2 Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, "Should you help the wicked, and love those who hate Yahweh? Because of this, wrath is on you from before Yahweh.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Jehu went out to meet him - Compare 2-Chronicles 15:2. The monarch was therefore rebuked at the earliest possible moment, and in the most effective way, as he was entering his capital at the head of his returning army. Jehu, 35 years previously, had worked in the northern kingdom, and prophesied against Baasha 1-Kings 16:1-7, but had now come to Jerusalem, as prophet and historian (compare 2-Chronicles 20:34).
Shouldest thou help - As a matter of mere human policy, the conduct of Jehoshaphat in joining Ahab against the Syrians was not only justifiable but wise and prudent. And the reasonings upon which such a policy was founded would have been unexceptionable but for one circumstance. Ahab was an idolater, and had introduced into his kingdom a false religion of a new and most degraded type. This should have led Jehoshaphat to reject his alliance. Military success could only come from the blessing and protection of Yahweh, which such an alliance, if persisted in, was sure to forfeit.
Jehu the son of Hanani - We have met with this prophet before; see the note on 1-Kings 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?
And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, (a) Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore [is] wrath upon thee from before the LORD.
(a) He declares that the wrath of God is over everyone who supports the wicked and does not show in their actions that they are enemies to everyone that hates the Lord.
And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer,.... The son of him that reproved Asa, for which he put him in prison, 2-Chronicles 17:7, but that did not deter this his son from reproving Jehoshaphat:
went out to meet him; as he was returning:
and said to King Jehoshaphat, shouldest thou help the ungodly; such an one as Ahab, an idolater, murderer, and persecutor:
and love them that hate the Lord? his laws, worship, and ordinances, as he had; intimating, that he had done wrong, by entering into alliance and affinity with him, by showing him friendship, and assisting him in his war against the Syrians:
therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord; which appeared in the war of the Ammonites and Moabites with him, related in the next chapter, and in the calamities that came upon his family, his sons being slain by Jehoram that succeeded him, and his grandsons by Jehu.
Therefore - Therefore God will chastise thee for this miscarriage. Which he did partly by stirring up the Moabites, and others to invade him, 2-Chronicles 20:1, partly by permitting his eldest son Jehoram to kill all his brethren, 2-Chronicles 21:4, and principally by bringing that almost general destruction upon his grand - children by Jehu, 2-Kings 9:27, 2-Kings 10:13-14, which was the fruit of his alliance with Ahab.
*More commentary available at chapter level.