Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 15:30
And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.
30. Hoshea the son of Elah ] Josephus ( Ant. IX. 13. 1) says Hoshea was a friend of Pekah. He is mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions (Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, p. 285), and it appears from that record as if he had been set up by the Assyrian king. Perhaps Hoshea, having conspired and slain Pekah, put himself as a vassal under the protection of Assyria. The inscription speaks of the tribute which he was to pay to the Assyrians. Though the death of Pekah is here mentioned we have a further account of his attempts against Judah in the next chapter.
in the twentieth year of Jotham ] As Jotham is said below in verse 33 to have reigned only sixteen years, there must be some mistake in the numbers either here or there. The occurrence of such variations makes the task of fixing the chronology very difficult, and probably no satisfactory solution will be discovered, to the several questions which arise on this subject, until more is known of the contemporary history. If ever the annals of Assyria and Egypt be brought into trustworthy order, the points of contact with Jewish affairs will help to settle some dates and to clear up what seems now irremediably obscure
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Hoshea, the son of Elah – One of Pekahs friends, according to Josephus.
The twentieth year of Jotham – According to 2Ki 15:33 and 2Ch 27:1, Jotham reigned only 16 years. See also the suggestion in the margin. Strangely enough, this first year of Hoshea is also called, not the fourth, but the twelfth of Ahaz 2Ki 17:1. The chronological confusion of the history, as it stands, is striking.
Uzziah – i. e. Azariah. See 2Ki 15:1-4.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 30. Hoshea the son of Elah – in the twentieth year of Jotham] There are many difficulties in the chronology of this place. To reconcile the whole, Calmet says: “Hoshea conspired against Pekah, the twentieth year of the reign of this prince, which was the eighteenth after the beginning of the reign of Jotham, king of Judah. Two years after this, that is, the fourth year of Ahaz, and the twentieth of Jotham, Hoshea made himself master of a part of the kingdom, according to 2Kg 15:30. Finally, the twelfth year of Ahaz, Hoshea had peaceable possession of the whole kingdom, according to 2Kg 17:1.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Smote him, and slew him; which he did more easily effect, because the people were enraged against Pekah, as the man who by his murder of king Pekahiah the son of Menahem, whom the Assyrian monarch set up and favoured, and by his unnecessary war with Ahaz, had brought the Assyrian upon them, and caused the loss of one half of that kingdom.
In the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.
Quest. How could this be, when Jotham reigned only sixteen years, below, 2Ki 15:33?
Answ. The meaning is, that he began his reign in the twentieth year after the beginning of Jothams reign; or, which is the same thing, in the fourth year of Ahaz, son of Jotham, as appears from 2Ki 16:2. But the sacred writer, having not yet made mention of Ahaz, thought it more proper to number Hosheas years by Jotham, of whom he had spoken, than by Ahaz. Besides, as Jotham did reign divers years in his fathers life, so might Ahaz in Jothams life, and Jotham might for divers reasons (which it is needless here to inquire) resign up the administration of the kingdom wholly into Ahazs hands some years before his death, and therefore might be said to reign but sixteen years, though he lived longer.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30. Hoshea the son of Elah made aconspiracy . . . and slew himHe did not, however, obtainpossession of the kingdom till about nine or ten years after theperpetration of this crime [HALES].
in the twentieth year ofJothamJotham’s reign lasted only sixteen years, but themeaning is that the reign of Hoshea began in the twentieth after thebeginning of Jotham’s reign. The sacred historian, having not yetintroduced the name of Ahaz, reckoned the date by Jotham, whom he hadalready mentioned (see 2Ch 27:8).
