And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria; and Joash his son reigned in his stead.
Verse 9 gives the usual closing notice for a king of Israel: he dies, they bury him in Samaria, and his son takes the throne. But Jehoahaz had prayed, and God had heard him, so this quiet ending raises a question: what happened to the answer?
Verse 8 points to a record of his "might." Yet his whole reign came to nothing. One writer sets the ruined army beside the closing notice:
The Syrians had destroyed Israel's army. It was left pitifully weak, with only 50 horsemen, ten chariots and 10,000 foot soldiers. The 17 years of the reign of Jehoahaz ended only in defeat and disaster. Verse 8 does tell us that the rest of his acts and his might are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. But that is not the same as the Scripture books of Chronicles. At his death his son Joash succeeded him on Israel's throne.
They buried him in Samaria, the capital he never cleansed. On the day he died the enemy was still at work in his land. One commentator turns that hard fact into encouragement:
There was no relief until Joash's day. This must have been a test of Jehoahaz' faith, if his repentance truly came from "godly sorrow" for his own sins and the nation's. But when has faith ever grown strong without being tested? So do not waver or stumble, dear fellow believer, when your faith is tried. God "listened" to Jehoahaz, even though he died while Hazael was still destroying his realm.
God can hear a prayer the moment it is made and answer it generations later. At verse 9 the man who prayed is dead, and the relief has still not come:
God heard the prayer of Jehoahaz, but did not answer it in full at once… He gave a partial deliverance first through Joash, the son of Jehoahaz. The full deliverance came under the grandson Jeroboam II. Here is a good picture 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.
Earlier in the chapter God promised Israel a rescuer. The son named in verse 9 is that rescuer:
This saviour appeared, as we shall see, in the person of Joash, the son and successor of Jehoahaz. At last the people might enjoy a little quiet. If they had given God the credit for this favour, the blessing would have continued. But "they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam"; they "walked in them." People often note that the world is happy to enjoy God's favours without taking the least care to serve Him.
God had told Jehu how long his family would hold the throne. The handover in this verse is one more step in keeping that word, even though the family stayed in its idolatry:
The Lord kept His promise to Jehu: "Your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel." Jehoahaz followed his father on the throne. Second Chronicles gives the history of the family of David. It says nothing about Jehoahaz, because this king had no dealings with Judah… Jehoahaz did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam any more than his father did. Even the Asherah stayed in Israel's capital — the idol of the Phoenician goddess of love, whose impure worship Ahab had started at Samaria.
Commentators differ on how the numbers here fit together. One notes only that the next verse "seems inconsistent" with the reign lengths, "whatever may be the explanation" (Leslie M. Grant). Another suggests a shared throne:
Compare the numbers in verse ten with those in verse one of the same chapter and the first verse of the following chapter. It is clear that Joash reigned together with his father during the last two years of his father's life. That was not unusual in ancient times. This easily explains a problem in the dates that otherwise has no explanation.
- Sin. Jehoahaz kept the idolatry of Jeroboam and left the Asherah standing in Samaria — the city where they buried him.
- Rod. His seventeen years brought only defeat and disaster. He left a token army and an enemy still in the land.
- Cry. God heard his prayer, yet he died while Hazael was still destroying his kingdom. That was a trial of faith, not a failure of God.
- Delay. The answer came in stages: partial rescue through his son, full rescue through his grandson. God hears at once, and may go on answering for years.
- Gift. The son who "reigned in his place" was himself the promised deliverer, and the handover also kept God's word to Jehu about four generations.
In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria, for sixteen years.
A date, a capital city, a length of reign — that is nearly all this verse gives us about Jehoash, king of Israel. Two questions follow. Why does the dating overlap his father's reign? And why is the record of a strong king so short?
Israel and Judah both had a ruler called Joash at the same time, and the numbers in this chapter seem not to line up. One writer explains the puzzle as a shared throne:
Compare the figures of this verse with those in verse one of the same chapter, and in the first verse of the next chapter. It is clear that Joash (Jehoash, shortened) reigned jointly with his father during the last two years of his father's life. Two kings sharing a throne was not unusual in those days. This explains a chronological difficulty that otherwise has no answer. The same simple answer would most likely clear up the hardest chronology puzzles in Scripture — apart from a few that certainly go back to copying mistakes.
Some have called Joash a good man. One writer weighs that verdict against what God has recorded:
A little show of religious, or even half-religious, feeling goes a long way with some people in reckoning others "good." Some have supposed that Joash reformed, or repented, toward the end of his life… But the words, "he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam," rule out any thought of real or lasting repentance at any point in his life. God is more eager to record any good in these kings' lives than any of His people are to read it. He has noted none in Joash's; and where He is silent, who will dare to speak?
King after king in Israel kept up the sins of Jeroboam. The motive was easy to see:
Not only did he not turn aside from any of the sins of Jeroboam, but "he walked in them" (v. 11). The Word here shows us that he took them as his rule of conduct. One king of Israel after another followed the same path, and their motives were very strong and easy to see. Humanly speaking, their authority and their hold on the kingdom were tied to a religion that kept them apart from Judah's worship, with its temple and Jerusalem at its centre. To return to the worship of the LORD would have meant giving up their rule. It would have meant bowing to the family of David and surrendering their own royal rights.
