Introduction: The War of Yehoshaphat - A War That Was Entirely Prayer
Chapter 20 in Divrei HaYamim II is one of the greatest chapters of bitachon in Hashem. Vast armies march against Yehudah, yet King Yehoshaphat does not begin with military mobilization and tactics of war, but with fasting, gathering the community, and prayer in the House of Hashem. We will follow the order of the pesukim and see how Yehoshaphat's prayer is structured as an orderly and precise progression, according to the explanation of the Malbim, alongside the words of the Radak, the commentary attributed to Rashi, and the Metzudos.
Who Are the "Ammonim"?
וַיְהִי אַחֲרֵי־כֵן בָּאוּ בְנֵי־מוֹאָב וּבְנֵי עַמּוֹן וְעִמָּהֶם מֵהָעַמּוֹנִים עַל־יְהוֹשָׁפָט לַמִּלְחָמָה׃ - And it was after this that the children of Moav and the children of Ammon, and with them from the Ammonim, came against Yehoshaphat to battle.
All are astonished: it already says "the children of Ammon," so what is meant by "and with them from the Ammonim"? The Radak cites the derashah of Chazal: later in the chapter these same people appear under the name "the children of Seir," so there is a change of name here. And who are they? Amalekites. These Amalekites disguised themselves, and they were already experts in disguises - as had happened in ancient times - and here too they came in the guise of Ammonites so that the people of Israel would not recognize them. Why? Because they were subject to the kings of Yehudah until they revolted in the days of Yehoram the son of Yehoshaphat. Therefore, they did not want to appear as rebels against the monarchy, and to conceal the fact that they were throwing off their rule, they went and disguised themselves as if they were a different nation that had come to wage war.
The Radak cites an additional explanation, pointing out a fascinating detail: nowhere in the Torah and the Prophets are the children of Ammon called "Ammonim." They are always called "Bnei Ammon," never "Ammonim." Therefore, the Radak suggests that this might be an entirely different nation, named after its place. We find similarly in the days of Uziyahu: "And the Ammonim gave tribute to Uziyahu." He suggests that the Ammonim are actually the "Me'onim," with transposed letters as is common with inverted names, like keves and kesev, or salmah and simlah. The name of their place was "Ma'on," as in "And there was a man in Ma'on whose possessions were in Carmel" regarding Naval the Carmelite, and likewise in Shoftim: "And the Tzidonim and Amalek and Ma'on oppressed you" - proving that there was indeed a nation called Ma'on. And this, the Radak says, is the more correct and true interpretation of the matter.
The Malbim explains differently: later in the chapter they are called the inhabitants of Mount Seir, and at that time Ammonites dwelt in Mount Seir. According to this, they were indeed from Ammon, but they were divided into two groups: the children of Ammon who lived in Ammon itself, and the Ammonim who lived in Mount Seir; therefore, they are counted as a distinct group of their own.
"From Beyond the Sea, from Aram" - The Report Brought to the King
וַיָּבֹאוּ וַיַּגִּידוּ לִיהוֹשָׁפָט לֵאמֹר בָּא עָלֶיךָ הָמוֹן רָב מֵעֵבֶר לַיָּם מֵאֲרָם וְהִנָּם בְּחַצְצוֹן תָּמָר הִיא עֵין גֶּדִי׃ - And they came and told Yehoshaphat, saying: "A vast multitude has come against you from beyond the sea, from Aram, and behold, they are in Chatzatzon-tamar, which is Ein Gedi."
The Malbim wonders: Aram is situated in the north, whereas these nations came from south of Eretz Yisrael - how can this be reconciled? Rather, the messenger did not know who these nations were and assumed they were from Aram; he therefore referred to them as "from beyond the sea, from Aram." In reality, as we have seen, they were not Arameans. Later on, the Malbim himself will raise a difficulty with this explanation and suggest another approach, but this is the explanation he offers here.
