Amaziah was twenty-five years old [when] he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, yet not with a perfect heart.
Amaziah's reign is summed up in one line. The second half of that line undoes the first: he did right, but only up to a point. Commentators ask what that half-verdict means. They also ask how a man who begins by obeying God's law ends up bowing to the gods of a people he had just beaten.
(The ESV reads "yet not with a whole heart." Older translations read "not with a perfect heart.")
Amaziah's father Joash ended badly, so a son who did right at all was worth noticing. One writer draws proof from the contrast. Good example cannot change a bad nature, so a good son after a bad father is God's own work.
When an evil-doing son follows a righteous father, it is proof that righteous example or teaching does not make an evil nature good... But sometimes a righteous son follows a wicked father. When such a son does what is right in the sight of the Lord, it is proof that God has stepped in with the power of His grace. So here Amaziah, who did right, follows Joash his father, who at the last did wickedly. It was a little brightness for Judah, but only for a short time.
The record does not doubt that Amaziah did the right thing. The reservation is about his heart, and it comes from the One who can see that deep.
He did what was right in the sight of the LORD. But the Lord looks deeper and knows the heart of man. He knew that it was "not with a perfect heart." He dealt out justice to the murderers of his father, and also kept closely to the law of God.
One writer points to the model Amaziah chose. He copied the nearest king instead of the founding one.
To guide his conduct, Amaziah should have gone back to where the kingship began. He should have looked to the conduct of David, the king according to God's heart. No doubt David had failed badly in his life, and he had to undergo severe discipline for it. But when it came to the Lord's service and the throne of God among His people, David's heart had always been upright. Amaziah followed the footsteps of his father Joash. Joash's life fell into two very distinct periods: one of true godliness, the other of a decline that stood out all the more because its beginnings had been so bright.
His first act as king was to execute his father's assassins. But he spared their children, because the law of Moses said he must.
He made a good beginning by keeping so closely to the law. Happy would it have been for him and for his kingdom if he had continued as he began.
The flaw showed when Amaziah organised his army. He paid a hundred talents to hire a hundred thousand fighting men from Israel, the northern kingdom. A prophet told him to send them home.
So he strengthened himself in a human way. He also had a hired army. Mercenaries served him — a strange thing for a king of Judah... For these mercenaries were Israel. How fallen were both — Judah to hire, and Israel to be hired. The only thing they agreed in was indifference to God.
He did obey the prophet. But one writer notices what steadied him: the prophet promised he would lose nothing.
The prophet removes his anxiety. "The LORD is able to give you much more than this." God rewards his obedience, imperfect as it is. He gives him victory over Edom... But the prophet had assured him that he would not lose his hundred talents. If that promise was part of why he obeyed God's command, his obedience was not with a perfect heart.
The half-heartedness did not stay small. Victory over Edom became the occasion of his collapse.
Amaziah, up to a certain point, walks with God, but in weakness and with an unsteady step. He leans on an arm of flesh, but he listens to the prophet, and this saves him from defeat... The victory he had won over Edom lifted him up. He takes the gods of Seir — gods that could not deliver their own people — and bows down before them. He then turns a deaf ear to the prophet who rebukes him.
- Grace starts it. A good son after a bad father is not the fruit of upbringing. He is the fruit of God stepping in — which makes a wasted start sadder still.
- God grades deeper. The act was right, but God held back part of His approval. He reads the heart behind the deed, not the deed alone.
- The model matters. Amaziah copied his father instead of David. So he inherited a divided life, not an upright one.
- The heart shows in the alliances. A half heart hires human strength — and finds obedience easiest when it costs nothing.
- The half heart finishes badly. Weak steps become borrowed gods and a deaf ear to God's warning. Verse 2 is not a mild criticism; it is the beginning of the end.
And it came to pass when the kingdom was established unto him, that he killed his servants who had smitten the king his father.
Amaziah became king of Judah in the shadow of a murder: his father Joash had died at the hands of his own servants. This verse records the moment he was strong enough to punish them, and it raises two questions: why the delay, and was this justice or revenge?
Amaziah could not act at once. Power had to be settled in his hand first. One writer, quoting an older translation of the verse, reads that detail as a report on the nation Amaziah inherited:
"As soon as the kingdom was confirmed in his hand" seems to imply that the affairs of the state were somewhat unsettled when his father died. What follows confirms this.
Scripture also records who the mothers of these servants were:
Note that Joash was killed by his own servants. One of them was the son of an Ammonite woman, the other the son of a Moabite woman. This is a solemn, silent comment by Scripture on the disobedience that could not only allow such marriages, strictly forbidden in the Scriptures, but could even bring their children to serve at court.
Killing the assassins counts to Amaziah's credit. One writer turns that credit into a question for the reader:
Amaziah deserves praise on a second point: he killed his servants who had struck down the king his father. He did not let evil go unpunished in the area of his own responsibility. At least in this, he understood what Solomon understood when he became king. To tolerate crime and evil was to make himself liable for it. Few people understand this question of liability today. Most Christians feel they are not guilty when they tolerate evil in the circle they belong to. They think their responsibility is met if they keep clear of evil themselves. This is a serious error, and sooner or later it bears its sad fruits!
This was justice, not revenge, because of where Amaziah stopped. He spared the killers' children, because a written command told him to:
There again, Amaziah shows an intelligent respect for the Word of God. The Lord had given this commandment in Deuteronomy 24:16. Amaziah governed himself by it, with the obedient heart that God asks of everyone who hears and reads His Word.
Behind the killing of Joash lies an older crime. Joash had killed a man named Zechariah, and one writer sees God's hand in what came back on Joash:
Joash was righteously requited for the killing of Zechariah; the Lord required it of him, so that man is individually responsible and righteously judged, while every event, even the smallest, is in His hand to control and direct as He pleases. How can man dare to pass judgment on such wisdom as this? Rather let us bow our heads and adore.
A son who does right after a father who ended badly shows the hand of God. But the good start did not last:
But when a son does what is right in the sight of the Lord even in such circumstances — a righteous son coming after a wicked father — that is proof that God has stepped in with the power of His grace. So here Amaziah, who did right, comes after Joash his father, who in the end did wickedly. It was a little brightness for Judah, but only for a short time. For "he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart." And before he died, the little brightness passed away. Treachery at home dealt with him as it had with his father.
Knapp's comment on this opening act carries the whole reign in one line: he made a good beginning by holding closely to the law, and "happy would it have been for him and for his kingdom had he continued as he began."
- Established. Amaziah could not act until the throne was firm. The delay hints that his father's death left the kingdom unsettled.
- Repaid. The murder he avenged was itself God's answer to Joash's killing of Zechariah — every event, even the smallest, is in God's hand.
- Responsible. He refused to let crime stand in his own sphere. Keeping clear of evil yourself is not the whole of your responsibility.
- Restrained. He spared the killers' children. The written Word, not his own will, set the limit.
- Unfinished. A right beginning is not a whole heart. Amaziah did right, but not with a whole heart, and treachery at home closed his reign as it had his father's.
But their children he did not put to death, but [did] according to that which is written in the law in the book of Moses, wherein Jehovah commanded saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, nor shall the children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Amaziah gathered Judah together and arranged them according to the fathers' houses, according to the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, throughout Judah and Benjamin; and he numbered them from twenty years old and upwards, and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able for military service, that could handle spear and target.
Amaziah's reign starts with a headcount. The throne is his at last, so he organises Judah and Benjamin into an army and counts three hundred thousand men. The muster looks efficient, even obedient. But the rest of the chapter asks a harder question: can a king count his soldiers and still forget to ask his God?
Amaziah's father was murdered. Amaziah took the throne over a nation that needed pulling back together, and one writer finds a hint of that in the wording of verse 3.
The words "as soon as the royal power was firmly his own" appear to imply that things were unsettled at his father's death. What follows confirms this thought. He began to reorganize the scattered army.
Amaziah did not invent these details. Commanders over thousands and hundreds, family groups, every man of twenty and over — this is how Israel's army had always been arranged. And the army was not really his.
Remember that Israel were the hosts of Jehovah, keeping His charge and fighting His battles (Ex. 12:41; Joshua 5:14). It seems that everyone who reached the age of twenty counted as able to bear arms (Num. 1:3). They marched and camped in four divisions of three tribes each, with a captain over every tribe. The army was divided into thousands and hundreds (Num. 31:14), and into families (Joshua 7:17). There were also trumpet calls (Num. 10:9; cf. 1 Cor. 14:8), and every sign of careful organisation.
So Amaziah counted by the book. What the verse never mentions is any word from God about the war he was preparing for.
Amaziah had the energy to gather an army from Judah to go to war against Edom, but one thing is badly missing here. It was right to fight Edom. Yet in all conflict we should first consult the Lord, and Amaziah did not do this. He knew enough about Scripture to number only those who were 20 years or older, and he found he had an army of 300,000 (v. 5). But he made the blunder of hiring 100,000 warriors from Israel to back up the men of Judah (v. 6). He should have asked the Lord first about such a project, but he did not.
One writer sees the same muster differently: a king gathering Judah to build himself up.
He strengthened himself in a human way. He also had a hired army. Mercenaries served him — a strange thing for a king of Judah.
The chapter opens with its own verdict on Amaziah. Everything you could count was in order. What God alone could see was not.
He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. But the Lord looks deeper and knows the human heart, and He knew that it was "not with a whole heart." He dealt out justice to his father's murderers, and he also kept close to the law of God... He gathered a large army and hired 100,000 mighty men from the kingdom of Israel. It was a hasty deed. It showed that Amaziah was not acting in faith.
Amaziah's opening moves still earn real praise.
Amaziah begins well. He did well in not killing the children of his father's murderers. He did well in appointing captains over thousands and over hundreds throughout all Judah and Benjamin. But when he hired soldiers out of Israel, it was not well.
- Counted. With the kingdom secure, Amaziah organised a scattered nation into an army of 300,000. It was a real and needed act of order.
- Copied. The commanders of thousands and hundreds, the family groups and the age of twenty follow the old pattern for an army that was Jehovah's host, fighting His battles.
- Unasked. Amaziah knew enough Scripture to count correctly. He never asked the Lord about the war itself, and in all conflict we should consult the Lord first.
- Borrowed. Then he hired a hundred thousand fighting men from Israel. Mercenaries served a king of Judah — a strange thing, and a blunder.
- Divided. He did what was right, but God looks deeper and saw a heart that was not whole. A good beginning turned into a hasty deed done without faith.
He hired also a hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver.
Amaziah has just counted his own army — three hundred thousand men of Judah and Benjamin. Then he reaches across the border to buy a hundred thousand more from Israel, the northern kingdom, the ten tribes that had left David's line and turned to idols. He paid the silver and hired the men, but he never asked God.
The war Amaziah planned against Edom was not itself wrong. What was missing came before it.
