Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 14:23
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, [and reigned] forty and one years.
23 29. Accession of Jeroboam II. king of Israel. His conquests and death (Not in Chronicles)
23. In the fifteenth year of Amaziah ] Cf. verses 1 and 17. Amaziah reigned 29 years, and he lived 15 years after the death of Jehoash king of Israel. Therefore the numbers are in sufficiently close agreement, though we cannot be certain of the position which Amaziah occupied after his defeat by Jehoash at the battle of Beth-shemesh.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Jeroboam – This is the only instance, in the history of either kingdom, of a recurrent royal appellation. We can scarcely doubt that Jeroboam II was named after the great founder of the Israelite kingdom by a father who trusted that he might prove a sort of second founder. Perhaps the prophecy of Jonah (see 2Ki 14:25) had been already given, and it was known that a great deliverance was approaching.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
23. Jeroboam, the son of Joash kingof IsraelThis was Jeroboam II who, on regaining the lostterritory, raised the kingdom to great political power (2Ki14:25), but adhered to the favorite religious policy of theIsraelitish sovereigns (2Ki14:24). While God granted him so great a measure of nationalprosperity and eminence, the reason is expressly stated (2Ki 14:26;2Ki 14:27) to be that thepurposes of the divine covenant forbade as yet the overthrow of thekingdom of the ten tribes (see 2Ki13:23).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah, the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria,…. So that he reigned fourteen or fifteen years contemporary with him; for Amaziah reigned twenty nine years:
[and reigned] forty and one years; Josephus says i forty, giving only the round number.
i Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 9.) c. 10. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Reign of Jeroboam II of Israel. – 2Ki 14:23. The statement that Jeroboam the son of Joash (Jehoash) ascended the throne in the fifteenth year of Amaziah, agrees with 2Ki 14:17, according to which Amaziah outlived Jehoash fifteen years, since Amaziah reigned twenty-nine years. On the other hand, the forty-one years’ duration of his reign does not agree with the statement in 2Ki 15:8, that his son Zachariah did not become king till the thirty-eighth year of Azariah (Uzziah); and therefore Thenius proposes to alter the number 41 into 51, Ewald into 53. For further remarks, see 2Ki 15:8. Jeroboam also adhered firmly to the image-worship of his ancestors, but he raised his kingdom again to great power.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. 24 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher. 26 For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. 27 And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. 28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 29 And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead.
Here is an account of the reign of Jeroboam the second. I doubt it is an indication of the affection and adherence of the house of Jehu to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that they called an heir-apparent to the crown by his name, thinking that an honourable name which in the book of God is infamous and stigmatized as much as any.
I. His reign was long, the longest of all the reigns of the kings of Israel: He reigned forty-one years; yet his contemporary Azariah, the king of Judah, reigned longer, even fifty-two years. This Jeroboam reigned just as long as Asa had done (1 Kings xv. 10), yet one did that which was good and the other that which was evil. We cannot measure men’s characters by the length of their lives or by their outward prosperity. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked.
II. His character was the same with that of the rest of those kings: He did that which was evil (v. 24), for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam; he kept up the worship of the calves, and never left that, thinking there was no harm in it, because it had been the way of all his ancestors and predecessors. But a sin is never the less evil in God’s sight, whatever it is in ours, for its being an ancient usage; and a frivolous plea it will be against doing good, that we have been accustomed to do evil.
III. Yet he prospered more than most of them, for though, in that one thing, he did evil in the sight of the Lord, yet it is likely, in other respects, there was some good found in him and therefore God owned him, 1. By prophecy. He raised up Jonah the son of Amittai, a Galilean (so much were those mistaken that said, Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet, John vii. 52), and by him intimated the purposes of his favour to Israel, notwithstanding their provocations, encouraged him and his kingdom to take up arms for the recovery of their ancient possessions, and (which would contribute not a little to their success) assured them of victory. It is a sign that God has not cast off his people if he continue faithful ministers among them; when Elisha, who strengthened the hands of Joash, was removed, Jonah was sent to encourage his son. Happy is the land that has a succession of prophets running parallel with a succession of princes, that the word of the Lord may endure for ever. Of this Jonah we read much in that little book of scripture that bears his name. It is probable that it was when he was a young man, and fit for such an expedition, that God sent him to Nineveh, and that it was when he had yet been but a little conversant with the visions of God that he flew off and fretted as he did; and, if so, this is an undoubted evidence of the forgiveness of his faults and follies, that he was afterwards employed as a messenger of mercy to Israel. A commission amounts to a pardon, and he that had himself found mercy, notwithstanding his provocations, could the better encourage them with the hope of mercy notwithstanding theirs. Some that have been foolish and passionate, and have gone about their work very awkwardly at first, yet afterwards have proved useful and eminent. Men must not be thrown away for every fault. 2. By providence. The event was according to the word of the Lord: his arms were successful; he restored the coast of Israel, recovered those frontier-towns and countries that lay from Hamath in the north to the sea of the plain, (that is, the sea of Sodom) in the south, all which the Syrians had possessed themselves of, v. 25. Two reasons are here given why God blessed them with those victories:– (1.) Because their distress was very great, which made them the objects of his compassion, v. 26. Though he saw not any signs of their repentance and formation, yet he saw their affliction, that it was very bitter. Those that lived in those countries which the enemies were masters of were miserably oppressed and enslaved, and could call nothing their own; the rest, we may suppose, were much impoverished by the frequent incursions the enemy made upon them to plunder them, and continually terrified by their threatenings, so that there was none shut up or left, both towns and countries were laid waste and stripped of their wealth, and no helper appeared. To this extremity were they reduced, in many parts of the country, in the beginning of Jeroboam’s reign, when God, in mere pity to them, heard the cry of their affliction (for no mention is made here of the cry of their prayers), and wrought this deliverance for them by the hand of Jeroboam. Let those whose case is pitiable take comfort from the divine pity; we read of God’s bowels of mercy (Isa 63:15; Jer 31:20) and that he is full of compassion, Ps. lxxxvi. 15. (2.) Because the decree had not yet gone forth for their utter destruction; he had not as yet said he would blot out the name of Israel (v. 27), and because he had not said it he would not do it. If this be understood of the dispersion of the ten tribes, he did say it and do it, for that name still remains under heaven in the gospel Israel, and will to the end of time; and because they, at present, bore that name which was to have this lasting honour, he showed them this favour, as well as for the sake of the ancient honour of that name, ch. xiii. 23.
