And Jehoash slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in his stead.
Jehoash of Israel dies in his bed. He gets a royal grave in Samaria, and his son Jeroboam takes the throne. It is a dignified close to the reign of a man the record calls evil. So what does a peaceful death and an honoured grave prove?
Some have called this king good. He is named Jehoash here and Joash elsewhere, and his defenders point to his visit to the dying prophet Elisha. One writer answers that God's silence about him settles the matter.
"And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, but he walked in them." Josephus calls him a "good man." This misjudgment of Joash's character is probably based on the incident of his visit to the dying prophet Elisha. A little display of religious, or even half-religious, feeling goes a long way with some people in accounting others "good." … 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?
Put his quiet end beside the other kings of the northern kingdom.
Out of the nineteen kings who reigned from the division of the kingdom to the deportation to the land of Assyria, only seven died natural deaths (Baasha, Omri, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, and Menahem). Seven were assassinated (Nadab, Elah, Joram, Zachariah, Shallum, Pekaiah, and Pekah). One killed himself (Zimri). One died of wounds received in battle (Ahab) …
"Slept with his fathers" is said of king after king in these books. One commentator warns against reading anything about eternity into it.
"Asa slept with his fathers" — the same words that are said of Jeroboam, of Rehoboam, and of so many others. It may be a special favour, for the opposite is said of certain wicked kings and of their descendants. But this favour is far from showing that the Lord took pleasure in them. Nor does it show that they had found beyond the grave the happiness their hearts had sought in vain in the world. It is still the same everywhere here below. The sons are buried beside their fathers. They die, if one may put it so, a natural death. But that lets us draw no comforting conclusion about their eternal future.
His death also closed a door. What he left unfinished was Syria.
Like Asa, he had the opportunity to end the power of Syria. From its beginning Syria had been a plague to both Judah and Israel. But, like Asa, he let it pass, and the work was left to the Assyrian, who destroyed both it (Syria) and them (Israel and Judah).
The new king's family line began with Jehu. God had already fixed how long it would last.
The result was that the Lord gave His decision about him. God would meet his comparative faithfulness. To the fourth generation, kings of Jehu's house would sit on the throne of Israel. God gave Israel a short-lived tenure, but out of that tenure Jehu's house was to rule for four generations. And so God carried it out. But there was to be no lasting line, for Jehu had shown no real conscience towards God. How different from David!
The son was no better than the father. Israel's relief under him came from somewhere else.
Jeroboam, king of Israel, the third successor of Jehu, succeeds Joash, his father. … Nonetheless his reign lasted forty-one years! One might think that God always promptly cut off the kings whose conduct dishonoured Him. We have several examples of that in this history. … 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's oppressed condition directs His ways concerning Jeroboam's reign. … God raises up a saviour for this people in the person of this king who had incurred His displeasure, just as He had previously done with Joash his father.
- Verdict — God records no good in Jehoash's life. He notes good more readily than we read it. Where He is silent, no one should speak for Him.
- Grave — A peaceful death and a royal burial were rare in Israel. Neither tells us where a man stands beyond the grave.
- Loss — He could have ended the power of Syria, and he let the chance pass. Assyria finished the work and destroyed Syria, Israel and Judah alike.
- Limit — His son's reign fills out the four generations God promised Jehu. The line was lent, not lasting like David's.
- Mercy — Israel still finds relief under an undeserving son. God's pity for their oppressed state, not the king's worth, sets the terms.
And Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, fifteen years.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
Amaziah's reign closes the way most reigns close in Kings: a short note says the fuller account lies somewhere else. That raises two questions — what Kings leaves out, and who keeps the real account of a life.
The phrase points to records kept outside this book. One writer names the prophets who kept those records.
So the acts of David are written in the words of Samuel the seer, in the words of Nathan the prophet, and in those of Gad the seer... Isaiah the son of Amoz wrote the acts of Uzziah.
The record named here is not the book of Chronicles in our Bibles. One writer makes that distinction while dealing with a later king whose reign closes with the same line:
It seems that other acts of Amon were written in a book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. But they were not in the scriptural book of Chronicles, since it says nothing more than this book of Kings.
The gap in Amaziah's story is deliberate. Kings tells of his victory over Edom and then his defeat by Israel, but skips the part that explains both.
Between verses 6 and 7 we have an intentional gap, filled in by 2 Chronicles 25:5-16. As usual, we will not go into what this later book presents, except in passing. By leaving it out, the Word brings out the sin of the kings of Israel. It sets that sin against what was righteous and godly in the conduct of the kings of Judah.
The missing piece is the hidden cause of his defeat.
But 2 Chronicles 25:14 shows us why God let Israel shamefully defeat Amaziah. After Amaziah defeated the Edomites, he brought Edom's idols home to his own house. He bowed down to them and burned incense to them. God sent a prophet to correct him for this, but Amaziah refused his message with contempt. So Amaziah had slipped a long way from his first actions of obedience to the Lord.
So the man who began in obedience ended by refusing the prophet God sent to him.
Kings does record how his life ended. One writer reads that ending through the meaning of his name.
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... Lachish was the first city of Judah to take up the idol worship of the kingdom of Israel. So it was natural for Amaziah, an idol worshipper himself, to seek shelter there. They brought his body back to Jerusalem on horses, as they would a beast... His name means "strength of Jah"; but we read, "he strengthened himself" (2 Chron. 25:11); so his self-sufficient character contradicted his name — something common enough in our own day.
The words "he strengthened himself" come from an older translation of 2 Chronicles 25:11.
The chronicles of Judah's kings are long gone. Commenting on the same closing line used of another king, one writer points to a record that remains.
Yes, and they are written in God's books above, along with the wicked acts recorded here. Those books hold more than "the chronicles of the kings of Israel." They hold the deeds and doings of every person's life, whether good or evil. Solemn facts for us all!
- Written — Kings points to a fuller chronicle, now lost. Named prophets kept the acts of these kings, and that chronicle is not the Bible's book of Chronicles.
- Withheld — The gap in Amaziah's account is on purpose. Chronicles fills it in, and the gap lets Kings set Judah's righteous acts against the sin of Israel's kings.
- Wandering — The hidden cause of his defeat was the idols he carried home from Edom. He then refused the prophet God sent to correct him.
- Wasted — His name meant "strength of Jah," but he strengthened himself. He died by violence, like his father and grandfather, and horses carried his body home.
- Weighed — The chronicles of kings are gone. God's books above hold the deeds of every life, good or evil — a record no one can edit.
And 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 began full of promise. Then he came home from war with Edom carrying Edom's gods, and his throne was never safe again. This verse records the end: a plot in his own capital, a run for his life to Lachish, and assassins sent after him.
This chapter gives only the bare events: a plot, a flight, a killing, a burial. It never tells us why.
This same unfaithfulness is the cause of Amaziah's tragic death. Our chapter only tells us that they conspired against him at Jerusalem and that he fled to Lachish. They sent after him to kill him. They brought him back on horses and buried 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 conspiracy did not begin the day it broke out. One writer notes that it was already growing underneath him during the years he felt most secure.
He returned in triumph and thought his throne was secure. But he never saw it coming. He was like Jonah, resting in the shade of the gourd while a worm destroyed it at the root. A conspiracy formed against him in the hour of his boasting. It was the judgment of God. "I know that God has determined to destroy you," said the prophet. Whether he was boasting against Israel, or humbled by his defeat at the hands of the king he had recklessly challenged, or fleeing to Lachish from the conspirators, this determination of God still followed him. God was overruling the wickedness of the conspirators to accomplish what He had determined. He might flee to Lachish from them, but he could not flee from the judgment of God.
The same writer draws the line back to a single public act, and makes the plot dependent on it.
No conspiracy would have succeeded had he not turned away from the Lord... it was when he publicly set up Edom's idols that the Lord allowed these evils to come on him.
Commentators differ over which moment the record means by his turning away.
His "turning away from following the Lord" was probably his final and complete break with the LORD God of Israel. It was not when he first bowed down to the gods of Seir, which was the beginning of his downward course.
Of all the cities in Judah, the one Amaziah ran to had a reputation. Its history explains why a king with foreign gods would feel at home there — and why his corpse came back the way it did.
Lachish was the first city of Judah to take up the idolatry of the kingdom of Israel. Micah 1:13 says of it, "it was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel." So it was natural for the idolatrous Amaziah to seek refuge there. They brought his body back to Jerusalem on horses, as they would a beast.