Amaziah had energy to gather an army from Judah to make war on Edom, but one thing is painfully missing. It was right to fight Edom. Yet in all conflict we should first consult the Lord, and Amaziah did not. He knew enough about scripture to number only those who were 20 years or older, and found he had an army of 300,000 (v. 5). But he made the blunder of hiring 100,000 warriors from Israel to support the men of Judah (v. 6).
Another writer turns the same failure into a question for every plan.
It was a hasty deed and showed that Amaziah was not acting in faith. A man of God appeared next and warned him to have nothing to do with the 100,000 hirelings, "for the LORD is not with Israel." This is a good test still in all undertakings. Every believer should ask before he starts anything: Can the Lord approve of it? Is the Lord with it?
For a king of Judah, a hired army was a strange thing. The shame fell on both sides of the deal.
So he strengthened himself in a purely human way. He also had a hired army. Mercenaries served him — a strange thing for a king of Judah. "But a man of God came to him and said, 'O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you.'" For these mercenaries were Israel. How fallen were both — Judah to hire, and Israel to be hired. The only thing they agreed about was their indifference to God.
Behind the deal was a simple sum: more men, better odds.
He was probably planning an expedition against Edom when he organized his forces. He trusted a large army more than he trusted the Lord, so "he hired also 100,000 mighty men of valor from Israel for 100 talents of silver." But God does not want mercenaries in His battles — neither then, nor now. God knew what a corrupting influence these Ephraimites from Israel would have on the army of Judah. And they were not famous for courage: "The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle" (Ps. 78:9).
Amaziah was not the first king of Judah to get entangled with Israel. Jehoshaphat, an earlier king, had done something like it.
Amaziah begins well. He did well when he spared the children of his father's murderers, and when he appointed captains over thousands and hundreds throughout Judah and Benjamin. But when he hired soldiers out of Israel, it was not well. Jehoshaphat was rebuked for giving help to Ahab, to Israel. Amaziah asks Israel for help, and hires men who have abandoned the Lord. With Jehoshaphat, Judah still looked like the better side. Under Amaziah there is a plainer disregard for the name of God and for the company of His people.
When told to dismiss the hired men, Amaziah's first thought is the money already spent. The reply he receives settles the account.
But Amaziah had already paid the hundred talents to the soldiers. So he asked about the money. And the man of God gave a beautiful answer: "The LORD is able to give you much more than this." Sometimes believers lose money because they stay true to the Lord and to His Word. They should remember that the Lord, who is honored by this, is able to make it up and give much more.
Amaziah refused their help and sent them home. What they did next showed what his money had bought.
Refusing their help only showed their real character. They had turned away from the LORD long ago. What did they care now for His honor, or for the good of Judah? So they take revenge for the insult they imagined. They fall on defenseless cities along Judah's northern border. They plunder them, and kill three thousand of their own flesh and blood without mercy! Such could not help in God's army then; neither can men with selfish motives be helps in Christ's cause now.
- Ask first. Amaziah's cause was right and his count was careful. But he never asked the Lord. The test before anything is whether the Lord is with it.
- Count wrong. He trusted a large army more than God. God wants no hired soldiers in His battles.
- Buy shame. Judah stooped to hire, and Israel stooped to take the pay. Neither one cared about God.
- Pay twice. The hundred talents bought men who turned and plundered Judah's own towns. Bought help serves itself.
- Gain more. God promised far more than the lost silver. Anyone who loses by staying true to His Word can count on the same.
But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the host of Israel go with thee; for Jehovah is not with Israel, [with] all the children of Ephraim.
Amaziah of Judah hired 100,000 soldiers from the northern kingdom of Israel to fight Edom, and a man of God told him to send them home. Why would God refuse help that looks so useful, and what does a believer do when obeying costs money he has already paid?
The problem was not Amaziah's cause. It was that he never took the plan to God.
Amaziah had energy to gather an army from Judah to make war on Edom, but one thing is painfully missing here. It was right to fight Edom. Yet in all conflict we should first consult the Lord, and Amaziah did not do that. He knew enough about Scripture to number only those who were twenty years old or more, and found he had an army of 300,000. However, he made the blunder of hiring 100,000 warriors from Israel to support the men of Judah.
Both sides of the bargain reveal how far God's people had slipped — the buyer as much as the men for sale.
He also had a hired army. Mercenaries served him — a strange thing for a king of Judah. "But a man of God came to him and said, 'O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you.'" For these mercenaries were Israel. How fallen were both — Judah to hire, and Israel to be hired. The only thing they agreed in was indifference to God.
God's refusal rested on two things: what these men would do to Judah, and what they had already shown in battle.
But God does not want mercenaries in His battles — not then, and not now… God knew how these Ephraimites would corrupt the army of Judah. "Should you help the wicked?" the prophet Jehu asked Jehoshaphat. Here Amaziah reverses the order, and wants the wicked to help him. And besides, "the children of Ephraim" were not particularly famous for their courage. "The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle" was the inglorious record behind them (Ps. 78:9).
The rush to hire Israel showed that Amaziah was not trusting God. From it, writers draw a test for any plan.
He gathered a large army and hired 100,000 mighty men of the kingdom of Israel. It was a hasty deed and showed that Amaziah was not acting in faith. A man of God appeared next and warned him to have nothing to do with the 100,000 hired men, "for the LORD is not with Israel." This is a good test still in all undertakings. Every believer should ask before he enters upon anything: Can the Lord approve of it? Is the Lord with it?
Amaziah's first thought was the money he had already paid. The reply turned his eyes from his own accounts to God's resources.
When the prophet rebuked him, Amaziah thinks of the hundred talents. Must he lose them by sending the Israelite soldiers away? The prophet removes his worry. "The Lord is able to give you much more than this." God rewards his obedience, imperfect as it is, and gives him victory over Edom… But perhaps he obeyed God's command partly because he was assured he would not lose his hundred talents. If so, his obedience was not with a perfect heart.
Obedience brought victory. It did not cancel the damage the first decision had already done.
Amaziah gives up his project, which he had already partly carried out, and sends this contingent home. With only his own army, and depending on the Lord, he goes to war against Edom and wins a brilliant victory. The troops of Israel he dismissed attack the cities of Judah, killing three thousand men and taking much spoil. He must bear some of the consequences of his unbelief in hiring them without asking the Lord. But he can also count on the blessing that follows obedience.
That raid on Judah showed what the hired men were really after. Writers apply the same lesson to help offered to God's work today.
Until today, the work of God must be done by the people of God. If the world offers co-operation we have to refuse. If we do, then those who made the offer will soon show their true colours. But if we don't we will soon spoil the work. We end up being governed by the world's principles in the work we wanted to do for God.
- Ask first. The cause was right and the planning careful. But Amaziah never asked the Lord, and that is where the blunder began.
- Ask this. "Can the Lord approve of it? Is the Lord with it?" — the test to run before starting anything.
- Ask who. God does not want hired help in His battles; Amaziah wanted the wicked to help him, which reverses the order.
- Ask what it costs. The hundred talents were already spent, yet the Lord could give much more than this.
- Ask what it gains. With his own army and trust in God, Amaziah won. He still paid for the alliance he should never have made.
But if thou wilt go, do [it]; be strong for the battle God will make thee fall before the enemy, for there is with God power to help and to cast down.
Amaziah had already paid a hundred talents of silver to hire a hundred thousand fighting men from Israel. Then a man of God told him to send them home. His warning rests on one fact about God: the hand that helps can also cast down. So an army is only as strong as God's willingness to go with it.
Amaziah built up his army by ordinary planning, and then hired soldiers from Israel. Both kingdoms come out badly in the deal.
So he made himself strong in a merely human way. He also had a hired army. Mercenaries served him — a strange thing for a king of Judah. "But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you." For these mercenaries were Israel. How fallen were both — Judah to hire, and Israel to be hired. The only thing they agreed in was indifference to God.
The deeper fault was not the hiring but the silence before it. Amaziah never asked.
Amaziah had energy to gather an army from Judah in order to make war on Edom, but one thing is badly lacking in this plan. It was right to fight Edom. Yet in all conflict we should first consult the Lord, and Amaziah did not do this.
The man of God says nothing about troop numbers. He says only where God is not.
A man of God appeared next and warned him to have nothing to do with the 100,000 hirelings, "for the LORD is not with Israel." This is a good test still in all undertakings. Every believer should ask before he starts anything: Can the Lord approve of it? Is the Lord with it?
The call to be strong for the battle is not encouragement. It is permission with the result attached. Older translations read the next line as a flat statement, that God would make him fall before the enemy, where the ESV puts it as a question. Either way, the danger was not only defeat. It was also corruption.
He may keep them if he wishes, but he has the consequences set before him. God knew the corrupting influence this body of Ephraimites would have upon the army of Judah. "Should you help the wicked?" the prophet Jehu asked Jehoshaphat. Here Amaziah reverses the order, and wants the wicked to help him.
Amaziah's first reaction is financial: the silver is already spent. The man of God answers that the Lord can give him much more than this.
Amaziah was therefore concerned about the loss of 100 talents of silver he had already paid to Israel. But what was the loss compared to a humiliating defeat by Edom? The answer of the man of God was simple and to the point, "The Lord is able to give you much more than this."
That answer reaches far past kings and talents of silver.
Sometimes believers lose money because they stay true to the Lord and to His Word. They should remember that the Lord is honoured by this. He is able to make up for it and give much more.
Amaziah obeyed and sent the men away. What followed was both blessing and loss.
With only his own army, and depending on the Lord, he went to war against Edom and won a brilliant victory. The troops of Israel he had sent away attacked the cities of Judah, killing three thousand men and taking much spoil. But, as the prophet had said to Amaziah, the Lord was able to give him much more than the wages paid to the men of Ephraim. He had to bear some of the consequences of his unbelief, because he hired them without consulting the Lord. On the other hand, he could count on the blessing that follows obedience.
One writer points to the flaw in that obedience.
Perhaps he obeyed God's command partly because he was promised he would not lose his hundred talents. If so, his obedience was not with a perfect heart.
The same choice faces God's people whenever the world offers to help.
Until today, the work of God must be done by the people of God. If the world offers co-operation we have to refuse. If we do, then those who made the offer will soon show their true colours. But if we don't we will soon spoil the work. We end up being governed by the world's principles in the work we wanted to do for God.
- Ask first. Amaziah's war against Edom was right; going into it without consulting the Lord was not. The question to settle before any undertaking is whether the Lord is in it.
- Help or cast down. God's power runs both ways. The hired army could not buy victory, because the outcome never lay in numbers.
- Permission is not approval. God let him keep the hired soldiers, and named the result in advance. He sometimes lets us have what we insist on, and He spells out the cost first.
- Loss is answered. The hundred talents were gone. But the man of God said, "The LORD is able to give you much more than this." That is the standing reply to anyone who loses money by staying true to God's Word.
- Obedience still costs. The dismissed soldiers raided Judah's towns even after the king obeyed. Earlier unbelief leaves a bill, but obedience still brings blessing.
And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what is to be done for the hundred talents which I have given to the troop of Israel? And the man of God said, Jehovah is able to give thee much more than this.
Amaziah had paid a hundred talents to hire soldiers from Israel, and then a man of God told him the hired men had to go home. The king's reply is a money question, and the answer he gets moves the whole matter off his ledger and onto God's ability.
The soldiers Amaziah paid for came from Israel, the northern kingdom. One writer sees shame on both sides.
He also had a hired army. Mercenaries served him — a strange thing for a king of Judah. "But a man of God came to him and said, O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you." For these mercenaries were Israel. How fallen were both — Judah to hire, and Israel to be hired. The only thing they agreed on was indifference to God.
The warning came only after Amaziah had paid the men. One writer turns that into a question every believer can ask first.
A man of God came next. He warned him to have nothing to do with the 100,000 hired men, "for the LORD is not with Israel." This is still a good test in everything we undertake. Every believer should ask before he starts anything: Can the Lord approve of it? Is the Lord with it?
The king's worry was real money, already paid out. The prophet does not argue about the sum. He points to what God can do.
But Amaziah thinks of the wages already paid to these hired warriors. He asks, "But what shall we do about the hundred talents that I have given to the army (literally, troop or band) of Israel?" The man of God answered, "The LORD is able to give you much more than this." It is a fine word for any child of God who finds himself in a position that compromises the truth. He cannot see his way out without serious financial loss. "The LORD is able to give you much more than this." If He does not more than make it up in earthly things, He will repay it in something far better — in those spiritual things, which are eternal. And "to obey is better than sacrifice," anyway and always.
One writer applies the same promise to a believer thinking of tying his life to someone who has no interest in Christ. Money is often part of that pull.
Let nothing lead you to yoke yourself with an unbeliever... What are a few hundreds, or a few thousands, to an heir of heaven? "The LORD is able to give you much more than this." Will you sacrifice the truth of God, and your own spiritual peace, prosperity, and happiness, for a worthless scrap of gold? That gold must perish as you use it.
Amaziah did send the men away, and God gave him the victory. But the soldiers he dismissed turned on the towns of Judah. One writer holds both results together.
He goes to war against Edom with only his own army, depending on the Lord. He wins a brilliant victory. The troops of Israel he had sent home fall on the cities of Judah. They kill three thousand men and take much plunder. But, as the prophet had said to Amaziah, the Lord was able to give him much more than the wages given to the men of Ephraim. He must bear some of the consequences of his unbelief, for he hired them without consulting the Lord. But he can still count on the blessing that follows obedience.
The promise steadied the king enough to act. Yet one writer asks what it says about him that he needed the money settled first.
When the prophet rebuked him, Amaziah thinks of the hundred talents. Must he lose them by sending the soldiers of Israel away? The prophet removes his anxiety. "The LORD is able to give you much more than this." God rewards his obedience, imperfect as it is, and gives him victory over Edom... But if part of the reason he obeyed God's command was the promise that he would keep his hundred talents, his obedience was not with a perfect heart.
- Ask first. Amaziah hired before he enquired; the test for any undertaking is whether the Lord is in it.
- Not too late. The money was already spent, but the wrong step could still be undone.
- Count again. A hundred talents is a trifle to an heir of heaven, and no sum is worth the truth of God.
- He repays. If the Lord does not make up the loss in earthly things, He repays in spiritual things, which are eternal.
- Whole heart. God honoured Amaziah's obedience with victory. But obedience that needs a money promise first is not obedience with a perfect heart.
Then Amaziah separated them, -- the troop that was come to him out of Ephraim, -- to go home again. And their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in fierce anger.
A man of God had warned Amaziah not to take the hired troops of Israel to war, and here the king obeys and sends them home. Two questions follow: why did obedience cost him so much, and why did the men he released leave in a rage?
Amaziah listened to the prophet, and that saved him from defeat. But he had already hired the troops, and that first step still cost Judah.
Amaziah walks with God up to a point, but weakly and with an unsteady step. He leans on human strength. Still, he listens to the prophet, and this saves him from defeat. But the cities of Judah pay for his false step: the army of Israel that Amaziah had sent back plunders them.
Another writer weighs the loss against the promise the prophet had made:
But, as the prophet had said to Amaziah, the Lord was able to give him much more than the wages he gave to the men of Ephraim. He must bear some of the consequences of his unbelief, since he hired them without asking the Lord. But he can also count on the blessing that follows obedience.
Commentators differ on what stung the hired men most. One reads their fury as wounded pride:
Amaziah lost 100 talents of silver, and he also drew the proud anger of Israel when he discharged them from going to war. They should have been thankful to keep the 100 talents without fighting a battle. Instead their pride was hurt, and they went home in great anger.
Another points to what they had signed up for:
The dismissed soldiers soon showed their true character. They were only hired fighters. It made no difference to them whether they fought for Judah or against it — what they wanted was plunder. No wonder they were angry: they had expected plenty of loot.
One writer follows the men after they left Amaziah's camp:
Amaziah took the prophet's word to heart. He separated the hired soldiers and sent them home again. "And they became very angry with Judah and returned home in fierce anger." His refusal of their help simply showed their real character. They had turned away from the LORD long ago. Why would they care now for His honour or for the good of Judah? So they take revenge for the insult they imagine: they fall on undefended towns along Judah's northern border, they plunder them, and they kill three thousand of their own people without pity! Men like that could not help in God's army then, and men with selfish motives cannot help in Christ's cause now.
The men he sent away were not foreign troops. They were Israel, and the bargain shamed the seller as much as the buyer.
He also had a hired army. Hired soldiers served him — a strange thing for a king of Judah. "But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with you." For these hired men were Israel. How fallen were both — Judah to hire, and Israel to be hired. The only thing they agreed in was indifference to God.
One writer turns this bargain on our own day, and warns against wanting union at any price.
And here we find them joining, and this is one of the greatest snares of the present day. People imagine that great things will be done because there is a desire for union. Yes, but a union with what is detestable, a union with unbelief, a union with a system that puts priests between God and man, a union with anything under the sun, as long as people unite in good faith. Where is God? Where is the truth?
- Hired — Amaziah bought help from men who had turned away from God. The deal shamed Judah for paying and Israel for taking the pay.
- Warned — He heard the prophet and acted, and that obedience, weak and late as it was, kept him from defeat.
- Discharged — Sending the hired men home cost him the 100 talents he had already paid, and it turned them into enemies.
- Exposed — Their rage, and the raid on Judah's towns that followed, proved the prophet right. Hurt pride or lost plunder, either way such men would never fight for God's honour.
- Reaped — Obedience brought its blessing, and the earlier false step still brought its cost. Neither cancelled the other.
But Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand.
A man of God told Amaziah the Lord was not with Israel. So the king sent his hired soldiers home, lost the silver he had paid them, and went out to fight with only his own men.
One writer links the victory to the prophet's promise about the money Amaziah thought he had lost:
With only his own army, and depending on the Lord, he takes on Edom and wins a brilliant victory. The troops of Israel he had sent home attack the cities of Judah, killing three thousand men and taking much spoil. But, as the prophet had said to Amaziah, the Lord was able to give him much more than the wages given to the men of Ephraim. He hired them without asking the Lord, and he may have to bear some of the consequences of that unbelief. But he can still count on the blessing that follows obedience.
Another writer turns the warning Amaziah obeyed into a question for anyone:
The man of God warned him to have nothing to do with the 100,000 hired soldiers, "for the LORD is not with Israel." This is a good test still in everything we undertake. Every believer should ask before he starts anything: Can the Lord approve of it? Is the Lord with it?
The verse opens with Amaziah taking courage. One writer looks at the heart behind that strength:
Joash's son Amaziah (strength of the Lord) took up the government in Judah when he was twenty-five years old. He began his reign well. He did what was right in the sight of the LORD. But the Lord, who looks deeper and knows the heart of man, knew that it was "not with a perfect heart."
The campaign did not end at the Valley of Salt. Amaziah went on to take Edom's rock-city, and the new name he gave it reads like a receipt:
He took Selah by war. Selah is Petra, the rock, Edom's capital. Fausset describes it: "It lay in a hollow, enclosed amid cliffs, and reachable only by a ravine through which the river winds across its site." Amaziah called it Joktheel, which means "the reward of God," and it kept that name to this day. He seems to have looked on this captured city as God's repayment for the hundred silver talents lost on the worthless men of Ephraim. And does not God always repay His obedient people with abundant increase?
One writer reads the defeat of Edom as a picture:
Amaziah did good work in judging Edom, killing 10,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Edom pictures the flesh, so in spiritual terms this victory was over the flesh. May we also judge the flesh without sparing it.
Another writer traces the picture back to Esau:
It is in Esau that we have the flesh pictured in its godless character. In no sense can those who are in the flesh please God. True believers now are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.
This success opened the door to Amaziah's ruin. He carried home the gods of the people he had just beaten:
The victory over Edom lifted him up. He takes the gods of Seir, which could not deliver their own people, and bows down before them. He then turns a deaf ear to the prophet who rebukes him. But pride goes before confusion, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
- Obey — The hired army goes home first. Only then does Amaziah march out and win.
- Trust — The prophet promised much more than the lost silver. The battlefield proved him right.
- Repay — Amaziah renamed the captured city "the reward of God." He read it as God settling the account.
- Judge — Edom pictures the flesh. This win calls us to judge the flesh and spare nothing.
- Guard — The same victory puffed him up. He bowed to the gods of the men he had just defeated. A win is a test.
And the children of Judah took ten thousand captive, alive, and brought them to the top of the cliff, and cast them down from the top of the cliff, so that they all were broken in pieces.
Amaziah's war with Edom ends with ten thousand prisoners thrown from the top of a cliff. God had given that victory in answer to obedience, yet Scripture records what the king did next without a word of praise or blame.
Amaziah won this battle only after he sent the hired Israelite soldiers home. That cost him the hundred talents of silver he had already paid them. One writer links the victory to that choice, and then records what the king did with his prisoners:
When the prophet rebukes him, Amaziah thinks of the hundred talents; must he lose them by sending away the Israelite soldiers? The prophet removes his anxiety: "The LORD is able to give you much more than this." God rewards his obedience, imperfect as it is, and gives him victory over Edom, and he takes many captives. His treatment of them was barbarous; the Holy Spirit does not sanction it, but records the fact. But if his obedience to God's command was partly due to the promise that he would not lose his hundred talents, then his obedience was not with a perfect heart.
The prisoners did not have to die. Another writer recalls the prophet Elisha, who once told a king to spare the captives in his hand:
Without the help of Israel, Amaziah went to battle against the people of Seir, the Edomites. He gained a clear victory, taking 10,000 captives. But he did not remember the words of Elisha to the king of Israel. Elisha had brought the army of the Syrians to Samaria. When the king asked Elisha if he should kill them, he answered, "You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow?" Instead, Amaziah's men threw these captives down from a high rock in the mountains. This was gross cruelty, unworthy of a king of Judah.