IV. Here is the conclusion of Jeroboam’s reign. We read (v. 28) of his might, and how he warred, but (v. 29) he slept with his fathers; for the mightiest must yield to death, and there is no discharge in that war. Many prophets there had been in Israel, a constant succession of them in every age, but none of the prophets had left any of their prophecies in writing till those of this age began to do it, and their prophecies are part of the canon of scripture. It was in the reign of this Jeroboam that Hosea (who continued very long a prophet) began to prophesy, and he was the first that wrote his prophecies; therefore the word of the Lord by him is called the beginning of the word of the Lord, Hos. i. 2. Then that part of the word of the Lord began to be written. At the same time Amos prophesied, and wrote his prophecy, soon afterwards Micah, and then Isaiah, in the days of Ahaz and Hezekiah. Thus God never left himself without witness, but, in the darkest and most degenerate ages of the church, raised up some to be burning and shining lights in it to their own age by their preaching and living, and a few by their writings to reflect light upon us on whom the ends of the world have come.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Jeroboam and Zachariah – 14:23-29
The son of Joash of Israel, who succeeded him as king, is referred to as Jeroboam II by Bible commentators. The Bible simply identifies as Jeroboam the son of Joash in distinction from Jeroboam the son of Nebat, “who made Israel to sin.” This Jeroboam was no better than the earlier kings of his dynasty, that of Jehu. He was a true follower of old Jeroboam I, in that “he did evil in the sight of the Lord: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin” (verse 24).
Jeroboam /l had the longest reign of any king of the northern kingdom, ruling (or misruling) for forty-one years. The historical facts recorded of Jeroboam II’s reign are meager indeed. However, much may be learned of conditions in Israel by reading the books of the prophets who preached during his reign, especially Amos and Hosea. They were prosperous times for the affluent and upper class, but bad for the downtrodden poor, who were abused by the rich. (See examples at Amo 2:6-8; Amo 6:1-6; Hos 4:12-13; etc.).
However Jeroboam was successful at re-defining the frontiers of Israel, from the far north road to Hamath to the sea of the plain (Galilee). This came about through the preaching and prediction of God’s blessing through a well-known prophet, Jonah This is the same prophet Jonah who was swallowed by the great fish when he tried to escape preaching to the great city of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire (see Book of Jonah). The inspired author of Kings says that the Lord looked on Israel’s affliction, and saw there was none to stem the tide. Yet He was merciful and not yet ready to give them up, and so He allowed Jeroboam to recover the lands which the Syrians had taken away.
The assertion in verse 28 that Damascus and Hamath had belonged to Judah is unclear. There is no account of Judah’s having possessed these places in the Scriptures, except that it may refer to time long before when those areas were controlled by David and Solomon, who were of the tribe of Judah, though they ruled over all the tribes. With these notices of Jeroboam II his reign is concluded. He was the fourth in the dynasty of Jehu and was briefly followed by his son, Zachariah.
Learn from these chapters: 1) Many “good” people are lost because they lack perfect hearts in God’s sight; 2) battles in the name of the Lord can be waged without the aid of the world; 3) God’s people may be insulted and threatened for warning the sinners of divine judgment; 4) the Lord is not obligated to bless those who presumptuously sin against Him; 5) rulers without God in their lives may find themselves also without friends among the people; 6) God’s longsuffering is apparent, even through His blessing of ungodly kings for the good of His people.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
2Ki. 14:23. In the fifteenth year, &c., Jeroboam, king of Israel, &c.Israels history resumed. This was Jeroboam II. His reign was marked by idolatry, yet also with great political success (2Ki. 14:25).
2Ki. 14:25. Spake by his servant JonahNot found in the Book of Jonah which we possess.
2Ki. 14:26. There was not any shut up, &c.Comp. Notes on Kings 2Ki. 14:10.
2Ki. 14:27. The Lord said not that He would blot out the name of IsraelThe Divine purposes had not yet announced the obliteration of the ten tribes of the house of Israel.W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki. 14:23-29
NATIONAL PROSPERITYAN OPPORTUNITY FOR NATIONAL REFORM
JEROBOAM reigned longer than any other king of Israel, and soon gave evidence of possessing considerable capacity and energy. He not only checked the Syrian invasion and regained the portions of his kingdom which had been seized by the foe, but carried the war into Syria and overawed Damascus into submission. Adversity having failed to bring back Israel to the true worship of Jehovah, a period of prosperity is granted, with no better result. Instead of tracing the goodness of God in their national blessings, the people are confirmed in their calf-worship, and attribute their successes to the influence of Baal. It is their last opportunity, and they see it not. Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first madden. The subsequent history of Israel is one of decline and disaster, until as a nation it becomes extinct. The long and prosperous reign of Jeroboam II. may be regarded as an opportunity for national reform. Observe
I. That the misfortunes of a nation awaken the Divine compassion. For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter (2Ki. 14:26). The Divine compassion seen
1. In promising help and instruction by a duly authorized messenger. According to the Word of the Lord God of Israel, which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet (2Ki. 14:26). We have no record of the prophecy uttered by Jonah on this occasion, but it doubtless had reference to the victories over the Syrians that would be granted to the arms of Jeroboam, and be accompanied with warnings and instructions to recognise the authority and power of Jehovah. The Lord pitied the ignorance and infatuation of Israel, and the misery which their own sins had brought upon them, and He once more sends His servant to call them to repentance and reformation. A faithful and earnest ministry is a boon to any people, and brings with it a solemn responsibility to all who hear.
2. In suspending the threat of extinction.And the Lord said not that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven (2Ki. 14:27). The idolatry and corruption of Israel merited the punishment of Jehovah, but in mercy He deferred the desolating stroke to give them space for repentance. The time came when the Divine compassion ceased, and the prophets Hosea, Amos, Micah, and others foretold the ruin that fell on Israel with such terrible force. Reprieves are not pardons. The Lord waits to be gracious; but where impenitence continues, the threatened vengeance will surely fall.
3. In providing a competent deliverer.He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam (2Ki. 14:27). Jeroboam was a man of might (2Ki. 14:28), distinguished by personal prowess and military genius, and by those qualities that make the successful statesman and ruler. Though himself an idolater, he is used as an instrument to deliver Israel and raise the nation to an extraordinary height of prosperity. The Lord has His agents planted in unseen and unexpected quarters. They may seem the most unlikely to carry out His purposes, and may themselves be unconscious of the real drift of the work they are permitted and aided to accomplish.
II. That national prosperity is a token of the Divine beneficence. He restored the coast, recovered Damascus (comp. 2Ki. 14:25; 2Ki. 14:28). The dash and enterprise of Jeroboam roused the nation into new life. The success of his arms at the boundaries of his kingdom ensured protection and peace; and the wheels of commerce, once more set in motion, carried prosperity into every part of the land. Confucius has thus portrayed the signs of national prosperity
Where spades grow bright, and idle words grow dull;
Where jails are empty, and where barns are full;
Where Church paths are with frequent feet outworn;
Law court-yards weedy, silent, and forlorn;
Where doctors foot it, and where farmers ride;
Where age abounds and youth is multiplied
Where those signs are, they clearly indicate
A happy people and well-governed State.
Prosperity, like every other blessing, is from God; it is often the severest test applied to the conduct of individuals and of nations. The glitter and glut of prosperity may hide the hand that gives. The heart that adversity could not vitiate has been seduced by the subtle smiles of inconstant prosperity.
III. That national prosperity is abused when it does not lead to national reform. He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam (2Ki. 14:24). As was the king, so were the people. The sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, like a close-fitting Nessus garment, still clung to his idolatrous descendants. The goodness of God, that was intended to lead them to repentance, was misinterpreted as sanctioning and even rewarding their apostacy, and instead of weaning them from their idols, lulled them into a false confidence in the supremacy of Baal. It is sad to see blessings abused, opportunities neglected, warnings disregarded, and a whole nation sinking into the gulf of ruin. How unspeakable is the compassion of Him who observes the follies and sins of mankind, and yet shows Himself more eager to restore than destroy!
LESSONS:
1. That prosperity and adversity are tests of fidelity to principle.
2. An opportunity for reformation comes to every indiridual and every nation.
3. The abuse of opportunity intensifies the inveteracy of evil.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki. 14:25-27. I. Israels deep misery (Jer. 2:19). II. Gods great pity (Psa. 103:10; Hos. 9:8).Lange.
Our faithful God helps us out of trouble, according to His great compassion, even when we have not deserved it of Him; but often not until our distress has reached the highest pitch, and no help is to be expected from any other quarter.
2Ki. 14:25. Jonah must have been prominent among his order in these stormy times, for we find him the counsellor of Jeroboam in a policy of vigour against Syria. Enthusiastically patriotic, the depression of Israel weighed on his heart. But he did not despair of his country even in its darkest hour. It was under the protection of Jehovah, and must rise again, if it repented and returned to its invisible King. With keen insight into the capacity of the new ruler in Samaria, he recognised him as the deliverer promised by God to save His chosen people, and animated him to take the field against the long-dreaded enemy, by the inspired assurance that he would be victorious, and would even extend the narrow limits of Israel well-nigh to the grandeur of Davids empirefrom Hamath, in the northern valley of Lebanon, on the Orontes, to the south of the Dead Sea. That Jonah should have been sent on an errand of mercy to a great heathen city (Nineveh) is specially interesting, as the first prominent expression of the Divine love to all mankind found in the Old Testament. The very harshness and exclusive narrowness of the prophet himself heightens the charm of the narrative. God has pity on the great city, although idolatrous; but Jonah is unwilling to carry a message of love outside his own nation. His very conceptions of the Almighty show the imperfect ideas of his time. He thinks to escape from Him by leaving Palestine for a region beyond the sea. And even when forced on his journey, his Jewish bigotry shows itself in his anger that a heathen population should have averted its threatened doom by a timely repentance.Geikies Hours with the Bible.
2Ki. 14:26-27. Gods unfailing interest in His people.I. He is minutely acquainted with their abject affliction. II. He delays the execution of the judgment their sins deserve. III. He mercifully delivers them from their distress.
2Ki. 14:27. The reign of this king, which was distinguished by so extraordinary a flow of prosperity, increased the religious apostacy, and by consequence the moral degeneracy, of Israel. Under him the corruption of manners became extreme, and laid the foundation for those public calamities which befel the kingdom soon after his demise, and quickly accomplished the destruction of the nation. Hengstenberg observes: The prosperity only confirmed the people still more in their temerity. Instead of being led to repentance by the unmerited mercy of God, they considered this prosperity as a reward of their apostacy, as a seal by which Jehovah-Baal confirmed the rectitude of their ways. The false prophets, too, did what was in their power to strengthen them in their delusion, whilst the true prophets preached to deaf ears. Hengstenberg refers in this last sentence to the emphatic warnings addressed to Jeroboam by Hosea and Amos. Although his whole reign was marked by signal successes, notwithstanding that apostacy, which was usually punished by war and loss of national independence, the wrath of God was denounced against Israel, as well as the destruction of the house of Jeroboam, by the two named prophets, whose writings sufficiently attest the faithful execution of their mission.Jamieson.
2Ki. 14:28-29. Jeroboam had striven for the external prosperity of his people, and when he died, he left the kingdom in a more flourishing condition than any previous king of Israel. For its spiritual welfare, however, he had done nothing. Calf-worship and other service of false gods had continued, and a moral rottenness had found entrance, which brought the kingdom near to ruin. So has many a one at his death left to his children treasures which he has won by long labour and care, but those children have not been bred in the fear and love of God, and have not been taught that the world passeth away, &c. (1Jn. 2:17; 1Pe. 1:24).Lange.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
II. THE HEYDAY PERIOD
14:23-15:7
Israel and Judah achieved their greatest glory under the reigns of Jeroboam II in the North (2Ki. 14:23-29), and Azariah (Uzziah) in the South (2Ki. 15:1-7). This somewhat unexpected turn of events resulted from two factors. About 800 B.C. the Assyrians withdrew to their own territory where they remained politically dormant until 745 B.C. The sacred historian passes over this period somewhat briefly. However, the writings of Jonah, Amos, and Hosea paint a vivid backdrop for the heyday period.
A. THE REIGN OF JEROBOAM II IN ISRAEL 14:2329
TRANSLATION
(23) In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria. He reigned forty-one years. (24) And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not turn from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin. (25) He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath unto the sea of the plain according to the word of the LORD God of Israel which He spoke by the hand of his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gathhepher. (26) For the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter; for there was neither bound nor free, nor was there any helper for Israel. (27) And the LORD did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he delivered them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Joash. (28) Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all which he did, and his might with which he fought, and by which he restored to Israel Damascus and Hamath which belonged to Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? (29) And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son reigned in his place.
COMMENTS
Jeroboam II was perhaps the greatest king of the Northern Kingdom, and yet his reign is passed over with great brevity by the author of Kings. He commenced his reign as sole king in the fifteenth year of the Southern king Amaziah; but many scholars conclude that he had been coregent with his father from the third year of Amaziah (2Ki. 14:23). He, like all the kings of the Jehu dynasty, continued to follow the apostate calf worship, and hence Jeroboam is said to have done evil in the eyes of the Lord (2Ki. 14:24). But the military successes of Jeroboam II were considerable. He was able to restore the borders of Israel as they had been in the earliest days of the Northern Kingdom. The entering of Hamath refers to the high slopes in the valley between the two ranges of the Lebanon mountains, the point at which the mountain streams begin to flow northward to form the Orontes river. Hamath itself would be about eighty-five miles farther north. The sea of the plain is undoubtedly the Dead Sea. The territory recovered no doubt included all the Transjordan area as far south as the river Arnon, the border of Moab. Some think that Moab itself may be included in this general description of the territorial conquests of Jeroboam II.
