2 Chronicles 20:1
INTRODUCTION TO 2 CHRONICLES 20
Jehoshaphat having notice of a numerous army coming against him, 2Ch 20:1, betakes himself to fasting and prayer with his people, 2Ch 20:3, when they were immediately assured of victory by a prophet, which filled them with joy and thankfulness, 2Ch 20:14, and accordingly their enemies destroyed one another, and Jehoshaphat and his people returned to Jerusalem rejoicing and praising God, 2Ch 20:22, and the chapter is closed with an account of the latter part of Jehoshaphat's reign, 2Ch 20:31.
Ver. 1. It came to pass after this also,.... After Jehoshaphat's return from Ramothgilead, and putting the civil and religious affairs of his people on a better footing, when he might have expected much peace and prosperity:
that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon; both the descendants of Lot, see Ps 83:8,
and with them other besides the Ammonites; a great company of Arabians, according to Josephus {r}; or "with the Meamonites", which the Targum understands of the Idumaeans or Edomites; and so do other interpreters, and which they conclude from 2Ch 20:10. Jarchi thinks the Amalekites are meant, who were of the race of Edom; but the notion of Kimchi seems best, that these are the people that are so called from the name of a place, Meon, and, by an inversion of letters, the same with the Meunim or Maonites, mentioned along with the Zidonians and Amalekites, Jud 10:12 and whom the Septuagint version here calls Minaeans; some {s} take them to be such who counterfeited the Ammonites in their apparel and gestures:
these came against Jehoshaphat in battle; being instigated perhaps by the Syrians, who owed him ill will for assisting Ahab against them at Ramothgilead; for from that quarter they came, as the following verse shows.
{r} Antiqu. l. 9. c. 1. sect. 2. {s} Weemse of the Moral Law, l. 2. c. 6. p. 161.