It came to pass after this also
After Jehoshaphat's return from Ramothgilead, and putting the civil and religious affairs of his people on a better footing, when he might have expected much peace and prosperity:
that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon;
both the descendants of Lot, see ( Psalms 83:8 ) ,
and with them other besides the Ammonites;
a great company of Arabians, according to Josephus F18; or "with the Meamonites", which the Targum understands of the Idumaeans or Edomites; and so do other interpreters, and which they conclude from ( 2 Chronicles 20:10 2 Chronicles 20:22 2 Chronicles 20:23 ) . Jarchi thinks the Amalekites are meant, who were of the race of Edom; but the notion of Kimchi seems best, that these are the people that are so called from the name of a place, Meon, and, by an inversion of letters, the same with the Meunim or Maonites, mentioned along with the Zidonians and Amalekites, ( Judges 10:12 ) and whom the Septuagint version here calls Minaeans; some F19 take them to be such who counterfeited the Ammonites in their apparel and gestures:
these came against Jehoshaphat in battle;
being instigated perhaps by the Syrians, who owed him ill will for assisting Ahab against them at Ramothgilead; for from that quarter they came, as the following verse shows.