2 Chronicles 17:4

But sought to the LORD God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:1-19 Jehoshaphat promotes religion in Judah, His prosperity. - Jehoshaphat found his people generally very ignorant, and therefore endeavoured to have them well taught. The public teaching of the word of God forms, in all ages, the great method of promoting the power of godliness. Thereby the understanding is informed, the conscience is awakened and directed. We have a particular account of Jehoshaphat's prosperity. But it was not his formidable army that restrained the neighbouring nations from attempting any thing against Israel, but the fear of God which fell upon them, when Jehoshaphat reformed his country, and set up a preaching ministry in it. The ordinances of God are more the strength and safety of a kingdom, than soldiers and weapons of war. The Bible requires use to notice the hand of God in every event, yet this is little regarded. But let all employ the talents they have: be faithful, even in that which is little. Set up the worship of God in your houses. The charge of a family is important. Why should you not instruct them as Jehoshaphat did his subjects, in the book of the law of the Lord. But be consistent. Do not recommend one thing, and practise another. Begin with yourselves. Seek to the Lord God of Israel, then call upon children and servants to follow your example.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The doings of Israel - i. e. the especially idolatrous doings of the time - the introduction and establishment of the worship of Baal and the groves.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. and not after the doings of Israel—He observed with scrupulous fidelity, and employed his royal influence to support the divine institutions as enacted by Moses, abhorring that spurious and unlawful calf-worship that now formed the established religion in Israel. Being thus far removed, alike from gross idolatry and Israelitish apostasy, and adhering zealously to the requirements of the divine law, the blessing of God rested on his government. Ruling in the fear of God, and for the good of his subjects, "the Lord established the kingdom in his hand."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. Their worship of the calves, or other idols.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But sought to the Lord God of his fathers,.... Prayed to him, worshipped and served him:

and walked in his commandments; observed and kept them, moral, ceremonial, and judicial:

and not after the doings of Israel: who worshipped the golden calves at Dan and Bethel.

Geneva Study Bible

But sought to the Lord God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. to the Lord God of his father] R.V. to the God of his father. The Chronicler frequently avoids introducing the name Jehovah (rendered Lord in A.V.) in places where it might be expected; cp. 2 Chronicles 20:12; 2 Chronicles 30. For another and different instance of reverent suppression of the divine name see 2 Chronicles 28:9 (note).

after the doings of Israel] Cp. 2 Chronicles 13:8-9.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - After the doings of Israel. This expression probably marks the doings of the northern kingdom, as both the more typical throughout its whole history of the wrong, and also as the systematic beginning, "by a law," of idolatrous worship and images in the matter of the calves and so on. 2 Chronicles 17:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

He placed forces (חיל) in all the fenced cities of Judah, and garrisons (נציבים, military posts; cf. 1 Chronicles 11:16) in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim, which is father Asa had taken; cf. 2 Chronicles 15:8. God blessed these undertakings. Jahve was with him, because he walked in the ways of David his ancestor, the former ways, and sought not the Baals. The former ways of David are his ways in the earlier years of his reign, in contrast to the later years, in which his adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11) and the sin of numbering the people (1 Chronicles 21) fall. הבּעלים are all false gods, in contrast to Jahve, the one God of Israel; and here the word designates not only the Baal-worship properly so called, but also the worship of Jahve by means of images, by which Jahve is brought down to the level of the Baals; cf. Judges 2:11. The ל before בּעלים stands, according to the later usage, as a sign of the accusative. In the last clause of 2 Chronicles 17:4, "and not after the doings of Israel" (of the ten tribes), הלך, "he walked," is to be repeated. The doing of Israel is the worship of Jahve through the images of the golden calves, which the author of the Chronicle includes in the לבּעלים דּרשׁ.