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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
22:41-53 Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah. Both Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah have already entered the narrative of 1 Kings as characters in Ahab's story--comrade-in-arms and successor, respectively (vv. 2-4, 40). Now they are given a place of their own.
22:43-46 He walked in all the way of Asa his father. Jehoshaphat's religious policy is the same as Asa's. He does what is right in the sight of the Lord (cf. 15:11), and he will have nothing to do with cult prostitutes (15:12), even if the high places have still not been taken away (15:14). Jehoshaphat is a good king, and he is even at peace with the king of Israel, which Asa was not (15:16, 32).
22:47 There was no king in Edom; a deputy was king. The Hebrew for "deputy" is otherwise used in 1-2 Kings only of Solomon's various officials (1 Kings 4:5, 27; 5:16; 9:23); Jehoshaphat controls Edom as Solomon had controlled his various districts, which is why the "king" of Edom turns up in alliance with Judah in 2 Kings 3 in a noticeably supporting role. Judah's control of Edom was not challenged until the reign of Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram (2 Kings 8:20-22).
22:48 the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber. Because Jehoshaphat rules over Edom, just as Solomon had, he is able like Solomon to build a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber (near Elath in Edom; cf. 9:26-28), but he does not benefit from them. These turn out to be not days of glory for the house of David but days of humbling (cf. 11:39).
22:49 Jehoshaphat was not willing. Solomon's Israel was truly unified, but the current peace between Israel and Judah (v. 44) is little more than the absence of hostility. Whereas Solomon took Sidonians on board his ships (9:27), Jehoshaphat refuses even to have Israelites along. (As 2 Chron. 20:35 tells it, Jehoshaphat was originally willing to cooperate with Ahaziah to build the merchant ships. But after Eliezer prophesied against Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahaziah [2 Chron. 20:37], Jehoshaphat changed his mind, which is the situation described here in 1 Kings.)
22:50 slept with his fathers (see note on 2:10). Jehoshaphat will reappear in 2 Kings 3, in what must be regarded as a "flashback" to the earlier part (i.e., the ) of Jehoram of Israel's reign, when Jehoshaphat was still on the throne of Judah (cf. 1 Kings 22:42; 2 Kings 3:1).
