2 *Chronicles 17

₁Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, became king after him. Jehoshaphat made Judah and his army strong so that he could win when he went to war_against Israel. ₂He put soldiers in every town in Judah that had strong walls and he put guards everywhere in the land, and also in the towns that his father Asa had taken in the land of Ephraim. ₃The Lord was with Jehoshaphat and He blessed him because he lived like his forefather David had done, when he had become king. Jehoshaphat did not serve the Baal idols. ₄He served the God of his forefathers and he lived as God said. Jehoshaphat did not do the bad things that the kings_of_Israel did. ₅The Lord helped Jehoshaphat and everyone accepted him as king. All the people of Judah gave him gifts and he became very rich, and everyone respected him. ₆He was faithful to the Lord and he continued to live as God wanted. He broke down all the places_of_sacrifice and the sacred_pillars. He took them all out of the land_of_Judah.

₇In the 3rd year after Jehoshaphat had become king, he sent officials to the people in the towns of Judah to teach them what God said. The officials were Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel and Micaiah. ₈There were Levites who went with them. They were Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah and Tob-Adonijah. He also sent the priests Elishama and Jehoram. ₉They started to teach the people in Judah and they took the book_of_the_laws of the Lord with them. They went to all the towns of Judah and they started to teach all the people.

₁₀The Lord made all the nations around the land_of_Judah afraid of King Jehoshaphat and they did not want to go to war_against him. ₁₁Some of the Philistines came and they gave gifts to Jehoshaphat and they paid taxes to him with silver. The Arabian people also came and they gave Jehoshaphat sheep and goats. They gave him 7 700 sheep and 7 700 goat-rams.

₁₂The army of Jehoshaphat became bigger and stronger. Jehoshaphat built cities with strong walls and towns where he stored everything he had. ₁₃There were a lot of things that he stored in the towns of Judah and there were a lot of good soldiers in Jerusalem. ₁₄He told them to count all his soldiers and the soldiers of each family.

From the tribe of Judah there was the leader Adnah with 300 000 men. They were in groups of 1 000. ₁₅The 2nd leader was Jehohanan with 280 000 men. ₁₆Then there was Amasiah, son of Zikri, who said he wanted to serve the Lord and with him were 200 000 men, all good soldiers.

₁₇From the tribe of Benjamin was Eliada, a very good soldier, and with him were 200 000 men with bows_and_arrows and shields. ₁₈Then there was Jehozabad with 180 000 men who were ready to go to war. ₁₉All of them worked for the king and there were also guards where the king put them in all the towns of Judah, in all the towns that had strong walls.