Amaziah outlived the king who had humiliated him. Those extra years were not an accident.
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 seems to be no sign of repentance in Amaziah. His history closes with the words, "From the time when he turned away from the LORD they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem." What a sad end after such a promising start.
Rossier describes the God Amaziah was dealing with through those years.
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.
His own name made a claim about where his strength came from. His record tells a different story.
His name means "strength of Jah"; but we read, "he strengthened himself" (2 Chron. 25:11); his character of self-sufficiency contradicting his name — something not uncommon in our day.
The way the record sums up his reign carries a warning for everyone else.
The record of his reign has the same sad monotony as so many kings of Judah at this time. His deeds are summed up "from first to last" — the first full of promise, and the last, decline or turning away from God. "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."
- Turning — He set up Edom's gods in public. From that moment the conspiracy against him began to form.
- Waiting — God gave him fifteen more years after his defeat. He used none of them to repent.
- Falling — The plot ripened while he felt safest, like the worm at the root of Jonah's gourd.
- Running — He fled to Lachish, the first city in Judah to copy Israel's idols. He could run from the conspirators, but not from the judgment of God.
- Warning — "From first to last": a promising start is no promise of a good end. Let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
And they brought him on horses, and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers, in the city of David.
Amaziah, king of Judah, fled his own capital for his life and was killed at Lachish. This verse brings his body home to a royal grave, and leaves two questions: why did his people turn on him, and why is a hunted king buried with honour?
The book of Kings tells us what happened, not why. One writer sets the two accounts side by side:
Our chapter only recounts this: they conspired against him at Jerusalem. He fled to Lachish. They sent after him to kill him. 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 in Jerusalem."
One writer names the moment his ruin began:
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.
The choice of hiding place was not random. Lachish had a reputation, and it matched the man:
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 day 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 says of it, "it was 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 look for shelter there.
The plot against him was older than he knew. One writer dates it to the moment he felt safest:
He returned in triumph and thought his throne was secure. But he never knew or suspected it. Jonah rejoiced under the shade of the plant while a worm at the root was destroying it. In the same way, men formed a conspiracy against him in the hour of his boasting. It was the judgment of God.
The same writer looks past the plotters to the cause:
No conspiracy would have succeeded if he had not turned away from the Lord… He set up Edom's idols in public. That is when the Lord permitted these evils to come on him.
Commentators differ on how to read the burial. One sees a last insult in the way they carried him home. The other notes that Amaziah got what his own father did not:
They brought his body back to Jerusalem on horses, as they would a beast.
They carried his body back to Jerusalem for burial, and the record says it was "with his fathers." That sounds as though he was buried with the kings, though his father did not have such a burial.
His name pointed one way; his life went the other:
His name means "strength of Jah" — but we read that he strengthened himself. His self-sufficiency contradicted his name. That is not uncommon in our day, especially among a people called "Christians."
The closing summary of his reign shows a pattern that repeats through Judah's history:
The record of his reign has the same sad pattern as so many of the kings of Judah at this period — "his acts first and last." The first are full of promise. The last show decline, or falling away. "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."
That pattern is not only an ancient one. Reading through these reigns, one writer noticed when the failures came:
We were struck recently in reading the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. These kings did right in the sight of the Lord, yet they went astray and turned their backs on their God. It was not in youth that they did this, but in middle life and old age.
- Turning — The verse records a death; Chronicles supplies its cause. It all dates from the moment Amaziah turned away from the Lord.
- Idols — Setting up Edom's gods in public, not the plot of his servants, opened the door to the evils that came on him.
- Refuge — He fled to Lachish, the city that had led Judah into Israel's idolatry. A man runs toward what he has already become.
- Timing — The plot was forming while he was boasting. Judgment can be under way long before it is visible.
- Ending — "First and last": a promising start, a falling-away finish. The danger these kings warn of came not in youth but in later years.
And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah.
Amaziah's reign ended in a plot against his life, and the throne of Judah passed to a boy of sixteen. The people themselves handed him the crown, which raises two questions: how did David's line survive a murdered king, and what would this teenager become?