2Ki15:32-38. JOTHAM’SREIGN OVER JUDAH.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Hoshea the son or Elab made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead,…. Did by him as he had done by Pekahiah, 2Ki 15:28, this was measure for measure, as the Jews say: and this he did
in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah; and yet Jotham is said to reign but sixteen years, 2Ki 15:33, this must be reckoned therefore either from the time of his being viceroy, and judging Israel in his father’s lifetime, 2Ki 15:5 or this was the fourth year of Ahaz, and the twentieth year, reckoning from the time Jotham began to reign, who is the rather mentioned, because as yet the historian had taken no notice of Ahaz.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Pekah met with his death in a conspiracy organized by Hosea the son of Elah, who made himself king “in the twentieth year of Jotham.” There is something very strange in this chronological datum, as Jotham only reigned sixteen years (2Ki 15:33), and Ahaz began to reign in the seventeenth year of Pekah (2Ki 16:1); so that Pekah’s death would fall in the fourth year of Ahaz. The reason for this striking statement can only be found, as Usher has shown (Chronol. sacr. p. 80), in the fact that nothing has yet been said about Jotham’s successor Ahaz, because the reign of Jotham himself is not mentioned till 2Ki 15:32.
(Note: Other attempts to solve this difficulty are either arbitrary and precarious, e.g., the conjectures of the earlier chronologists quoted by Winer ( R. W. s. v. Jotham), or forced, like the notion of Vaihinger in Herzog ‘ s Cycl. (art. Jotham), that the words are to be eliminated as an interpolation, in which case the datum “ in the twentieth year ” becomes perfectly enigmatical; and again the assertion of Hitzig ( Comm. z. Jesaj. pp. 72, 73), that instead of in the twentieth year of Jotham, we should read “ in the twentieth year of Ahaz the son of Jotham, ” which could only be consistently carried out by altering the text of not less than seven passages (viz., 2Ki 15:33; 2Ki 16:1, and 2Ki 16:2, 2Ki 16:17; 2Ch 27:1 and 2Ch 27:8, and 2Ch 28:1); and lastly, the assumption of Thenius, that the words from to have crept into the text through a double mistake of the copyist and an arbitrary alteration of what had been thus falsely written, which is much too complicated to appear at all credible, even if the reasons which are supposed to render it probable had been more forcible and correct than they really are. For the first reason, viz., that the statement in what year of the contemporaneous ruler a king came to the throne is always first given when the history of this king commences, is disproved by 2Ki 1:17; the second, that the name of the king by the year of whose reign the accession of another is defined is invariably introduced with the epithet king of Judah or king of Israel, is shown by 2Ki 12:2 and 2Ki 16:1 to be not in accordance with fact; and the third, that this very king is never described by the introduction of his father ‘ s name, as he is here, except where the intention is to prevent misunderstanding, as in 2Ki 14:1, 2Ki 14:23, or in the case of usurpers without ancestors (2Ki 15:32, 2Ki 16:1 and 2Ki 16:15), is also incorrect in its first portion, for in the case of Amaziah in 2Ki 14:23 there was no misunderstanding to prevent, and even in the case of Joash in 2Ki 14:1 the epithet king of Israel would have been quite sufficient to guard against any misunderstanding.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
30. Twentieth year of Jotham That is, as Usher explains, the twentieth year after Jotham had begun to reign; which was, however, the fourth year of Ahaz, for Jotham reigned only sixteen years. The historian dates from the year of Jotham, because his son Ahaz has not yet been named in his records. But Bahr regards these words as a “false and late addition.” His argument, however, is inconclusive.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 15:30. And Hosea, the son of Elah After Hoshea had murdered his predecessor Pekah, the elders of the land seem to have taken the government into their own hands; for he had not the possession of the kingdom till the latter end of the twelfth year of Ahaz; i.e. nine years after he had committed the fact. He came to the crown, it must be owned, in a very wicked manner; and yet his character in Scripture is not so vile as that of many of his predecessors, chap. 2Ki 17:2. For whereas the kings of Israel had hitherto maintained guards upon the frontiers, to hinder their subjects from going to Jerusalem to worship, Hoshea took away these guards, and gave free liberty to all to go and pay their adoration where the law had directed; and therefore, when Hezekiah had invited all Israel to come to his passover, this prince permitted all that would to go; and when upon their return from that festival, they destroyed all the monuments of idolatry that were found in the kingdom of Samaria, instead of for-bidding them, in all probability he gave his consent to it; because without some tacit encouragement, at least, they could not have ventured to do it.