Thirteenth King of Israel
JEROBOAM II
782 753 B.C.*
(whose people are many)
2Ki. 14:23-29
Synchronism
Jeroboam 1 = Amaziah 15
Contemporary Prophets
Hosea, Jonah, Amos
The froward is an abomination to the Lord: but his secret is with the righteous. Pro. 3:32
*coregent from 793 B.C.
The success of Jeroboam II is attributed to the guidance of Jonah the prophet. This is the same prophet famous for what happened to him as he tried to flee the responsibility to preach the Word in Nineveh. The present passage suggests that Jonah should be dated about 780 B.C., the early part of the reign of Jeroboam II. Gath-hepher, the hometown of Jonah, was located in the tribal territory of Zebulun not far from Mount Tabor. But why did the Lord aid this king who maintained the worship of the calves? The author explains it as being due to the unfathomable compassion of God. God saw the extreme suffering of His people under the Arameans and thus raised up His prophet to give inspired advice and encouragement to Jeroboam in his efforts finally to free Israel from that oppression. The Lord had to help His people, for no other helper was available to them; no other nation was in a position to come to their aid[578] (2Ki. 14:26). Gods decision was not to blot out the name of Israel at this time, although the nation was entirely deserving of such judgment. In His grace He gave the nation a grace-period, an opportunity to repent, an Indian summer before the winter of retributive judgment. He gave to Israel the deliverance promised by Elisha (cf. 2Ki. 13:17) and later by Jonah (2Ki. 14:25)deliverance from the Arameans, recovery of their borders and triumph over their enemies. This deliverance, which began under Jehoash, was brought to a successful completion by Jeroboam II. Thus one Jeroboam founded the kingdom; another refounded it, restored its ancient glories, and gave it its old dimensions (2Ki. 14:27).
[578] On the phrase not any shut up nor any left see 1Ki. 14:10.
The concluding statement about the reign of Jeroboam II brings out more important information about his reign concerning which one might wish that more detail was given. He is said to have recovered Hamath and Damascus,[579] cities which had belonged to Israel during the United Monarchy period under David and for a while under Solomon. He probably was not able to hold these places for long after he conquered them. The phrase in 2Ki. 14:28 which belonged to Judah has occasioned commentators the greatest difficulty. How could Hamath and Damascus be said to have belonged to Judah? Some think the text is hopelessly corrupt and others resort to hermeneutical gymnastics and dubious translations. For the time being the question of the relationship between Judah and the kingdoms of Hamath and Damascus in the north must be left open.
[579] Some try to argue that this verse means nothing more than that Jeroboam was able to recover territories which had been conquered by these powerful kingdoms. Amo. 1:3-4 is sometimes cited as proof that Damascus had an independent existence in the days of Jeroboam. But the prophecy of Amos may have been delivered prior to Jeroboams conquest of the place.
At Jeroboams death he was buried with his fathers in Samaria and his son Zechariah reigned in his place. With the accession of this Zechariah, the prophecy made to Jehu almost ninety years earlier, that his sons would sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation, was fulfilled (2Ki. 14:29).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
THE REIGN OF JEROBOAM II. IN SAMARIA
(2Ki. 14:23-29).
(23) Reigned forty and one years.According to the statement of this verse, Jeroboam reigned fourteen years concurrently with Amaziah, who reigned altogether twenty-nine years (2Ki. 14:2); and thirty-seven years concurrently with Azariah (2Ki. 15:8), so that he reigned altogether not forty-one but fifty-one years. (The discrepancy originated in a confusion of the Hebrew letters , fifty-one, with , forty-one.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
REIGN OF JEROBOAM, THE SON OF JOASH, 2Ki 14:23-29.
23. Forty and one years This is probably an error, and should be fifty-two years. See note on 2Ki 15:8.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Reign Of Jeroboam II, King of Israel c. 782/81-753 BC. Co-regent from 793/2 BC ( 2Ki 14:23-29 ).
Jeroboam II succeeded Jehoash of Israel at a time when Israel’s fortunes were rising. The might of the powerful kingdom of Aram, with its satellites, to the north had been broken by the incursions of the kings of Assyria, who had, however, having destroyed the power of Aram, then necessarily turned elsewhere in order to deal with other threats on their northern borders coming from the growing power of Urartu. Thus Israel, having initially paid light tribute to Assyria under Jehoash, was left free to prosper and expand with little interference. And this it accordingly did. Indeed Jeroboam’s might was such that he expanded the power and influence of Israel over the countries to the north as far as Lebo-Hamath, and to the south in Transjordan as far as the sea of Arabah (the Dead Sea?), while at the same time remaining on good terms with Judah. It was a period of expansionism. This meant that the trade routes (e.g. the King’s Highway in Transjordan, the routes through the valley of Jezreel, the Negeb trade routes, and the port of Elath/Ezion-geber) which were so often a great bone of contention between rival kings in the area, were now mainly under the control of Israel and Judah, resulting in a subsequent rise in prosperity for both. But sadly, as so often, prosperity did not lead to spiritual advancement, and thus in Israel especially, moral bankruptcy set in. The Laws of Moses, with their stern requirement of social justice, were being ignored, and the wealthy were making themselves even more wealthy by grinding down the righteous and the poor. Amos vividly summed it up in the words, “they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes” (Amo 2:6). Thus to the prophetic author the reigns were not a success. Furthermore he could add from the spiritual angle, “you gave the Nazirites (those who were dedicated to YHWH) wine to drink, and commanded the prophets saying, ‘prophesy not’.” No wonder then that he glided over Israel’s ‘achievements’ at this time. It was because he recognised both their temporary nature and their resulting godlessness. In his view their attitudes were rather the result of their commitment to a form of syncretistic idolatry (especially so in the case of Israel, but also to a lesser extent in Judah) and the turning of their backs on YHWH’s covenant. Yet in spite of this he stressed that, despite their unbelief, YHWH had not as yet fully rejected them and had therefore come to their aid in spite of their lack of deserving. It was their last chance as a nation. If only they had responded, how different things might have been. But they did not respond and the opportunity was allowed to slip away.
Analysis.
a
b And he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he made Israel to sin (2Ki 14:24).
c He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of YHWH, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher (2Ki 14:25).
d For YHWH saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter, for there was none shut up nor left at large, neither was there any helper for Israel (2Ki 14:26).
c And YHWH did not say that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash (2Ki 14:27).
b Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? (2Ki 14:28).
a And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son reigned instead of him (2Ki 14:29).
Note that in ‘a’ Jeroboam began to reign and in the parallel his reign ceased. In ‘b’ he did evil in the sight of YHWH and in the parallel his remaining acts can be found in the official annals of the kings of Israel. In ‘c’ he was successful in his conquests in accordance with the words of the prophet of YHWH and in the parallel YHWH used him as a saviour of Israel. Centrally in ‘d’ this was all because YHWH had seen the depths of their need.
