2 Chronicleschapter 19
11 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Moreover, Jehoshaphat appointed in Jerusalem some of the Levites, priests, and heads of the Israelite families to judge on behalf of the LORD and to settle disputes. And they lived in Jerusalem.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 2 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for a people living under Persian rule who ran their own local courts. The men who first heard it were the ones deciding cases about land, debt, marriage and inheritance in their towns. It comes from a king's reign that the book judges as good with a serious flaw. It moves from a prophet's word at the palace door to a plan for judges across the land. Listen for what the prophet counts in the king's favour as well as against him. Then listen for whose court the judges are told they are sitting in.
Context
- Who
- A province running its own courts under a foreign administration
- What
- A prophet's rebuke of King Jehoshaphat, followed by the king's appointment of judges in Judah's cities and a high court in Jerusalem.
- Where
- Jerusalem, the fortified cities of Judah, and the country from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim.
- When
- About 852 BC, in the year after the battle at Ramoth-gilead where Ahab died.
- Why
- To show that justice in Israel was given in the LORD's name and answered to Him, and to warn against bribes and partiality.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, in the year after the campaign at Ramoth-gilead that killed Ahab. The date is about 852 BC on Thiele's reconstruction of the regnal numbers, which is the chronology this site follows.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The places are the country between Beersheba and the hill country of Ephraim, the fortified cities of Judah, and a court seated in Jerusalem.
The occasion is a rebuke at the palace door. Jehu son of Hanani meets the returning king with a question about helping the wicked, and adds that good was still found in him.
The reform that answers it is one of the most detailed pictures of a legal system in the Old Testament. Judges are set in every fortified city, and a higher court of Levites, priests and heads of families is seated in Jerusalem for the cases that come up from them.
A first hearer knew what the two presiding officers meant. Amariah the chief priest held everything concerning the LORD and Zebadiah the ruler of the house of Judah held everything concerning the king, so religious law and royal law were separated at the top.
A bribe was the ordinary way a case was won in that world, and the charge names the LORD as having no injustice, no partiality and no taking of bribes.
Significance
Under Persian rule the province governed its own internal disputes, and the men hearing this chapter were the ones deciding cases about land, debt, marriage and inheritance.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter handed them their charter and their warning in the same breath. Deal courageously, and the LORD will be with the good, and remember whose court you are sitting in.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
Chronicles stands among the Writings in the Hebrew canon, and the annual cycle of Torah portions and their Haftarot draws on other books. A Jewish reader meets this chapter in study rather than in a reading appointed for a Sabbath or a feast, and the site's own reading data records the same for every chapter.
The practice this chapter carries is the appointment of judges in every city. Rashi reads the order of events closely. Jehoshaphat went back to the scroll to see whether he had removed the asherim properly (Rashi on II Chronicles 19:5:1). There he found the command to set up judges and officers written beside the law he had been searching. Rashi adds that the king graded his appointments. He set the strong judges in the fortified cities first, because their people felt secure enough to resist a court, and set less forceful judges in the open towns (Rashi on II Chronicles 19:5:2).
How it is read
The charge to the judges is read as a charge about the judge's own heart. Rashi has the king warning against the thought that a perverted verdict costs the court nothing. To convict the innocent is "as though you take from your Creator's property and pervert the law of Heaven" (Rashi on II Chronicles 19:6:1). He turns that into a working rule for the bench. A judge should hold his heart in every case "as if the Holy One, blessed be He, is standing before you in judgment" (Rashi on II Chronicles 19:6:1).
Rashi also reads the two words of the ninth verse as two jurisdictions. The term for judgment belongs to money matters, and the term for quarrels belongs to capital cases and bodily injury (Rashi on II Chronicles 19:8:2). At the eleventh verse he takes the closing blessing on "the good" as a blessing on the one who does what is good and upright (Rashi on II Chronicles 19:11:1).
Three more commentators work this chapter and the corpus holds no English text for any of them, so they stand cited and unquoted. Malbim comments at 19:2:1, 19:4:1, 19:5:1 and 19:7:1. Metzudat David comments at 19:2:1, 19:3:1, 19:4:1, 19:6:1, 19:7:1, 19:9:1 and 19:11:1. Radak comments at 19:6:1.
What the rabbis say
Rashi reports what the Rabbis drew from the sixth verse and names where he found it. They taught that a judge may not excuse himself by asking how the case concerns him. He must rule on what he sees with his own eyes (Rashi on II Chronicles 19:6:1, citing Sanhedrin 6b). The corpus carries that discussion as a locator of its own at Sanhedrin 6b:14.
