Matthew Henry on 2 Chronicles 19:5–end
Jehoshaphat, having done what he could to make his people good, is here providing, if possible, to keep them so by the influence of a settled magistracy. He had sent preachers among them, to instruct them (Ch2 17:7-9), and that provision did well; but now he saw it further requisite to send judges among them, to see the laws put in execution, and to be a terror to evil-doers. It is probable that there were judges up and down the country before, but either they neglected their business or the people slighted them, so that the end of the institution was not answered; and therefore it was necessary it should be new-modelled, new men employed, and a new charge given them. That is it which is her…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Chronicles 19:5
HIS INSTRUCTIONS TO THE JUDGES. (Ch2 19:5-7)
he set judges in the land--There had been judicial courts established at an early period. But Jehoshaphat was the first king who modified these institutions according to the circumstances of the now fragmentary kingdom of Judah. He fixed local courts in each of the fortified cities, these being the provincial capitals of every district (see on Deu 16:18).
Adam Clarke on 2 Chronicles 19:6
Take heed what ye do - A very solemn and very necessary caution; judges should feel themselves in the place of God, and judge as those who know they shall be judged for their judgments.
John Gill on 2 Chronicles 19:6
And said to the judges, take heed what you do,.... In judgment, that they judged righteous judgment according to the law of God, without partiality and respect of persons:
for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord; not for man only, but for the Lord; and not so much for man as for the Lord, whom they represented in judgment; whose law was the rule of their judgment, and whose glory their end, and to whom they were accountable:
who is with you in the judgment: as to guide and direct you, so to observe how they behaved, and be a witness for or against them; the Targum is,"ye judge not before men, but before the Word of the Lord, whose Shechinah dwells with you in the affair of judgment.''