Joash was not a weak king. Yet the record of his sixteen years passes over nearly all he did:
As for the power of Joash of Israel, it was great. His reign was important, and he accomplished many things. But he lived without God, and what is left of him? As with so many other rulers over men, nothing remains of him but this word: "This one was born there" (Ps. 87:4).
Within these sixteen years comes one striking scene. Joash goes to the dying Elisha, and commentators read the visit differently. One sees real feeling behind it:
This may surprise us. But it is clear there was no pretence, mockery, or insincerity in all this. It was nature. Perhaps this king of the house of Jehu had badly neglected Elisha up to now. Now the prophet was about to be taken away. That stirred his conscience, as was only natural, and so he seeks the dying prophet.
Another sees God at work in it, and draws the wider principle:
Scripture gives two accounts of Joash's reign. Between them we find the end of Elisha's career, and what was able to make this evil king an instrument of deliverance for his people. This was grace. God shows grace whenever and as long as He is able to do so. Grace delights in a soul where even a flash of repentance appears, or in the mere sigh of an oppressed heart.
The visit ended with a test.
Elisha put his dying hands on the king's hands. By this he meant the king to understand the truth God spoke more than three hundred years later through the prophet Zechariah: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts" (Zech. 4:6)… Only Joash's lack of faith kept him from destroying the Syrians completely. That lack showed in his half-hearted striking of the ground with arrows just three times. And it was to him according to his faith.
- Reign — Father and son ruled together for the last two years of Jehoahaz's life. That is why the numbers seem to clash.
- Rule — Joash took Jeroboam's sins as his rule of conduct. Returning to the Lord's worship would have cost him his crown.
- Record — He was powerful and achieved much. But he lived without God, and almost nothing of him remains.
- Rescue — God still met him. Grace fastens on even a flash of repentance or the sigh of an oppressed heart. It made this evil king a deliverer for his people.
- Reach — The arrows measured his faith. He stopped at three, and so he stopped short of destroying Syria: it was to him according to his faith.
And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah; he departed not from any of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin he walked therein.
Joash (also called Jehoash) follows his father onto Israel's throne, and God's verdict on him repeats the verdict on the kings before him, with one phrase added that makes his case worse. So what does it mean to walk in another man's sins, and why did king after king keep a sin everyone could name?
The verse does not stop at saying Joash failed to turn away. It says he walked in them. One commentator takes that added clause as the point of the record, and gives the blunt reason these kings all made the same choice.
He did not simply refuse to turn aside from any of the sins of Jeroboam; he "walked in them" (v. 11). The Word is showing us that he took them as his rule of conduct… Their authority and their hold on the kingdom were, from a human point of view, tied to a religion that kept them apart from Judah's worship, with its temple and Jerusalem at the center. To go back to the worship of the LORD would have meant giving up their rule, putting themselves under the family of David, and giving up their own royal rights… This is all the more striking in the case of Joash of Israel, because later God gave the king of Judah and Jerusalem into his hand. If he had had any concern for the LORD at all, he now had his chance to renew the religious bond with the temple of God that Jeroboam had broken.
The verse names Jeroboam as the source of these sins. He did not stumble into idolatry; he designed the golden calves for a purpose, and later kings like Jehu had their own reasons to keep them.
Jehu cared for himself and not for God. The golden calves were a political religion, and it suited the policy of the ten tribes to keep them. If the ten tribes had no calves of gold, they would have gone back to giving their allegiance to the LORD in Jerusalem… To make a kingdom, Jeroboam had to make a religion. If you break up a shared bond as important as religion, and religion divides men's minds, you cannot count on them in politics.
Some have judged Joash more kindly than this verse does. One commentator answers them, starting with Josephus, an ancient Jewish historian.
Josephus calls him a "good man." That wrong judgment of Joash's character probably rests on his visit to the dying prophet Elisha. A small show of religious, or even half-religious, feeling goes a long way with some people in counting a man "good."… But the words, "He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam," rule out any thought of real or lasting repentance at any point in his life. God is more eager to record any good in the life of one of these kings than His people are to read it. He has recorded none in Joash's life. Where He is silent, who will dare to speak?
Verse 11 is not a one-off remark. One writer hears it as a refrain over the kings of Israel, set against a different refrain over the kings of Judah, the southern kingdom.
This phrase, "the high places were not taken away," runs like a refrain through the history of the faithful kings of Judah, apart from two exceptions. Another refrain marks out the kings of Israel: "He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin." These kings shaped their religious conduct by the head of their royal house, who was an idolater… But it is always very dangerous to settle into a system which does not seek the mind of God as its source, even when that system boasts of great age.
Joash was not a weak king. One writer weighs what his power finally amounted to.