Amaziah was murdered. One writer sets out what this chapter reports, and the reason Chronicles gives behind the plot:
Our chapter only reports that they plotted against him in Jerusalem and that he fled to Lachish. They sent men after him to kill him. They brought him back on horses and buried him with his fathers in the city of David. But Chronicles gives us the solemn reason for this drama: "From the time that Amaziah turned aside from following Jehovah, they made a conspiracy against him."
(Note: this writer uses "Jehovah" where the ESV has "the LORD.")
This verse calls the new king Azariah. Other books call him Uzziah. One commentator explains both names and how he reached the throne:
Elsewhere he is called Azariah (helped by Jehovah). The two names mean so nearly the same thing that both were used of him. He appears to have come to the throne not by ordinary succession, but by the direct choice of the people. The Syrians had destroyed the princes near the end of his grandfather Joash's reign (2 Chron. 24:23), which left the people a free hand... If princes are selfish and "seek their own" things, they cannot judge rightly. But a needy, suffering people turn by instinct to a deliverer. Their choice of Azariah here was a good one, as later events proved.
Another writer notes the same double name and where else it appears:
He is called AZARIAH in 2 Kings 14:21; 2 Kings 15:1-27; 1 Chr. 3:12; and OZIAS in Matt. 1:8-9.
Judah's kings kept failing, yet the house of David kept standing. Commentators trace that survival not to the strength of the family but to a promise, as seen a few generations earlier when the royal children were nearly wiped out:
The royal house of Israel is destroyed, and not a single man is left. God begins the trial of His patience again with a new dynasty, that of Jehu. But it is not so with the house of Judah. The faithful God keeps His word, for He had said that He would give David "always a lamp for his sons" (2 Kings 8:19).
The kings themselves failed. Another writer shows where the promise finally lands:
It is true that royal power failed, so far as it was entrusted to man. But it is just as true that God has placed it in the house of David, according to His counsels, His gift, and His calling. And all the promises connected with it — the sure mercies of David — will be fulfilled in Christ.
A crown at sixteen was a heavy load. One writer shows where the young king's strength came from:
They crowned him king when he was only a youth of sixteen. His position of responsibility was especially hard for one so young. Yet he filled it well, for the fear of God was before his eyes, and the history tells us that "God helped him." God gave him this help in such a marked way that we read a second time how "he was marvelously helped, till he was strong" (2 Chron. 26:7, 15).
The sequel is not all bright. The very help that made him strong became the occasion of his ruin:
Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he sought God, and God made him prosper. But in his old age his heart was lifted up, and it destroyed him. In his proud presumption he sinned against the Lord God, and he died a leper, in his sixty-ninth year.
- Cause — Amaziah "turned aside from following Jehovah." A conspiracy followed, and the throne stood empty.
- Choice — Azariah did not simply inherit the crown. The people took him and made him king, and their choice "was a good one, as later events proved."
- Care — God had promised David "always a lamp for his sons," and that promise, not human merit, kept Judah's line alive.
- Christ — Royal power failed in man's hands, but the promises tied to David's house "will be fulfilled in Christ."
- Caution — He was "marvelously helped, till he was strong." Then "his heart was lifted up," pride destroyed him, and he died a leper.
It was he that built Elath, and restored it to Judah, after the king slept with his fathers.
This short line records the first act of Amaziah's son, dated after his father's death: a harbour town rebuilt and brought back under Judah. Commentators find in it a name, a seaport, and a recovery that set the tone for a long reign.
The son who takes the throne here goes by two names, Azariah and Uzziah. He also came to power by an unusual route. One writer takes the two names as nearly the same word, and reads the people's choice of him as a good one:
Elsewhere he is called Azariah, which means "helped by Jehovah." The two names are so close in meaning that both were used for him. He seems to have come to the throne not by ordinary succession, but by the direct choice of the people. The Syrians had destroyed the princes toward the close of his grandfather Joash's reign, which left the people a free hand... a needy, suffering people instinctively turn to a deliverer. Their choice of Azariah was a good one, as what followed proved.
