Глава 19

1–3. The denunciation of Jehoshaphat by the seer Jehu for his alliance with the king of Israel. 4–7. Jehoshaphat appoints judges in the provincial cities of Judah. 8–10. Organization of the court in Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 19:2. And Jehu the son of Hananiah, the seer, came out to meet him, and said to King Jehoshaphat: Should you have helped the wicked and loved those who hated the Lord? For this there will be wrath upon you from the face of the Lord. The prophet Jehu, the son of Hananiah (probably this Hananiah is identical with the prophet of this name, who denounced Asa (2 Chronicles 16:7–10)), is mentioned (3 Kings 16:1) as a contemporary of the Israeli king Baasha. See The Interpretive Bible, vol. II, p. 442–443. 2 Chronicles 19:4. And Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem. And again he began to go around his people from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim, and turned them to the Lord, the God of their fathers. 2 Chronicles 19:5. And he appointed judges in the earth over all the fortified cities of Judah in every city, 2 Chronicles 19:6. and he said to the judges: Look what you are doing, you are not doing the judgment of man, but the judgment of the Lord; and He is with you in the matter of judgment. 2 Chronicles 19:7. So let the fear of the Lord be upon you: act cautiously, for with the Lord our God there is no unrighteousness, no partiality, no bribery. Instead of the usual designation of the boundaries of all Palestine from north to south: “from Dan to Beersheba” (2 Kings 17:11; Judges 20:1), here (v. 4) for the territory of one southern kingdom of Judah, another expression is used “from Beersheba (in the south) to Mount Ephraim” (in the north). According to the law of Deuteronomy (Deut. 16:18) (see The Explanatory Bible, vol. I, p. 620), the appointment of judges in provincial cities was within the scope of local self-government: judges were elected by the local population themselves. Jehoshaphat, apparently, replaced the elective principle with a system of appointing judges by the power of the king (cf. Prof. Gulyaev, “Historical Books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament,” p. 539). Moreover, the king’s admonitions to the newly appointed judges were composed in expressions borrowed from the same book of Deuteronomy (cf. vv. 6–7 with (Deut. 1:17,10:17)). The pious king lays the foundation of the law of God as the basis for the reform undertaken. The bureaucratic system of governing the country was already introduced by David ((2 Kings 8:13–18); The Explanatory Bible, vol. II, pp. 317–318) and under Solomon received a very complex development ((1 Kings 4:2) ff; The Explanatory Bible, vol. II, p. 378 ff). The reform of Jehoshaphat was probably caused partly by those major changes in the way of ancient Jewish life, which were associated with the fact that happened under Jehoshaphat’s great-grandfather Rehoboam, the fact of the division of the hitherto united Jewish kingdom into two: Judah and Israel, and partly could be determined by the course of the internal development of the people and the country; The laws of Moses regarding the civil structure of the Jewish people did not at all intend to immediately and forever determine the entire way of life of the people; on the contrary, the legislator provided a complete and broad opportunity for life itself to develop, as necessary, new forms. Therefore, there is nothing more natural than the religious and legal reform of King Jehoshaphat, and the doubts of some Western biblical scholars are completely groundless (Graf, Wellhausen, Stade, see the latter in his Geschichte des Volkes Israel, Bd. I, s. s. 18, 81–83; cf. W. Nowack, Lehrbuch der bibl. Archaologie, Bd. I, s. 323) in the historical accuracy of this story of 2 Chronicles chapters 17 and 19, as well as other messages of Chronicles, which are not confirmed by parallel news of the books of Kings. 2 Chronicles 19:8. And in Jerusalem Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites and priests and the heads of the families of Israel to the judgment of the Lord and to litigation. And they returned to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 19:9. And he gave them commandment, saying: So act in the fear of the Lord, with faithfulness and with a pure heart: 2 Chronicles 19:10. in every controversial matter that comes to you from your brothers living in their cities, whether about bloodshed, or about the law, commandments, statutes and rituals, instruct them so that they do not offend before the Lord, and His wrath will not be on you and on your brothers; act like this, and you will not sin. 2 Chronicles 19:11. And now Amariah the high priest is over you in all the work of the Lord, and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the prince of the house of Judah, is over all the work of the king, and the Levites are officers before you. Be strong and act, and the Lord will be good. In the spirit of the same principles, Jehoshaphat organized a popular court in Jerusalem, perhaps subordinating the provincial courts to this court as lower authorities. The rabbis in the Jerusalem court (cf. Deut. 17:8–13) saw the prototype of the later great Jerusalem Sanhedrin, and in the provincial courts (cf. Deut. 16:18) - the prototype of the so-called small Sanhedrins of the last time (see Prof. Gulyaeva, pp. 539–540; cf. “Explanatory Bible,” vol. I, p. 630). Verse 8 at the end reads differently in the Russian Bible, “and they returned to Jerusalem,” differently in the Slavic: “let those living in Jerusalem be judged.” The latter is an accurate translation of the LXX κρίνειν τοὺς οἰκοῦντας ἐν Ιερουσαλημ, the translation of the Vulgata also agrees with the LXX: judicerent habitatoribus ejus. Obviously, LXX was read instead of the Hebrew verb schuw (to return), the verb jaschaw - to live, to abide. The last reading is also acceptable, but Hebrew-Russian. is closer confirmed by the context (in verse 4 it says: Jehoshaphat went around the people, therefore, he left Jerusalem, and according to verse 8 he returned to it). In favor of the Jewish-Russian readings also says I. Flavius, “Jewish Antiquities,” book. IX, 1, 1. You might be interested in: