And from the land he exterminated the remnant of the male cult prostitutes who remained in the days of his father Asa.
The closing summary of Jehoshaphat's reign includes one line about a clean-up job. He cleared out of the land a group his father Asa had left behind. Two questions sit inside it — who these people were, and why a good king's reform had left any of them standing.
Who they were
Older translations call them "sodomites." The ESV calls them "male cult prostitutes." One writer asks what the Hebrew word means, and rejects a gentler reading of it:
William KellyFew serious readers will agree with the idea that the Hebrew word means a holy woman or seer. Far more likely is the usual view: it means a "consecration" to the corrupt Astarte, or Venus, of early and later idolatry. Besides, those who hold the other view do not try to account for the masculine form of the word, which occurs in Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Kings 22:46 and 2 Kings 23:7. Can it be argued that holy men, or seers, are meant here? If that form plainly means a class of people of terrible moral corruption, the argument for the other meaning falls apart. Both are forms of the same word, and the idea of holiness, or consecration, of course runs through both. Terrible to say, prostitution was an almost universal part of what pagans called holy!
So this was not only a moral scandal. It was worship. That is why removing these men counts as a reform, not just a police action.
Why any were left
The verse says they had remained "in the days of his father Asa" — yet Asa is also credited with sweeping evil out of Judah. One commentator holds these accounts together, and points to the people:
Henri L. RossierAll this can easily be explained. Let us remember that God never contradicts Himself. Under the reign of these kings, purification had been only partial and temporary. Evil sprang up again everywhere, because the conscience of the people had never really been reached.
The same writer accounts for the pattern by distinguishing the king's own resolve from the state of the people. A reform can be real at the top and still stall below:
Henri L. RossierThis only proves that at the beginning of his reign Jehoshaphat undertook to abolish them and maintained this personally; but the people, whose consciences had not been reached, quickly fell back into these idolatrous practices.
Why Kings records it
The two books that tell this reign measure different things:
Henri L. RossierChronicles emphasizes grace as the only means of keeping the royal line going at a time when the kingdom was in complete decline. It always highlights the good which grace has produced, even if only for a moment, and shows that grace covers a multitude of sins. It is different when it is a matter of responsibility, as in the book of Kings. Then God reveals the evil in its full extent and shows us why it was necessary to execute judgment.
A real reform, but not a thorough one
Jehoshaphat cleared out what Asa left, but he did not clear out everything. One writer compares his zeal with that of later kings:
Leslie M. GrantHowever, he allowed the high places of worship to remain, where the people offered sacrifices and burned incense… Hezekiah later had the spiritual energy to remove the high places (2 Kings 18:4). Yet the high places came back, and Josiah defiled the ones where the priests had burned incense (2 Kings 23:8). But Jehoshaphat did not have the same godly zeal as Josiah.
The proof that the root survived
Jehoshaphat's clean-up did not settle the matter for good. Generations later another king had to deal with the same evil:
Leslie M. GrantJosiah broke down the houses of the Sodomites that were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. How bold wickedness had become, to invade the house of the Lord like this!
What is left standing does not stay small:
Samuel RidoutAn enemy half conquered is an enemy unconquered. Unless you completely overthrow the power of evil that would keep you from one corner of your inheritance, you will find that enemy come up again. You may hold him down for a time, make him pay tribute, and treat him as a lesser thing. Still, if the enemy is not really a conquered enemy, he will conquer us one day.
Summary
- Remnant. The word behind "sodomites" carries the idea of consecration — but to the corrupt worship of Astarte, not to God. Impurity had a place inside religion itself.
- Remained. Asa's reform was real, yet some were left. Kings records what was left because Kings deals with responsibility. Chronicles highlights the good that grace produced.
- Removed. Jehoshaphat finished what his father started, and Scripture credits him for it. One generation can clear out what the last one allowed to stay.
- Retained. He also left the high places standing. Hezekiah and Josiah later went further than he did.
- Returned. By Josiah's day the same evil had moved into the house of the Lord itself. An enemy half conquered is an enemy unconquered.