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2 Chronicles 17 · a question people ask

Does "his heart was lifted up" mean Jehoshaphat was proud?

In the text

The verse reads, "His heart was lifted up in the ways of the LORD" (17:6) (tap lifted up). The WEB uses the same English twice more in 2 Chronicles, and both times the verse tells of wrong: of Uzziah, "But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly" (26:16), and of Hezekiah, "because his heart was lifted up. Therefore there was wrath on him, Judah, and Jerusalem" (32:25), who then "humbled himself for the pride of his heart" (32:26). In Hebrew all three have the same verb, gavah, with libbo, his heart. Brown-Driver-Briggs gives the verb as "be high, exalted", and Strong's as "to soar, i.e. be lofty; figuratively, to be haughty". In 17:6 the words go with "in the ways of the LORD", and the verse goes on, "Furthermore, he took away the high places and the Asherah poles out of Judah" (17:6). The text doesn't say more about what the words mean here, and these notes don't.

The verses

“His heart was lifted up in the ways of the LORD. Furthermore, he took away the high places and the Asherah poles out of Judah.”
2 Chronicles 17:6 · World English Bible
“But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly and he trespassed against the LORD his God, for he went into the LORD’s temple to burn incense on the altar of incense.”
2 Chronicles 26:16 · World English Bible
“But Hezekiah didn’t reciprocate appropriate to the benefit done for him, because his heart was lifted up. Therefore there was wrath on him, Judah, and Jerusalem. However, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the LORD’s wrath didn’t come on them in the days of Hezekiah.”
2 Chronicles 32:25-26 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Chronicles 17

2 Chronicles 17: Teachers in every city

In the third year of his reign Jehoshaphat sent princes, with Levites and priests, through all the cities of Judah, "having the book of the LORD’s law with them" (17:9). 1 Kings' account of his reign doesn't tell it, and the Hebrew verb for teach there, lamad, comes in 2 Chronicles only in this chapter.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions