Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 20:3
Jehoshaphat was alarmed and set his face to seek the LORD. And he proclaimed a fast throughout Judah.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jehoshaphat responds to messengers reporting a vast Edomite army advancing toward Hazazon-tamar. He initiates a national response by directing Judah to seek divine intervention and observe a fast.
The words — The Hebrew וַיִּרָא (va-yira') literally renders "he was afraid" or "he was alarmed," marking the catalyst for his subsequent actions. His phrase וַיִּתֵּן אֶת־פָּנָיו (va-yitten et-panav) translates to "he gave his face," an idiom denoting deliberate, focused pursuit of Yahweh.
The thread — This pattern of facing God in crisis and pairing it with fasting appears in Daniel 9:3 and 1 Samuel 7:6, where leaders and communities similarly turn to divine seeking amid threat or repentance. The motif of setting one's heart or face toward God also echoes in 2 Chronicles 19:3, establishing a consistent royal response to national peril.
Why it lands — The text demands a concrete pivot from alarm to disciplined spiritual pursuit, requiring readers to replace panic with deliberate seeking and communal fasting. It establishes that national crisis necessitates immediate, focused reliance on divine authority rather than reliance on human strategy alone.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
Cross-references
- Daniel 9:3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
- 1 Samuel 7:6 When they had gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. On that day they fasted, and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.
- 2 Chronicles 19:3 However, some good is found in you, for you have removed the Asherah poles from the land and have set your heart on seeking God.”
- Esther 4:16 “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”
- Jeremiah 36:9 Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the LORD was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah.
- Joel 1:14 Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
- Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
- Jonah 3:5 And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.
- Ezra 8:21 And there by the Ahava Canal I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.
- Genesis 32:24 So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak.