ON his return from a campaign, in which he had so nearly lost his life, JEHOSHAPHAT was sternly rebuked by one of the prophets (2 Chr. xix. 2) for the guilty alliance he had formed with the court of Israel, and he resolved henceforth to devote himself to the spiritual and temporal welfare of his own subjects. Accordingly he went on a second personal tour through his dominions from Beer-sheba to Mount Ephraim, and strove to reclaim his people to the worship of Jehovah. He also provided for the better administration of justice; placed judges in all the fenced cities, and remodelled the tribunals in his capital. He next turned his attention to foreign commerce, and at Ezion-geber constructed a fleet for the purpose of trading in gold with Ophir. In this project he was aided by AHAZIAH, who had succeeded Ahab on the throne of Israel. But the unfortunate issue of the enterprise determined him to decline the proposal of his ally, that the attempt should be renewed (2 Chr. xx. 37; 1 K. xxii. 49, 50). The remainder of his reign was not, however, destined to be peaceful. A vast host of the people of Moab, Ammon, and Edom invaded his territory, and encamped at Hazazon-tamar or En-gedi[375]. In his alarm, Jehoshaphat proclaimed a solemn fast throughout his kingdom, assembled all Judah together with their wives and their children, and offered up a pathetic petition for the Divine aid. He had hardly concluded, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel a Levite, and one of the sons of Asaph then in attendance at the Temple, commissioning him to assure the pious king of a victory on the morrow, which he would only need to stand still and see. A Psalm of thanksgiving[376] was straightway sung, and on the morrow the army, preceded by choirs of Levites, left the Holy City, and at about 12 hours’ distance from Jerusalem came to “the uneven table-land” of Tekoa, _Tekûa_, abounding in hidden caverns, clefts, and excavations[377], where David and his men had often hidden during the period of his wanderings. It was not a locality adapted to the “sons of the desert,” and the ambushments, for which it afforded so much opportunity, sadly galled their wild hordes, and the children of Ammon and Moab turned their swords against their allies from Mount Seir, and then fell upon one another. On reaching the Watch-tower of Tekoa the warriors of Judah beheld only a mass of dead bodies, and busied themselves for three days in stripping them of their rich ornaments, and gathering up the riches and jewels they had flung away in their hasty flight. Four days afterwards a Psalm of thanksgiving once more ascended to Jehovah from the valley of Berachah (_blessing_)[378], and the army of Jehoshaphat returned in triumph to Jerusalem (2 Chr. xx. 26–28).