The power of Joash of Israel was great. His reign mattered, and he achieved many things. But he lived without God — so what is left of him?
The verdict is not the last word. One writer points to what stands between the two halves of Joash's history.
Between these two parts of the record we find the end of Elisha's career, and what could make this evil king an instrument of deliverance for his people. This was grace. God shows grace whenever He is able, and for as long as He is able. Grace delights in a soul where even a flash of repentance appears, or in the bare sigh of an oppressed heart.
- Rule — Joash did not just fail to leave Jeroboam's sins. He took them as his rule of conduct.
- Reason — The calves were a political religion. Leaving them meant losing the throne, so the kings kept them.
- Refrain — The same sentence follows king after king. Each one measured himself by the head of his royal house, not by God.
- Reckoning — A visit to a dying prophet did not change the verdict. Where God records no good, no one should add any.
- Rescue — Grace still made this evil king a deliverer, because grace answers the faintest sigh of an oppressed heart.
And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might with which he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Chapter 13 ends Joash's reign in Israel with the formula used for king after king: his other deeds, and his war against Amaziah of Judah, belong to a book kept somewhere else. Two questions rise from that: what was in that book, and why does Scripture point to it instead of telling us?
The book named here is not the Bible's own book of Chronicles. One writer explains what these royal records were and what became of them.
These books often refer to the chronicles of the kings of Israel or to those of the kings of Judah. Men drew up these chronicles during the reign of every ruler of those times, whether Jewish or Gentile. They have nothing to do with the Word of God. Whatever the Lord did not see fit to record or explain is found there. These chronicles have been lost; perhaps someone will one day find some fragments of them. The believer has no need for any of them; he has God's Word. In God's account he finds all he needs, along with God's own assessment of people, events, and things.
So Scripture does not deny Joash's might. It leaves that record to men and gives the reader God's own assessment instead.
This closing summary appears twice for Joash. It comes here, and again after the war with Judah. One commentator points out what sits between the two.
Notice an interesting fact. We have here two histories of Joash. Each one ends in a summary that repeats the same words (vv. 12-13; 2 Kings 14:15-16). The first history gives the king's general character. The second gives his victories over Syria and over Judah. Between these two parts we find the end of Elisha's career. There we see what was able to make this evil king an instrument of deliverance for his people. This was grace. God shows grace whenever and as long as He is able to do so. Grace delights in a soul in which even a flash of repentance appears, or in the mere sigh of an oppressed heart.
So the verse is a hinge. Behind it lies the king's character. Ahead lie his victories. Between them stands the dying prophet.
The verse names one feat: the fight with Judah. Joash did not start it. Amaziah did.
What a sad picture before us here! We have seen conflict between Israel and Judah at other times too. But this conflict goes beyond anything before it. Joash, 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 replied, warning Amaziah where his rash challenge would lead. But Amaziah would not listen. Then God let Israel rout him. Pride still goes before a fall, and a proud spirit before destruction. God's Word gives many examples of this, all in clear contrast to the One who humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
Joash visited Elisha as the prophet lay dying. Some have read that visit as proof of a changed man. One commentator weighs that view against what Scripture says of the king.
Josephus calls him a "good man." This wrong reading of Joash's character probably rests on his visit to the dying prophet Elisha. With some people, a small show of religious, or even semi-religious, feeling goes a long way toward calling someone "good." … But Scripture says he "did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam." Those words rule out any real or lasting repentance at any time in his life. God is more eager to record any good in these kings' lives than His people are to read it. He has noted none in Joash's; and where He is silent, who will dare to speak?
The verse points to Joash's strength. One writer asks what that strength was finally worth.
As for the power of Joash of Israel, it was great. His reign was important, and he accomplished many things. But he lived without God, and what is left of him? As with so many other rulers over men, nothing remains of him but this word: "This one was born there" (Psalm 87:4).
- Might — Joash's power was real and his reign mattered. His one named feat was beating Judah, after Amaziah ignored his warning and forced the fight.
- Record — The chronicles that hold his deeds were human records, now lost. They kept men's account of him. God's assessment is in His Word.
- Grace — The same summary comes again later, with the dying Elisha standing between the two. Grace turned an evil king into his people's deliverer, and grace answers even a sigh.
- Silence — Scripture notes no good in him, only that he stayed in Jeroboam's sins. Where God does not speak well of a man, no one should speak for Him.
- Remains — Great power lived without God leaves little behind but the note that such a man was born. What lasts is what God writes, and the believer has it already.
And Joash slept with his fathers, and Jeroboam sat upon his throne; and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.
This verse closes Joash's sixteen years in Samaria with the book's short formula: a death, a burial, a successor on the throne. It raises the question every reign in Kings raises — what did God find worth recording, and what was left undone?
Scripture gives its own verdict on Joash a few verses earlier. The historian Josephus called him a good man. One writer answers Josephus:
This misjudgment of Joash's character probably comes from his visit to the dying prophet Elisha. A little show of religious, or even semi-religious, feeling goes a long way with some people in calling a person "good." ... But the words "he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam" rule out any thought of real or lasting repentance at any point in his life. God is more eager to record any good in these kings' lives than any of His people are to read it. He has noted none in Joash's; and where He is silent, who will dare to speak?
