2 Chronicles 11:17

So they strengthened... three years — i.e., during the first three years of the reign. “There is no ground for suspecting the antiquity of this record. On the contrary, it is antecedently probable that the pressure from the north occasioned a proportionally greater earnestness in the religious life of the southern kingdom, and that the former was weakened and the latter strengthened by the migration” (Bertheau). This will explain also Jeroboam’s abstention from molesting his rival’s territory. (See Note on 2 Chronicles 11:10.)

For three years. — Literally, for they walked... for three years. The reason of the strengthening.

They (i.e., the people of Judah) walked in the way of David and Solomon — i.e., served Jehovah according to the system of worship enacted by those monarchs. The countenance which Solomon in his old age gave to foreign religions is here again ignored by the chronicler.

What happened after the three years of faithfulness is told in 2 Chronicles 12. Here follow