Judah gathers in fear and prays under invasion

A coalition comes, and fear becomes a fast

It comes to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, come against Jehoshaphat to battle. Some come and tell Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazon-tamar, which is En-gedi. Jehoshaphat fears, and sets himself to seek the LORD, and proclaims a fast throughout all Judah. Judah gathers to ask help of the LORD; even out of all the cities of Judah they come to seek the LORD.

Coalition names and geography have textual complications. Fear is not faithlessness. Fasting and prayer do not replace evacuation, defense, diplomacy, or care for children. The crisis puts Solomon's dedication prayer into practice: a multitude, a chosen house, a people who do not know what to do.

The king prays before the new court, with little ones present

Jehoshaphat stands in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court, and says, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever? They have dwelt in it and built a sanctuary for thy name, saying that if evil comes — the sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine — and they stand, cry, and are heard.

Now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom Israel was not to invade when they came from Egypt, reward Judah by coming to cast them out of the possession given to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee. All Judah stands before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. Little ones are dependent children; they must not disappear behind royal and military language. The prayer is the Chronicler's theological presentation, not an independently recorded transcript. Driving-out memory here explains this people's land-claim; it is not a warrant for modern displacement or holy war.