And Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.
One sentence covers seventeen years of unbroken pressure on Israel. It sits strangely next to verse 4, where Israel's king Jehoahaz prayed and the LORD listened to him. Why did a king God had heard die with the enemy still grinding his people down?
The verse names Hazael as the oppressor. One writer traces the cause further back, to the kings before him:
During these years the kings and the people depart from the Lord and pursue an evil course. Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord, and the sins of Jeroboam are not departed from. His son, Jehoahaz, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. As a result the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and they are delivered into the hands of their enemies.
Hazael's raids did not start with Jehoahaz. One writer looks at the reign before his:
Hazael's conquest of the kingdom had begun in the days of Jehu, Jehoahaz's father. There is no hint that Jehu ever tried to resist these raids of the king of Syria into his own land. Men like this are seldom really good soldiers. They may be very active in getting the position they love and want, while very careless about the true interests of the people of God.
Hazael took the throne of Syria to feed his own ambition. One writer shows what God was doing through it:
The king may recover, but he will die. I will be king in his place and will torment Israel. From the thought to carrying it out there is only one step. This is how God prepares the rod that will chasten His people, until the moment when He will break the rod itself.
Elisha had foreseen this oppression years earlier, and wept over it. Another writer explains God's purpose in it:
Here we see how Elisha's prophecy of Hazael's pitiless oppression of the children of Israel was fulfilled (2 Kings 8:12). No wonder the man of God, who loved Israel so dearly, wept. In front of him stood the man destined to carry out these cruelties against his people. Even by this God was seeking to turn them back from their idolatry to repentance. This bitter chastisement seems to have had a good effect on Jehoahaz, for he prayed to the Lord. When the goodness of God fails to bring men to repentance, His severity is required, and used.
Verses 4 and 5 report a prayer heard and a deliverer given. This verse reports oppression to the end of the reign. One writer explains the gap:
The prayer of Jehoahaz, though heard, was not fully answered at once... Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, was the first one through whom a partial deliverance came (verse 25). The full deliverance came under the grandson Jeroboam II (14:25-27). This is a good illustration of how the Lord hears prayer. In His sovereignty and all-wise purposes He may delay the answer for many years. It should be enough for God's people to know that prayer is heard and to leave the answer with Him, who does all things well. And so Jehoahaz saw nothing but oppression (verse 22), though he had turned to the LORD and had prayed. It was a trial of faith.
One writer turns that delay into an appeal to the reader:
There was no relief until Joash's day. This must have been a test of Jehoahaz's faith — if his repentance really came from godly sorrow for his own sins and the nation's. But when has faith, untried, ever flourished? So do not waver, dear fellow believer, and do not stumble at the trial of your faith. God listened to Jehoahaz, even though he died with Hazael still busy destroying his kingdom.
The next verse answers the question this one raises. The oppression was real, but it had a limit, and the limit was God's covenant:
Yet despite this cruelty, the Lord had compassion on Israel and gave them some real help. He did it because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so they were not cast out of their land. The longsuffering patience of God is wonderful, but patience is not indifference, and God must eventually judge.
- Cause. The oppression was not random politics. The kings and the people turned from the Lord, His anger burned against them, and He handed them over to their enemies.
- Rod. Hazael's ambition was his own. Yet God was shaping him into a rod to chasten His people — a rod He would break Himself later.
- Aim. Even the cruelty served mercy. God was turning Israel back from idolatry, using severity after goodness had failed.
- Delay. Jehoahaz prayed, and God heard him, yet he saw nothing but oppression to his dying day. God may delay an answer for years. It is enough to know He hears, and to leave the timing to Him.
- Floor. Underneath it all ran God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That is why He chastened the nation instead of destroying it. But patience is not indifference, and judgment comes at last.
And Jehovah was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect to them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he would not destroy them, neither did he cast them from his presence up to that time.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Hazael king of Syria died, and Ben-Hadad his son reigned in his stead.
Hazael's death closes a long chapter of suffering for Israel, yet the throne in Damascus does not stand empty — his son steps straight into it. The verses that follow answer a question. When God removes an oppressor, how much relief do His people get? And what sets the measure?
Hazael did not rise by accident. Long before he took the throne, he already meant the king to die and Israel to suffer. One writer sees God's hand behind that plan.
The king may recover, but he will die. I will be king in his place and will torment Israel. From the thought to the act is only a step. So God prepares the rod which will chasten His people, until the moment when He will break the rod itself.
That last line is what this verse records: the rod is broken. And what breaks it is not Israel's armies, and not Israel's repentance.
Everything Elisha had foreseen came true during the reign of Jehoahaz. And still God did not let go of the nation.
Elisha had told Hazael that he knew all the evil Hazael would bring on Israel (ch. 8:12). And Hazael did go on to oppress Jehoahaz and his kingdom cruelly (v. 22). Yet despite this cruelty, the Lord had compassion on Israel and gave them some real help, because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So they were not driven out of their land. God's long patience is wonderful, but patience is not indifference, and God must judge in the end.
The reason for the relief lay outside Israel: a promise made to three men long dead.
The change of ruler in Syria lets Israel take back what it had lost. What follows matches what the dying Elisha had said — and goes no further.
Hazael died, however, and his son Ben Hadad became king of Syria. Then Joash, son of Jehoahaz, recaptured the cities Hazael had taken from his father. As Elisha had promised, Joash defeated Ben Hadad three times, but this did not destroy the power of Syria.
Cities came back, but Syria was still standing. That number three was no accident.
As Elisha lay dying, he told Joash to strike the ground with arrows. Joash struck three times and stopped. One writer asks why, and what the stopping cost him.
Why did he stop? Did he not know what the prophet meant? Did he not grasp the grace of God that was now at work? Why did he stop? Sadly, a man never keeps going as far as the grace of God, even if it is an Abraham who leaves off when he ought to go on! Yet the grace of God never fails of its purpose. Here, however, it was the judgment of God… Had he struck the ground three times with the arrows? Then the Syrians would be struck three times and no more.
So the death of Hazael made full deliverance possible. The faith of the king made it partial.
The gap between what God offered and what Joash took is not just old history. It is a mirror for us.
What a lesson is here for us all! We deal with a God whose resources have no limit, and who delights to bless His people. Yet our thoughts and expectations are so poor that we limit Him again and again. So little satisfies us. So slow are we, so lacking in spiritual energy, to go in boldly, and "possess our possessions."
One more thread runs through this chapter. Jehoahaz had prayed while Hazael was crushing him, and God heard him.
The prayer of Jehoahaz, though heard, was not fully answered at once… Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, was the first one through whom a partial deliverance came (verse 25). The full deliverance came under the grandson Jeroboam II (14:25-27). This is a good illustration of how the Lord hears prayer. In His sovereignty and all-wise purposes He may delay the answer for many years. It should be enough for God's people to know that prayer is heard, and to leave the answer with Him, who does all things well. And so Jehoahaz saw nothing but oppression (verse 22), though he had turned to the LORD and had prayed. It was a trial of faith.
- Rod. Hazael was the rod God prepared to chasten His people. This verse is the moment God breaks it.
- Covenant. The relief came from God's promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not from any change in Israel. His patience is real, but it is not indifference.
- Measure. A new Syrian king made recovery possible. Joash beat him three times, because three was the number he chose with the arrows.
- Limit. God's supply has no limit. Joash's small faith set the limit, and God held him to it — and so little still satisfies us.
- Delay. Jehoahaz prayed and died still oppressed. The answer came in part to his son and in full to his grandson. Heard prayer is not always quick prayer.