And what is meant by "from beyond the sea"? Metzudas David explains: the Dead Sea. He too is troubled by the mention of "from Aram," and therefore explains that along their route they passed through Aram. That is, not that they originated from Aram - for there were no Arameans here, but rather the children of Moav, the children of Ammon, and the Ammonim - but rather that their route took them through Aram. And behold, they were already in Chatzatzon-tamar, which is Ein Gedi.
Fasting and Gathering: Yehoshaphat Sets His Face to Seek Hashem
וַיִּרָא וַיִּתֵּן יְהוֹשָׁפָט אֶת־פָּנָיו לִדְרוֹשׁ לַה' וַיִּקְרָא־צוֹם עַל־כׇּל־יְהוּדָה׃ - "Yehoshaphat was afraid, and he set his face to seek Hashem, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah."
"And Yehoshaphat set his face" - Metzudat David explains: He placed his trust in Hashem, may He be blessed.
וַיִּקָּבְצוּ יְהוּדָה לְבַקֵּשׁ מֵה' גַּם מִכׇּל־עָרֵי יְהוּדָה בָּאוּ לְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת־ה'׃ - "And Judah gathered to seek help from Hashem; even from all the cities of Judah they came to seek Hashem."
This gathering was a day of prayer, to plead before Hashem, may He be blessed, to save them from their enemies. And why does the verse repeat "even from all the cities of Judah"? The commentary attributed to Rashi explains: Lest you think "Judah gathered" refers only to the residents of Jerusalem, the verse adds that people came even from distant cities. Malbim adds that this also included the hill country of Ephraim, which was under the Kingdom of Judah at the time, and they too came.
The New Courtyard - What Was Innovated There
וַיַּעֲמֹד יְהוֹשָׁפָט בִּקְהַל יְהוּדָה וִירוּשָׁלַיִם בְּבֵית ה' לִפְנֵי הֶחָצֵר הַחֲדָשָׁה׃ - "And Yehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the House of Hashem, before the new courtyard."
Yehoshaphat stood among the congregation to pray to Hashem, in the House of Hashem, before the new courtyard. What is the "new courtyard"? Radak explains according to its simple meaning: It is possible that it had required reinforcement, so they renovated and reinforced it, and it was therefore called "the new courtyard," as it had undergone renovations at that time.
However, Chazal offer a famous expounding: that innovations were introduced there, meaning they instituted a new Halachic ruling there. What did they innovate? They ruled that a tevul yom (one who immersed that day) may not enter the Levitical camp. This was a rabbinic decree introduced by the Sages, which was not known or established from the Torah itself. A tevul yom is someone who became ritually impure and immersed in a mikveh that day, yet is not permitted to partake of terumah until nightfall, since his purification is only completed with "and the sun sets and he becomes pure"; throughout the day until nightfall he has the status of second-degree impurity, giving him the Halachic designation of a tevul yom. Concerning him, they enacted that he is also forbidden to enter the Levitical camp.
The Prayer: Three Things Inapplicable to Heaven
וַיֹּאמַר ה' אֱלֹהֵי אֲבֹתֵינוּ הֲלֹא אַתָּה־הוּא אֱלֹהִים בַּשָּׁמַיִם וְאַתָּה מוֹשֵׁל בְּכֹל מַמְלְכוֹת הַגּוֹיִם וּבְיָדְךָ כֹּחַ וּגְבוּרָה וְאֵין עִמְּךָ לְהִתְיַצֵּב׃ - "And he said: 'Hashem, God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? In Your hand are power and might, and none can stand against You.'"
Malbim explains that Yehoshaphat turned to Hashem and said: Master of the Universe, it is inconceivable that You would abandon us. It cannot be due to a lack of ability, as if there were a limitation; nor due to a change of will, where the ability exists but You currently do not desire to do so; nor due to a lack of knowledge, where both ability and will exist, but You are unaware of our distress. None of these three possibilities apply to You.
First - a lack of ability. Could it be said that the heavenly fortune of these nations is currently prevailing, that the power of their ministering angel has strengthened and they therefore have the power to overcome us, and You lack the ability to conquer it? That cannot be: "Are You not God in heaven" - there is none above You; You are the Ruler and Sovereign over all the celestial hosts as well, and it is impossible for their heavenly prince to rise up and prevail. Or perhaps through their might on earth, since they come with a massive army and numerous soldiers? To that he says: "and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations" - Your sovereignty extends here on earth as well; You rule over their strength and over our strength, and a powerful army is not a deciding factor in battle. Or perhaps on account of their prowess? "In Your hand are power and might" - all the power and might in the world reside solely in Your hand. Malbim explains: If there is any power and might in the world, it emanates from You, and there is no power or might in anything that is not channeled from Hashem, may He be blessed. As we noted in I Chronicles 29: "In Your hand are power and might, and it is in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all" - that is, since power and might are in His hand, if anyone becomes great or strong, it is exclusively from Him. Therefore, "and none can stand against You" - it is impossible for anyone to stand up against You, for You do not even need to actively subdue him: it is enough that You cut off the power supply, ceasing to bestow strength upon him, and the matter is finished, for power and might are in Your hand.
A Change of Will Is Inapplicable
הֲלֹא אַתָּה אֱלֹהֵינוּ הוֹרַשְׁתָּ אֶת־יֹשְׁבֵי הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת מִלִּפְנֵי עַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל וַתִּתְּנָהּ לְזֶרַע אַבְרָהָם אֹהַבְךָ לְעוֹלָם׃ - Did You not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and give it to the seed of Abraham Your beloved forever?
The commentary attributed to Rashi explains that this is an argument and a justification for why it is fitting that You uphold our hold on the land You gave us: Even an earthly king, or indeed any human being, who gives a gift to a beloved friend and sees someone coming to rob him of it, immediately feels a responsibility to reinforce the gift in the recipient's possession - "I gave it to him; do not take it from him." How much more so You, Master of the Universe, Who gave us the land as an everlasting inheritance, and You see that they are coming to seize it from us - surely You will not leave it in their hands.
The Malbim explains that here Yehoshaphat rules out any change of will, as though the Holy One, blessed be He, had supposedly reconsidered. For You drove out the inhabitants of the land before Your people Israel; had You wanted the nations of the world to dwell there, they would have remained there. And since You dispossessed them, it is a sign that You do not want them there, but rather us, and therefore it is not fitting now to allow them to prevail over us. Hashem does not change, and if You drove out the nations before Israel, all the more so You would not replant them there after You had already expelled them.
And lest one say: Israel merited this based on their deeds, and now their deeds have changed and therefore the Divine will has changed - as though the argument was historically valid, but the circumstances have shifted. To this he says, "and give it to the seed of Abraham Your beloved": the gift was not given because of Israel's deeds, as though we were righteous and deserving and therefore received it, but rather through Your love for Abraham. The promise was made to him without looking at deeds, regardless of whether our deeds are good or not. Consequently, the gift is an everlasting gift, and the Divine will does not change in response to human deeds.
Yet at first glance, this is perplexing: the Torah states explicitly that if Israel rebels and sins, "and if you abhor My statutes," exile will follow! What room, then, is there to argue that an eternal promise was made to Abraham? The answer is that the eternal promise to Abraham indeed exists and awaits fulfillment: when you perform good deeds you will return, and if not, you will remain in exile. If so, what kind of argument is this? Let us look at the next verse.
A Lack of Divine Providence Is Inapplicable
וַיֵּשְׁבוּ־בָהּ וַיִּבְנוּ לְךָ בָּהּ מִקְדָּשׁ לְשִׁמְךָ לֵאמֹר׃ - And they dwelt in it, and built You a Sanctuary in it for Your Name, saying:
Here comes the answer: If one should argue that the condition of "and if you abhor My statutes" applies, Yehoshaphat comes and specifies that we are indeed doing the will of Hashem. Therefore, it is fitting that You leave us here, uphold our hold on the land, and fight against the enemies, for there is no reason to breach the promise to Avraham Avinu. This is not a situation of "and if you abhor My statutes"; after all, they dwelt in it and built You a Sanctuary for Your Name, and it is therefore fitting that You continue to bestow Your bounty upon us at this time as well.