Commentators differ here. Another writer keeps the two meanings apart, and puts the second name later in his life:
The meaning of the two names is not exactly the same. Azariah means "Jehovah helps," and Uzziah means "My strength is Jehovah." Could Azariah have been his real name? Later he boldly forced his way into the sanctuary, and he was struck with leprosy for life. His name may then have been changed to the related Uzziah — "My strength is Jehovah" — to mark that the "help" he had received depended on his relationship to the LORD.
Elath was no ordinary village. It was a harbour with a royal past, and Judah did not keep it for long after this:
He recovered Elath for Judah and restored it. This city, and all the territory of Edom it belonged to, had once been under the rule of David, and it had formed part of Solomon's kingdom. It had been an important outlet for Solomon's sea power, since it lay not far from Ezion-Geber on the shore of the Red Sea. After Azariah, it did not remain in the hands of Judah for long. Sixty-eight years later, Rezin the king of Syria recovered it.
The town had to be restored because Judah had lost it. Edom, which held Elath, had broken free under an earlier king, and Scripture gives the reason:
Decline in power set in at once, and the neighbouring nations were quick to see it and take advantage. "In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own"... The spirit of rebellion spread: at the same time Libnah also revolted from his rule, because he had forsaken the LORD, the God of his fathers.
The record names this building project before anything else about him:
Uzziah, the son of Amaziah, took the throne of Judah when he was only 16 years old and reigned for 52 years. The first thing mentioned about him is the positive good work of building the city of Elath, bringing it back under Judah's authority. This was a good beginning. He did right in the Lord's eyes, as did his father Amaziah in the early stages of his reign.
Another writer sees that one harbour as an early sign of the wealth to come:
His first recorded work was the building, enlargement, or fortification of Eloth (Elath), and its restoration to the crown of Judah. It was an early pledge of the great industrial prosperity of his reign.
The strength he gained became the very thing that undid him:
He was marvellously helped till he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. His name meant "Strength of Jehovah." It would have been a happy thing for him to see that only in His strength is anyone truly strong. "My strength," says He who is the Almighty, "is made perfect in weakness."
Note: the ESV renders these words "my power is made perfect in weakness."
- Lost. Elath was Judah's Red Sea harbour, held by David and Solomon. Judah lost it when Edom revolted under a king who had forsaken the LORD.
- Chosen. The sixteen-year-old who won it back came to the throne by the people's choice, not simply by succession. The choice proved a good one.
- Rebuilt. His first recorded act was to build, not to destroy: a city recovered and brought back under Judah.
- Prospered. That one project was an early pledge of the commercial prosperity that filled his long reign.
- Forfeited. His name meant strength from the LORD. Yet when he grew strong, his heart was lifted up, and Syria took the harbour back within seventy years.
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, for forty-one years.
Jeroboam II takes Israel's throne and holds it longer than any other king of the north. The record's verdict on him is short: he did evil. So why did God give him forty-one years and wide success?
This king stands in a line of rulers and follows his father Joash. His character and the length of his reign do not match.
Jeroboam, king of Israel, the third successor of Jehu, succeeds Joash, his father. "He did evil in the sight of Jehovah: he did not depart from any of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin" (v. 24). Nonetheless his reign lasted forty-one years! You might think that God always cut off kings at once when their conduct dishonoured Him. This history gives several examples. Such is the case with Zechariah, the son of this same Jeroboam (2 Kings 15:8), but it is not so here. God has other ways, and He knows how to bring them in line with His longsuffering and His mercy.
The forty-one years were not a reward. Commentators trace the growth and success of this reign to a rescue God had already promised, and to a covenant made with Israel's forefathers.
The increase of Israel's territory under Jeroboam II was considerable; his prosperity in this way corresponding with his name — whose people is many… "The sea of the plain" was the Dead Sea, making the total distance of his kingdom, north and south, almost two hundred miles… He was, no doubt, the "savior" promised under the unfortunate reign of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:5)… This was not for any goodness that He saw in them or Jeroboam their king, but "because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (2 Kings 13:23).
Israel's suffering, not the king's merit, set the direction.
His pity for Israel's oppressed condition guides His ways in Jeroboam's reign… God raises up a saviour for this people in the person of this king who had brought God's displeasure on himself, just as He had done before with Joash his father (2 Kings 13:5).
Length and wealth are not the same as health. This was Israel's strongest stretch, and the trouble lay underneath.
