Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 15:8
In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months.
8 12. Zechariah king of Israel. He is slain, after six months, by Shallum, who succeeded him (Not in Chronicles)
8. Zachariah [R.V. Zechariah ] the son of Jeroboam ] This was as is noticed below, in. verse 12, the fourth generation of the family of Jehu. The sovereignty had been promised them no longer.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In the thirty and eighth year – Rather, according to the previous numbers 2Ki 14:23; 2Ki 15:2, the 27th year of Azariah. Some suppose an interregnum between Jeroboam and Zachariah, which, however, is very improbable.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The thirty and eighth year of Azariah; of which See Poole “2Ki 15:2“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8-10. In the thirty and eighth yearof Azariah king of Judah did Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reign overIsraelThere was an interregnum from some unknown cause betweenthe reign of Jeroboam and the accession of his son, which lasted,according to some, for ten or twelve years, according to others, fortwenty-two years, or more. This prince pursued the religious policyof the calf-worship, and his reign was short, being abruptlyterminated by the hand of violence. In his fate was fulfilled theprophecy addressed to Jehu (2Ki10:30; also Ho 1:4), thathis family would possess the throne of Israel for four generations;and accordingly Jehoahaz, Joash, Jehoram, and Zechariah were hissuccessorsbut there his dynasty terminated; and perhaps it was thepublic knowledge of this prediction that prompted the murderousdesign of Shallum.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
In the thirty eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months. Since Azariah began to reign in the twenty seventh of Jeroboam, 2Ki 15:1, and Jeroboam reigned forty one years, 2Ki 14:23, his last year must be the fifteenth or sixteenth of Azariah, in which year Zachariah must have begun to reign, had he immediately succeeded his father in the throne; there must be therefore an interregnum of twenty two years at least, which might be owing to the dissensions among the princes and people about the succession, and a dislike to Zachariah on some account; however, after all, he must reign, though but six months, to fulfil the word of the Lord, see
2Ki 15:12.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Reign of Zachariah of Israel. – 2Ki 15:8. “In the thirty-eighth year of Uzziah, Zachariah the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel six months.” As Jeroboam died in the twenty-seventh year of Uzziah, according to our remarks on 2Ki 14:29, there is an interregnum of eleven years between his death and the ascent of the throne by his son, as almost all the chronologists since the time of Usher have assumed. It is true that this interregnum may be set aside by assuming that Jeroboam reigned fifty-one or fifty-three years instead of forty-one, without the synchronism being altered in consequence. but as it is not very probable that the numeral letters or should be confounded with , and as the conflict for the possession of the throne, which we meet with after the very brief reign of Zachariah, when taken in connection with various allusions in the prophecies of Hosea, rather favours the idea that the anarchy broke out immediately after the death of Jeroboam, we regard the assumption of an interregnum as resting on a better foundation than the removal of the chronological discrepancy by an alteration of the text.
2Ki 15:9-12 Zechariah also persevered in the sin of his fathers in connection with the calf-worship therefore the word of the Lord pronounced upon Jehu (2Ki 10:30) was fulfilled in him. – Shallum the son of Jabesh formed a conspiracy and put him to death , before people, i.e., openly before the eyes of all.
(Note: Ewald in the most marvellous manner has made into a king ( Gesch. iii. p. 598).)
As Israel would not suffer itself to be brought to repentance and to return to the Lord, its God and King, by the manifestations of divine grace in the times of Joash and Jeroboam, any more than by the severe judgments that preceded them, and the earnest admonitions of the prophets Hosea and Amos; the judgment of rejection could not fail eventually to burst forth upon the nation, which so basely despised the grace, long-suffering, and covenant-faithfulness of God. We therefore see the kingdom hasten with rapid steps towards its destruction after the death of Jeroboam. In the sixty-two years between the death of Jeroboam and the conquest of Samaria by Shalmaneser anarchy prevailed twice, in all for the space of twenty years, and six kings followed one another, only one of whom, viz., Menahem, died a natural death, so as to be succeeded by his son upon the throne. The other five were dethroned and murdered by rebels, so that, as Witsius has truly said, with the murder of Zachariah not only was the declaration of Hosea (Hos 1:4) fulfilled, “I visit the blood-guiltiness of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu,” but also the parallel utterance, “and I destroy the kingdom of the house of Israel,” since the monarchy in Israel really ceased with Zachariah. “For the successors of Zachariah were not so much kings as robbers and tyrants, unworthy of the august name of kings, who lost with ignominy the tyranny which they had wickedly acquired, and as wickedly exercised.” – Witsius, . p. 320.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Reigns of Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea. | B. C. 758. |
8 In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months. 9 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 10 And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. 11 And the rest of the acts of Zachariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 12 This was the word of the LORD which he spake unto Jehu, saying, Thy sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation. And so it came to pass. 13 Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of Judah; and he reigned a full month in Samaria. 14 For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. 15 And the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 16 Then Menahem smote Tiphsah, and all that were therein, and the coasts thereof from Tirzah: because they opened not to him, therefore he smote it; and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up. 17 In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria. 18 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 19 And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land: and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. 20 And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land. 21 And the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 22 And Menahem slept with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son reigned in his stead. 23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years. 24 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 25 But Pekah the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king’s house, with Argob and Arieh, and with him fifty men of the Gileadites: and he killed him, and reigned in his room. 26 And the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 27 In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years. 28 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. 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. 31 And the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
The best days of the kingdom of Israel were while the government was in Jehu’s family. In his reign, and the next three reigns, though there were many abominable corruptions and miserable grievances in Israel, yet the crown went in succession, the kings died in their beds, and some care was taken of public affairs; but, now that those days are at an end, the history which we have in these verses of about thirty-three years represents the affairs of that kingdom in the utmost confusion imaginable. Woe to those that were with child (v. 16) and to those that gave suck in those days, for then must needs be great tribulations, when, for the transgression of the land, many were the princes thereof.
