Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 14:25
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 spoke by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which [was] of Gath-hepher.
25. He restored the coast of Israel ] Here, as before, ‘coast’ has no reference to ‘seaboard’. The territory which Jeroboam recovered was on the east of the Jordan, and so what is meant is that he acquired again the portions of Gilead and Bashan that had been lost under previous kings.
from the entering of Hamath ] R.V. entering in of H. This rendering is as in A.V. of 1Ki 8:65 and elsewhere. The ‘entering in of Hamath’ or ‘as men come to Hamath’ is frequently mentioned as a northern limit of the Israelite territory, Hamath being a chief city of Syria and under the rulers of Damascus. Cf. Num 13:21; Num 34:8; Jos 13:5; Jdg 3:3.
unto the sea of the plain ] R.V. of the Arabah. The sea of the Arabah is the Dead Sea. Cf. Deu 3:17; Deu 4:49; Jos 3:16; Jos 12:3. The Arabah is the name given to the valley from the Sea of Galilee southward to the desert. The name is found in A.V. in Jos 18:18, and has been introduced as a proper name in the R.V. constantly. The sea of the Arabah is defined in Jos 3:16 as ‘the salt sea’. The district restored by Jeroboam was on the east of the Jordan, and extended from the valley of the Orontes where Hamath was situated, southward to the frontiers of the Moabites.
the Lord God of Israel ] R.V. the God of I. As usual.
his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai ] This must be the same person to whom the prophecy of Jonah is ascribed, for it is impossible to believe that there were two persons of this name, both prophets and both sons of Amittai. Jonah must therefore have prophesied before (or early in) the reign of Jeroboam II., the commencement of whose reign is placed about b.c. 823. Thus Jonah must be the earliest of those prophets, whose writings have been preserved. That there is nothing in the book of Jonah about the prophecy mentioned in this verse need not surprise us. That book is very brief and deals with but one episode in the prophet’s life. Yet a prophet, whose ministry God employed about distant Nineveh, may certainly be expected to have had messages also for his own countrymen. Hosea (2Ki 1:1) and Amos (2Ki 1:1) also prophesied in the days of Jeroboam II.
which was of Gath-hepher ] The same place is called Gittah-hepher in Jos 19:13. It was not far from Nazareth in the tribe of Zebulon. Jonah therefore was a prophet of the northern Kingdom. Jewish tradition makes him to have been the son of the widow of Zarephath, whom Elijah restored to life, and says also that it was he who attended Elijah when he set forth into the wilderness, and who was sent to anoint Jehu. All which things have no foundation but conjecture.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He restored the coast of Israel – Jeroboam, in the course of his long reign, recovered the old boundaries of the holy land to the north, the east, and the southeast. The entering in of Hamath is spoken of as the northern boundary; the sea of the plain, or the Dead Sea, is the southern boundary (see the marginal references): here Israel adjoined on Moab. The entire tract east of Jordan had been lost to Israel in the reign of Jehu and that of Jehoahaz 2Ki 10:33; 2Ki 13:3, 2Ki 13:25. All this was now recovered: and not only so, but Moab was reduced Amo 6:14, and the Syrians were in their turn forced to submit to the Jews 2Ki 14:28. The northern conquests were perhaps little less important than the eastern 2Ki 14:28.
The word of the Lord … which he spake – Some have found the prophecy of Jonah here alluded to, or a portion of it, in Isa 15:1-9; Isa 16:1-14 (see 2Ki 16:13); but without sufficient grounds.
This passage tends to fix Jonahs date to some period not very late in the reign of Jeroboam II, i. e. (according to the ordinary chronology) from 823 B.C. to 782 B.C. On Gath-hepher, see the marginal reference and note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 25. He restored the coast of Israel] From the description that is here given, it appears that Jeroboam reconquered all the territory that had been taken from the kings of Israel; so that Jeroboam the second left the kingdom as ample as it was when the ten tribes separated under Jeroboam the first.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The entering of Hamath was the northern border of the kingdom of Israel, Num 13:21; 34:8.
Unto the sea of the plain, i.e. unto the Dead Sea, which once was a goodly plain, Gen 13:10, which was their southern border.
Jonah, or Jonas, one of the small prophets; though this prophecy of his be not recorded there; and therefore it is remembered here.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
He restored the coast of Israel,…. The cities upon it, which had been taken away from them by their enemies:
from the entering of Hamath; which was the northern border of the land of Canaan, the entrance into it from Syria, see Nu 34:8,
unto the sea of the plain: of Jordan, called sometimes the salt sea and the Dead Sea; the lake Asphaltites, as Josephus k, where formerly stood Sodom and Gomorrah:
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 same with him whose prophecy among the small prophets bears this name; and though his prophecy concerning Jeroboam’s success and victories is not there, nor anywhere else, recorded at length, yet needed not to be doubted of; this is the first of the prophets spoken of whose books are extant:
which was of Gathhepher; a city in the tribe of Zebulun, Jos 19:13, which contradicts a notion of the Jews, that no prophet came out of Galilee, when the very first of those that were the penmen of the books of prophecies was from thence, see Joh 7:52.
k Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 9.) c. 10. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He brought back ( ), i.e., restored, the boundary of Israel from towards Hamath in the north, to the point to which the kingdom extended in the time of Solomon (1Ki 8:65), to the sea of the Arabah (the present Ghor), i.e., to the Dead Sea (compare Deu 3:17, and Deu 4:49, from which this designation of the southern border of the kingdom of the ten tribes arose), “according to the word of the Lord, which He had spoken through the prophet Jonah,” who had probably used this designation of the southern boundary, which was borrowed from the Pentateuch, in the announcement which he made. The extent of the kingdom of Israel in the reign of Jeroboam is defined in the same manner in Amo 6:14, but instead of the is mentioned, i.e., in all probability the Wady el Ashy, which formed the boundary between Moab and Edom; from which we may see that Jeroboam had also subjugated the Moabites to his kingdom, which is not only rendered probable by 2Ki 3:6., but is also implied in the words that he restored the former boundary of the kingdom of Israel-On the prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai, see the Comm. on Jon 1:1. Gath-hepher, in the tribe of Zebulun, is the present village of Meshed, to the north of Nazareth (see at Jos 19:13).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(25) He restored.Rather, He it was who restored the border, i.e., he wrested out of the hands of the Syrians the territory they had taken from Israel.
