah as king, he sent his officers to teach people in all Judah's towns. The names of those officers were Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel and Micaiah. ⁸ He sent these Levites to go with them: Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-Adonijah. He also sent the priests, Elishama and Jehoram. ⁹ These men travelled everywhere in Judah to teach people. They took with them the book which was a copy of the Lord's law. They used it to teach people in all Judah's towns.

Jehoshaphat becomes very strong as king

¹⁰ The people in all the kingdoms around Judah were afraid of the Lord's power. So they did not want to fight a war against Jehoshaphat. ¹¹ Some Philistines brought silver and other gifts to Jehoshaphat to make him happy. People from Arabia also brought gifts to him. They brought 7,700 male sheep and 7,700 male goats.

¹² Jehoshaphat became more and more powerful. He built strong buildings and places to store things everywhere in Judah. ¹³ He kept lots of things in Judah's towns. He had a big army of strong, brave soldiers in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ These are the groups of the soldiers in each clan:

From Judah's tribe, the officer who led the soldiers was Adnah. He had authority over 300,000 soldiers, in groups of 1,000.

¹⁵ The next officer was Jehohanan. He had authority over 280,000 soldiers.

¹⁶ After him, the next officer was Zikri's son, Amasiah. He himself chose to serve the Lord in this way. He had authority over 200,000 soldiers.

¹⁷ From Benjamin's tribe, the officer who led the soldiers was Eliada, a brave soldier. He had authority over 200,000 soldiers who had bows and arrows, as well as shields.

¹⁸ After him, the next officer was Jehozabad. He had authority over 180,000 soldiers who had their weapons ready to fight.

¹⁹ All these men served as the king's soldiers in Jerusalem. He also had soldiers that he put in Judah's other strong cities.