John Gill Commentary 2 Chronicles 20

It came to pass after this also After Jehoshaphat's return from Ramothgilead, and putting the civil and religious affairs of his people on a better footing, when he might have expected much peace and prosperity:

that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon ; both the descendants of Lot, see (Psalms 83:8),

and with them other besides the Ammonites ; A great company of Arabians, according to Josephus ^F18 ; or "with the Meamonites", which the Targum understands of the Idumaeans or Edomites; and so do other interpreters, and which they conclude from (2 Chronicles 20:10 2 Chronicles 20:22 2 Chronicles 20:23). Jarchi thinks the Amalekites are meant, who were of the race of Edom; but the notion of Kimchi seems best, that these are the people that are so called from the name of a place, Meon, and, by an inversion of letters, the same with the Meunim or Maonites, mentioned along with the Zidonians and Amalekites, (Judges 10:12)

and whom the Septuagint version here calls Minaeans; some ^F19 take them to be such who counterfeited the Ammonites in their apparel and gestures:

these came against Jehoshaphat in battle ; being instigated perhaps by the Syrians, who owed him ill will for assisting Ahab against them at Ramothgilead; for from that quarter they came, as the following verse shows.

FOOTNOTES:

• F18: Antiqu. l. 9. c. 1. sect. 2.
• F19: Weemse of the Moral Law, l. 2. c. 6. p. 161.

Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat
Deserters or spies, or some of the inhabitants of those parts where they had entered, who rode post haste to acquaint him with it:

saying, there cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea
on this side Syria ;
that is, beyond the Dead or Salt sea, the sea of Sodom; the Targum is, ``beyond the west of Syria,'' that sea being the western boundary of it:

and, behold, they be in Hazazontamar, which is Engedi ;
(See Gill on Genesis 14:7).

And Jehoshaphat feared
Exceedingly, as the Targum adds, not merely because of the number of his enemies, for he had forces enough to go forth against them, see (2 Chronicles 17:14–19) , but chiefly because the Lord had told him that wrath was upon him from him, (2 Chronicles 19:2) and he might fear that this was the time for the execution of it: and set himself to seek the Lord ;
by prayer and supplication, with all seriousness, fervour, and constancy: and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah ;
a day of humiliation and mourning for sin before the Lord; when they were ordered to abstain from bodily food and labour, that they might be fit and more at leisure for spiritual exercises.

And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord ,
&c.] To implore his assistance against their enemies, and his protection of them; and they met not in their several cities, but at Jerusalem, as appears by what follows: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord ;
at the temple, where was the ark, the symbol of his presence.

And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord

In the temple, in the court of the people, where the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem were assembled, in the midst of which he stood very probably on the brasen scaffold erected by Solomon, (2 Chronicles 6:13).

before the new court :

which must be the court of the priests, for he stood in the great court, or court of the people, and before this, which might be so called, because renewed or repaired when the altar was by Asa, (2 Chronicles 15:8). Dr. Lightfoot ^F20 thinks it was the court of the women; but it is a question whether there was any such court in the first temple; or that the great court was then divided into two, one for the men, the other for the women.

FOOTNOTES:

• F20: Prospect of the Temple, ch 18. p. 1090.