The Malbim explains that in this verse Yehoshaphat moves on to rule out any lack of Divine providence. Lest one say that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not oversee events? That cannot be, for when they dwelt in the land, they built You a Sanctuary, and the very purpose of the Mikdash is that You dwell in their midst. The Sanctuary is the tangible expression of Divine providence - that the Holy One, blessed be He, watches over us, is present with us, and resides among us. Thus You supervise and save, and Your great Name is sanctified through the Sanctuary. And what is the meaning of "saying"? At the time they built the Sanctuary, they said:
אִם־תָּבוֹא עָלֵינוּ רָעָה חֶרֶב שְׁפוֹט וְדֶבֶר וְרָעָב נַעַמְדָה לִפְנֵי הַבַּיִת הַזֶּה וּלְפָנֶיךָ כִּי שִׁמְךָ בַּבַּיִת הַזֶּה וְנִזְעַק אֵלֶיךָ מִצָּרָתֵנוּ וְתִשְׁמַע וְתוֹשִׁיעַ׃ - If evil comes upon us, the sword of judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this House and before You, for Your Name is in this House, and cry out to You from our distress, and You will hear and save.
The commentary attributed to Rashi, and the Malbim hints at this as well, explains that Yehoshaphat is recalling Shlomo's prayer at the dedication of the Temple. This is the meaning of "and built You a Sanctuary in it for Your Name, saying": at the time the Temple was built, it was declared that when the sword strikes, when distress arrives, when enemies advance against Israel, You will hear and save - "if Your people are stricken," along with all the other misfortunes enumerated there, "and You will forgive, and give to every man according to all his ways." And Hashem granted his request: "And Hashem appeared to Shlomo and said to him: I have heard your prayer," and "I will forgive their sin and heal their land." And the plea now is: Master of the Universe, remember that very promise; hear and save us from the hand of the enemies rising up against us!
The Malbim understands this as a continuation of the preceding idea: Your providence has not departed from us, and therefore we stand before You, for Your Name is in this House. I stand to pray before a living and enduring God Who is present here and rests His Shechinah in this House, and if Your providence has not departed from us, You will surely save us. And by allusion: just as You promised Solomon back then that those who come to this House and pray before You will be saved, so too, "we will cry out to You from our distress, and You will hear and save."
They Have No Cause for War
וְעַתָּה הִנֵּה בְנֵי־עַמּוֹן וּמוֹאָב וְהַר־שֵׂעִיר אֲשֶׁר לֹא־נָתַתָּה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל לָבוֹא בָהֶם בְּבֹאָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם כִּי סָרוּ מֵעֲלֵיהֶם וְלֹא הִשְׁמִידוּם׃ - And now, behold, the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, whom You did not permit Israel to invade when they came from the land of Egypt, but they turned aside from them and did not destroy them.
It is worthwhile to read the entire text of the prayer straight through, for only then can one sense the magnitude of the plea and supplication. Here Yehoshaphat argues: do not say that these nations have a cause for war, a casus belli, a justification for declaring war. They have no grievance whatsoever. For when we came out of Egypt, we did not attack them: the children of Ammon, Moab, and Seir - Israel turned aside from them and did not destroy them. They cannot claim that we attacked them and took what was theirs and must now return it. Hashem said that their land belonged to them, and whatever we conquered, we conquered from the giants whom Hashem drove out before them, and from there Israel received an inheritance; but we never attacked them directly. Therefore, they have no reason to declare war against us.