The fight Joash is remembered for was against Judah, God's own people. One writer describes what it cost them:
What a sad picture we have here! We have seen conflict between Israel and Judah before. But this one goes beyond everything earlier. Joash (also called Jehoash), Jehu's grandson, defeats Amaziah, king of Judah. He captures Jerusalem, Amaziah's capital. He breaks down a large part of its wall and takes away its treasure.
He also had a chance at a better war and let it slip. One writer compares him to King Asa, who made the same mistake:
Like Asa, he had the chance to end the power of Syria. From its start Syria had been a plague to both Judah and Israel. But, like Asa, he let the chance pass. The work fell to the Assyrian, who destroyed Syria and both kingdoms with it.
One writer reads the phrase as a note about how a man died:
It seems he died in peace, as the expression "slept with his fathers" implies.
Another writer asks how much a peaceful burial tells us:
It may be a special favour, since Scripture says the opposite of certain wicked kings and of their descendants. But this favour is far from showing that the Lord took pleasure in them. It does not show that beyond the tomb they found the happiness their hearts had looked for in vain in the world. It is still like this everywhere here below. Sons lie beside their fathers in the grave. They die, one might say, a natural death. Yet that lets us draw no comforting conclusion about their eternal future.
Joash's son Jeroboam takes the throne. He earned God's displeasure, yet his reign ran long:
Nonetheless his reign lasted forty-one years! One might suppose that God always cut off at once the kings whose conduct dishonoured Him, and this history gives several examples. That is the case with Zechariah, the son of this same Jeroboam, but it is not so here. God has different ways, which He knows how to reconcile with His longsuffering and His mercy. His pity for Israel under oppression shapes His ways in Jeroboam's reign. ... God raises up a saviour for this people in this king who had earned His displeasure, just as He had done before with Joash his father.
It had been the same with Joash himself:
If Joash is to become a saviour for Israel, it will in no way be because he deserves this title by himself or in himself. His heart is unchanged and his ungodliness remains. But God will use him as the instrument of a salvation that starts with the death of the man of God.
- Record — God is more eager to record good in a king than we are to read it. In Joash He noted none. Where He is silent, no one should speak for Him.
- Might — His one remembered feat is a war against Judah. He broke down Jerusalem's wall and carried off its treasure — strength turned against God's own people.
- Missed — He had the chance to finish Syria and let it pass. The work he refused fell to the Assyrian, who destroyed both kingdoms.
- Grave — "Slept with his fathers" suggests he died in peace. But a quiet death and a royal tomb tell us nothing comforting about a man's eternal future.
- Throne — Jeroboam takes the throne and God's displeasure with it, yet reigns forty-one years. God's pity for an oppressed people, not the worth of the king, decides how long mercy waits.
And Elisha fell sick of his sickness in which he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, My father, my father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!
Elisha had been out of sight for about forty-five years when the king of Israel came to his bedside and found him dying. Two questions follow: why does a king who never obeyed the prophet weep over him, and why call a dying man Israel's chariots?
Scripture says nothing about Elisha between the anointing of Jehu and this deathbed.
Over sixty years Elisha had been the prophet of God. The last we heard of this great man of God was when he sent his messenger to anoint Jehu. Forty-five years had passed with no record of any ministry by Elisha. He was quite forgotten and neglected. The same was the case with Daniel in Babylon. As people fall further away from God, His true prophets are not wanted. They share the rejection of the Lord and His Truth.
Joash had no intention of becoming godly. So why did he come at all?
Joash valued Elisha's presence in his kingdom. He also wanted to honour Elisha before it was too late. Once Elisha was gone, the memory of having done so might keep his conscience from troubling him. The prophet's holiness, the power so often recognised in him, and the name and place he filled all pressed on his soul at such a moment. So the king visits the dying prophet with the very same greeting this prophet himself had used for Elijah as he went up. This was not mockery or pretence. It was a strong current of natural feeling.
Another writer finds more than sentiment in the tears.
The visit moved him deeply. Even an unbeliever can be moved when a godly man is dying. He may have had no intention of becoming godly himself. Yet he respected Elisha's godliness, and he realised that Elisha's prayers for Israel were keeping the nation from ruin.
Joash borrows Elisha's own cry at Elijah's departure. Chariots and horsemen were a nation's fighting strength. Joash gives that name to one dying man.
He acknowledged Elisha to be the strength of Israel, using the same words Elisha himself had used when he saw Elijah going up to heaven. What makes it so touching is that Elisha was dying; all his natural strength was leaving him. Elisha had acknowledged that the strength of Israel was not in horses or chariots. He himself was the one; he was all their strength, so far as God had used him for that purpose. In the same way Joash the king of Israel now acknowledges the dying Elisha, and God confirms the word.
Commentators differ over what the cry showed. Gaebelein hears unbelief in it.