REFLECTIONS.1st, Terrible was the state of Israel in these last days. Like the convulsions of the body before its dissolution, under judgments unhumbled, by mercies unaffected, uniformly persevering in a course of idolatry; their kings mounting successively to the throne by murder; shook with intestine commotions, spoiled by invading enemies, till, at last, the besom of destruction swept the land.
1. Zachariah, the last of Jehu’s family, began and ended his reign in six months.
2. Shallum, his murderer and successor, had still a shorter space. One month saw his ill-gotten greatness ruined. Menahem revenged his treason and murder upon him, and seized the crown, of which the usurper was dispossessed. Note; Few traitors and murderers die in their beds.
3. Menahem, having climbed into the throne by blood, seeks to secure his seat by the most inhuman barbarity on those who dared to oppose him. Tiphsah, for refusing to open its gates, is, as a terror to others, sacked and ravaged with the most savage fury, even to ripping up the women with child. Yet, cowardly as cruel, he dared not fight the king of Assyria, who invaded him; but at an immense sum, which he levied from his nobles, bought him off, and engaged him to support his wicked government. Note; The more we read of this miserably oppressed and distracted state, the more thankful should we be for the liberty, peace, and security we enjoy under our own mild government.
4. Pekahiah succeeded his father, who died in peace, though a tyrant and usurper. Two years his tottering government continued, when he fell by the conspiracy of his general Pekah, who seized the throne, and reigned in his stead.
5. Twenty years Pekah kept the crown that his treason had secured; but long impunity is no final security. The king of Assyria, though so lately bribed, returned, and seized all Gilead, with part of Naphtali, Zebulon, and Ephraim; and thus half of the ten tribes went into captivity. Whereupon a conspiracy was formed against Pekah, and Hoshea, having murdered him, as he did his predecessor, ventured to wear that crown which had been so fatal to others, and proved as destructive to himself. All these kings concurred in following Jeroboam’s sins, and thereby justified God in these judgments which fell so heavily upon them.
2nd, Jotham, who succeeded his father Uzziah on the throne of Judah; copied his excellencies, and avoided his sins; only the high places remained. His repairing the gate of the Lord’s house shews his respect to the place, and God kept him in peace, it seems, all his days, removing him at the age of forty-one, from the storm which was gathering under the confederacy of the kings of Syria and Israel. Note; (1.) The righteous are taken away from the evil to come. (2.) When God removes a good king from a nation, or a good minister from his flock, they have reason to fear, lest for their sins and unprofitableness the Lord has a controversy against them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Ki 15:30 And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.
Ver. 30. In the twentieth year of Jotham, ] i.e., In the fourth year of Ahaz, to whom Jotham had resigned his kingdom, reserving to himself the title only.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
am 3265, bc 739
made: 2Ki 15:10, 2Ki 15:25
and smote: Hos 10:3, Hos 10:7, Hos 10:15
reigned: “After an anarchy for some years.”
in the twentieth: “In the fourth year of Ahaz, in the twentieth year after Jotham had begun to reign.” – Usher. 2Ki 15:32, 2Ki 15:33, 2Ki 16:1, 2Ki 17:1, 2Ch 28:4-6, 2Ch 28:16, Isa 7:1-9, Isa 8:6
Reciprocal: 1Ki 16:9 – conspired 2Ki 8:15 – so that he died 2Ki 9:14 – conspired 2Ki 14:19 – they made 2Ki 18:1 – in the third 2Ki 21:23 – General 1Ch 3:12 – Azariah Neh 10:23 – Hoshea Isa 7:4 – the two tails Isa 7:16 – the land Isa 9:21 – Ephraim Hos 7:7 – devoured
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 15:30. Hosea made a conspiracy against Pekah, and smote him It is probable that the people were provoked at him for leaving them exposed to a foreign enemy, while he invaded Judah; and that Hosea took advantage of their discontent and disgust to seize and slay him. Thus Pekahs treason and violence returned upon himself at last. And reigned in his stead in the twentieth year of Jotham The meaning is, that he began his reign in the twentieth year after the beginning of Jothams reign; or, which is the same thing, in the fourth year of Ahaz, son of Jotham.