I. Let us observe something, in general, concerning these unhappy revolutions and the calamities which must needs attend them–these bad times, as they may truly be called. 1. God had tried the people of Israel both with judgments and mercies, explained and enforced by his servants the prophets, and yet they continued impenitent and unreformed, and therefore God justly brought these miseries upon them, as Moses had warned them. If you will yet walk contrary to me, I will punish you yet seven times more, Lev. xxvi. 21, c. 2. God made good his promise to Jehu, that his sons to the fourth generation after him should sit upon the throne of Israel, which was a greater favour than was shown to any of the royal families either before or after his. God had said it should be so (<i>ch. x. 30) and we are told in this chapter (v. 12) that so it came to pass. See how punctual God is to his promises. These calamities God long designed for Israel, and they deserved them, yet they were not inflicted till that word had taken effect to the full. Thus God rewarded Jehu for his zeal in destroying the worship of Baal and the house of Ahab; and yet, when the measure of the sins of the house of Jehu was full, God avenged upon it the blood then shed, called the blood of Jezreel, Hos. i. 4. 3. All these kings did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, for they walked in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Though at variance with one another, yet in this they agreed, to keep up idolatry, and the people loved to have it so; though they were emptied from vessel to vessel, that taste remained in them, and that scent was not changed. It was sad indeed when their government was so often altered, yet never for the better–that among all those contending interests none of them should think it as much their interest to destroy the calves as others had done to support them. 4. Each of these (except one) conspired against his predecessor, and slew him–Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hoshea, all traitors and murderers, and yet all kings awhile, one of them ten, another twenty, and another nine years; for God may suffer wickedness to prosper and to carry away the wealth and honours awhile, but, sooner or later, blood shall have blood, and he that dealt treacherously shalt be dealt treacherously with. One wicked man is often made a scourge to another, and every wicked man, at length, a ruin to himself. 5. The ambition of the great men made the nation miserable. Here is Tiphsah, a city of Israel, barbarously destroyed, with all the coasts thereof, by one of these pretenders (v. 16), and no doubt it was through blood that each of them waded to the throne, nor could any of these kings perish alone. No land can have greater pests, nor Israel worse troubles, than such men as care not how much the welfare and repose of their country are sacrificed to their revenge and affectation of dominion. 6. While the nation was thus shattered by divisions at home the kings of Assyria, first one (v. 19) and then another (v. 29), came against it and did what they pleased. Nothing does more towards the making of a nation an easy prey to a common enemy than intestine broils and contests for the sovereignty. Happy the land where that is settled. 7. This was the condition of Israel just before they were quite ruined and carried away captive, for that was in the ninth year of Hoshea, the last of these usurpers. If they had, in these days of confusion and perplexity, humbled themselves before God and sought his face, that final destruction might have been prevented; but when God judgeth he will overcome. These factions, the fruit of an evil spirit sent among them, hastened that captivity, for a kingdom thus divided against itself will soon come to desolation.
II. Let us take a short view of the particular reigns.
1. Zachariah, the son of Jeroboam, began to reign in the thirty-eighth year of Azariah, or Uzziah, king of Judah, v. 8. Some of the most critical chronologers reckon that between Jeroboam and his son Zachariah the throne was vacant twenty-two years, others eleven years, through the disturbances and dissensions that were in the kingdom; and then it was not strange that Zachariah was deposed before he was well seated on the throne: he reigned but six months, and then Shallum slew him before the people, perhaps as Caesar was slain in the senate, or he put him to death publicly as a criminal, with the approbation of the people, to whom he had, some way or other, made himself odious; so ended the line of Jehu.
2. But had Shallum peace, who slew his master? No, he had not (v. 13), one month of days measured his reign and then he was cut off; perhaps to this the prophet, who then lived, refers (Hos. v. 7), Now shall a month devour them with their portions. That dominion seldom lasts long which is founded in blood and falsehood. Menahem, either provoked by his crime or animated by his example, soon served him as he had served his master–slew him and reigned in his stead, v. 14. Probably he was general in the army, which then lay encamped at Tirzah, and, hearing of Shallum’s treason and usurpation, hastened to punish it, as Omri did that of Zimri in a like case, 1 Kings xvi. 17.