2Ki 14:23
‘In the fifteenth year of Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and reigned for forty one years.’
Jeroboam II of Israel came to the throne in the fifteenth year of Amaziah, king of Judah, reigning in Samaria for forty one years. We must, however, differentiate between the two figures. For the fifteenth year of Amaziah was in fact when he became sole king, while the forty one years includes his co-regency with his father.
2Ki 14:24
‘And he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he made Israel to sin.’
But in truth Jeroboam was no better than his fathers, for as they had done he did what was evil in the eyes of YHWH by continuing the syncretistic cult of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. In other words he made no effort to put away the golden calves and return Israel to the true worship of YHWH. So Israel’s major problem was that their ‘Yahwism’ was heavily tainted with idolatrous ideas and customs, with the result that they had the wrong view of Him and took little regard to the covenant with YHWH. Compare Amo 5:21-24. Instead of coming into the blessing of YHWH they were rejecting it.
2Ki 14:25
‘He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of YHWH, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.’
But outwardly Jeroboam’s reign was successful, and this was because YHWH was with him in spite of his undeserving, something evidenced by the fact that He sent His prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai, from Gath-hepher ( a town in Zebulun – Jos 19:13) to prophesy his success. As a result YHWH’s word which was going forth from His mouth was being effective, and accomplishing what He pleased (Isa 55:10-13). That was why Jeroboam was able to expand the northern border of Israel to Lebo-Hamath (the entrance or going in of Hamath). Compare 1Ki 8:65. The city of Lebo-Hamath, witnessed to in inscriptions, was probably modern Lebweh, north-north-east of Baalbek, at the watershed of the Beqa’ Valley, and on the road to Hamath. As a result he absorbed Aram and Damascus by making them his vassals (compare 2Ki 14:28), and even parts of Hamath itself (see 2Ki 14:28). And he expanded his southern border in Transjordan as far as the Sea of Arabah (yam ‘arabim), possibly the ‘brook of the willows’ in Isa 15:7 (nahal ha ‘arabim). If so it would have incorporated Moab and have given Israel complete control of the King’s Highway. Alternatively the Sea of Arabah could be the Dead Sea, which was in the Arabah.
This same Jonah would later be sent by YHWH to Nineveh, probably in the days of Ashur-dan III, when, as a result of a combination of his preaching and his unusual appearance caused by his incarceration for a time in the stomach of a large fish (which would have made him look decidedly unearthly), the consciences of the people were so stirred that they cried to God for mercy (see the Book of Jonah).
2Ki 14:26
‘For YHWH saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter, for there was none shut up nor left at large, neither was there any helper for Israel.’
YHWH provided Jeroboam with this success out of compassion, because He had seen the bitterness of the affliction of Israel, including the fact that things had got totally out of control and that they had no one to help them in their parlous situation. In mind here are the words of Deu 32:36, ‘YHWH will act as judge over His people, and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is none remaining, shut up or left at large (RSV ‘bond or free’).’
‘For there was none shut up nor left at large.’ Along with Deu 32:36 compare 2Ki 9:18; 1Ki 14:10; 1Ki 21:21. In the latter cases the phrase appears to refer to those still under tutors, and those who had grown beyond the need for their control. It may therefore here signify that things had got so bad that all the normal controls had gone. But reference to Deu 32:36 may suggest that it means that it would be as though there was neither bond nor free because all would in the same parlous situation.
2Ki 14:27
‘And YHWH did not say that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.’
And this was because at this stage YHWH had not said that He would blot the name of Israel from under Heaven. Such a thought is taken from Deu 29:20 where YHWH threatened to blot out from under Heaven the name of the one who thought that he could walk in the stubbornness of his heart without any repercussions. Thus YHWH did not see them as having passed the point of no return which was why He had arranged for them a saviour in the person of Jeroboam the son of Joash. First the Assyrians had been their saviour (2Ki 13:4-5), and then Jehoash (2Ki 13:17-19; 2Ki 13:23; 2Ki 13:25) and now Jeroboam. It was YHWH’s last plea to His people.
2Ki 14:28
‘Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which had belonged to Yaudi, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?’
For further details of Jeroboam’s activities and might we are referred to the chronicles of the kings of Israel, with a reminder that these included the ‘recovery’ of Damascus, and the recovery of ‘that part of Hamath which had belonged to Yaudi’. In other words it describes how he made them once again vassal states as they had been under David. Yaudi is mentioned in an Aramaic text from Sam‘al as being a state to the north west of Aram over which it had gained control, something possibly confirmed by the mention of an Azriau of Yaudi in an Assyrian inscription. (Some see ‘Azriau of Yaudi’ as referring to Azariah of Judah, but the names of the allies apparently mentioned in what remains of the annal do not favour that idea, and there are indications that the dating of the annal indicates a later time).
2Ki 14:29
‘And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son reigned instead of him.’
And Jeroboam died peacefully and slept with his fathers, ‘even with the kings of Israel’. Unusually there is no mention of where he was buried, which may help explain the phrase ‘even with the kings of Israel’ which in 2Ki 13:14 indicated being buried in Samaria. This may have been because as YHWH’s saviour the author did not want to describe Jeroboam as ‘buried in Samaria’, which serve to suggest that he saw such a fate as being in total contrast to the privilege of being ‘buried in Jerusalem’. It indicated being buried in pagan ground.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Reigns of Jeroboam King of Israel and Azariah (Uzziah) King of Judah ( 2Ki 14:23 to 2Ki 15:7 ).
The next fourteen verses very much bring out the method and aims of the prophetic author of the Book of Kings. They describe the magnificent reigns of two of the most successful and long lived kings of Israel and Judah, Jeroboam II of Israel and Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah, kings in whose reigns Israel enjoyed wealth, power and prestige which were surpassed only in the days of David and Solomon. And yet they are dealt with summarily in only fourteen verses. Indeed almost the only thing that he tells us about Azariah (Uzziah) is that he was skin-diseased. Had it not been for the prophets Hosea and Amos, and 2 Chronicles 26, we would have known little about their reigns. Why then was this? It was because, having depicted the follies of Solomon, the prophetic author laid no great store in power and glory. In his view Solomon had demonstrated the foolishness of such things. What he was interested in was the activity of YHWH in history, and the obedience or otherwise of YHWH’s people to His covenant, combining that with a recognition of the downward trend of both nations, a trend which was leading them to disaster in spite of YHWH’s continuing efforts to bring them back to Himself. As he looked back he was out to explain what it was that had brought the people of God to such a low ebb. (But he also knew that the last word had not been said, for had not Jehoiachin the son of David been restored to favour in Babylon? (2Ki 25:27-30). Thus the house of David was not yet dead. His lamp was still burning).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jeroboam King of Israel
v. 23. In the fifteenth year of Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. v. 24. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, v. 25. He restored the coast of Israel, v. 26. For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter, v. 27. And the Lord said not, v. 28. Now, the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, v. 29. And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah, his son, reigned in his stead,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
I cannot pass over this verse without remarking the name of this king of Israel. One should have thought that the name of Jeroboam was so detestable that it would have been shunned with horror. Was it in presumption, as if defying the Lord? Alas! to what a state of sin was Israel at this time reduced?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 14:23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, [and reigned] forty and one years.
