Dict: smith - JEHOSHAPHAT

smith:

JEHOSHAPHAT - J>@ - (whom Jehovah judges.) King of Judah, son of Asa, succeeded to the throne B.C. 914, when he was 35 years old, and reigned 25 years. His history is to be found among the events recorded in (Kings:15:24; kjv@2Kings:8:16) or in a continuous narrative in ( kjv@2Chronicles:17:1; kjv@2Chronicles:21:3) He was contemporary with Ahab, Ahaziah and Jehoram. He was one of the best, most pious and prosperous kings of Judah, the greatest since Solomon. At first he strengthened himself against Israel; but soon afterward the two Hebrew kings formed an alliance. In his own kingdom Jehoshaphat ever showed himself a zealous follower of the commandments of God: he tried to put down the high places and groves in which the people of Judah burnt incense, and sent the wisest Levites through the cities and towns to instruct the people in true morality and religion. Riches and honors increased around him. He received tribute from the Philistines and Arabians, and kept up a large standing army in Jerusalem. It was probably about the 16th year of his reign, B.C. 898, when he became Ahab’s ally in the great battle of Ramoth-gilead, for which he was severely reproved by Jehu. ( kjv@2Chronicles:19:2) He built at Ezion-geber, with the help of Ahaziah, a navy designed to go to Tarshish; but it was wrecked at Ezion-geber. Before the close of his reign he was engaged in two additional wars. He was miraculously delivered from a threatened attack of the people of Ammon, Moab and Seir. After this, perhaps, must be dated the war which Jehoshaphat, in conjunction with Jehoram king of Israel and the king of Edom, carried on against the rebellious king of Moab. ( kjv@2Kings:3:1) ... In his declining years the administration of affairs was placed, probably B.C. 891, in the hands of his son Jehoram. Son of Ahilud, who filled the office of recorder of annalist in the courts of David, (2 Samuel kjv@8:16) etc., and Solomon. (Kings:4:3) One of the priests in David’s time. ( kjv@1Chronicles:15:24) Son of Paruah; one of the twelve purveyors of King Solomon. (Kings:4:17) Son of Nimshi and father of King Jehu. ( kjv@2Kings:9:2 kjv@2Kings:9:14)

JEHOSHAPHAT, VALLEY OF - J>@ - (valley of the judgment of Jehovah), a valley mentioned by Joel only, as the spot in which, after the return of Judah and Jerusalem from captivity, Jehovah would gather all the heathen, kjv@Joel:3:2) and would there sit to judge them for their misdeeds to Israel. ch. kjv@Joel:3:12) The scene of "Jehovah’s judgment" as been localized, and the name has come down to us attached to that deep ravine which separates Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, through which at one time the Kedron forced its stream. At what period the name "valley of Jehoshaphat" was first applied to this spot is unknown. It is not mentioned in the Bible or Josephus, but is first encountered in the middle of the fourth century. Both Moslems and Jews believe that the last judgment is to take place there. The steep sides of the ravine, wherever a level strip affords the opportunity, are crowded
in places almost paved
by the sepulchres of the Moslems, or the simpler slabs of the Jewish tombs, alike awaiting the assembly of the last judgment. The name is generally confined by travellers to the upper part of the glen. (Others suppose that the name is only an imaginary one, "the valley of the judgment of Jehovah" referring to some great victories of God’s people in which judgment was executed upon the heathen; or perhaps, as Keil, etc., to the end of the world.
ED.)