2 Chronicles 20:28

And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(28) With psalteries.—So Vulg. Rather, with harps, guitars, and clarions. (Comp. Psalm 47:5-6, which may be supposed to commemorate this procession to the Temple.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:20-30 Jehoshaphat exhorted his troops to firm faith in God. Faith inspires a man with true courage; nor will any thing help more to the establishing of the heart in shaking times, than a firm belief of the power, and mercy, and promise of God. In all our trust in the Lord, and our praises of him, let us especially look at his everlasting mercy to sinners through Jesus Christ. Never was an army so destroyed as that of the enemy. Thus God often makes wicked people destroy one another. And never was a victory celebrated with more solemn thanksgivings.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The valley of Berachah - Probably, the Wady Bereikut, which lies at a short distance from Tekoa toward the northwest.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24-26. when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness—Most probably the conical hill, Jebel Fereidis, or Frank Mountain, from the summit of which they obtained the first view of the scene of slaughter. Jehoshaphat and his people found the field strewed with dead bodies, so that they had not to fight at all, but rather to take possession of an immense booty, the collection of which occupied three days. On the fourth they set out on their return to Jerusalem in the same order and joyful mood as they came. The place where they mustered previous to departure was, from their public thanksgiving service, called, "The Valley of Berachah" ("benediction"), now Wady Bereikut.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

To renew their praises in the court of the temple, the proper and usual place for it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries, and harps, and trumpets,.... The three principal instruments of music used in singing the praises of God; these they played upon as they came to the city, and entered it, and passed through it:

unto the house of the Lord; the temple, there to offer praise and thanksgiving again.

Geneva Study Bible

And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the LORD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

2 Chronicles 20:28

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

On the fourth day the men of Judah gathered themselves together, to give thanks to God the Lord for this blessing, in a valley which thence received the name בּרכה עמק (valley of blessing), and which cannot have been far from the battle-field. Thence they joyfully returned, with Jehoshaphat at their head, to Jerusalem, and went up, the Levites and priests performing solemn music, to the house of God, to render further thanks to the Lord for His wondrous help (2 Chronicles 20:27.). The ancient name בּרכה still exists in the Wady Bereikut, to the west of Tekoa, near the road which leads from Hebron to Jerusalem. "A wide, open valley, and upon its west side, on a small rising ground, are the ruins of Bereikut, which cover from three to four acres" (Robinson's New Biblical Researches, and Phys. Geogr. S. 106; cf. v. de Velde, Memoir, p. 292). Jerome makes mention of the place in Vita Paulae, where he narrates that Paula, standing in supercilio Caphar baruca, looked out thence upon the wide desert, and the former land of Sodom and Gomorrah (cf. Reland, Pal. illustr. pp. 356 and 685). There is no ground, on the other hand, for the identification of the valley of blessing with the upper part of the valley of Kidron, which, according to Joel 3:2, Joel 3:12, received the name of Valley of Jehoshaphat (see on Joel 3:2). - On 2 Chronicles 20:27, cf. Ezra 6:22; Nehemiah 12:43.