3. Menahem held the kingdom ten years, v. 17. But, whereas we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel were merciful kings (1 Kings xx. 31), this Menahem (the scandal of his country) was so prodigiously cruel to those of his own nation who hesitated a little at submitting to him that he not only ruined a city, and the coasts thereof, but, forgetting that he himself was born of a woman, ripped up all the women with child, v. 16. We may well wonder that ever it should enter into the heart of any man to be so barbarous, and to be so perfectly lost to humanity itself. By these cruel methods he hoped to strengthen himself and to frighten all others into his interests; but it seems he did not gain his point, for when the king of Assyria came against him, (1.) So little confidence had he in his people that he durst not meet him as an enemy, but was obliged, at a vast expense, to purchase a peace with him. (2.) Such need had he of help to confirm the kingdom in his hand that he made it part of his bargain with him (a bargain which, no doubt, the king of Assyria knew how to make a good hand of another time) that he should assist him against his own subjects that were disaffected to him. The money wherewith he purchased his friendship was a vast sum, no less than 1000 talents of silver (v. 19), which Menahem exacted, it is probable, by military execution, of all the mighty men of wealth, very considerately sparing the poor, and laying the burden (as was fit) on those that were best able to bear it; being raised, it was given to the king of Assyria, as pay for his army, fifty shekels of silver for each man in it. Thus he got clear of the king of Assyria for this time; he staid not to quarter in the land (v. 20), but his army now got so rich a booty with so little trouble that it encouraged them to come again, not long after, when they laid all waste. Thus was he the betrayer of his country that should have been the protector of it.
4. Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, succeeded his father, but reigned only two years, and then was treacherously slain by Pekah, falling under the load both of his own and of his father’s wickedness. It is repeated concerning him as before that he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam. Still this is mentioned, to show that God was righteous in bringing that destruction upon them which came not long after, because they hated to be reformed, v. 24. Pekah, it seems, had some persons of figure in his interest, two of whom are here named (v. 25), and with their help he compassed his design.
5. Pekah, though he got the kingdom by treason, kept it twenty years (v. 27), so long it was before his violent dealing returned upon his own head, but it returned at last. This Pekah, son of Remaliah, (1.) Made himself more considerable abroad than any of these usurpers, for he was, even in the latter end of his time (in the reign of Ahaz, which began in his seventeenth year), a great terror to the kingdom of Judah, as we find, Isa. vii. 1, c. (2.) He lost a great part of his kingdom to the king of Assyria. Several cities are here named (<i>v. 29) which were taken from him, all the land of Gilead on the other side Jordan, and Galilee in the north containing the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon, were seized, and the inhabitants carried captive into Assyria. By this judgment God punished him for his attempt upon Judah and Jerusalem. It was then foretold that within two or three years after he made that attempt, before a child, then born, should be able to cry My father and my mother, the riches of Samaria should be taken away before the king of Assyria (Isa. viii. 4), and here we have the accomplishment of that prediction. (3.) Soon after this he forfeited his life to the resentments of his countrymen, who, it is probable, were disgusted at him for leaving them exposed to a foreign enemy, while he was invading Judah, of which Hoshea took advantage and, to gain his crown, seized his life, slew him, and reigned in his stead. Surely he was fond of a crown indeed who, at this time, would run such a hazard as a traitor did; for the crown of Israel, now that it had lost the choicest of its flowers and jewels, was lined more than ever with thorns, had of late been fatal to all the heads that had worn it, was forfeited to divine justice, and now ready to be laid in the dust–a crown which a wise man would not have taken up in the street, yet Hoshea not only ventured upon it but ventured for it, and it cost him dear.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Wicked Kings – Verses 8-18
Now begins a period of anarchy and unsettled conditions in the northern kingdom of Israel which lasted to its final conquest and resettlement of its people in faraway places. In the space of about two years, from the thirty-seventh to the thirty-ninth years of the reign of Azariah (Uzziah) in Judah, Israel had three kings and suffered murder, rebellion, and all kinds of strife. The whirlwind of their long-continuing worship of idols and the calves of Jeroboam, was reaping the winds of anguish and agony (Hos 8:5-14).
Upon the death of Jeroboam II, his son Zachariah became king, but reigned only six months. His reign was characterized like all his predecessors, “evil in the sight of the Lord,” “departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” He was the last member of Jehu’s family to ascend Israel’s throne. When Jehu became king of Israel and slew the house of Ahab the Lord promised him his descendants would rule on Israel’s throne to the fourth generation (2Ki 10:30). And so from Jehu there were Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam 11, and Zachariah, in whom the line ran out. God verified His word (Num 23:19).