He wept, and yet his words were words of unbelief. He spoke as if, with Elisha's death, "the chariots of Israel and its horsemen" — the protection and blessing of Israel — would come to an end.
A sickbed looks like the end of a prophet's usefulness.
Elisha could no longer be a public witness. Joash the king of Israel came down to him and wept over his face, because the sun of Israel was setting in the person of this great prophet. Even then, as he sank into death, he is strong and mighty in the power and the grace of God.
Why would God bother with a king like this at all?
This was grace. God shows grace whenever and as long as He is able to do so. Grace delights in a soul in which even a flash of repentance appears, or in the mere sigh of an oppressed heart. The prophet's moments are now numbered. Yet his last breath still serves to rekindle, if only for an instant, the little spark of life left in the heart of the king, this burnt-out man.
Joash's cry expects an ending like Elijah's. It does not come.
The words "the chariots of Israel and its horsemen" suggest that king Joash expected Elisha to be caught up to heaven as Elijah had been. But the actual account of his end shows no outward display of supernatural power. In sharp contrast to the close of Elijah's path, we have only the simple record, "Elisha died, and they buried him."
- Neglected. Forty-five silent years pass with the prophet ignored. When a nation drifts from God, it has no use for His servants.
- Needed. Joash's tears admit what his life denied. Elisha's presence and prayers, not armies, were holding Israel together.
- Named. He calls a dying man Israel's chariots and horsemen. The country's strength was never in horses.
- Strong. Sickness ends the public ministry, but not the power. At his weakest, Elisha is strong in God's grace.
- Grace. God keeps working while He can. He uses a prophet's final breath to fan one spark in a bad king's heart.
And Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows. And he took a bow and arrows.
Elisha lies dying, and the king of Israel weeps over him — but the prophet answers those tears with an order to fetch a weapon. Why does a dying man call for a bow, and what will God do through him and an ungodly king?
Elisha's public service was over and his body was failing. One writer shows what that did not change:
Elisha "had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die" (2 Kings 13:14). He could no longer be a public witness. Joash the king of Israel came down to him and wept over his face. He used about Elisha the very words Elisha had used about Elijah when Elijah was taken up to heaven: "My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" The sun of Israel was setting in the person of this great prophet. Even then, in this moment, while sinking into death, he is strong and mighty in the power and the grace of God.
Joash had let years pass without seeking the prophet. Elisha calls for the bow and arrows anyway.
Joash, like his father and grandfather, had neglected the prophet during his life. Yet when he finally visits him, he finds that even in the prophet's dying moments Elisha is strong in the delivering grace of the Lord. Elisha tells the king to take a bow and arrows, and to put his hand on the bow. Then Elisha puts his hand on the king's hand and tells him to shoot. Elisha explains the act as a picture. The hand of the Lord's representative strengthens the king's hand, and that hand would bring deliverance from his enemies.
The same writer adds that the gift is also a rebuke. It reminds the king what his neglect had cost him: "If he had only turned to the prophet before, would he not have found the power and mercy of God with him to deliver him from all his enemies?"
Joash's character had not improved. That did not stop God from using him.
If Joash is to become a saviour for Israel, it will in no way be because he deserves that title in himself. His heart is unchanged, his ungodliness remains. But God will use him as the instrument of a salvation whose starting point is the death of the man of God… The king was only to follow Elisha's word and must take no initiative of his own. More than that, it is Elisha's hands that direct the hand of the king.
The king holds the bow, and another hand covers his.
But there was another and a mightier hand, although the hand of a dying man. "Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands," and God saw, and God gave the power, the needed power.
Another writer links that gesture to words God spoke centuries later through Zechariah:
By laying his dying hands on those of the king, Elisha meant him to understand a truth. More than three hundred years later God said it through the prophet Zechariah: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts" (Zech. 4:6). "Apart from me you can do nothing" would be the New Testament way of saying it.
Elisha does not have the king shoot at random. His first instruction is about a window.
"Open the window eastward," said Elisha. If the shut door of 2 Kings 4:4 speaks of the soul's seclusion with God, the opened window of 2 Kings 13:17 speaks of the soul's expectation from God. Oh, that we all knew more of these things by experience! Daniel opened his window when he prayed daily towards Jerusalem (Dan. 6:10).
Elisha gave one more instruction. What the king did with it decided how much deliverance he would see.
Elisha next told the king to take up the arrows and strike the ground. "And he struck three times and stopped." The man by his slackness had limited the deliverance of his people. God gave him as much as he had faith for, but no more.
- Hand — Joash holds the bow, but Elisha's hands cover his. The strength is not the king's: God saw, and God gave the needed power.
- Grace — that hand reaches a man who had neglected the prophet for years. His heart was unchanged, yet God made him the instrument of Israel's deliverance.
- Weakness — the power comes through a dying man. Elisha can no longer serve in public, yet he is still strong and mighty in the power and grace of God.
- Expectation — the open window eastward pictures a soul expecting something from God, as Daniel did when he prayed toward Jerusalem.