Commentators differ on how far we should press a verdict. One writer treats God's silence as a limit on ours:
The Bible records this seemingly cruel treatment of conquered enemies without comment. We know nothing of the circumstances that surrounded it, nor the cause of Judah's invasion. They lived in the cold, hard age of law — "eye for eye, tooth for tooth." We must not measure their conduct by the standard we have received from Him who came not to destroy men's lives but to save them. … Amaziah's army may have believed they were justified in handing out such a horrible punishment to the Edomites. But we neither judge nor excuse them for their terrible act. God has left it without comment. It was not God's act, but Amaziah's.
Commentators also read the battle as a picture of something in the believer's own life:
Amaziah did good work in judging Edom, killing 10,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Edom pictures the flesh, so spiritually this victory was a victory over the flesh. May we also judge the flesh unsparingly.
The same writer explains the valley's name, commenting on an earlier battle fought there:
The occasion was when David fought against Mesopotamia and Syria, and when Joab returned and killed 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. This speaks of the judgment of the flesh, and its being in the Valley of Salt shows it to be a judgment preserved for the welfare of Israel.
Two verses later the same king bows to the gods of the people he had just beaten. His success was the thing that undid him:
Lifted up by the victory he had won over Edom, he takes the gods of Seir — which could not deliver their own people — and bows down before them. He then turns a deaf ear to the prophet who rebukes him. But pride goes before confusion, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Another writer compares him with a pagan, and Amaziah comes off worse:
One could perhaps better understand a pagan bowing down to the gods of his conquerors. But that Amaziah, who began his reign well though not with a perfect heart, should worship the idols of the people he had conquered, is an act of folly and stupidity.
- Obedience wins it. Amaziah won only after he sent the hired troops home and took the money loss. He trusted the word that God could give him much more.
- Cruelty spoils it. Throwing ten thousand captives from the rock was his own act, not God's. It was cruelty unworthy of a king of Judah. Elisha's mercy to captured enemies showed the better way he ignored.
- Silence is not approval. Scripture states the fact but does not approve it. Commentators differ: some condemn the act outright, others leave the verdict where God left it.
- Edom is the flesh. Edom pictures the flesh, and this victory pictures judging the flesh without sparing it. Salt marks a judgment that preserves God's people.
- Success ruins him. Lifted up by the win, he worshipped the gods that had failed to save their own people. He refused the prophet, and he fell.
But those of the troop that Amaziah had sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah from Samaria as far as Beth-horon, and smote three thousand of them, and took much spoil.
Amaziah, king of Judah, had paid a hundred talents of silver to hire a hundred thousand soldiers from the northern kingdom of Israel. A prophet told him to send them home before he fought Edom, and this verse shows what they did next.
The plundered towns are the bill for a decision Amaziah made before the prophet ever arrived. One writer sums up his uneven walk and its cost:
Amaziah, up to a certain point, walks with God, but in weakness and with an unsteady step. He leans upon an arm of flesh: but he listens to the prophet, and this saves him from being defeated. The cities of Judah, however, suffer the consequences of his false step, and are plundered by the army of Israel, which Amaziah had sent back.
Men who would kill three thousand of their own countrymen for loot were never going to be useful in God's battle:
Amaziah took the message to heart and sent the hired soldiers home again. Their anger blazed against Judah, and they went home in fierce anger. Turning down their help only showed their real character. They had long ago turned away from Jehovah; what did they care now for His honour or the good of Judah? So they take revenge for the insult they imagine. They fall on defenceless towns along Judah's northern border. They plunder them, and kill three thousand of their own flesh and blood without mercy! Such could not help in God's army then; neither can men with selfish motives be helps in Christ's cause now.
Their rage is striking: they kept the silver and never had to fight for it.
They should have been thankful to keep the 100 talents without going to battle. But their pride was wounded, and they went home in great anger.
The order was not just practical advice about unreliable soldiers. It guarded a line God Himself had drawn:
The Lord was not with them, and mixing them into the army of Judah was wiping out the mark of distinction God had made — Judah worshipped in the temple at Jerusalem, and Israel worshipped the two calves... Would it not be a triumph for Satan, if he could not join all the tribes in a general apostasy, to merge their armies? For then whatever victory the Lord would give to Judah must be shared by apostate Israel. This the Lord would not permit, and His word is, Send them home. If we give the enemy occasion to mix himself up with the affairs of the church in even the smallest matter, under whatever pretext, we are sure to suffer.
One writer sets the plundered towns beside what obedience still gained:
With only his own army, and depending on the Lord, he goes to war against Edom and wins a brilliant victory. The dismissed troops of Israel fall on the cities of Judah, kill three thousand men, and take much spoil. But, as the prophet had said to Amaziah, the Lord was able to give him much more than the wages given to the men of Ephraim. He must bear some of the consequences of his unbelief, since he hired them without asking the Lord. But he can still count on the blessing that follows obedience.
The raid should have humbled him. It did the opposite:
This should have spoken deeply to Amaziah and driven him to the Lord. Instead, when he returned from his victory over Edom, he brought with him the idols of Edom and set them up as his own gods, bowing down to them and burning incense to them. So he followed the foolish example of his father who had begun well but lapsed into the snare of idolatry.
- The step — Amaziah walked with God, but with an unsteady step. He leaned on hired strength before he asked whether the Lord was with it.
- The separation — God's word was to send the hired men home. He would not let men who had left Him share a victory He gave to Judah.
- The cost — obeying saved the battle, but it did not undo the first mistake. Judah's own towns paid in blood and plunder.
- The exposure — the raid showed what the money had bought: proud men out for plunder. They could not help God's army then, and selfish men cannot help Christ's cause now.
- The choice — the raid should have driven him back to God. Instead he brought home the idols of the people he had just beaten, repeating his father's mistake.
And it came to pass after Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed himself down before them, and burned incense to them.
Amaziah came home from crushing Edom and brought its gods back with him — the idols of Seir, the people he had just beaten. Two questions press. How could a king who started out doing right sink to this? And why did judgment fall right after a great victory?
Amaziah obeyed God just far enough to win. Then success went to his head.
Amaziah, up to a certain point, walks with God, but in weakness and with an unsteady step. He leans on human strength, but he listens to the prophet, and this keeps him from defeat... Lifted up by the victory that he had gained over Edom, he takes the gods of Seir, which could not deliver their own people, and bows down before them.
Amaziah's fall is not a one-off. The hour after a win is where a believer stands in most danger.
There are secrets of defeat as there are secrets of victory, and the believer's chief danger lies in victory. The victory may be gained in real dependence upon God. But if the soul then dwells on the results, it gladly takes some credit for itself, and the next defeat dates from that moment.
Ordinary human logic cannot account for what Amaziah did. A defeated man might flatter the winner's gods; Amaziah did the reverse.
Now comes (v. 14) the most amazing folly. He returns victorious over the Edomites, and with shocking senselessness worships the gods of the people he had beaten. One could perhaps better understand how a pagan would bow down to the gods of his conquerors.
God's answer came as a question, and the question carried its own argument. Amaziah was bowing to gods that had failed to save their own people.
God sends a prophet, and he reproves Amaziah for his amazing folly: "Why have you sought the gods of a people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?" The reproof stung, and the deluded king had no answer. In effect it told him that he was worshipping the gods he had beaten. But if the king cannot answer, he can threaten — the resource of the world to stop the mouths of God's witnesses.
This collapse did not come out of nowhere. The record of Amaziah's reign flags the flaw from the start.
Amaziah's reign was fairly long — 29 years. The reason was that, like his father Joash, he at first did what was outwardly right in the eyes of the Lord. But his heart was not fully for the Lord (v. 2). Like Joash also, his testimony for good broke down in his later years, so that it is questionable whether he knew the Lord at all.
Yet this verse marks a real line in his life. God bore with an imperfect heart for years. He did not bear with open dishonour.
He showed little or no faith when he hired soldiers from Israel. His obedience to the Lord's word when he sent them away was very selfish and self-serving. Yet it was when he publicly set up Edom's idols that the Lord allowed these evils to come on him... The earlier part of his reign was not with a perfect heart. But it was the public dishonouring of the Lord that made the prophet announce God's determination to destroy him.
The defeat and looting later in the chapter trace straight back to this act of worship.
Amaziah does not listen to this warning. "It was of God," Chronicles tells us, "in order that He might give them into the hand of their enemy, because they had sought the gods of Edom." Judah is beaten and Amaziah taken prisoner. Jerusalem is broken down, and the enemy carries off all the treasures of the king and of the temple as spoil, along with hostages. Amaziah meets his God, whom he had claimed to serve and honour, as a consuming fire from the moment he forsakes Him to serve other gods.
- Divided heart. Amaziah did what was outwardly right, but his heart was never fully God's. That crack later split wide open.
- Dangerous victory. The win over Edom, not the battle, undid him. A soul busy with results starts taking credit, and the next defeat dates from there.
- Senseless worship. Bowing to the gods of a people he had just beaten is folly no human motive explains. Behind it stood an enemy hurrying king and nation to ruin.
- Unanswerable question. God's reproof names the absurdity: these gods could not save their own people from Amaziah's hand.
- Public line crossed. God bore with years of half-heartedness. Open dishonour brought the sentence of destruction, and the God he left met him as a consuming fire.
And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, Why dost thou seek after the gods of a people who have not delivered their own people out of thy hand?
Amaziah has just crushed Edom, and he comes home carrying Edom's gods. Here God reacts: anger, and then a prophet with a question that answers itself.
The record of Amaziah's start already noted what God saw under the surface.
He did what was right in the sight of the LORD. But the Lord looks deeper and knows the heart of man. He knew that it was "not with a perfect heart." He dealt out justice to the murderers of his father, and he kept close to the law of God.
Listening to a prophet had already saved Amaziah once. What broke him was not defeat but success.
Amaziah, up to a point, walks with God, but weakly and with an unsteady step. He leans on an arm of flesh, but he listens to the prophet, and this saves him from defeat... The victory he had won over Edom lifted him up. He takes the gods of Seir, which could not deliver their own people, and bows down before them. He then turns a deaf ear to the prophet who rebukes him. But pride goes before confusion, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
One writer weighs Amaziah's act against what even a pagan would do, and finds only one explanation for it.
Now comes the most amazing folly. He returns victorious over the Edomites, and with extreme stupidity worships the gods of the people he had defeated. One could perhaps better understand a pagan bowing down to the gods of his conquerors. But Amaziah began his reign well, though not with a perfect heart. That he should worship the idols of those he had conquered is an act of folly and stupidity. It can only be explained this way: Satan was behind it all, hurrying king and people to their ruin, and God in judgment allowed blindness to fall on them.
The prophet does not argue theology. He points at the record: these gods could not save their own people from Amaziah's hand.
A child might understand such reasoning.
The question landed on the king. Another writer shows what he did with it.
Amaziah's conscience was stung by the plain force of these words. But he was determined to silence his own conscience, so he arrogantly answered the prophet, "Have we made you the king's counsellor? Stop! Why should you be killed?"
Notice the order in the verse: the LORD is angry, and the first thing His anger does is send a prophet. One writer sees a pattern in it.
In this part of the history we should notice the goodness of the Lord, who keeps stepping in through prophets.
