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New Defender's Study Bible Notes
20:2 beyond the sea. The sea is the Dead Sea, and Engedi is on its western shore. The Moabites and Ammonites, descendants of Lot, and the Edomites, descendants of Esau, all of whom had been spared by Moses and Joshua during the conquest of the land from the Canaanites, had finally become confederates in an ungrateful attempt to destroy Israel. Their combined armies constituted a “great multitude.” This time, however, Jehoshaphat made no request for help from Israel or Syria or anyone else, relying strictly on the Lord.
20:6 over all the kingdoms. The nations may have rejected the true God who made the heavens, but He still rules over them, whether they know it or not.
20:16 by the cliff of Ziz. This region is the pass that leads from the Dead Sea up to Jerusalem.
20:22 the LORD set ambushments. It is possible that the Lord sent some of His own mighty angelic host to set these “ambushes.” He had told the men of Judah to “stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD” (II Chronicles 20:17), and they had acknowledged that the battle was not theirs, but God’s (II Chronicles 20:15). In any case, the three armies began fighting each other, until they were all slain (II Chronicles 20:24), “and none escaped.”
20:26 valley of Berachah. The Hebrew word, berachah, means “blessing.” This valley was evidently so identified with Jehoshaphat that, as a result of the great deliverance there, it came also later to be known as “the valley of Jehoshaphat” (Joel 3:2).
20:35 join himself with Ahaziah. Both Jehoshaphat and his father Asa were good kings of Judah, men who never ceased to worship the true God. But both Asa (II Chronicles 16:2,3) and Jehoshaphat (II Chronicles 18:1) hindered God’s full blessing on their lives and reigns because they compromised in joining up with pagans and apostates. The Biblical norm has always been “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (II Corinthians 6:14).