- Measure — told to strike the ground, Joash stopped after three blows. God gave him as much as he had faith for, but no more.
And he said to the king of Israel, Put thy hand upon the bow. And he put his hand [upon it]; and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands,
Elisha is on his deathbed, and Syria has worn Israel down. The dying prophet calls for a bow, then lays his own hands over the king's hands on it. What is he teaching?
The king had ignored Elisha for years, and came to him only when the prophet was dying. What he found there was not a spent man but a man still carrying God's power to save.
Joash, like his father and grandfather, had neglected the prophet during his life. Yet when he visits him at last, he finds that even in the prophet's dying moments Elisha is strong in the delivering grace of the Lord. Elisha tells the king to take bow and arrows, and to put his hand on the bow. Then Elisha put his hand on the king's hand, and told the king to shoot. Elisha explains what the act pictures: the king's hand, strengthened by the hand of the representative of the Lord, would bring deliverance from his enemies. Does this not remind the king of how much he had lost by neglecting the man of God? Had he turned to the prophet earlier, would he not have found the power and mercy of God with him to deliver him from all his enemies?
Joash is a wicked king, and God still uses him. The bow is in his hands, but another hand guides every move they make.
If Joash is to become a saviour for Israel, it will in no way be because he earns that title by himself or in himself. His heart is unchanged, his ungodliness remains, but God will use him as the instrument of a salvation whose starting point is the death of the man of God. … The king was only to follow Elisha's word and must not take any initiative, but more than that, it is Elisha's hands that direct the hand of the king. … Elisha's hands are those of the saviour of the people; without them there would not be any deliverance. Here the prophet is the representative of the Lord; it must be shown that everything comes from Him.
Two hands rest on that bow. God is watching which one holds the power.
But there was another and a mightier hand, though it was the hand of a dying man. "Elisha laid his hands on the king's hands," and God saw, and God gave the power, the needed power. … God would show that the strength of His people does not lie in what man can see, but in the strength He Himself gives.
Elisha teaches without words. The same picture turns up elsewhere in Scripture, where God's hand on a man gives him strength.
The dying prophet sought to turn the king's mind towards the Lord as the only true Deliverer of His people. At that time Hazael, king of Syria, was harassing Israel hard with his raids. Elisha told Joash to take bow and arrows. He would teach him by a parable. The prophet put his hands on the hands of the king. The prophet's hands suggest the power of God, without which all human effort is useless. Both John on Patmos (Rev. 1:17) and Daniel at the River Tigris (Dan. 10:18) were strengthened when the Lord's right hand was laid on them.
The king does not become a spectator. He still shoots — but not by his own strength.
Then the prophet placed his hands on the hands of the king. Here the king's strength was surrendered. Elisha's hand was to guide that arrow in its flight. The king was a passive instrument. Yet in surrendering to Elisha he was so joined to Elisha's strength that the act of shooting was his own. Only in this way can the bow of any servant of the Lord remain strong.
The hands on the bow settle one question for good: where does strength for God's work come from?
By putting his dying hands on the hands of the king, Elisha meant him to understand a truth. God spoke it more than three hundred years later through the prophet Zechariah: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts" (Zech. 4:6). "Apart from me you can do nothing," would be the New Testament way of saying it.
- His hand — Joash must hold the bow himself; God's help does not remove his part, it takes hold of it.
- God's hand — the prophet's hands over the king's stand for the power of God; without it every human effort fails.
- A dying hand — the strength came through a dying man, so no one could call the deliverance his own.
- An open hand — the king gives up his own strength, yet the shot still counts as his; that is how any servant's bow stays strong.
- One hand over all — not by might, nor by power, but by God's Spirit, as Zechariah later said.
and said, Open the window eastward. And he opened [it]. And Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, An arrow of Jehovah's deliverance, even an arrow of deliverance from the Syrians; and thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou hast consumed [them].
Syria's raids had worn Israel down, and now the prophet who pointed the king to Israel's only Deliverer lay dying. In that sickroom the king draws a bow, opens a window, and shoots a single arrow — and the prophet gives that arrow a name.
The first surprise is the state of the man giving the orders. Elisha is dying, and his weakness takes nothing away from God.
Even then, at that moment, sinking into death, he is strong and mighty in the power and the grace of God. The Lord's grace towards His people was not yet exhausted.
The shot was not the king's alone. Before the arrow flew, another pair of hands covered the king's. The same gesture appears elsewhere, where the Lord's hand strengthens a man.
The dying prophet sought to turn the king's mind towards the Lord as the only true Deliverer of his people. At that time Hazael, king of Syria, was harassing Israel severely with his raids. Elisha told Joash to take bow and arrows. He would teach him by a parable. The prophet put his hands on the hands of the king. The prophet's hands suggest the power of God. Without that power all human efforts are useless. The Lord's right hand rested on John on Patmos (Rev. 1:17) and on Daniel at the River Hiddekel (Dan. 10:18), and it strengthened both men.