So the reproof itself was mercy.
And so the merciful message from God, sent to show him his sin and folly, is met with threats. "Stop," said the king, and the prophet ceased, and the message of merciful reproof was pushed away. He could refuse the mercy and shut the prophet's mouth; but he would have to hear God's judgment with no mercy mixed in.
The instinct to silence an unwelcome messenger did not die with Amaziah.
Amaziah is only a sample of man. There is a message of mercy from God now, and still the spirit of the world says "Stop," or listens only to an authority that men appointed... And all such do stop, rather than offend the world. God's awful judgment on those who do not obey the truth is not announced as God gives it. It is toned down, so that no one applies it to himself.
- Heart. Amaziah did what was right, but not with a whole heart. God looks deeper than conduct, and He saw the crack first.
- Victory. His fall dates from his win, not his loss: lifted up by beating Edom, he bowed to Edom's gods.
- Folly. Bowing to the gods of a people you just conquered is folly no reason can explain. One writer traces it to Satan, hurrying king and people toward ruin.
- Voice. God's anger acts first by sending a prophet. The reproof was plain enough for a child, and it came as mercy before judgment.
- Answer. Amaziah's conscience was stung, and he silenced the messenger instead of the sin. Refuse the mercy in a reproof, and all that is left to hear is judgment with no mercy mixed in.
And it came to pass as he talked with him, that [Amaziah] said to him, Hast thou been made the king's counsellor? Forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten? Then the prophet forbore, and said, I know that God has determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened to my counsel.
Amaziah has just come home from beating Edom, and he has set up the gods of that beaten people as his own. A prophet comes to ask him why, and the king cuts him off mid-sentence.
The prophet's argument had no answer, so the king questioned his standing instead.
God sent a prophet to reprove Amaziah for his amazing folly. The prophet asked why he had sought after gods that could not deliver their own people out of his hand. The king had no answer to this stinging reproof. In effect it told him that he was worshipping the gods he had defeated. But if the king cannot answer he can threaten. That is the world's resource for stopping the mouths of God's witnesses. "Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?" Have you authority to speak? Have you been properly appointed as one of the king's counsellors?
The king's question was not concern for the prophet's safety. It was a threat, and one writer ties it to an earlier killing.
The plain force of these words stung Amaziah's conscience. But he was determined to stifle his own conscience, so he answered the prophet arrogantly: "Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?" Apparently he thought that, since Joash had killed Zechariah, he could kill this prophet just as easily.
The abruptness of "Stop!" suggests a man tired of hearing the same thing.
"You have done this" — that is, he sought after the gods of Edom, and afterwards he did not listen to the prophet's counsel. That counsel had perhaps been given often before this time. The harsh, impatient word "stop" suggests that this was not the first time the prophet had reproved the king. But this was the occasion for uttering God's determination. "I know that God has determined to destroy you." To sin is to deserve condemnation. But to refuse mercy and reproof brings out God's determination to destroy (Prov. 1:24-31).
The prophet obeyed the king and stopped. But the one thing Amaziah could not silence was the verdict.
"Stop," said the king, and the prophet ceased, and the message of merciful reproof was pushed away. He could refuse the mercy and shut the mouth of the prophet; but he must hear God's judgment without any mingling of mercy. And when God determines to destroy, can man escape?
The king mocks the prophet as a counsellor, and the prophet's last word is about counsel. Amaziah did not end up without advisers. He only changed whose advice he took.
So God let him take other counsel, since he refused His own, and that counsel led to his ruin.
Earlier Amaziah had listened to a prophet, and listening saved him. Now the same man closes his ears.
Amaziah, up to a point, walks with God, but weakly and with an unsteady step. He leans on human strength. Yet he listens to the prophet, and this saves him from defeat… Then his victory over Edom lifts him up. He takes the gods of Seir, which could not deliver their own people, and bows down before them. He then turns a deaf ear to the prophet who rebukes him. But pride goes before confusion, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
One writer takes the king's reply as more than ancient history.
Amaziah is only a sample of man. God sends a message of mercy now, and the spirit of the world is still saying "Stop." Or it listens only to an authority that men themselves appointed… People do not announce God's awful judgment on those who do not obey the truth as God gives it. They tone it down, so that no one applies it to himself.
- Counsel sent. God met his idolatry with a plain question, and Amaziah had no reply.
- Counsel silenced. Unable to argue, the king attacked the messenger's standing and hinted at his death. Threats are the world's way to shut the mouths of God's witnesses.
- Counsel repeated. The impatient "Stop!" suggests this prophet had spoken before. Mercy refused again and again brought out God's determination.
- Counsel replaced. He refused God's counsel, so God let him take other counsel — and that counsel ruined him.
- Counsel unheard. He could stop the prophet's voice, but not the sentence. Mercy refused leaves judgment with no mercy mixed in.
And Amaziah king of Judah took counsel, and sent to Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face.
Amaziah has just crushed Edom. Now he sends a challenge to Joash king of Israel, dressed up as an invitation to meet. Two small details carry the verse: he "took advice" first, and the man he picks a fight with is a fellow Israelite.
One writer notes who had hired the northern soldiers who wronged Judah.
But success with Amaziah (as with most of us) puffs him up. Puffed up by his conquest of the Edomites, he had the nerve to challenge the king of Israel to meet him in combat: "Come, let us look one another in the face." The Ephraimites, who felt offended, really had wronged some of his subjects without cause. Yet the king of Israel was less to blame for that than Amaziah himself, who had hired them into his army.
He asked for advice before he acted — but not God's advice.
However, this deluded king invited his own destruction. He asked advice — not God's advice — from his own idolatrous counselors, and sent word to Joash, king of Israel, asking that they meet in battle (v. 17). He had previously given 100 talents of silver to Israel to enlist their help. But now he thought he was strong, since he defeated Edom and was confident he could subdue Israel. Such is the pride of human nature.
One writer presses the question the verse leaves open:
Yet for this act of foolish pride he took advice — whose advice? Like Rehoboam he sought the mind of flatterers.
Joash ruled the ten northern tribes and Amaziah ruled Judah. The two peoples were family, and one writer recalls what God said when an earlier king of Judah planned the same move.
When Rehoboam gathered a great army to do the same thing, God sent word to him, "You shall not go up or fight against your relatives the people of Israel" (1 Kings 12:24). Separations between brothers are not going to be healed in this way. If Israel had attacked, the case would be very different. But Amaziah should have known better than to start a fight with his own relatives, the people of Israel.
Amaziah had begun his reign doing right, yet God let the challenger lose.
So Amaziah shows a measure of righteousness. But in the end his heart is lifted up, and he challenges the king of Israel. Then this solemn fact appears: God will never approve the presumption of a righteous man. He will take the side of the bad man who is presumptuously challenged rather than the side of the righteous man who presumes to challenge him... God will always be where righteousness is. And where righteousness fails, even in God's own people, God always sets His face against it.
One writer traces this recklessness back to what Amaziah brought home from Edom.
Amaziah's foolish stubbornness refused to consider such a serious warning. He did not realize that God was moving him in this bad direction because he had adopted the idols of Edom (v. 20). Anyone who gives himself up to idolatry can expect to give way to any evil influence. He has looked for folly instead of wisdom.
One writer sets this rise and fall beside a life that ran the opposite way.
It is true that Amaziah, flushed with pride at having struck down Edom, had challenged Joash to battle. Joash replied and warned Amaziah where his rash challenge would lead, but Amaziah would not listen. God then allowed Israel to defeat him. Pride still goes before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction. God's Word gives many examples of this. All of them stand in clear contrast to the One who humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
- Cause — idolatry. The trouble started when Amaziah brought Edom's gods home. Giving himself to idols left him open to any evil influence.
- Pride — after Edom. Beating Edom puffed him up, until he thought he could subdue Israel too.
- Counsel — flatterers. He "took advice," but not God's; like Rehoboam he asked the men who would tell him what he wanted.
- Target — his own people. He picked a fight with relatives, and quarrels between brothers are never healed that way.
- Result — the fall. God would not back a good man's presumption. Pride went before destruction — the reverse of the One who humbled Himself.
And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thorn-bush that is in Lebanon sent to the cedar that is in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son as wife; and there passed by the wild beast that is in Lebanon, and trode down the thorn-bush.
Amaziah has just crushed Edom, and the win goes to his head. He challenges Joash, king of Israel, to battle, and Joash answers with a parable that tells him what he really is.
The picture is an insult. One commentator names who each figure stands for:
To Amaziah's rash challenge the king of Israel makes a scornful reply in the language of a parable. He says: "A thistle on Lebanon (Amaziah) sent to a cedar on Lebanon (himself, Joash)… and a wild beast of Lebanon (Joash's army) passed by and trampled down the thistle."
Commentators differ on whether the parable is only a taunt or also a piece of family history. Another writer traces the figures back to a marriage request between the two royal families:
Joash answers him with a very clear parable. Jehoram of Judah was the thorn-bush of Lebanon. He was married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab. He had sent to Jehoram of Israel, the cedar of Lebanon, to ask for a wife from Ahab's family for his son Ahaziah. Then Jehu, the wild beast in Lebanon, trampled Ahaziah, the king of Judah, underfoot… And now his successor, instead of humbling himself, was glorying in his victory over Edom!
Joash read Amaziah correctly. Behind the challenge was not strategy but a swollen view of himself.
But now he thought he was strong, since he defeated Edom and was confident he could subdue Israel. Such is the pride of fleshly men.
The striking thing is where the reply comes from. The man with no faith saw Amaziah more clearly than Amaziah saw himself.
So the unbeliever corrected the believer. Joash saw that Amaziah's win over Edom had filled him with pride, and that this pride made him think he could beat Israel too. He advised Amaziah to stay at home. If he meddled with trouble he would fall, and Judah with him.
Amaziah had already shut one mouth. God sent a prophet to him, and the king answered with a threat.
The Lord was angry with Amaziah and sent to him a prophet, who said to him, "Why have you sought the gods of a people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?" A child might understand such reasoning. As the prophet spoke, the king said to him, "Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?" Then the prophet stopped, but said, "I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel." So God let him take other counsel (since he refused His own), that led to his ruin.
That is why the parable fell on deaf ears. One writer traces where a refusal that is kept up ends:
To sin is to deserve condemnation. But to refuse mercy and correction brings out God's determination to destroy. His own pride and folly become the immediate cause of his ruin. His victory over Edom lifted him up, and he challenges the king of Israel. How contemptuously Joash treats him! Amaziah, driven by his own vanity, would not hear. It was the first step on the path that led to his downfall… Man's pride and folly, when he keeps at them, are the forerunner of God's judgment.
Joash did not invent a punishment. He acted out the story he had told.
The king of Israel made good his parable. It was the thistle against the cedar, and the result was a complete rout. A wild beast trampled the thistle and crushed it underfoot… Amaziah is a captive. Jerusalem's walls are broken down for 400 cubits. Joash takes the gold and silver of both the temple and the palace, and takes hostages too. This was an effective stop to Judah's boasting against Israel. Whatever glory Amaziah won by his victory over Edom is overshadowed for good.