Ver. 23. And reigned forty and one years. ] This Jeroboam II was a long lived and a victorious prince: so was our Edward III.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
of Israel. Some codices, with one early printed edition, and Septuagint, read “over Israel”.
forty and one years. See note on 2Ki 15:8.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
am 3179-3220, bc 825-784
the fifteenth: 2Ki 14:17
Jeroboam: 2Ki 14:27, Hos 1:1, Amo 1:1, Amo 7:9-11
began to reign: “Now he begins to reign alone.
Reciprocal: 2Ki 10:30 – thy children 1Ch 5:17 – Jeroboam Amo 7:10 – the priest
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 14:23-29. Reign of Jeroboam II.The Deuterono-mistin a short section gives the dry details of Jeroboams reign, the most famous of Israels kings. During his forty-one years he completely freed Israel from the Syrians, and extended his territory from the entering in of Hamath to the Dead Sea. Israels flourishing condition during his reign is depicted by Amos, who saw the hollowness underlying the apparent prosperity of his age. Hamath (Isa 10:9*) lies far N. of the Holy Land, on the Orontes in Syria. It was the limit of the kingdom of David and Solomon (2Sa 8:9, 1Ki 8:65). The words which had belonged to Judah (2Ki 14:28) are very obscure. Burney proposes a bold emendation, and reads instead of Hamath the similar Heb. word wrath: he turned away the wrath of Yahweh against Israel. Amos speaks of Hamath (Amo 6:2*) as an independent kingdom, and its fall in Sennacheribs days deeply impressed Judah (2Ki 18:34).
2Ki 14:25. Jonah the son of Amittai: this prophet can hardly be the author of the Book of Jonah, called the son of Amittai, whose adventures are there related. His native village of Gath-hepher is in the neighbourhood of Nazareth (Jos 19:13). Jonah is mentioned in Tob 14:4-8, but the reading is doubtful. Tobite home was in Naphtali.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
7. Jeroboam II’s evil reign in Israel 14:23-29
Jeroboam II’s reign of 41 years was the longest in Israel’s history (793-753 B.C.). For the first 12 of these years he was coregent with his father Jehoash. [Note: Edwin R. Thiele, "Coregencies and Overlapping Reigns Among the Hebrew Kings," Journal of Biblical Literature 93:12 (1974):192-93.] He began ruling during the reign of Judah’s Jehoash, outlived Jehoash’s successor Amaziah, and died during the reign of Amaziah’s son Azariah (Uzziah).
The writer, whose interests were primarily theological, passed over Jeroboam II’s significant political accomplishments.
"The era of Jeroboam (northern kingdom) and Azariah (southern kingdom) would mark a significant change in the fortunes of God’s people. These would be days of unparalleled prosperity for the twin kingdoms, both economically (as attested by the Samarian Ostraca) and politically." [Note: Patterson and Austel, p. 231.]
Jeroboam II restored Israel’s borders to approximately what they had been in Solomon’s day and extended Israel’s influence over her neighbors to an extent unparalleled in the history of the Northern Kingdom. Hamath lay northeast of Israel, and the Sea of the Arabah was the Salt (Dead) Sea (2Ki 14:25). The prophet Jonah had predicted Israel’s territorial extension. He, along with Hosea (Hos 1:1) and Amos (Amo 1:1), ministered in Israel during Jeroboam II’s reign. Wiseman believed that Jonah visited Nineveh during the reign of Assur-dan III (772-755 B.C.). [Note: Wiseman, p. 249.] Gath-hepher and Nazareth stood on the north and south sides respectively of the same Galilean hill (2Ki 14:25).
2Ki 14:26 means no one escaped from Israel’s previous national affliction in Jeroboam II’s day, neither servants nor free people. This probably means that everyone in Israel was suffering before Jeroboam II began to improve conditions. Damascus and Hamath belonged to Judah under Solomon (2Ki 14:28) in the sense that he controlled them.
Even though Jeroboam had a long and politically impressive career, spiritual conditions in his day were bad. The books of Hosea and Amos throw more light on this period of Israel’s history. Unfaithfulness and selfishness marked the people. For these reasons Yahweh sent very bitter affliction on Israel in Jeroboam II’s reign. Times of material prosperity have usually proved to be more difficult for God’s people to handle successfully than times of adversity.
As Israel declined spiritually, God strengthened Assyria politically and militarily. The two periods of Israel’s greatest decline correspond exactly to the two periods of Assyria’s greatest growth, namely, during the Omride dynasty and shortly after Jeroboam II’s reign. This reflects precisely what God had said He would do if His people forsook Him (Deu 28:1; Deu 28:25; Deu 28:43-44; Deu 28:49-57). One writer correlated Assyria’s rise to power with Israel’s apostasy. [Note: Paul Gilchrist, "Israel’s Apostasy: Catalyst of Assyrian World Conquest," in Israel’s Apostasy and Restoration: Essays in Honor of Roland K. Harrison, pp. 99-113.] The cause and effect relationship is unmistakable.
"With the death of Jeroboam . . . the history of the northern state becomes a tale of unmitigated disaster. Her internal sickness erupting into the open, Israel found herself racked with anarchy at the very moment when she was called upon to face in resurgent Assyria the gravest threat of her entire history. Within twenty-five short years she had been erased from the map." [Note: John Bright, A History of Israel, p. 252.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
elete_me 2Ki 13:10-21
THE DYNASTY OF JEHU
Jehoahaz
814-797
{2Ki 13:1-9}
Joash
797-781
{2Ki 13:10-21; 2Ki 14:8-16}
Jeroboam II
781-740
{2Ki 14:23-29}
Zechariah
740
{2Ki 15:8-12}
“Them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.”
– 1Sa 2:30
ISRAEL had scarcely ever sunk to so low a nadir of degradation as she did in the reign of the son of Jehu. We have already mentioned that some assign to his reign the ghastly story which we have narrated in our sketch of the work of Elisha. It is told in the sixth chapter of the Second Book of Kings, and seems to belong to the reign of Jehoram ben-Ahab; but it may have got displaced from this epoch of yet deeper wretchedness. The accounts of Jehoahaz in 2Ki 13:1-25 are evidently fragmentary and abrupt.
