2 Chronicles 20 · a question people ask
2 Chronicles 17 says Jehoshaphat took away the high places. How can 20:33 say they were not taken away?
Of the start of his reign, 2 Chronicles says, "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" (17:6). At its close it says, "However the high places were not taken away, and the people had still not set their hearts on the God of their fathers" (20:33) (tap high places). 1 Kings says of him, "However, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places" (1 Kings 22:43). In Hebrew, took away (17:6) and taken away (20:33) are the same verb, sur. 2 Chronicles says something like it of his father Asa, who "took away the foreign altars and the high places" (14:3), while "the high places were not taken away out of Israel" (15:17); chapter 14's honest question sets those verses side by side, and chapter 17's sets 17:6 beside 20:33 as this one does. 20:33 also speaks of the people, who "had still not set their hearts on the God of their fathers" (20:33). In Hebrew, set their hearts is the same verb and noun as Jehu's words to Jehoshaphat, "have set your heart to seek God" (19:3). The Bible doesn't explain how 17:6 and 20:33 fit together, and these notes set them side by side without choosing.
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.”
“However the high places were not taken away, and the people had still not set their hearts on the God of their fathers.”
“He walked in all the way of Asa his father. He didn’t turn away from it, doing that which was right in the LORD’s eyes. However, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.”
“for he took away the foreign altars and the high places, broke down the pillars, cut down the Asherah poles,”