2 Chronicles 20:20-22
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
The Invaders Destroyed. 20 Early in the morning they went out to the wilderness of Tekoa. As they were going out, Jehoshaphat halted and said: “Listen to me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Let your faith in the Lord, your God, be firm, and you will be firm.(A) Have faith in his prophets and you will succeed.” 21 [a]After taking counsel with the people, he appointed some to sing to the Lord and some to praise the holy Splendor as it went forth at the head of the army. They sang: “Give thanks to the Lord, whose love endures forever.”(B) 22 At the moment they began their jubilant praise, the Lord laid an ambush against the Ammonites, Moabites, and those of Mount Seir who were coming against Judah, so that they were defeated.
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- 20:21 In accordance with Israelite conceptions of Holy War (cf. Ex 14:13–14), this highly stylized narrative presents the Lord as active in battle, while the people have only to sing hymns of praise; the enemy, in panic, fight among themselves to their mutual destruction (v. 23). Splendor: the Lord “goes before,” i.e., leads, the army of Israel (cf. 2 Sm 5:24) with the heavenly hosts. Israel’s God is depicted as present “enthroned upon the cherubim” atop the ark of the covenant. By postexilic times, the ark had disappeared, but the Lord was still present to his people. Here that presence is described as “holy Splendor,” a phrase found in Ps 29:2; 96:9. Cf. the cognate image of cloud and fire that led Israel in the wilderness (Ex 13:21–22), or the cloud of the Lord’s glory that fills the sanctuary (Ex 40:34; 1 Kgs 8:10–11).
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