Jehoahaz reigned seventeen years. Naturally, he did not disturb the calf-worship, which, like all his predecessors and successors, he regarded as a perfectly innocent symbolic adoration of Jehovah, whose name he bore and whose service he professed. Why should he do so? It had been established now for more than two centuries. His father, in spite of his passionate and ruthless zeal for Jehovah, had never attempted to disturb it. No prophet-not even Elijah nor Elisha, the practical establishers of his dynasty-had said one word to condemn it. It in no way rested on his conscience as an offence; and the formal condemnation of it by the historian only reflects the more enlightened judgment of the Southern Kingdom and of a later age. But according to the parenthesis which breaks the thread of this kings story, {2Ki 13:5-6} he was guilty of a far more culpable defection from orthodox worship; for in his reign, the Asherah-the tree or pillar of the Tyrian nature-goddess-still remained in Samaria, and therefore must have had its worshippers. How it came there we cannot tell. Jezebel had set it up, {1Ki 16:33} with the connivance of Ahab. Jehu apparently had “put it away” with the great stele of Baal, {2Ki 3:2} but, for some reason or other, he had not destroyed it. It now apparently occupied some public place, a symbol of decadence, and provocative of the wrath of Heaven.
Jehoahaz sank very low. Hazaels savage sword, not content with the devastation of Bashan and Gilead, wasted the west of Israel also in all its borders. The king became a mere vassal of his brutal neighbor at Damascus. So little of the barest semblance of power was left him, that whereas, in the reign of David, Israel could muster an army of eight hundred thousand, and in the reign of Joash, the son and successor of Jehoahaz, Amaziah could hire from Israel one hundred thousand mighty men of valor as mercenaries, Jehoahaz was only allowed to maintain an army of ten chariots, fifty horsemen, and ten thousand infantry! In the picturesque phrase of the historian, “the King of Syria had threshed down Israel to the dust,” in spite of all that Jehoahaz did, or tried to do, and “all his might.” How completely helpless the Israelites were is shown by the fact that their armies could offer no opposition to the free passage of the Syrian troops through their land. Hazael did not regard them as threatening his rear; for, in the reign of Jehoahaz, he marched southwards, took the Philistine city of Gath, and threatened Jerusalem. Joash of Judah could only buy them off with the bribe of all his treasures, and according to the Chronicler they “destroyed all the princes of the people,” and took great spoil to Damascus. {2Ch 24:23}
Where was Elisha? After the anointing of Jehu he vanishes from the scene. Unless the narrative of the siege of Samaria has been displaced, we do not so much as once hear of him for nearly half a century.
The fearful depth of humiliation to which the king was reduced drove him to repentance. Wearied to death of the Syrian oppression of which he was the daily witness, and of the utter misery caused by prowling bands of Ammonites and Moabites-jackals who waited on the Syrian lion-Jehoahaz “besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him, and gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime.” If this indeed refers to events which come out of place in the memoirs of Elisha; and if Jehoahaz ben-Jehu, not Jehoram ben-Ahab, was the king in whose reign the siege of Samaria was so marvellously raised, then Elisha may possibly be the temporary deliverer who is here alluded to. On this supposition we may see a sign of the repentance of Jehoahaz in the shirt of sackcloth which he wore under his robes, as it became visible to his starving people when he rent his clothes on hearing the cannibal instincts which had driven mothers to devour their own children. But the respite must have been brief, since Hazael (2Ki 13:22) oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. If this rearrangement of events be untenable, we must suppose that the repentance of Jehoahaz was only so far accepted, and his prayer so far heard, that the deliverance, which did not come in his own days, came in those of his son and of his grandson.
Of him and of his wretched reign we hear no more; but a very different epoch dawned with the accession of his son Joash, named after the contemporary King of Judah, Joash ben-Ahaziah.
In the Books of Kings and Chronicles Joash of Israel is condemned with the usual refrains about the sins of Jeroboam. No other sin is laid to his charge; and breaking the monotony of reprobation which tells us of every king of Israel without exception that “he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,” Josephus boldly ventures to call him “a good man; and the antithesis to his father.”
He reigned sixteen years. At the beginning of his reign he found his country the despised prey, not only of Syria, but of the paltry neighboring bandit-sheykhs who infested the east of the Jordan; he left it comparatively strong, prosperous, and independent.
In his reign we hear again of Elisha, now a very old man of past eighty years. Nearly half a century had elapsed since the grandfather of Joash had destroyed the house of Ahab at the prophets command. News came to the king that Elisha was sick of a mortal sickness, and he naturally went to visit the death-bed of one who had called his dynasty to the throne, and had in earlier years played so memorable a part in the history of his country. He found the old man dying, and he wept over him, crying, “My father; my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.” {Comp. 2Ki 2:12} The address strikes us with some surprise. Elisha had indeed delivered Samaria more than once when the city had been reduced to direst extremity; but in spite of his prayers and of his presence, the sins of Israel and her kings had rendered this chariot of Israel of very small avail. The names of Ahab, Jehu, Jehoahaz, call up memories of a series of miseries and humiliations which had reduced Israel to the very verge of extinction. For sixty-three years Elisha had been the prophet of Israel; and though his public interpositions had been signal on several occasions, they had not been availing to prevent Ahab from becoming the vassal of Assyria, nor Israel from becoming the appendage of the dominion of that Hazael whom Elisha himself had anointed King of Syria, and who had become of all the enemies of his country the most persistent and the most implacable.
The narrative which follows is very singular. We must give it-as it occurs, with but little apprehension of its exact significance.
Elisha, though Joash “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,” seems to have regarded him with affection. He bade the youth take his bow, and laid his feeble, trembling hands on the strong hands of the king.
Then he ordered an attendant to fling open the lattice, and told the king to shoot eastward towards Gilead, the region whence the bands of Syria made their way over the Jordan. The king shot, and the fire came back into the old prophets eye as he heard the arrow whistle eastward. He cried, “The arrow of Jehovahs deliverance, even the arrow of victory over Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them.” Then he bade the young king to take the sheaf of arrows, and smite towards the ground, as if he was striking down an enemy. Not understanding the significance of the act, the king made the sign of thrice striking the arrows downwards, and then naturally stopped. But Elisha was angry-or at any rate grieved. “You should have smitten five or six times,” he said, “and then you would have smitten Syria to destruction. Now you shall only smite Syria thrice.” The kings fault seems to have been lack of energy and faith.
There are in this story some peculiar elements which it is impossible to explain, but it has one beautiful and striking feature. It tells us of the death – bed of a prophet. Most of Gods greatest prophets have perished amid the hatred of priests and worldlings. The progress of the truth they taught has been “from scaffold to scaffold, and from stake to stake.”