- Victory — Edom fell to Amaziah, and the win lifted him up. His own pride became the immediate cause of his ruin.
- Pride — A man who defeats one enemy imagines he can defeat any enemy. That is the thistle asking the cedar for a marriage alliance.
- Contempt — Joash's reply was scornful but true, and it came from an unbeliever. God can send a warning through a man who does not know Him.
- Refusal — Amaziah had already silenced God's prophet with a threat. He pushed God's counsel away, so God left him to the counsel that destroyed him.
- Trampled — The parable was not a threat but a forecast. Joash crushed the thistle, broke Jerusalem's wall, carried off the temple treasure, and wiped out the glory Amaziah had won over Edom.
Thou thinkest, Lo, thou hast smitten Edom; and thy heart has lifted thee up to boast abide now at home; why shouldest thou contend with misfortune, that thou shouldest fall, thou and Judah with thee?
Joash of Israel answers Amaziah's challenge with a diagnosis, not a threat: the win over Edom has gone to Amaziah's head. He tells him to stay home, but a king who has just ignored God's prophet is unlikely to listen to an enemy.
Amaziah's reign had started better than it ended. One commentator traces the slide from an unsteady walk with God to bowing before the gods of Seir, the gods of Edom.
Amaziah, up to a certain point, walks with God, but in weakness and with an unsteady step. He leans upon an arm of flesh, but he listens to the prophet, and this saves him from being defeated... Lifted up by the victory that he had obtained over Edom, he takes the gods of Seir which could not deliver their own people, and bows down before them. He then turns a deaf ear to the prophet who rebukes him. But pride goes before confusion, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Joash of Israel did not worship the Lord. Yet he read Amaziah's heart, and that is part of the lesson.
When Amaziah foolishly determined to attack his brothers, the ten tribes of Israel, Joash sent him a crushing reply. He used a parable that belittled Amaziah by calling him a "thistle" challenging a cedar tree, and a wild beast trampled the thistle. So the unbeliever reproved the believer. Joash saw that Amaziah's defeat of Edom had left him flushed with the pride that thought he could defeat Israel also.
One commentator sets Joash's words beside two proverbs about staying out of other people's quarrels. He writes about Josiah, a later king of Judah who repeated Amaziah's mistake. (Where older translations read "meddle to your hurt," the ESV has "provoke trouble.")
"Why should you meddle to your hurt, so that you fall?" said the king of Israel to Amaziah, Josiah's ancestor, years before. Josiah should also have been familiar with the proverb copied by the men of Hezekiah: "Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears." And another: "It is an honour for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarrelling."
Joash ends by widening the damage — "and Judah with you."
Joash advised Amaziah to stay at home, for if he meddled where he ought not, he would involve not only himself in a humiliating fall, but Judah also.
Amaziah had already turned a deaf ear to God's prophet. Having refused the one counsel worth having, he went looking for counsel he liked better.
To sin is to be worthy of condemnation, but to refuse mercy and reproof brings out God's determination to destroy. His own pride and folly become the immediate occasion of his ruin. He was lifted up because of his victory over Edom and challenges the king of Israel. How contemptuously Joash treats him! Amaziah, driven by his own vanity, would not hear... Man's pride and folly, when persisted in, become the forerunner of God's judgment. Yet for this act of foolish pride he took advice — whose advice? Like Rehoboam, he sought the mind of flatterers.
Everything Joash predicted happened, and the glory Amaziah was so proud of did not survive it.
The king of Israel made good his parable. It was the thistle against the cedar, and the result was a complete rout... Amaziah is a captive. The walls of Jerusalem are broken down for four hundred cubits. The treasures of gold and silver of both the temple and the palace are taken, and hostages too... Whatever glory Amaziah won by his victory over Edom is overshadowed beyond recovery. He returned in triumph and thought his throne was secure. But unknown and unnoticed — as when Jonah rejoiced under the shade of the gourd while a worm at the root was destroying it — a conspiracy was formed against him in the hour of his boasting.
- Victory. Edom fell to Amaziah — and the success he could not handle became the thing that undid him.
- Pride. The win lifted him up, so he bowed to Edom's gods and then picked a fight with Israel.
- Warning. God sent a prophet; Amaziah would not listen. So the warning came instead from an unbelieving king who read his heart.
- Deafness. He refused the counsel he needed and hunted for flatterers instead. Pride, kept up, runs ahead of God's judgment.
- Fall. The parable came true: Amaziah a captive, Jerusalem's wall broken, the treasuries emptied, and Judah pulled down with him.
But Amaziah would not hear; for it was of God, that he might deliver them into [the enemy's] hand, because they had sought after the gods of Edom.
Amaziah's refusal to listen looks like a proud king ignoring good advice. Yet the verse says the deafness came from God. It traces that back to the idols he had carried home from Edom. So how can a man's stubbornness be his own and God's judgment at once?
The verse ties the king's closed ears to something earlier: the gods he brought home after beating Edom. One writer puts the warning and the idols side by side:
The king of Israel advised him to stay at home. If he meddled where he should not, he would bring down not only himself but Judah as well. Amaziah's foolish stubbornness refused to consider such a serious warning. He did not realise that God was moving him in this bad direction because he had adopted the idols of Edom. When someone gives himself up to idolatry, he can expect to fall to any evil influence. He has sought folly instead of wisdom.
Before this, a prophet had rebuked Amaziah for worshipping gods that had not saved their own worshippers. The king silenced him — and that silencing is what settled his case:
If the king cannot answer he can threaten. That is how the world stops the mouths of God's witnesses. "Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?" So the king answers God's merciful message with threats, though God sent it to show him his sin and folly. "Stop," said the king. The prophet stopped, and the king pushed the merciful reproof away. He could refuse the mercy and shut the prophet's mouth; but he must hear God's judgment with no mercy mixed in. "I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel." And when God determines to destroy, can man escape?
The chapter says Amaziah "took advice" before challenging Israel. Refusing the counsel God sent did not leave him with no counsel at all:
Like his father Joash, "the counsel of the ungodly" led him into disaster. But it was of God, to punish his idolatry… He refused God's own counsel, so God let him take other counsel, and that counsel led to his ruin.
From the outside, nothing mysterious happened here. A man won a battle, thought too much of himself, and picked a fight he could not win — and that ordinary sequence was the visible edge of something larger:
His own pride and folly become the immediate occasion of his ruin. His victory over Edom lifted him up, and he challenges the king of Israel… Amaziah, driven by his own vanity, would not listen. That was the first step on the path to his downfall. His defeat was the first public stroke of God's judgment, which was now unavoidable, for this came of God. Man's pride and folly, when persisted in, become the forerunner of God's judgment.
The pattern in this verse is not unique to Amaziah, and it never begins with God. A reader worried that God simply decides to blind people should notice the order of events:
God never sends this blindness to visit a man until he has justly exposed himself to judgment. All the cases show this. Pharaoh, for instance, had forgotten Joseph in deepest ingratitude… The nations of the old world had brought this corrupt mind on themselves. Israel "had not," Jerusalem "would not."
The verse is a hinge. What follows is the collapse of a reign that had started well:
Lifted up by the victory he had won over Edom, he takes the gods of Seir, which could not deliver their own people, and bows down before them. He then turns a deaf ear to the prophet who rebukes him. But pride goes before confusion, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Amaziah makes war against Israel. He suffers a shameful defeat, they take him prisoner, and Jerusalem itself is laid waste.
- Idols first. The deafness has a stated cause. Amaziah had sought the gods of Edom, and a man who gives himself to idols will fall to any evil influence.
- Mercy refused. God sent a prophet before He sent an army. Silencing that prophet turned a warning into a verdict with no mercy mixed in.
- Counsel replaced. Refusing God's counsel does not leave a man with no counsel. God let him take other advice, and that advice ruined him.
- Pride visible. Onlookers saw only vanity picking a fight. God was making pride the forerunner of a judgment already determined.
- Never arbitrary. God hardens no one first. In every case — Pharaoh, the nations, Jerusalem — the man ripens his own evil. Judgment then confirms him in it.
And Joash king of Israel went up; and they looked one another in the face, he and Amaziah king of Judah, at Beth-shemesh, which is in Judah.
Amaziah's boastful challenge to Joash finally gets its answer, and the two kings meet in battle on Judah's own ground. The verse looks like a plain military note, yet it raises two questions: why did Amaziah demand this meeting, and why does Scripture say it came from God?
One writer traces Amaziah's challenge back to his victory over Edom and to the advice he took.
But success with Amaziah (as with most of us) puffs him up. Full of himself after conquering the Edomites, he arrogantly challenged the king of Israel to meet him in combat, saying, "Come, let us look one another in the face."… He "took advice," we read, in doing this. Like his father Joash, "the counsel of the ungodly" led him into disaster. But it was of God, to punish his idolatry.
The chapter says this meeting came from God (v. 20). One writer sets that beside Amaziah's refusal of God's reproof.
To sin is to deserve condemnation. But to refuse mercy and reproof brings out God's determination to destroy (Prov. 1:24-31). His own pride and folly becomes the immediate occasion of his ruin. His victory over Edom lifted him up, and he challenges the king of Israel. How scornfully Joash treats him! Amaziah, driven by his own vanity, would not hear. That was the first step on the path to his downfall. His defeat was the first public stroke of God's judgment, which was now certain, for this came of God (2 Chron. 25:20). Man's pride and folly, when persisted in, become the forerunner of God's judgment.
The verse names the place and adds that it belonged to Judah. Beth-shemesh already had a history with the ark of the covenant, the chest that held the tablets of the law.
A town of the Levites on the north border of Judah. God guided the ark there by a miracle when the Philistines sent it back from Ekron, and the people there were struck down for looking into it. Here Jehoash king of Israel defeated Amaziah king of Judah.
The two kings facing each other here belong to one nation split in two.
What a sad picture before us here! We have seen conflict between Israel and Judah at other times. But this conflict goes beyond anything before it. Joash (Jehoash), Jehu's grandson, defeats Amaziah, king of Judah. He captures Jerusalem, Amaziah's capital, breaks down a large part of its wall, and takes away its treasure… Pride still goes before a fall, and a proud spirit before destruction. God's Word gives many examples of this. Each one stands in clear contrast to the One who humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
Joash had answered the challenge with a parable of a thistle and a cedar.
The king of Israel made good his parable. It was the thistle against the cedar, and the result was a complete rout. A wild beast trampled the thistle underfoot. "And Judah was defeated by Israel, and every man fled to his home" (2 Chron. 25:22). Amaziah is a captive. The walls of Jerusalem are broken down for 400 cubits. The gold and silver treasures of both the temple and the palace are carried off, and hostages too. This was an effective stop to Judah's boasting against Israel. Whatever glory Amaziah won by his victory over Edom is now permanently overshadowed.
One writer holds Amaziah up as a mirror for today.
