2 Chronicles 19:3
Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God.
The words form the second half of the message delivered by Jehu the son of Hanani the seer to Jehoshaphat when he returned to Jerusalem from the disastrous battle at Ramoth-gilead with Ahab. They belong to the rebuke of Jehoshaphat for joining Ahab in going up to Ramoth-gilead after the prophet Micaiah had shown that Heaven did not favor the project, when Ahab was determined to follow his own course and Jehoshaphat kept his word of honor to stand with him in the war. They belong to the aftermath of that battle at Ramoth-gilead in which Ahab was struck by an arrow and died at evening and a proclamation went through the army for every man to return to his own city and country, fulfilling the word of the prophet.
The declaration is that despite his fault in helping the ungodly and loving those who hate the Lord, for which wrath was upon him for his alliance, good could still be found in him. The good things found in him were that he had removed the sacred and idolatrous groves from the land and had prepared his heart to seek God. In this his reforms and his sincere desire for God are commended.
That prepared heart shaped the later years of his reign, which were largely spent strengthening the national and spiritual defenses of Judah by going out again among the people from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim and bringing them back to the Lord God of their fathers. The counsel on just judgment that follows teaches the principle that righteousness exalts a nation.