The chapter is taken up across the rabbinic literature on judges. The corpus carries twenty-eight locators on this chapter and holds the locator alone for each. The Talmud carries it at Sanhedrin 6b:14, Yevamot 86b:7 and Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 1:1:29. Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) carries it at Sanhedrin 1:5 and Yevamot 9:1, and the plain edition at Sanhedrin 1:6 and Yevamot 9:1. The halakhic midrashim carry it at Sifrei Devarim 15:5, 17:6 and 144:2, and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy at 1:17:5 and 19:17:8. The Tanchuma carries it at Mishpatim 6:19 and Shoftim 1:1, 2:1 and 7:1, and Midrash Tanchuma Buber at Shoftim 2:1 and 6:5. Midrash Lekach Tov carries it at Deuteronomy 1:15:1 and 1:17:1, Exodus 21:1:2, and on Ruth at Introduction 1. The rest are Avot DeRabbi Natan 9:4, Shemot Rabbah 30:13 and 30:24, Midrash Tehillim 82:1 and Seder Olam Rabbah 20:2. Last is Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair 1:27.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Chronicles, the Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg (Sefaria, CC-BY); Malbim, Malbim on II Chronicles 19, cited by ref from the Sefaria corpus, which holds no English version of it; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Chronicles 19, cited by ref from the Sefaria corpus, which holds no English version of it; Radak, Radak on II Chronicles 19, cited by ref from the Sefaria corpus, which holds no English version of it; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/2-chronicles/19.json, fetched 2026-09-19; The reading data of this site, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed in this lane: 2-chronicles parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, hasSynagogueReading true for 0 of 36 chapters.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Shouldest thou help the ungodly? Jehu meets the king
returned safely to his home: Jehoshaphat comes home from Ramoth-gilead, where he survived the battle that killed Ahab. The alliance belongs to chapter 18, already carried in full from the parallel account in 1 Kings 22, and Chronicles adds nothing to that story. What it adds is what happens the moment the king is home.
2 Chronicles 19:2-3
Jehu son of Hanani meets the king with a question: “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD?” His father Hanani was the prophet Asa jailed for an unwelcome warning. Now the son confronts Asa's son over an alliance with a house that hates the LORD.
2 Chronicles 19:2
“Jehu the son of Hanani - We have met with this prophet before; see the note on 1Ki 16:7. Therefore is wrath upon thee - That is, Thou deservest to be punished. And who can doubt this, who knows that he did help the ungodly, and did love them that hated Jehovah? And is not the wrath of God upon all those alliances which his people form with the ungodly, whether they be social, matrimonial, commercial, or political?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
2 Chronicles 19:2
“Which he did partly by stirring up the Moabites, and others to invade him, chap. xx, 1, partly by permitting his eldest son Jehoram to kill all his brethren, chap. xxi, 4, and principally by bringing that almost general destruction upon his grand- children by Jehu, 2 Kings ix, 27; x, 13, 14, which was the fruit of his alliance with Ahab.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Chronicles 19:2
“Those whom the grace of God has dignified ought not to debase themselves. Let God's people be of God's mind. (2.) That God was displeased with him for doing this: " There is wrath upon thee from before the Lord, and thou must, by repentance, make thy peace with him, or it will be the worse for thee." He did so, and God's anger was turned away.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jehu's rebuke has a second half: some good is found in the king, the reform recorded at 17:6. Gill reads that good as the fruit of grace in Jehoshaphat, shown in the groves cut down and the heart prepared. Matthew Henry notes that the king took the reproof well.
2 Chronicles 19:3
If you see your neighbor committing sin, take care not to dwell exclusively on his sin, but think of the many things he has done and continues to do rightly. Many times, by examining the whole and not taking the part only into account, you will find that he is better than you. God does not examine humans according to the part, for he says, "I come to gather together their works and thoughts."
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · On Humilitypatristic
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 19:3
“The return of duty which Jehoshaphat made to God for this favour. he took the reproof well, was not wroth with the seer as his father was, but submitted. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges appointed: you judge not for man, but for the LORD
turned them back to the LORD: Jehoshaphat goes out among the people himself, “from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim”, and turns them back to the LORD. The king who has just been rebuked answers by turning the land toward the LORD in person. The circuit follows his earlier mission at 17:7-9.