A prophet is sent and rebukes Amaziah for his amazing folly… He could refuse the mercy and shut the mouth of the prophet; but he had to hear God's judgment with no mercy mixed in… Amaziah is but a sample of man. God still sends a message of mercy, and the spirit of the world still says "Stop," or listens only to an authority that men have appointed… God's dreadful judgment on those who do not obey the truth is not announced as God gives it. It is toned down, so that no one takes it as meant for himself.
- Face one — success. Beating Edom lifted Amaziah up. A proud heart then took ungodly counsel, and it led him into disaster.
- Face two — the prophet. God's mercy came first, in a rebuke he could have accepted. Silencing it left him with God's sentence alone.
- Face three — Joash. He got the meeting he demanded. Scripture says it came from God, so his own pride carried out the judgment on his idolatry.
- Face four — his own ground. The battle fell at Beth-shemesh, a town of Judah. The loss reached past the king to Jerusalem's wall, treasures and hostages.
- Face five — ours. The world still says "stop" to God's warning and tones down His judgment. Set against Amaziah stands the One who humbled Himself to the death of the cross.
And Judah was routed before Israel; and they fled every man to his tent.
Amaziah had just crushed Edom, then brought Edom's gods home and bowed to them; he refused to listen when a prophet rebuked him. This verse records where that road ended. Judah broke and ran, and Israel took their king prisoner.
This collapse is the last stage of a longer story. One commentator traces Amaziah's whole reign: a king who walked with God unsteadily, leaned on human strength, then let success go to his head:
Amaziah, up to a certain point, walks with God, but in weakness and with an unsteady step. He leans on human strength… Lifted up by his victory over Edom, he takes the gods of Seir, which could not save their own people, and bows down before them. He then refuses to listen to the prophet who rebukes him… Amaziah goes to war with Israel. Israel defeats him shamefully, takes him prisoner, and lays Jerusalem waste.
Scripture shows the same fall many times. It also shows the opposite path, taken by Christ:
It is true that Amaziah, flushed with pride at having beaten Edom, had challenged Joash to battle. Joash had replied, warning Amaziah of the consequences of his rash challenge, but Amaziah would not listen. God then allowed him to be routed before Israel. Pride still goes before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction. We have many examples of this in God's Word, all in clear contrast to that One who humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
Joash had answered Amaziah's challenge with a picture: a thistle against a cedar. The defeat made that picture real.
The king of Israel proved his parable true. It was the thistle against the cedar, and the result was a complete rout. A wild beast trampled the thistle down… Amaziah is a captive. They break down the walls of Jerusalem for 400 cubits, carry off the treasures of gold and silver from both the temple and the palace, and take hostages too. This put an effective stop to Judah's boasting against Israel. Whatever glory Amaziah won by his victory over Edom is now overshadowed beyond recovery.
Another commentator sums up this verse in one line:
The result of the battle had been settled beforehand, and Amaziah simply went to his certain defeat (v. 22).
God had not left Amaziah without warning. He sent a prophet, and Amaziah refused to hear him. That refusal, more than the sin itself, is what drew out the sentence:
To sin is to deserve condemnation, but to refuse mercy and correction brings out God's determination to destroy (Prov. 1:24-31). His own pride and folly become the direct cause of his ruin. His victory over Edom lifted him up, and he challenges the king of Israel… Amaziah, driven by his own vanity, would not listen. That was the first step on the path to his downfall, and his defeat was the first public stroke of God's judgment, which was now unavoidable.
There is a sting in who defeated whom. Judah held the temple and the truth; the northern kingdom had abandoned both. Yet Judah ran.
Judah ought to have been the more faithful, since they had the truth in a way that Israel had not. Yet they flee before the men of Israel. What confusion when God had to stand against His own people — when He had to strike even those He cared for most, who were now the more guilty just because they had more light!
The same humbling can fall on anyone who holds the truth without living it:
Judah stayed in the place God had given them and kept their outward loyalty to God's temple. Yet Israel, who had left God's place of worship, humbled them deeply… Why are we humbled like this? Because we have not acted with a whole heart on the truths we know, and God uses such means to drive us back to walk truly in His ways.
- Success — Amaziah's ruin began at his high point. The victory over Edom, not a setback, lifted him up and set him against Israel.
- Silencing — He refused to hear God's messenger. Sin deserves judgment, but refusing mercy and correction is what drew out the sentence.
- Settled — After that refusal the battle was decided before it began. He marched out to a defeat already fixed.
- Shame — The thistle was trampled down: Amaziah a captive, the wall broken, the treasures of temple and palace carried off, every boast over Edom erased.
- Searchlight — Judah, with more light, fled before Israel, which had less. Truth held but not obeyed leaves you humbled before those who never had it.
And Joash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and he broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits.
Amaziah, king of Judah, had just beaten Edom, and the win made him bold enough to challenge Joash, king of Israel, to battle. He lost — so why did God let Judah's king fall, and the wall of his own capital with him?
The defeat did not begin on the battlefield. It began with a victory that went to Amaziah's head.
Joash (Jehoash), Jehu's grandson, defeats Amaziah, king of Judah. He captures Jerusalem, Amaziah's capital, breaks down a large part of its wall, and takes away its treasure. It is true that Amaziah had challenged Joash to battle. He was flushed with pride at having defeated Edom. Joash had replied, warning Amaziah where his rash challenge would lead, but Amaziah would not listen. God then allowed Israel to rout him. Pride still goes before a fall, and a haughty spirit before destruction. God's Word gives us many examples of this. All of them stand in clear contrast to the One who humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
Amaziah's worst mistake was not the challenge itself. It was what he did when correction came.
To sin is to deserve condemnation. But to refuse mercy and correction brings out God's determination to destroy (Prov. 1:24-31). His own pride and folly become the immediate cause of his ruin. His victory over Edom lifted him up, and he challenges the king of Israel. Joash treats him with scorn! Amaziah, driven by his own vanity, would not listen. That was the first step on the path to his downfall. His defeat was the first public stroke of God's judgment, and that judgment was now certain, for this came of God (2 Chron. 25:20). When a man holds on to pride and folly, God's judgment follows.
The verse names the two gates at either end of the breach. Where that wall stood matters, and so does how Joash got inside.
No one had ever damaged the walls of Jerusalem before this. The breach was on the north — the only side from which the city is easy to reach. Josephus records that Joash got into the city by threatening to kill their captive king if the people refused to open the gates.
Joash did not kill Amaziah, and did not leave him at Beth-shemesh, where the battle was fought. He took him home to Jerusalem, and that detail carries its own sting.
Joash took Amaziah captive and brought him to Jerusalem. There he could watch the destruction of a large section of the city wall (v. 23). He also saw the house of God stripped of all the gold and silver articles in it, which Joash and Israel carried off as plunder.
The wall and the treasure tell one story. Amaziah lost in fact what he had already given up in his heart.
He had shown no regard for God's glory, of which the gold speaks. He had shown none for the need of redemption, which the silver pictures. So God let those very symbols be taken from him. What do we today think of those two vital matters — God's glory and the redemption that is in Christ Jesus? The broken wall confirms something. Amaziah had already broken down his own separation from the godless nations when he took up Edom's idols. Jerusalem, at least, ought to have stayed clear of the gross evil of idolatry. So the wall was of no practical use any more.
The same writer turns the story on the reader, and names what meddling costs.
What a lesson this is for us! Meddle where we have no right, and we will find the wall of our separation from the world broken down. Worse still, the precious things of the Lord that we hold in trust will be stolen from us! Let us pay close attention to the words Paul wrote to Timothy: "O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you" (1 Tim. 6:20).
The rubble was not the end of the story. A later king took up the rebuilding.
After that Uzziah carried out a great work of restoration. He rebuilt and fortified the northern wall of Jerusalem, which had been broken down under Amaziah (2 Chron 25:23).
- Pride opens the breach. Beating Edom lifted Amaziah's heart. The challenge that pride produced led straight to his capture — the opposite of the One who humbled Himself to death on a cross.
- Refusal seals it. Sin deserves condemnation. Refusing correction brings out God's settled purpose to destroy, and this defeat was the first public stroke of it.
- The wall only confirms. The stones fell on the north side, the easiest way in. Amaziah had already let his separation go long before Joash touched it.
- The treasure follows the wall. Gold speaks of God's glory, silver of redemption. Joash carried both away from a king who valued neither.
- The breach can be rebuilt. Uzziah later rebuilt the northern wall Amaziah lost — so guard what the Lord has placed in your trust.
And he [took] all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obed-Edom, and the treasures of the king's house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria.
Amaziah began his reign walking with God, yet this verse counts what his defeat by Israel cost him: the treasure of God's house, the king's treasury, and captives carried away. Why did God let the kingdom that had abandoned His worship strip His own house?
The plunder was not a random turn of war. It came at the end of a path. One writer traces the whole descent: a weak step, then the gods of Edom, then a prophet ignored.
Amaziah, up to a certain point, walks with God, but in weakness and with an unsteady step. He leans on an arm of flesh, but he listens to the prophet, and this saves him from being defeated. The cities of Judah, however, suffer the consequences of his false step... Lifted up by the victory he had won over Edom, he takes the gods of Seir, which could not deliver their own people, and bows down before them. He then turns a deaf ear to the prophet who rebukes him. But pride goes before confusion, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Amaziah, making war against Israel, is defeated in disgrace and made prisoner, and Jerusalem itself is laid waste.
The turning point was not the sin alone but what he did with the correction sent after it.
To sin is to deserve condemnation. But to refuse mercy and reproof brings out God's determination to destroy (Prov. 1:24-31). His own pride and folly become the immediate cause of his ruin. He was lifted up because of his victory over Edom and challenges the king of Israel... Amaziah, driven by his own vanity, would not hear. That was the first step on the path to his downfall. His defeat was the first public stroke of God's judgment.
The items listed are not simply valuables. One commentator reads the loss of the gold, the silver and the wall as God removing the outward signs of things Amaziah had already treated as worthless.
What a lesson this was for Amaziah! He had shown no regard for God's glory (of which the gold speaks), nor for the need of redemption (symbolised by the silver), and therefore God allowed the very symbols to be taken from him. What do we today think of those two vital matters — God's glory and the redemption that is in Christ Jesus?
The verse names Obed-edom beside the temple vessels. Chronicles has already listed his family among the temple doorkeepers, and it gives the reason for their place there.
Obed-Edom is here, as always, the object of special blessing... He had eight sons, for it is said that God had blessed him. Had he not, together with his family, been the keeper of the ark in his house for three months?... We see him and his large family with him here as doorkeepers of Solomon's future temple.
The wound went deeper because of who won: Israel had left the very temple it now stripped.
Judah stayed in the place God had given them and kept their outward allegiance to God's temple. Yet Israel, who had left God's place of worship, humbled them deeply. This is a serious lesson for believers today. They may be humbled in the eyes of people who keep up the outward form of Christianity but have no living knowledge of Christ. Why are we humbled like this? Because we have not acted with our whole heart on the truths we know. God uses such means to drive us back to walk truly in His ways.