From the entering of Hamathi.e., from the point where the territory of Hamath began. This was the originally determined boundary of Israel on the north (comp. Num. 13:21; Num. 34:8; Jos. 13:5), and the prophet Ezekiel specifies it as the future limit (Eze. 47:16; Eze. 48:1). Israels territory first reached this limit under Solomon, who conquered a portion of the Hamathite domains (2Ch. 8:3-4).
The sea of the plaini.e., the Dead Sea (Num. 3:17; Num. 4:49; Jos. 3:16). The whole length of the Dead Sea is included (comp. Amo. 6:14, where virtually the same limits are specified), and the country beyond Jordan. (Comp. Note on 1Ch. 5:17.)
Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet.Comp. Jon. 1:1. Ewald remarks that the activity of this prophet must have occupied a very large field, as tradition connects him with Nineveh. Hitzig and Knobel recognise the prophecy referred to here in Isaiah 15, 16. There is no difficulty in the supposition that Isaiah has adopted and ratified the work of an earlier prophet, as Jeremiah has so often done. (See Cheynes Isaiah, vol. i., p. 93.) But it is easier to prove that these chapters are not Isaiahs, than that they belong to Jonah.
Gath-hepher.Jos. 19:13. The present Meshed, Not far north of Nazareth.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. Restored the coast Reconquered the territory that had been taken at different times from his predecessors, and made the kingdom as extensive as it was in the days of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
Entering of Hamath The northern border of the kingdom of Solomon, (1Ki 8:65,) commonly identified with the southern opening into the great valley of Coele-Syria. See on Jos 13:5.
Sea of the plain The Salt or Dead Sea. Compare Deu 3:17.
Word of the Lord God A communication or oracle granted, notwithstanding the king’s wickedness, for the comfort of Israel.
By the hand of Jonah That is, through his agency or instrumentality. There can be no reasonable doubt that this Jonah, the son of Amittai, is the same prophet whose ministry to the Ninevites is recorded in the prophetical book that bears his name. Josephus says: “Jonah, a prophet, foretold to Jeroboam that he should make war with the Syrians, and conquer their army, and enlarge the bounds of his kingdom on the northern parts to the city of Hamath, and on the southern to the lake Asphaltitis; for the bounds of the Canaanites were originally these, according as Joshua, the general, determined. So Jeroboam organized an expedition against the Syrians, and overran all their country, as Jonah had foretold.”
Gath-hepher The same as Gittah-hepher, in the tribe of Zebulon. See on Jos 19:13.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 14:25. By the hand of his servant Jonah The only mention we have of this prophet is in this passage, and in the account of his famous mission to Nineveh, where we shall say more on the subject. What the prophesies were by which he encouraged Jeroboam to proclaim war against the king of Syria, are nowhere recorded; but as we have not every thing which the prophets did write, so several prophets did not commit their predictions to writing. From this place, however, we may observe that God was very merciful to the Israelites, though a very wicked people, in continuing a race of prophets among them even after Elisha was dead. See Patrick.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Ki 14:25 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 Gathhepher.
Ver. 25. To the sea of the plain. ] Called the salt sea. Deu 3:17
Jonah, the son of Amittai.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
coast = border, or boundary.
entering of Hamath. The pass between Lebanon and Hermon.
the sea of the plain. The Dead Sea.
Jonah. Named by the Lord Jesus (Mat 12:39, Mat 12:40).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
from the entering: Num 13:21, Num 34:7, Num 34:8, Eze 47:16-18, Amo 6:14
unto the sea: Gen 14:3, Deu 3:17
Jonah: Jon 1:1, Mat 12:39, Mat 12:40, Mat 16:4, Jonas
Gathhepher: Jos 19:13, Gittah-hepher
Reciprocal: 1Ki 8:65 – from the entering 1Ki 16:12 – by Jehu the prophet 2Ki 9:36 – by his 2Ki 13:5 – a saviour 2Ki 13:12 – the rest Isa 28:1 – whose Eze 11:10 – in Hos 7:15 – I have Amo 6:13 – Have Hag 1:1 – by Haggai
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 14:25. He restored the coast, &c., from Hamath Which was the northern border of the kingdom of Israel; unto the sea of the plain The Dead sea, which was once a goodly plain, and was their southern border. Which he spake by his servant Jonah Or Jonas; one of the lesser prophets. The only mention that we have of this prophet is in this passage, and in the account of his famous mission to Nineveh, in considering which we shall say more concerning him. What the prophecies were by which he encouraged Jeroboam to proclaim war against the king of Syria, is nowhere recorded. But as we have not every thing which the prophets did write, so several prophets did not commit any of their predictions to writing. From this place, however, we learn, that God was so gracious to the Israelites, wicked as they were, as to continue a race of prophets among them, even after Elijah and Elisha were dead. See Patrick and Dodd. Happy that land which is thus favoured! which has a succession of prophets running parallel with a succession of princes; that the word of the Lord may endure for ever!