His end was less
good than his beginning; he made a league with the Syrians instead of
trusting to God; and threw the prophet Hanani into prison for having
rebuked him; and in his latter years he was cruel and oppressive. He
died in 891.
His son Jehoshaphat was a very good and gentle prince, but his very
gentleness seemed to have led him into error, for he became too friendly
with the idolatrous House of Ahab in Samaria, and allowed his son
Jehoram to take to wife the child of Ahab and Jezebel, Athaliah, who
proved even more wicked than her mother. Jehoshaphat was in alliance
with Ahab, and went out with him to his last battle at Ramoth-Gilead,
where Ahab tried to put his friend into danger instead of himself by
making him appear as the only king present, but entirely failed to
deceive the hand appointed to bring death. Afterwards, when the
Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites came up against Judah, Jehoshaphat was
commanded to have no fears, but to go out to meet them, with the Levites
singing before him, "Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever!"
So the battle should be his without fighting; for the three banded
nations fought among themselves, and made such a slaughter of one
another, that the Jews had nothing to do but to gather the spoil, which
was in such heaps, that they spent three days in collecting it.
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