A man named Shallum raised a conspiracy against Zachariah and assassinated him before a crowd of people, who must have been accomplices to the king’s murder. Shallum set himself up as king in Samaria, but was unable to maintain his position. At the end of one full month a stronger anarchist, in the person of Menahem came against him and slew him there in Samaria. Menahem was from Tirzah, the early capital of the northern kingdom before Omri built Samaria. This city was in one of the narrow eastern valleys running down to the plain of Jordan, a few miles east of Samaria, in the tribe of Manasseh. Nothing good is said of Shallum, though he is one of the few who are not likened to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
Menahem was a ruthless hoodlum. The city of Tiphsah was attacked by him because it refused to receive him. Its inhabitants were slaughtered, the pregnant women ripped open. There was a city named Tiphsah on the west bank of the upper Euphrates River, hundreds of miles from Samaria, which commentators suggest is the place meant here. However, this seems unlikely to this writer, inasmuch as Israel lacked the strength for such a campaign, militarily, and also because the context seems to link it to the campaign to subdue the environs of Tirzah.
Menahem succeeded in setting himself up as king, ruling for a period of ten years. He is accorded the same character analysis as his predecessors: “evil in the sight of the Lord … departed not from the sins of Jeroboam.” As Amos and Hosea had foretold Israel is in the denouement of its existence, approaching its ultimate doom.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
2Ki. 15:10. Assassination of Zachariah by the conspirator ShallumThe compound word rendered before the people, would seem to record a public act of regicide to which the populace offered no resistance. But Dr. H. Gratz reals it as in Ibleam (i.e., a town in the plains of Jezreel). Yet naturally mean what the text records, although Gratz notes that the A. V. is ungrammatical. The Sept. translate thus: .
2Ki. 15:12. This was the word of the Lord unto Jehu; so it came to passSee chap. 2Ki. 10:30. Thus Jehus dynasty perished ignominiously, and the verity of Gods pledge was vindicated equally with the severity of Gods judgments.
2Ki. 15:19. King of Assyria came against the land; and Menahem gave talents that he might confirm the kingdom in his handThis was the first effort by a king of Israel to ensure his own throne by purchase of protection from a foreign power. Hosea denounced it (Hos. 5:13; Hos. 7:11; Hos. 10:6). It opened the pathway which led onwards to Israels doom. Protection from a mighty nation issues in oppression by them. And 2Ki. 15:19 leads forward inevitably to 2Ki. 15:29. the king of Assyria carried them captive to Assyria.
2Ki. 15:29. Tiglath-pileser king of AssyriaHe was the successor of Pul (2Ki. 15:19). Smiths translation of the cuneiform inscriptions gives the name as Taklat-pel-ashir, which may mean Lord of the Tigris; but this is uncertain. His annals and the records of his expedition into Syria have been found at Nimroud, but his genealogy is not given; and as this is the only instance of silence concerning a kings pedigree it is supposed he was a usurper.
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki. 15:8-31
THE UNMISTAKABLE SIGNS OF NATIONAL DECAY AND RUIN
I. Seen in rapid and violent dynastic changes.During the tranquil and prosperous reigns of Uzziah and Jotham in Judah, the kingdom of Israel was plunged into anarchy and civil war, as in the days of Omri; and no less than six different monarchs occupied the throne, one of them retaining the throne only for a single month. Of the five kings after Jeroboam, only one died upon his bed. As Kitto puts it, the history sounds much like thisB murdered A and reigned in his stead; C murdered B and reigned in his stead; D murdered C and reigned in his stead; E murdered D and reigned in his stead.
Ay, sir, our ancient crown, in these wild times
Oft stood upon a castthe gamesters ducat,
So often staked and lost, and then regained,
Scarce knew so many hazards.
The Spanish Father.
No nation can be permanent where the governing power is unstable, commerce is paralysed, life imperilled, and the national spirit broken.
II. Seen in the prevalence of tyranny and bloodshed (2Ki. 15:16-20).Menahem waded to the throne through a stream of blood. One district refusing to recognize him, he compelled submission by the perpetration of the most horrible cruelties. To buy off an attack from the Assyrians, he exacted heavy sums of money from his people. When a nation is drained of its life-blood by civil discord, and of its wealth by a foreign power, its final doom is not very distant.
III. Seen in the powerlessness of the nation to repel invasion (2Ki. 15:19; 2Ki. 15:29). It is at this point of the history we first come in sight of the great Assyrian power that is to play so important a part in the future destiny of the Jewish nationa presage of the catastrophe which was finished fifty yearn later. Menahem, though a bold warrior, knew it was madness to cope with a power so formidable, and bribed the Assyrian to withdraw by offering tribute. But in the days of Pekah the Assyrian was not so easily pacified. He ravaged the kingdom east of the Jordan, and swept away the tribes of that region into captivity; and, such was the enfeebled condition of the nation, it does not appear that Pekah made the least resistance. The steps of the process now going on with Israel have often been repeated in history. The first danger is averted by a bribe, which only serves as a temptation to new aggression. Each new attack leaves the doomed state weaker and weaker, till it is reduced to tribute; and at last a despairing effort to shake off the yoke brings down destruction. It is a noble sight to see a brave nation struggling for life and independence against a superior force; but Israel had become so demoralised that the spirit of resistance was crushed, and, for the most part, they submitted to their fate with supine indifference.