The reign of this second Jeroboam was longer than that of any other king of Israel. Outwardly it was a time of prosperity, but there were deep-rooted problems.
Two prophets worked in these years, and one of them was ordered out of the country.
Israel was blessed with the ministries of both Hosea and Amos during Jeroboam's reign. Their writings make it clear: there was political revival under his rule, but no real moral or spiritual awakening among the people. People saw Amos as a troublemaker who disturbed the peace of the kingdom. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, told him to flee away to the land of Judah, and "eat bread there, and prophesy there," as if God's prophet were only in it for the money, like himself.
Jonah served as a prophet in these same years. What he said to Israel matched neither their record nor their deserving.
Jonah prophesied about the time of Jeroboam II, king of Israel. He was the witness that "mercy triumphs over judgment." He foretold gracious things for Israel, though the people were still guilty and rebellious.
Amos, a prophet of the same years, read the prosperity differently. He pointed to the borders Jeroboam had won and said an invader would sweep along them.
The prophet Amos, who prophesied in the same period, announced to the house of Israel that Jeroboam's conquests would not last. The Assyrian would take them away. "I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel," declares the LORD, the God of hosts, "and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of the Arabah" (Amos 6:14)… Jeroboam had put far away "the day of disaster" (Amos 6:3) by taking back Israel's borders as far as Hamath the great and the sea of the plain. Look, says Amos, that day is near.
- Cause. God's longsuffering gave him forty-one years, not God's approval. The record that gives him the throne also says he never left the sins of the first Jeroboam.
- Covenant. The mercy behind the reign rested on God's promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It rested on no goodness in the king or the nation.
- Reach. His name meant whose people is many, and his borders matched it. No king of the north ever reigned longer.
- Warning. Political revival is not spiritual revival. Hosea and Amos preached through these very years, and a priest ordered Amos out of the country.
- Result. The recovered border became the line of Israel's ruin. Amos warned that the Assyrian would take back everything Jeroboam had won.
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.
Jeroboam II ruled Israel for forty-one years — the longest and richest reign the northern kingdom ever had. Yet this verse sums the whole of it up as evil, which raises the question of why God let it run so long.
The words here are not written fresh for Jeroboam II. They are a refrain, and one commentator sets it beside the matching refrain used of Judah's kings:
Apart from the two exceptions already mentioned, this phrase "Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away" runs like a refrain through the history of the faithful kings of Judah. Another refrain marks the kings of Israel: "He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin." These kings followed the head of their royal house in religious matters, and he was an idolater... But it is always very dangerous to settle into a system that does not seek the mind of God as its source. That stays true even when the system boasts of great antiquity.
The sins named here belong to an earlier king, Jeroboam the son of Nebat. One writer describes how he chose them, and how people still defend the choice:
Instead of asking God, we read that Jeroboam "took counsel" — clearly of men. The result was the setting up of the two golden calves. One stood at Dan, in the far north. The other stood at Bethel, as a challenge to the God of Jacob. Centuries before, Jacob had declared about that place: "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." ... Some have argued that Jeroboam was really worshipping the LORD, but with the help of visible images. People urge this today to excuse blatant idolatry. The Bible does not support it. It says plainly: "then this thing became a sin." God does not need an image to enable people to worship Him.
That choice outlived its maker. Another writer traces where it ended:
The idolatry of Jeroboam stayed with Israel until they were led into captivity. It was a leading cause of that captivity, as it is written: "And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD and made them commit great sin... They did not depart from them, until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. And Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day."
Why did a reign under such a verdict last so long? One commentator answers:
Nonetheless his reign lasted forty-one years! One might think that God always cut off, without delay, the kings whose conduct dishonoured Him. This history gives several examples of it. That is what happened 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 in its oppressed state directs His ways concerning Jeroboam's reign. He raises up a saviour for this people in the person of this very king who had incurred His displeasure.
One writer describes what lay under the prosperity of these years:
Under the reign of Jeroboam II the northern kingdom of Israel flourished as never before or after. There was great outward prosperity. So we find the prophet mentioning the rich, their great wealth and luxury, their arrogant pride and false sense of security. He also mentions the oppression of the poor. Underneath it all was an awful moral corruption, the fruit of the false worship. In this state of prosperity, immorality and false worship they did not dream of any coming disaster.