Joash shoots, but he has no idea what he has done. The prophet has to tell him what the arrow means.
The king shoots his arrow eastward; nothing is done without the word of God. Joash is unable to understand anything of this; the prophet must explain the matter to him. Joash needs to know that when God stoops to use him, he is only an instrument, with no action of his own and no worth in himself.
The open window is more than a way out for the arrow. One writer links it with a shut door earlier in Elisha's story, and with Daniel at prayer.
"Open the window eastward," said Elisha. If the shut door of 2 Kings 4:4 speaks of the soul's seclusion with God, the opened window of 2 Kings 13:17 speaks of the soul's expectation from God. Oh, that we all knew more of these things by experience! Daniel opened his window when he prayed daily towards Jerusalem (Dan. 6:10).
The direction of the shot carried a promise beyond the coming war.
It was not only the arrow of His deliverance from Syria; the order to shoot eastward, toward the sunrise, spoke of coming glory. Elisha was passing away from the scene, going westward, as it were; but glory and power would come like the bright shining of the sun after rain.
The arrow was aimed east, toward Syria, and the promise attached to it was total: strike them until they are finished. One writer draws that through to the believer's own warfare.
Elisha was a prophet of grace, yet he spoke to Joash about warfare. Israel had enemies they ought to destroy. In the same way, God's people now have enemies to whom they must show no mercy. These enemies are not just human but satanic, and they seek to rob us of our proper spiritual blessings… Syria, meaning "exalted," stands for that principle of evil spoken of in 2 Corinthians 10:5, "arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God." We today must not use worldly weapons for this, but spiritual weapons that "have divine power to destroy strongholds."
The promise reached as far as the end of Syria. What the king did next showed how far his faith reached. Elisha told him to strike the ground with the arrows, and he stopped after three.
The king's faith falls short of God's resources. The king struck three times and stopped. Had his faith been simpler, would he not have emptied his quiver of arrows? He had power at his disposal to bring complete deliverance from the enemy. He had neither faith nor spiritual discernment to use it. How often, like the king, we find ourselves in circumstances where only faith and spirituality will know how to act.
- Source. The deliverance starts in a sickroom, not a throne room. The dying prophet is still "strong and mighty in the power and the grace of God."
- Hand. Elisha's hands over the king's hands stand for the power of God — "without that power all human efforts are useless."
- Word. Joash shoots without understanding; the arrow only means something because the prophet names it — "nothing is done without the word of God."
- Window. The window opened east is "the soul's expectation from God," and the sunrise direction "spoke of coming glory."
- Measure. God offered a full victory. The king took only part of it: he had the power, but "neither faith nor spiritual discernment to use it."
And he said, Take the arrows. And he took [them]. And he said to the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed.
Elisha is dying, and the king of Israel stands at his bed with a bow in his hands. The prophet has promised victory over Syria, and now the size of that victory rests on how the king uses the arrows.
When the king shot from the window, the prophet's hands lay on his. Striking the ground was different.
The destruction of Syria would depend on the degree of faith, of zeal, of trust in God that Joash was about to display... Now it is a matter of striking the ground without Elisha's hands over his hands. Left to his own resources, the king strikes the ground with his arrows three times and stops.
Elisha had explained the first act, so the second was not a riddle.
Is not the king reminded of how much he had lost by his neglect of the man of God?... Has the king even yet learned his lesson? Elisha will put him to the test. The prophet seems to say, "I have shown you the meaning of this arrow — that it means a victory over your enemies; now take arrows and strike the ground."
Nothing outside the king stopped him from striking again.
The faith of the king falls short of the resources of God. The king struck three times and stopped. Had his faith been simpler, would he not have emptied his quiver of arrows? He had power at his disposal to bring about complete deliverance from the enemy. He had neither faith nor spiritual discernment to use it. How often we, like the king, come into situations where only faith and spirituality will know how to act.
Why was the prophet so angry? One writer traces it to the gap between two hearts in the same room.
He had just told the king that the arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrows of deliverance from Syria, were in his hand. Suppose his soul had been in tune with the prophet. Suppose it had glowed with thoughts of that glory brought so near to him, and his heart had sparkled at the sight of the Lord's own quiver in his hand. How hard he would have struck the ground at the prophet's word!... The king had not fallen in spirit into the current that was then carrying the prophet along.
The king obeyed every command on the outside. That is the problem.
The king did so, but only three times. Rather than showing faith he was humouring the old prophet... He had gone through the motions of doing what the prophet said, but had not entered into the earnestness of the commands given him.
The same pattern shows up elsewhere in Elisha's story.
The oil flowed while a vessel remained to take it... The blessing is limited by man only. In 2 Kings 3 the kings received water according to the depth of the ditches that were prepared. In 2 Kings 13:18 Joash, king of Israel, missed the opportunity of his life. He stood in front of the dying prophet, and he knew full well that the actions of that day mattered. Yet he struck the ground only three times. This meant three victories over his enemies instead of total destruction... It is always man who limits the blessing.