2 Chronicles 19:4
“From Beer-sheba to Mount Ephraim - Before the separation of the ten tribes, in speaking of the extent of the land it was said, From Dan to Beer-sheba; but since that event, the kingdom of Judah was bounded on the south by Beer-sheba, and on the north by the mountains of Ephraim. This shows that Jehoshaphat had gone through all his territories to examine every thing himself, to see that judgment and justice were properly administered among the people.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 19:4
“Through - Through the whole kingdom, whereof these were the two bounds. And brought - Such of them as had revolted from God to idols, he reclaimed by his counsel and example, and by the instructions of the Levites and priests, whom he carried with him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Chronicles 19:4
“It is good when commendations thus quicken us to our duty, and when the more we are praised for doing well the more vigorous we are in well-doing. (2.) Perhaps he found that his late affinity with the idolatrous house of Ahab and kingdom of Israel had had a bad influence upon his own kingdom.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Chronicles 19:5-7
each of the fortified cities: The king appoints judges “in each of the fortified cities of Judah”. His charge gives the ground: “you are not judging for man, but for the LORD, who is with you when you render judgment”. The reason follows, that with the LORD “there is no injustice or partiality or bribery”.
2 Chronicles 19:5
“And he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, city by city,.... Inferior judges in lesser courts of judicature than that at Jerusalem, and that in every city, that judgment and justice might be executed everywhere; such were appointed by David, but had been neglected, and now restored, see 1Ch 26:29.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 19:5
“What exact change Jehoshaphat made in the judicial system of Judah Deu 16:18; 1Ch 23:4, it is impossible to determine. Probably he found corruption widely spread 2Ch 19:7, and the magistrates in some places tainted with the prevailing idolatry. He therefore made a fresh appointment of judges throughout the whole country; concentrating judicial authority in the hands of a few, or creating superior courts in the chief towns (“fenced cities”), with a right of appeal to such courts from the village judge.”
The charge opens with a warning to weigh each case. Wesley explains the reason, that the judges hold their commission from God and represent his person, so a verdict is given on his behalf. Clarke adds that a judge who sits in God's place will be judged for his judgments.
2 Chronicles 19:6
“The Lord - You represent God's person to whom judgment belongeth, you have your commission from God, and not from man only; and your administration of justice is not only for man's good, but also for God's honour and service.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
may the fear of the LORD be upon you: Jehoshaphat repeats his warning and sets the fear of the LORD over the judges. Bonaventure reads the verse as a call to ready obedience, one mark of that fear made complete. Augustine uses the same clause to say that God alone judges without error, since he cannot be deceived.
2 Chronicles 19:8-11
Jehoshaphat appointed in Jerusalem: In Jerusalem Jehoshaphat appoints Levites, priests and heads of families as a second court, for cases sent up from the towns. He charges them to “serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the LORD”. The charge ends, “Act resolutely; may the LORD be with the upright!”
2 Chronicles 19:8
“The Lord - For matters concerning the laws and worship, of God. Controversies - For matters of difference between man and man. When - When Jehoshaphat and his company were returned to Jerusalem, he made this order concerning establishing Judges there.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 19:8
“And for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem - Who were they that returned to Jerusalem? Some suppose that it means Jehoshaphat and his courtiers, who returned to Jerusalem after the expedition mentioned 2Ch 19:4: but if this were so, or if the text spoke of any person returning to Jerusalem, would not לירושלם lirushalem, To Jerusalem, and not the simple word ירושלם Yerushalem, without the preposition, be used?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 19:8
“This court sat in Jerusalem; for there were set the thrones of judgment: there they would be under the inspection of the king himself. The causes cognizable in this court; and they were of two kinds, as with us:-- (1.) Pleas of the crown, called here the judgment of the Lord, because the law of God was the law of the realm.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the LORD: The charge to the Jerusalem court names three marks of the judges' service: the fear of the LORD, faithfulness, and a whole heart. Gill explains them as judging righteously and without favour, keeping the trust, and acting with sincerity toward God's glory and the good of the people.
2 Chronicles 19:9
“And he charged them,.... The members of the court at Jerusalem: saying, thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully, and with a perfect heart; judge righteously and impartially, as men fearing God, true to the trust reposed in them, and sincere and upright in heart and actions, having nothing else in view but the glory of God, and the good of men.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 19:9
"You trespass if you do not keep them from trespassing." (3.) They must act with resolution. "Deal courageously, and fear not the face of man; be bold and daring in the discharge of your duty, and, whoever is against you, God will protect you: The Lord shall be with the good. " Wherever he finds a good man, a good magistrate, he will be found a good God.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The Jerusalem court receives cases from the towns, and Barnes reads it as a court of appeal. Clarke takes bloodshed to cover manslaughter and questions of kinship and inheritance. Henry notes that after the division every city of refuge but Hebron lay in Israel, so homicide cases fell to Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 19:10
“Between blood and blood - Cases of man-slaughter or accidental murder, or cases of consanguinity, the settlement of inheritance, family claims, etc. Between law and commandment - Whatsoever concerns the moral precepts, rites, and ceremonies, of the law, or whatsoever belongs to civil affairs.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the Levites will serve as officers before you: The Levites serve the court as officers, and Barnes explains they filled the lesser posts while the chief priest and the prince presided. Jehoshaphat restores an order from David's reign. Wesley reads “all that pertains to the king” as civil causes, between king and people or between subjects.