“Careless seems the Great Avenger. Historys pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness twixt old systems and the Word-
Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne;
Yet that scaffold sways the Future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own!”
Now and then, however, as an exception, a great prophetic teacher or reformer escapes the hatred of the priests and of the world, and dies in peace. Savonarola is burnt, Huss is burnt, but Wicliff dies in his bed at Lutterworth, and Luther died in peace at Eisleben. Elijah passed away in storm, and was seen no more. A king comes to weep by the death-bed of the aged Elisha. “For us,” it has been said, “the scene at his bedside contains a lesson of comfort and even encouragement. Let us try to realize it. A man with no material power is dying in the capital of Israel. He is not rich: he holds no office which gives him any immediate control over the actions of men; he has but one weapon-the power of his word. Yet Israels king stands weeping at his bedside-weeping because this inspired messenger of Jehovah is to be taken from him. In him both king and people will lose a mighty support, for this man is a greater strength to Israel than chariots and horsemen are. Joash does well to mourn for him, for he has had courage to wake the nations conscience; the might of his personality has sufficed to turn them in the true direction, and rouse their moral and religious life. Such men as Elisha everywhere and always give a strength to their people above the strength of armies, for the true blessings of a nation are reared on the foundations of its moral force.”
The annals are here interrupted to introduce a posthumous miracle-unlike any other in the whole Bible-wrought by the bones of Elisha. He died, and they buried him, “giving him,” as Josephus says, “a magnificent burial.” As usual, the spring brought with it the marauding bands of Moabites. Some Israelites who were burying a man caught sight of them, and, anxious to escape, thrust the man into the sepulcher of Elisha, which happened to be nearest at hand. But when he was placed in the rocky tomb, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. Doubtless the story rests on some real circumstance. There is, however, something singular in the turn of the original, which says (literally) that the man went and touched the bones of Elisha; and there is proof that the story was told in varying forms, for Josephus says that it was the Moabite plunderers who had killed the man, and that he was thrown by them into Elishas tomb. It is easy to invent moral and spiritual lessons out of this incident, but not so easy to see what lesson is intended by it. Certainly there is not throughout Scripture any other passage which even seems to sanction any suspicions of magic potency in the relics of the dead.
But Elishas symbolic prophecy of deliverance from Syria was amply fulfilled. About this time Hazael had died, and had left his power in the feebler hands of his son Benhadad III. Jehoahaz had not been able to make any way against him, {2Ki 13:3} but Joash his son thrice met and thrice defeated him at Aphek. As a consequence of these victories, he won back all the cities which Hazael had taken from his father on the west of Jordan. The east of Jordan was never recovered. It fell under the shadow of Assyria, and was practically lost forever to the tribes of Israel.
Whether Assyria lent her help to Joash under certain conditions we do not know. Certain it is that from this time the terror of Syria vanishes. The Assyrian king Rammanirari III about this time subjugated all Syria and its king, whom the tablets call Mari, perhaps the same as Benhadad III. In the next reign Damascus itself fell into the power of Jeroboam II, the son of Joash.
One more event, to which we have already alluded, is narrated in the reign of this prosperous and valiant king.
Amity had reigned for a century between Judah and Israel, the result of the politic-impolitic alliance which Jehoshaphat had sanctioned between his son Jehoram and the daughter of Jezebel. It was obviously most desirable that the two small kingdoms should be united as closely as possible by an offensive and defensive alliance. But the bond between them was broken by the overweening vanity of Amaziah ben-Joash of Judah. His victory over the Edomites, and his conquest of Petra, had puffed him up with the mistaken notion that he was a very great man and an invincible warrior. He had the wicked infatuation to kindle an unprovoked war against the Northern Tribes. It was the most wanton of the many instances in which, if Ephraim did not envy Judah, at least Judah vexed Ephraim. Amaziah challenged Joash to come out to battle, that they might look one another in the face. He had not recognized the difference between fighting with and without the sanction of the God of battles.
Joash had on his hands enough of necessary and internecine war to make him more than indifferent to that bloody game. Moreover, as the superior of Amaziah in every way, he saw through his inflated emptiness. He knew that it was the worst possible policy for Judah and Israel to weaken each other in fratricidal war, while Syria threatened their northern and. eastern frontiers, and while the tread of the mighty march of Assyria was echoing ominously in the ears of the nations from afar. Better and kinder feelings may have mingled with these wise convictions. He had no wish to destroy the poor fool who so vaingloriously provoked his superior might. His answer was one of the most crushingly contemptuous pieces of irony which history records, and yet it was eminently kindly and good-humoured: It was meant to save the King of Judah from advancing any further on the path of certain ruin.
“The thistle that was in Lebanon” (such was the apologue which he addressed to his would-be rival) “sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying: Give thy daughter to my son to wife. The cedar took no sort of notice of the thistles ludicrous presumption, but a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by, and trod down the thistle.”
It was the answer of a giant to a dwarf; and to make it quite clear to the humblest comprehension, Joash good-naturedly added:
“You are puffed up with your victory over Edom: glory in this, and stay at home. Why by your vain meddling should you ruin yourself and Judah with you? Keep quiet: I have something else to do than to attend to you.”
Happy had it been for Amaziah if he had taken warning! But vanity is a bad counselor, and folly and self-deception-ill-matched pair-were whirling him to his doom. Seeing that he was bent on his own perdition, Joash took the initiative and marched to Beth-Shemesh, in the territory of Judah. There the kings met, and there Amaziah was hopelessly defeated. His troops fled to their scattered homes, and he fell into the hands of his conqueror. Joash did not care to take any sanguinary revenge; but much as he despised his enemy, he thought it necessary to teach him and Judah the permanent lesson of not again meddling to their own hurt.
He took the captive king with him to Jerusalem, which opened its gates without a blow. We do not know whether, like a Roman conqueror, he entered it through the breach of four hundred cubits which he ordered them to make in the walls, but otherwise he contented himself with spoil which would swell his treasure, and amply compensate for the expenses of the expedition which had been forced upon him. He ransacked Jerusalem for silver and gold; he made Obed-Edom, the treasurer, give up to him all the sacred vessels of the Temple, and all that was worth taking from the palace. He also took hostages-probably from among the number of the kings sons-to secure immunity from further intrusions. It is the first time in Scripture that hostages are mentioned. It is to his credit that he shed no blood, and was even content to leave his defeated challenger with the disgraced phantom of his kingly power, till, fifteen years later, he followed his father to the grave through the red path of murder at the hand of his own subjects.
After this we hear no further records of this vigorous and able king, in whom the characteristics of his grandfather Jehu are reflected in softer outline. He left his son Jeroboam II to continue his career of prosperity, and to advance Israel to a pitch of greatness which she had never yet attained, in which she rivaled the grandeur of the united kingdom in the earlier days of Solomons dominion.