LESSONS:
1. The nations that abandon God will be abandoned by Him.
2. The ruler who uses his power for his own aggrandisement and pleasure lives in constant peril, and perishes without any to mourn his loss.
3. The sins and follies of one nation are punished by another.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki. 15:8-31. The five kings who followed Zechariah persevered in the sins of Jeroboam, which was, from the very commencement of the kingdom, the germ of its ruin. It is to them that the prophets words applyThey have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew it not (Hos. 8:4). Only one of them died a natural death and left the succession to his son, who, in his turn, could only retain the sceptre for a short time. Of the others, each one killed his predecessor in order to gain the throne, the authority of which was, in the meantime, shattered by these commotions. One of the most important factors in the history of this period is the conflict with the rising Assyrian monarchy, which came to assist the internal dissension in hurrying the nation to its downfall. Assyria was destined, in the purpose of God, to be the instrument for inflicting the long-threatened judgment.Witsius.
Rulers who seized power by force and violence have never been the deliverers and protectors of their people, but rather tyrants who led it to its ruin. In one demagogue, says Luther, there are hidden ten tyrants. As is the master, so is the servant; as is the head, so are the members. A succession of rulers, who attained the throne by conspiracy, revolt, perjury, and murder, is the surest sign, not only that there is something rotten in the state, but also that there is nothing sound in the nation. The corruption in Israel extended, in the first place, from the head downwards. Jeroboam made Israel to sin. Then it came from below upwards. The rebels and murderers who came to the throne, came from the people. These kings were so hostile that the one killed the other; but they were of one accord in abandoning Jehovah and persevering in the sin of Jeroboam. This was the cause of their ruin. When there is no fear of God in the heart, then the door is open to every sin and vice.
2Ki. 15:10. The public assassination of a monarchI. Readily accomplished if he is. unpopular. II. Reveals the demoralization of the times. III. Increases rather than diminishes the public calamities. IV. Exposes the assassin to a similar fate (2Ki. 15:14).
Smote him before the people openly and impudentlywhich he presumed to do, either because he remembered that the prophecy of the kingdom made to Jehu was confined to the fourth generation (chap. 2Ki. 10:30), which he observed to be now expired, or because he perceived that the people were generally disaffected to their king and favourable to his attempt.Pool.
2Ki. 15:12. The inflexible fidelity of the Divine WordI. Is based on the unchangeableness of the Divine nature. II. Is frequently illustrated by facts of history. III. Is a source of strength to the obedient, and of wholesome fear to the wicked.
God keepeth promise with His foes: shall He fail with His friends?Trapp.
This was an actual confirmation of the declaration in the fundamental law of Israel, that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generations (Exo. 20:5; Exo. 24:7; Deu. 5:9)that is, the sin against the first and chief commandment: Thou shalt have none other gods before me. This commandment was the foundation of the covenant with Israel, and the centre of the Israelitish nationality. The meaning is, that the sin of Jeroboam will not be permitted by God to run on beyond the third or fourth generation. No dynasty in Israel which followed the sin of Jeroboam lasted for more than three or four generations. The house of Jeroboam, like that of Baasha and Menahem, perished with its first members; the house of Omri with its third; and the house of Jehu with its fourth. Zimri, Shallum, Pehah, and Hosea died without successors; while the house of David remained without long interruption upon the throne. Although single kings in the line were guilty of apostacy, yet the sin was never continued until the second generation.Lange.
2Ki. 15:16. The barbarities of revenge. I. Indicate a debased and brutal nature. II. May terrify into submission, but cannot command genuine obedience. III. An unstable foundation on which to build a throne (2Ki. 15:17). IV. Reveal the coward when confronted with a superior power (2Ki. 15:19).
2Ki. 15:19. The instrument of Divine retribution. I. A time for solemn reflection when its shadow first crosses our path. II. It is vain to think it can be bribed with money. III. Soon demonstrates the pitilessness of its power (2Ki. 15:29).
The tie that had bound Samaria to Assyria from the reign of Jehu to that of Jeroboam II. had ceased to exist during a period of Assyrian depression. Menahem now renewed it, undertaking the duties of a tributory, and expecting the support and assistance which the great paramount state of Asia was accustomed to lend to her dependencies in their struggles with their neighbours. Hence the reproaches of Hosea, who sees in the submission of Ephraim an unfaithful reliance on an arm of flesh, which was at once foolish and wicked (Hos. 5:13; Hos. 7:11; Hos. 8:9).Speakers Comm.