Amaziah still claimed the Lord as the God he served. Chronicles traces the defeat itself back to God's hand.
Amaziah does not listen to this warning, and Chronicles tells us that it was of God, so that He might deliver them into the enemy's hand, because they had sought the gods of Edom (2 Chron. 25:20). Judah is beaten. Amaziah is taken prisoner. Jerusalem is broken down. All the treasures of the king and of the temple are carried off as spoil, along with hostages. Amaziah had claimed to serve and honour his God. From the moment he forsakes Him to serve other gods, he meets Him as a consuming fire.
- Pride — Victory over Edom lifted Amaziah up, and a haughty spirit went before his fall.
- Refusal — Sin deserves condemnation. Refusing the prophet's reproof brought out God's determination to destroy.
- Stripping — The gold speaks of God's glory, the silver of redemption. God let the symbols go because Amaziah despised both.
- Shame — Judah kept the temple but lost its treasure to a kingdom that had left true worship. God uses such shame to drive His people back to His ways.
- Fire — He still called the Lord his God, yet met Him as a consuming fire the moment he turned to other gods.
And Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, lived after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, fifteen years.
At first glance this verse only counts years. Amaziah outlived the king of Israel who had defeated him by fifteen years. Commentators read those years as time given for repentance, and ask what he did with them.
The verse sits between a crushing defeat and a violent death. Commentators see God leaving a gap between the two.
The Lord gave the king a long time to repent. He lived fifteen years after the king who had plundered Jerusalem. But there does not seem to have been any sign of repentance in Amaziah, for his history closes with the words, "From the time when he turned away from the LORD they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish and put him to death there" (verse 27). What a sad end after such a promising start.
Commentators see a wider principle here in how God deals with everyone.
God always gives space for repentance before He carries out judgment... How then does man treat this longsuffering of God? Sadly, men despise the riches of His goodness. Because He "forbears," men think God will never judge; because He "suffers long," men think God is indifferent to evil. Yet God forbears and suffers long for one reason: to give men space for repentance.
The fifteen years began after a humiliation Amaziah had brought on himself. Warned by Joash of Israel to stay home, he pushed for the fight anyway.
The king of Israel made good his parable. It was the thistle against the cedar, and the result was a complete rout... Amaziah is a captive. The walls of Jerusalem are broken down for four hundred cubits. Israel carries off the treasures of gold and silver from both the temple and the palace, and takes hostages too. This put an effective stop to Judah's boasting against Israel. Whatever glory Amaziah won by his victory over Edom is now beyond recovery. Fifteen years afterwards, like his father, conspirators kill him.
Being brought low is not the same as being brought back.
Though Joash had defeated Amaziah, he did not live long to enjoy his victory. He died fifteen years before Amaziah. Still, there is no sign that Amaziah recovered his treasures from Israel. Judah stayed in the place God had given them and kept up their outward allegiance to God's temple. Yet Israel, who had left God's place of worship, humiliated them greatly. This is a serious lesson for believers today. Some people keep a formal observance of Christianity but have no living knowledge of Christ, and we may be humbled in their eyes. Why are we humbled like this? Because we have not acted wholeheartedly on the truths we know, and God uses such means to drive us back to walk truly in His ways.
The chapter closes by listing Amaziah's acts "from first to last." Writers ask whether those words mark a split in his reign.
No conspiracy would have succeeded had he not turned away from the Lord. He showed little or no faith when he hired soldiers from Israel. He showed only a selfish, self-interested obedience to the Lord's word when he sent them away. But it was when he publicly set up Edom's idols that the Lord allowed these evils to come on him... "From first to last" — is there not a division here between the earlier and the later part of his reign? And is the dividing line the point where he turned from the Lord?
His end repeated his family's pattern, and even his choice of hiding place fit the man.
Amaziah lived more than fifteen years after his humiliating defeat and capture by the king of Israel. He died by violence, like his father and grandfather before him... His "turning away from following the Lord" was probably his final and complete apostasy... Lachish was the first of the cities of Judah to take up the idolatries of the kingdom of Israel... and it was natural for the idolatrous Amaziah to seek shelter there... His name means "the strength of the Lord"; but we read, "he strengthened himself" (2 Chron. 25:11) — his self-sufficiency contradicting his name, something not uncommon in our day.
- Turned — He publicly set up the gods of Edom, and the record dates his fall from that point.
- Defeated — Israel routed him and took his freedom, Jerusalem's wall, and the temple treasure. His win over Edom counted for nothing.
- Spared — Fifteen extra years left him room to return. God gives space for repentance before He judges.
- Unchanged — Humiliation changed his circumstances, not his heart. He never recovered what he had lost.
- Ruined — The record dates the plot that killed him from the day he turned from the Lord. Time given and ignored ran out.
And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, behold, are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And from the time that Amaziah turned aside from following Jehovah, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish; and they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there.
Amaziah's reign ends in murder, but Chronicles does not treat it as palace politics. It dates the plot: the conspiracy began the moment the king turned away from the LORD.
Scripture tells this death twice. One account lists the bare events; Chronicles adds the reason behind them.
Our chapter simply recounts that they conspired against him at Jerusalem. He fled to Lachish. They sent after him to kill him. Then they brought him on horses to bury him with his fathers in the city of David. But Chronicles gives us the solemn reason for this drama: "From the time when he turned away from the LORD they made a conspiracy against him."
The words "from the time" fix a starting point for the plot. That point was not one of the king's low moments. It was his hour of triumph.
He turned away from the Lord on his return from the victory over Edom. Then the plot took shape. He returned in triumph and thought his throne was secure. But he neither knew it nor suspected it. It was like Jonah rejoicing under the shade of the gourd while a worm at the root was destroying it. The conspiracy grew against him in the hour of his boasting. It was the judgment of God.
Amaziah's earlier failures were real, but they did not bring this. What finally broke him was the public act — setting up the gods of a defeated nation.
No conspiracy would have succeeded had he not turned away from the Lord. He showed little or no faith when he hired soldiers from Israel. He obeyed the Lord's word and sent them away, but that obedience was selfish and self-interested. Yet it was when he openly set up Edom's idols that the Lord allowed these evils to come on him. The record reads, "Now the rest of the deeds of Amaziah, from first to last." Is there not a division here between the earlier and the later part of his reign? And is the dividing line the moment he turned from the Lord? The earlier part was not with a perfect heart. Yet only when the king openly dishonoured the LORD did the prophet announce God's determination to destroy him.
Commentators differ on which moment the verse dates. One ties it to the setting up of Edom's gods; another places it later still. The same writer notes where the king ran for safety, and how his body came home.
His "turning away from following the Lord" probably means his final and complete abandonment of the LORD God of Israel. It does not mean the moment he first bowed down to the gods of Seir. That was only the beginning of his downward course. Lachish was the first city of Judah to take up the idol worship of the kingdom of Israel. Micah calls it "the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel" (Micah 1:13). So it was natural for the idolatrous Amaziah to seek shelter there. They brought his body back to Jerusalem on horses, as they would carry a beast.
Judgment did not fall at once. God left the king years to use.
The Lord gave the king a long time in which to repent. He lived fifteen years after the king who had plundered Jerusalem. But Amaziah seems to have shown no sign of repentance. His history closes with the words of this verse. What a sad end after such a promising start.
Amaziah did not fall as a beginner. He fell after his greatest success, and he was not the only king of Judah to do so.
These things are written for our instruction. The failure of these seven kings of Judah should teach us that no one is safe unless they keep depending on Him. That is true whatever their experience of God's goodness may have been.
- Turning. The verse gives a date, not an accident. The plot starts at the moment the king stops following the LORD.
- Timing. The plot grew while he celebrated his win over Edom, unseen by him, like the worm at the root of Jonah's shelter.
- Threshold. His half-hearted start did not destroy him. Openly setting up Edom's idols did.
- Tolerance. God gave him fifteen years after the defeat, and the record shows no sign of repentance in them.
- Test. Past victories guard no one; safety lasts only as long as dependence on God does.
And they brought him on horses, and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah.
Amaziah's story ends with a body carried home on horseback and laid in a royal grave. This verse says nothing about how he died. For that, and for the reason behind the plot, we have to read the sentence just before it.
Kings reports the plot. Chronicles dates it. One writer asks whether that date splits the reign in two:
No conspiracy would have succeeded had he not turned away from the Lord. He showed little or no faith when he hired soldiers from Israel. His obedience to the Lord's word in sending them away was very selfish and self-interested. Yet it was when he publicly set up Edom's idols that the Lord allowed these evils to come on him. "Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last." First and last — is there not a division here between the earlier and the later part of his reign? And is the dividing line the point where he turned from the Lord?
The plot did not start on the day they killed him. It started while the king felt safest:
He turned away from the Lord on his return from the victory over Edom. Then the conspiracy was formed. He came back in triumph and thought his throne was secure. But without his knowing or noticing it, a conspiracy was formed against him in the hour of his boasting. It was like Jonah enjoying the shade of the plant while a worm destroyed its root. It was the judgment of God.
The town he chose as a refuge fits the man he had become. So does the way they carried him home:
His "turning away from following the Lord" was probably his final and complete abandoning of the Lord, the God of Israel. It was not the moment when he first bowed down to the gods of Seir, though that was the beginning of his downward course. Lachish was the first city of Judah to take up the idol worship of the kingdom of Israel. It was natural for the idolatrous Amaziah to look for shelter there. They brought his body back to Jerusalem on horses, as they would a beast.
Judgment did not fall at once. One writer weighs the years between his defeat and his death:
The Lord gave the king a long time in which to repent. He lived fifteen years after the king who had plundered Jerusalem. But there does not seem to have been any sign of repentance in Amaziah. His history closes with a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, his flight to Lachish, and his death there. What a sad end after such a promising start.
The men behind the plot were close to the king. Even so, the verse ends with a mercy his father never received:
His ungodly character became offensive even to his own servants, and they conspired against him. They carried his body back to Jerusalem for burial, and the record says it was "with his fathers" (v. 28). That sounds as though he was buried with the kings, though his father did not have such a burial.
One writer notes that the burial place, called "the city of Judah" in older translations, is the city of David.
One writer traces the reign from the influence behind its good start to the phrase that closes it:
He was killed at the age of fifty-four. His mother's name means "Jehovah-pleased," which suggests she was a godly woman. Her influence may be why he acted righteously during the earlier part of his reign. The record of his reign has the same sad sameness as so many of the kings of Judah in this period — "his acts first and last." The first is full of promise. The last is decline, or turning away. "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."
- Turning. The plot dates from the moment Amaziah turned away from the Lord. Chronicles gives the reason that Kings only reports.
- Timing. The plot was forming while he felt safest, just after beating Edom. Jonah sat in the shade of a plant while a worm ate its root.
- Time given. Fifteen years passed between his defeat and his death. The record shows no sign of repentance.
- Trail. He fled to Lachish, a city known for idol worship. He came back on horses, carried like an animal.
- Tomb. He was still buried with his fathers, an honour his own father missed. "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."