וְהִנֵּה־הֵם גֹּמְלִים עָלֵינוּ לָבוֹא לְגָרְשֵׁנוּ מִיְּרֻשָּׁתְךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹרַשְׁתָּנוּ׃ - And behold, they repay us by coming to drive us out of Your inheritance, which You gave us to inherit.
"They repay us" - they return evil for good. We treated them kindly and did not attack them, and they repay us with evil, coming to drive us out of our inheritance. For this we plead for justice: Master of the Universe, execute judgment upon them and deliver us from their hand! And there is an emphasis here: "from Your inheritance, which You gave us to inherit" - You Yourself gave it to us as an inheritance, so how can they come and challenge this inheritance?
"For Our Eyes Are Upon You" - Without Other Options
אֱלֹהֵינוּ הֲלֹא תִשְפׇּט־בָּם כִּי אֵין בָּנוּ כֹּחַ לִפְנֵי הֶהָמוֹן הָרָב הַזֶּה הַבָּא עָלֵינוּ וַאֲנַחְנוּ לֹא נֵדַע מַה־נַּעֲשֶׂה כִּי עָלֶיךָ עֵינֵינוּ׃ - Our God, will You not execute judgment upon them? For we have no power before this vast horde that is coming against us, neither do we know what to do, for our eyes are upon You.
"Will You not execute judgment upon them?" - Do not say that we can devise counsel and valor for war. Valor we do not have, as "we have no power before this vast horde"; and counsel and strategy we do not have, as "neither do we know what to do." There is no valor, no strategy, and no counsel, and only You can save, "for our eyes are upon You."
As has been noted several times before based on the Chovos HaLevavos, which was also studied directly in the text: when a person trusts in the Holy One, blessed be He, and simultaneously places trust in something else, the Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: "Go to the one you trusted in, and let him save you." But when Hashem hears from a person, "Master of the Universe, only You can save me; no one else can help me," then he can truly anticipate Hashem's salvation. When someone relies on some material means, thinking that if it does not work out, then "Hashem will help" - this can be described as trading in options: there is this option, and if not, there is another option, and the Holy One, blessed be He, is, as it were, on standby, waiting to be called upon. You relied on it? Go to it, Hashem says. But when a person says: "No, Master of the Universe, I place my faith in no one, only in You; only You can help me" - in such a state there is genuine help and deliverance. And that is what Yehoshaphat says: We have no power before this vast horde, and we do not know what to do, for our eyes are upon You. And because our eyes look only to You, that itself is the reason You ought to save us.
The Little Ones, the Wives, and the Children
וְכׇל־יְהוּדָה עֹמְדִים לִפְנֵי ה' גַּם־טַפָּם נְשֵׁיהֶם וּבְנֵיהֶם׃ - And all Judah stood before Hashem, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
How did the little children, the women, and the sons arrive there? The commentary attributed to Rashi explains: as is customary when marauding troops invade the land, everyone flees from their towns to fortified cities. The enemy first raids the surrounding villages, so everyone fled to Jerusalem, which was a fortified city, bringing along the women and little ones, and they all gathered there.
In summary: Chapter 20 opens with armies advancing against Yehudah: the children of Moav, the children of Ammon, and the Meunim - regarding whom the commentators debate whether they were Amalekites in disguise, a distinct nation named Maon, or Ammonites dwelling in Mount Seir. Yehoshafat does not turn to military stratagems; he sets his face to seek Hashem, proclaims a fast throughout all Yehudah, and gathers the people in the House of Hashem before the new courtyard. His prayer is built as a structured progression: There is no lack of ability, for You are God in heaven, and in Your hand are power and might; there is no change of divine will, for You drove out the inhabitants of the land and gave it to the descendants of Avraham Your beloved forever, without dependence on their deeds; and there is no lack of providence, for they built You a Sanctuary and Your Name is upon this House, and You already promised Shlomo that You would hear and save. And finally, the decisive plea: the enemies have no justification whatsoever, while we have neither strength nor counsel, "for our eyes are upon You" - and this itself is the reason for salvation.