Now for the first time appeared on the Eastern horizon that great power which for a hundred years was the scourge of Asia. The ancient empire of Assyria, possibly repressed for the time by the dominion of Solomon, rose on its fall, and was henceforth intermingled with all the good and evil fortunes of the kingdom of Israel. Already in the reign of Jehu her influence began to be felt. His name is to be read on the black obelisk which records the tributes offered to Shalmaneser I. in the form of gold and silver and articles manufactured in gold. The destruction of Damascus by Jeroboam II. brought the two powers of Israel and Assyria into close contact; there was now no intervening kingdom to act as a breakwater. Long before its actual irruption the rise of the new power is noted by the prophets. Jonah had already traversed the desert and seen that great Nineveh. Amos had already, though without naming it, foretold that a people should arise which should crush the powerful empire of Jeroboam from end to end, and sees the nations one by one swept into captivity. Hosea brings out the danger more definitely, sometimes naming it, sometimes speaking of it only under the form of the contentions king. The wakeful ear of Isaiah catches the sound of the irresistible advance of the Assyrian armies; their savage warfare, their strange language, the speed of their march, their indefatigable energy, their arrows sharp, their bows bent, their horses hoofs like flint, and their chariots like a whirlwind.Stanley.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
I. ISRAEL SUBMITS TO ASSYRIA 15:1631
The heyday period for Israel ended abruptly with the death of Jeroboam II. In the period from 753722 B.C. Israel had six kings representing five dynasties. In 2Ki. 15:8-31 five of these kings are discussed: (1) Zechariah (2Ki. 15:8-12); (2) Shallum (2Ki. 15:13-15); (3) Menahem (2Ki. 15:16-22); (4) Pekahiah (2Ki. 15:23-26); and (5) Pekah(2Ki. 15:27-31).
A. THE SIX-MONTH REIGN OF ZECHARIAH 15:812
TRANSLATION
(8) In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months. (9) And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD just as his fathers had done; he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who caused Israel to sin. (10) And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people; and he slew him, and reigned in his place. (11) Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. (12) This was the word of the LORD which he had spoken unto Jehu, saying, Sons to the fourth generation shall sit for you upon the throne of Israel. And so it came to pass.
Fourteenth King of Israel
ZECHARIAH BEN JEROBOAM
753 B.C.
(Yahweh has remembered)
2Ki. 15:8-12
Synchronism
Zechariah = Uzziah 38
Contemporary Prophet
Hosea
Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way but wickedness over-throweth the sinners. Pro. 13:6
COMMENTS
In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah (Uzziah), i.e., 753 B.C., Zechariah, the last king of the Jehu dynasty began to reign in the North (2Ki. 15:8). Because he failed to remove the calf cult from his kingdom, he is labeled as a king who did what was evil (2Ki. 15:9). After a reign of but six months Zechariah was openly and publicly slain by Shallum the son of Jabesh (2Ki. 15:10). The fact that Zechariah succeeded to the throne at all was a fulfillment of promises made to the founder of that dynasty, Jehu. To that king God had given assurance that his sons would hold the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. Jehu was succeeded by his son Jehoahaz who in turn was followed by Jehoash, Jeroboam II and finally Zechariah. In more recent years the doom of the Jehu dynasty had been pronounced by Hosea (Hos. 1:4) and Amos (Amo. 7:9).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(8-16) THE REIGNS OF ZACHARIAH AND SHALLUM IN SAMARIA.
(8) In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah.This agrees with the assumption that Jeroboam reigned fifty-one years (2Ki. 14:23).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
REIGN OF ZACHARIAH, KING OF ISRAEL, 2Ki 15:8-12.
8. The thirty and eighth year of Azariah According to 2Ki 14:23, Jeroboam began to reign in Amaziah’s fifteenth year, and as he reigned forty-one years, he must have died in Uzziah’s twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh year. Hence there must have been an interregnum in the kingdom of Israel of about eleven years, from the twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh to the thirty-eighth of Uzziah; or else, as is more probable, Jeroboam reigned not forty-one, but fifty-two or fifty-three years. This is further shown by the concurring dates given in 2Ki 15:13; 2Ki 15:17 ; 2Ki 15:23; 2Ki 15:27.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Reign Of Zechariah King of Israel c.753-752 BC.
By the time of Zechariah the prophets Amos and Hosea were in full flow denouncing the sins of Israel, and to some extent those of Judah. From this point on Israel would sink lower and lower until its existence as a nation would itself be terminated. The reign of Zechariah was to be brief and would bring to an end the dynasty of Jehu, and from now on Israel would have a motley variety of kings only one of whom would die naturally. The reign of Jeroboam had offered them their last chance.
Analysis.
a
b And he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, as his fathers had done. He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he made Israel to sin (2Ki 15:9).
c And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him publicly (before people), and slew him, and reigned instead of him (2Ki 15:10).
b Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel (2Ki 15:11).
a This was the word of YHWH which he spoke to Jehu, saying, “Your sons to the fourth generation will sit upon the throne of Israel. And so it came about (2Ki 15:12).
Note that in ‘a’ Zechariah reigned, and in the parallel it was seen as fulfilling YHWH’s word that Jehu’s sons to the fourth generation would sit on the throne. In ‘b’ his behaviour is described and in the parallel we are referred to the official annals of the kings of Israel for his other acts. Central in ‘c’ is that fact that he was removed in a coup and assassinated by Shallum the son of Jabesh, who reigned instead of him.