What God was willing to give had not shrunk; what the king was willing to believe had.
God in His power and goodness was the same still, but Israel was not ready. They would not trust God or give Him credit for sincerity. "According to your faith be it done to you." The faith of Joash could trust God for only three victories. Five or six strokes would have been decisive.
One writer turns the scene into a lesson on prayer.
God is always greater than our faith. Our faith is feeble and limited. His supplies are boundless and inexhaustible. "You do not have, because you do not ask," and often we dishonour God and miss much because we ask and expect so little. So Joash struck three times, and stopped when he might have struck five or six times. Indeed, he ought to have kept striking until Elisha told him to stop.
- Promise. Elisha had already explained the arrow shot eastward as deliverance from Syria. The king knew what was on offer before he had to act.
- Test. Elisha's hands no longer covered his. Joash stood on his own resources, and the outcome hung on the faith he would show.
- Measure. Oil flowed while vessels lasted. Water came by the depth of the ditches. Here victories came by the strokes. It is always man who limits the blessing.
- Limit. He had a full quiver and power at his disposal, but neither faith nor spiritual discernment to use it. He went through the motions without entering into the earnestness of the command.
- Ask. God is always greater than our faith; we miss much because we ask and expect so little. Joash should have kept striking until told to stop.
And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then wouldest thou have smitten the Syrians till thou hadst consumed [them]; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.
Elisha's last act as a prophet was to hand a king arrows and tell him to strike the ground. Joash struck three times and stopped, and the dying prophet's anger at those three strikes has puzzled readers ever since.
For the first act, Elisha's own hands rested on the king's hands as he shot. The second act Joash did alone.
The destruction of Syria would depend on the degree of faith, of zeal, of trust in God which Joash was about to display. The test would show whether this instrument could become a means of complete deliverance for Israel by itself. Sadly, when it came to striking the ground without Elisha's hands over his hands, he was left to his own resources. The king struck the ground with his arrows three times and stopped. Faced with such grace and kindness on God's part, the man showed himself to be not only unequal to it, but faithless... The anger of the man of God, God's anger, blazes against him: I would have completely delivered this people; that depended on you, and you were not willing! You will strike the enemy only three times.
Joash had let Elisha's ministry pass him by, and only turned to him at the end. That neglect is what the arrows expose.
Is the king not reminded here of how much he had lost by neglecting the man of God? If he had only turned to the prophet earlier, would he not have found the power and mercy of God with him to deliver him from all his enemies? Has the king even now learned his lesson? Elisha will put him to the test.
Nothing stopped him from striking again. The arrows were all in his hand.
The faith of the king falls short of the resources of God. The king struck three times and stopped. If his faith had been more simple, would he not have emptied his quiver of arrows? He had power at his disposal to bring about complete deliverance from the enemy. He had neither faith nor spiritual discernment to use it. How often we, like the king, meet circumstances where only faith and spirituality will know how to act.
What the king got afterwards matched what he had done.
The man by his slackness had limited the deliverance of his people. God gave him as much as he had faith for, but no more. "Three times Joash defeated him and recovered the cities of Israel."
Why did God stop at the exact number Joash struck?
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, no man ever outlasts 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. Grace had prevailed over Abraham's pleading: God did better than simply sparing the guilty cities for the sake of ten, for He delivered the one righteous man, and for that man's sake He delivered more who were not righteous. Now in judgment God would hold strictly to the letter. Had he struck the ground three times with the arrows? Then three times should the Syrians be struck, and no more.
This was not a one-off failure. The same pattern appears in the widow's jars of oil.
The oil flowed while a vessel remained to take it. It was only when the son said "there is not a vessel more" that the oil stopped. What a lesson is here! The blessing is limited by man only... In Genesis 18 Abraham pleaded for the guilty cities of the plain, and he stopped at ten people. Yet God had given no sign of growing tired of listening to His servant's voice. Sadly, it is always man who limits the blessing.
The scene turns on prayer — on the moment we decide we have asked enough.
God is always greater than our faith. Our faith is feeble and limited. His supplies are boundless and inexhaustible. "You do not have, because you do not ask," and often we dishonour God and miss much because we ask and expect so little. So Joash struck three times, and stopped when he might have struck five or six times. Indeed, he ought to have kept striking until Elisha told him to stop.
- Guided. With Elisha's hands on his, Joash could not go wrong; the test came when he acted on his own.
- Neglect. He had ignored the prophet for years, and the arrows showed him what that neglect had cost.
- Measure. He had a full quiver and stopped at three; God gave him as much as he had faith for, and no more.
- Limit. The oil flowed while jars remained; Abraham stopped at ten. Man sets the limit on blessing, never God.
- Ask. Keep striking until God says stop. Our expectations run out long before His supplies do.
And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And it came to pass as they were burying a man, that behold, they saw the band, and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; and the man went [down], and touched the bones of Elisha, and he revived, and stood upon his feet.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
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.
And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father in the war. Three times did Joash beat him, and recovered the cities of Israel.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.