This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
WHEN Jehoshaphat the king was come to Jerusalem, from the assistance
he had afforded Ahab, the king of Israel, when he fought with Benhadad,
king of Syria, the prophet Jehu met him, and accused him for assisting
Ahab, a man both impious and wicked; and said to him, that God was displeased
with him for so doing, but that he delivered him from the enemy, notwithstanding
he had sinned, because of his own proper disposition, which was good. Whereupon
the king betook himself to thanksgivings and sacrifices to God; after which
he presently went over all that country which he ruled round about, and
taught the people, as well the laws which God gave them by Moses, as that
religious worship that was due to him. He also constituted judges in every
one of the cities of his kingdom; and charged them to have regard to nothing
so much in judging the multitude as to do justice, and not to be moved
by bribes, nor by the dignity of men eminent for either their riches or
their high birth, but to distribute justice equally to all, as knowing
that God is conscious of every secret action of theirs. When he had himself
instructed them thus, and gone over every city of the two tribes, he returned
to Jerusalem. He there also constituted judges out of the priests and the
Levites, and principal persons of the multitude, and admonished them to
pass all their sentences with care and justice 1
And that if any of the people of his country had differences of great consequence,
they should send them out of the other cities to these judges, who would
be obliged to give righteous sentences concerning such causes; and this
with the greater care, because it is proper that the sentences which are
given in that city wherein the temple of God is, and wherein the king dwells,
be given with great care and the utmost justice. Now he set over them Amariah
the priest, and Zebadiah, [both] of the tribe of Judah; and after this
manner it was that the king ordered these affairs.
1 These judges constituted by Jehoshaphat were a kind of Jerusalem Sanhedrim, out of the priests, the Levites, and the principal of the people, both here and 2 Chronicles 19:8; much like the old Christian judicatures of the bishop, the presbyters, the deacons, and the people.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.