2Ki 15:8
‘In the thirty eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria for six months.’
The dating for Azariah is calculated from when he became co-regent. Zechariah, son of Jeroboam, son of Jehu, became king and reigned for a mere six months.
2Ki 15:9
‘And he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, as his fathers had done. He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he made Israel to sin.’
He continued the policy of his fathers in allowing the syncretistic cult of Jeroboam to continue, the cult that had resulted in the watering down of Yahwism as described in Amos and Hosea, and therefore the lax morals of the people.
2Ki 15:10
‘And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him publicly (‘before people’), and slew him, and reigned instead of him.’
It is clear that Shallum and his fellow conspirators must have been awaiting the death of Jeroboam before striking, Zechariah possibly having revealed his inadequacy and stirred up antagonism in a period of co-regency, or if not co-regency in some kind of authoritative position. Or it may well be that, as in the days of Solomon, the extensive building projects of Jeroboam at for example Tirzah and Megiddo, which involved much conscription and slave labour, and the expansionist wars taking them away from their land and their homes, had disillusioned the people. Only the rich had grown richer. The poor had grown poorer. That Shallum’s was a local conspiracy comes out in what follows. Even though carried out in public it did not have the support of the people as a whole outside of Samaria. Thus while Shallum slew him and reigned instead of him it would only be for a month.
2Ki 15:11
‘Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.’
The remainder of the acts of Zechariah could be discovered from the official annals of the kings of Israel. They would clearly not be many.
2Ki 15:12
‘This was the word of YHWH which he spoke to Jehu, saying, “Your sons to the fourth generation will sit upon the throne of Israel. And so it came about.’
But the important thing about the reign of Zechariah in the prophetic author’s eyes was that if brought about the fulfilment of YHWH’s word that Jehu’s sons would sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. At this point YHWH’s purpose had been fulfilled, and Jehu’s house therefore lost its God-given immunity. It would have required repentance and a seeking after YHWH for Zechariah to survive. The clear inference here is of YHWH’s continual watch over the kings of Israel. History was under His control.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Zachariah and Shallum in Israel
v. 8. In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah, king of Judah, v. 9. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done, v. 10. And Shallum, the son of Jabesh, conspired against him, and smote him before the people, v. 11. And the rest of the acts of Zachariah, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
v. 12. This was the word of the Lord which He spake unto Jehu, saying, Thy sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation. And so it came to pass. v. 13. Shallum, the son of Jabesh, began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah, king of Judah; and he reigned a full month in Samaria, v. 14. For Menahem, the son of Gadi, v. 15. And the rest of the acts of Shallum,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
I bring the whole into this compass, not only for the sake of brevity, but because the observations which are suited to one reign more or less will suit them all. Short as this chapter is, the events of it include a period of near 70 years; in which we have a succession of monarchs short in their lives, short in their reign, and for the most part full of evil. If the Reader feels disposed to examine into the length of each, a short calculation will soon enable him to ascertain the whole. But what I would chiefly beg my Reader to remark on the occasion is, the goodness of the Lord in watching over Israel, notwithstanding their rebellion, by the ministry of his servants the prophets. Hosea’s whole volume is a succession of Sermons, delivered, as the title page tells us, in the days of Uzziah and Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash king of Israel. Hos 1:1 . Isaiah prophesied at much the same time. Joel and Amos were also contemporaries in this service. The Lord sent his servants rising early, and speaking, though they would not hear; and therefore he brought evil upon them in a progressive way, from one calamity to another, until the captivity of Babylon, which put a period to the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. But Reader! one sweet thought ariseth to relieve the mind of the believer under all; and that is, the ruin of kingdoms, and monarchies, the putting down one and setting up another, was all intended as preparatory to that glorious event when He should come, whose kingdom should be an everlasting kingdom, and his empire, which should never be destroyed. When by events the most unpromising, and according to human ideas impossible, the stone should be cut out of the mountain without hands; and the God of heaven, even our Father, should raise up, in the house of David, his Son Jesus, and send him to bless his people in turning away everyone of them from their iniquities. Hail, blessed Jesus! in thee we see that precious promise fulfilled; In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt, and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land; whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. Dan 2:44-45 ; Act 3:25-26 ; Isa 19:24-25 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 15:8 In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months.
Ver. 8. Six months. ] So soon God despatched him out of the way, and with him the whole house of Jehu, for their great wickedness.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
thirty and eight year. Compare with 2Ki 14:29. Jeroboam died in the fourteenth year of Azariah (or Uzziah). There must have been an interregnum of twenty-four years. See App-50and comments on 2Ki 15:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Zachariah
(Jah has remembered)
2Ki 15:8-12
Contemporary Prophet: Amos.
Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way: but wickedness overthroweth the sinner.-Pro 13:6
In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months. There appears to be (from a comparison of dates) a period unaccounted for, of about eleven years, between Jeroboams death and the beginning of his son Zachariahs reign. This is not surprising when we see what quickly followed his accession to the throne. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.