2 Chronicles 19:11
“Matters of the Lord - In Spiritual, or ecclesiastical matters. Ruler - The prince, or chief ruler, under the king, of the tribe of Judah. The king's matters - For civil causes, or controversies either between the king and his people; or between subject and subject, which may be called the king's matters, because it was a principal part of his office to see them justly decided.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 19:11
“In religious causes, Amariah, the high priest, was to preside over the court; in civil or criminal causes, Zebadiah was to be president. And to Levites, other than the judges, he assigned the subordinate offices about the court.”
2 Chronicles 19:11
“Thus there are diversities of gifts and operations, but all from the same Spirit, and for the good of the body. Some best understand the matters of the Lord, others the king's matters; neither can say to the other, I have no need of thee, for God's Israel has need of both; and, as every one has received the gift, so let him minister the same.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: Historical narrative carrying a prophetic rebuke and a judicial reform, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Consider carefully what you do | The same warning opens the charge at verse 6 and closes it at verse 7, with the judges addressed directly both times. Adam Clarke reads the repetition as the whole ground of the reform, since a court answerable to God rather than to litigants needs no further rule. The charge is given before a single case is heard.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 2 Chronicles 19:5. | 2 Chronicles 19:6, 2 Chronicles 19:7 |
| Two heads over two jurisdictions | Verse 11 names Amariah the chief priest over all that pertains to the LORD and Zebadiah son of Ishmael over all that pertains to the king. John Wesley reads the pairing as two benches under one throne, the sacred and the civil each with its own head. Albert Barnes notes that officers and Levites are assigned to the court as its staff.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 2 Chronicles 19:8. | 2 Chronicles 19:8, 2 Chronicles 19:11 |
| You judge for the LORD | The king speaks to the judges in the second person through verses 6 and 7 and again through verses 9 to 11, so the chapter's teaching stands as a charge rather than as a report. Albert Barnes reads the charge as treating a ruling as an act of worship. The last word given the bench is courage.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 2 Chronicles 19:5. | 2 Chronicles 19:6, 2 Chronicles 19:9, 2 Chronicles 19:11 |
| From Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim | Verse 4 names the kingdom's southern bound and its northern bound, and the circuit between them frames everything the chapter then describes. John Wesley reads the king walking the ground his Levites had covered by commission at 17:7 to 9. The reform reaches the cities before it reaches the capital.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 2 Chronicles 19:4. | 2 Chronicles 19:4, 2 Chronicles 17:7 |
The debated concept
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
The first question is what the rebuke settles. Jehu names wrath upon the king and good found in him in two consecutive verses. Matthew Henry and John Gill both read the pairing as deliberate, a warning that leaves the record of reform standing. The chapter records no repentance and no sacrifice, only the reform that follows.
The second is whether the two heads at verse 11 divide cases by subject or by court. Albert Barnes reads a single bench with two presidents, one for religious matters and one for royal ones. John Wesley reads two tracks staffed by different men. Both readings rest on the same clause, and the text names the two officers without describing how a case was assigned.
The third is how far this bench reached. Roland de Vaux treats the Jerusalem court as an appeal court for cases returned from the cities, which is how verse 10 reads. The chapter gives no figure for the number of courts, because it gives no figure for the number of fortified cities.
Where the chapter reaches
The charge of verse 7 names three things the LORD has none of, injustice, partiality and bribery. The same ground is stated in the New Testament at Romans 2:11 and Acts 10:34, where the Berean text renders it as God showing no favoritism. The chapter is a court order and the apostolic sentences are a statement about God, so the connection is a shared ground rather than a quotation of this verse.
The verb the chapter turns on is the one the whole book measures reigns by. Verse 3 commends a heart set on seeking God, and verse 4 shows the king turning the people back. The dossier's word ladder counts the verb 164 times in the Old Testament with 30 of those in 2 Chronicles alone, and names Jehoshaphat at 17:3 to 4 and 20:3 among them.
The reform is the ground the next chapter stands on. The court that is told to deal courageously at verse 11 is the same nation that will be told to stand still and see at 20:17, within the year.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Chronicles, on 2 Chronicles 19:4; Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions, the section on the administration of justice and the guide's ledger for this book, `src/components/book/guides/2-chronicles/Book2ChroniclesGuide.tsx`, the kings ledger, Jehoshaphat.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Augustine of Hippo, LETTER 153; Bonaventure, Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 2; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.