Anarchy probably prevailed during the above-noted interregnum. Hosea, whose prophecy dates about this time (as regards Israel, see Hos 1:1), seems to allude frequently to this season of lawlessness and revolution. See his prophecy, chaps. 7:7; 10:3, 7; 13:10-the last of these reads in the New Translation, Where then is thy king? etc. The people were probably unwilling to have Zachariah succeed his father to the throne. He appears to have been quite unpopular with the mass of the nation, for Shallum slew him without fear before the people. But God has said next to nothing as to this parenthetic period, and we dare not say more. To speculate here would be worse than folly, since Gods wisdom has chosen to give us no record of it; and where no useful end is gained, He always hides from the gaze of the curious the sins and errors of His people. Contemporary Scripture-dates, however, show that such an interval must have elapsed between the close of Jeroboams and the beginning of his sons reign, though God has passed over the interregnum in silence.24
The assassination of Zachariah ended the dynasty of Jehu, five generations in all, and extending over a period of more than a hundred years. But at last God avenged the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu (Hos 1:4). Gods eyes were upon the sinful kingdom (Amo 9:8), and its sinful kings; and from the time of Jeroboams death, declension set in, ending, less than seventy years later, in its final overthrow and dissolution. Prophetic ministry was from this time greatly increased. Such is the way of our gracious God, an unknown writer says, that when judgment is near to approach, then testimony is multiplied. How much it was needed in Israel the prophecies of Hosea and Amos abundantly testify.
And the rest of the acts of Zachariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. This was the word of the Lord, which He spake unto Jehu, saying, Thy sons shall sit upon the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation. And so it came to pass. And thus was it written by the prophet, At daybreak shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off (Hos 10:15, N. Tr.).
Zachariahs name- Jah has remembered-was strikingly significant. God did not forget the wholesale slaughter of men-many of them, perhaps, better than their executioner. Though a century had passed, Jah remembered, and made the inevitable inquisition for blood, upon the fifth and final member of the murderers succession.
24 The English laws of to-day do not recognize the validity of Charles the Firsts deposition and execution, nor that of any laws in Parliament or decisions delivered by judges between 1641 and 1660. That whole period of nineteen years is treated as a legal blank, and Charles the Seconds reign is counted in the statute-book from his fathers death-no reckoning being made of Oliver Cromwells sovereignty.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
am 3231, bc 773
the thirty: “There having been an interregnum for eleven years.” 2Ki 15:1, 2Ki 14:16, 2Ki 14:17, 2Ki 14:21
Zachariah: 2Ki 14:29
Reciprocal: 2Ki 10:30 – thy children 2Ki 15:27 – the two Pro 28:2 – the transgression Amo 7:9 – I will
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 15:8-38. Last Kings of Israel.Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam, reigned but six months (2Ki 15:8), and was killed by Shallum, probably, as LXX (L) reads, in Ibleam, instead of the Heb., which is doubtfully rendered before the people (2Ki 15:10). After a month 2Ki 15:8 reign Shallum was killed by Menahem (2Ki 15:14-22).
2Ki 15:19. Pul, the king of Assyria, has been identified with Tiglath-pileser III (58f., 70f.), who ravaged Northern Israel (2Ki 15:29). This is the first direct mention of an Assyrian king by name in the Bible. Menahems name occurs in an Assyrian inscription 738 B.C.
2Ki 15:20. The tribute was exacted from the wealthy men (AV renders mighty men of valour, the last word, both in Heb. and English, having the twofold meaning of bravery and property).
2Ki 15:23. Menahems son, Pekahiah, after a short reign was murdered by Pekah, who is also mentioned in Tiglath-pilesers annals under 733 B.C.
2Ki 15:29. The district ravaged by the Assyrians (p. 29) corresponds with that attacked by Ben-hadad of Syria (1Ki 15:20). Pekah had made an alliance with Rezin of Syria against Judah (2Ki 16:5, Isaiah 7 and Isa 9:1).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
15:8 In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six {d} months.
(d) He was the fourth in descent from Jehu, who reigned according to God’s promise, but in him God began to execute his wrath against the house of Jehu.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
9. Zechariah’s evil reign in Israel 15:8-12
Zechariah reigned only six months (753-752 B.C.) before his successor Shallum assassinated him. Zechariah was the fourth and last king of Jehu’s dynasty (2Ki 15:12; cf. 2Ki 10:30). The fact that the people made Shallum king after he killed Zechariah suggests that Zechariah was not popular.
"Zechariah’s reign also is noteworthy in that it begins an era of intrigue. Shallum becomes the first person of this current era to come to power through conspiracy and assassination." [Note: House, p. 329.]
"The death of this last king of the dynasty of Jehu (2Ki 15:12) saw the end of the Northern Kingdom proper. In the last twenty years six rulers were to follow each other, but only one was to die naturally. Anarchy, rivalry and regicide led to terminal bloodshed which fulfilled Hosea’s prophecies (2Ki 1:4)." [Note: Wiseman, p. 252.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
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.