The verse does not only say Jeroboam sinned. It says his sins made Israel sin, and one commentator weighs what that adds:
Let us note here what is repeated so often in the preceding chapters, that by the sins of their kings, Israel was made to sin. The sin of an individual becomes far more serious when it becomes a stumbling block to others. Its consequences are reckoned to those who carry away the ignorant and the poorly established into the path of their own disobedience.
- Inherited. Jeroboam II did not invent his sin. He kept the calf-worship of an earlier king, following his royal house instead of the mind of God.
- Excused. Some said the images only helped people worship the true God. Scripture calls the whole arrangement a sin.
- Tolerated. Forty-one years on the throne are not God's approval. They show His longsuffering and His pity for an oppressed people.
- Gilded. Wealth and victory sat on top of deep moral corruption. In all that prosperity, Israel never dreamed of the coming disaster.
- Contagious. His sin made others sin, so their guilt is reckoned to him. That same idolatry ended in Israel's exile.
He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the sea of the plain, according to the word of Jehovah the God of Israel, which he had spoken through his servant Jonah the prophet, the son of Amittai, who was of Gath-Hepher.
Under Jeroboam II, Israel won back land it had long lost. The verse credits that gain to a word God had spoken earlier through Jonah, and it raises two questions: why God blessed Israel under a king He called evil, and why Jonah's own book says nothing about this prophecy.
One writer sets out the puzzle directly. He finds the answer not in the king, but in God's pity for a suffering people.
Jeroboam did evil in the LORD's sight. He did not turn from any of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin. Even so, his reign lasted forty-one years! One might think, and this history gives several examples, that God always cut off at once the kings whose conduct dishonoured Him. 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's oppressed condition directs His ways concerning Jeroboam's reign… God raises up a saviour for this people in the person of this king who had incurred His displeasure.
If Jeroboam did not earn the rescue, neither did the nation. Another writer traces the reason back past Israel's behaviour altogether.
"The sea of the plain" was the Dead Sea. So his kingdom stretched almost two hundred miles from north to south. He was, no doubt, the "saviour" promised under the unfortunate reign of Jehoahaz… The Lord saw that Israel's affliction was very bitter, and that no one at all was left to help Israel. He had not said that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven. Instead He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. This was not for any goodness that He saw in them or in Jeroboam their king, but "because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
(The ESV calls it "the Sea of the Arabah.")
The two place names mark a real military gain. It came at a cost to Judah, Israel's neighbour to the south.
The territory of Hamath, the principal city of upper Syria, had at one time belonged to Solomon. Jeroboam's victory restored to Israel "the entrance of Hamath," a very important strategic position. The city of Hamath itself does not appear to have been part of the conquest. But the borders of Israel now ran again from the entrance of Hamath to the Salt Sea, that is, the Dead Sea. Taking this land enlarged Israel's territory at the expense of Judah's, since part of Damascus and of Hamath had once belonged to Judah.
The book of Jonah contains nothing about Israel's borders. This verse is the only trace of that message. It raises a wider point about what Scripture keeps.
Moreover, it is a selected revelation. It does not record everything God has revealed to His people over these 4000 years. Jonah prophesied of the restoration of the coasts of Israel from the entering of Hamath to the sea of the plain. Scripture records that God's word came true, but it does not keep the words of the prophecy itself… It is a mistake to think that the Bible holds every inspired message the Spirit of God gave to man. We have everything we need to know and to have. We do not have everything the prophets told others at different times.
Jonah is better known for his failure. Here God gives him a different title, and one writer sees purpose in it.
But the Lord knew that Jonah was a true servant of His, despite his failure. He took care to leave on record a testimony that lets us recognise him as such. This verse calls Jonah Jehovah's servant, whose prophecy He had Himself fulfilled.
The town is not a stray detail. Where Jonah came from later became evidence in a dispute among Judah's leaders.
Jonah's name means dove. God set him apart for a mission to the Gentiles, and he disliked it so much that this is likely why the religious leaders of Judah forgot that a prophet had arisen out of Galilee (John 7:52). Jonah was born in Gath-hepher, in the northern part of Palestine. He probably lived at the same time as Elisha, or else came right after him. We learn this from 2 Kings 14:25-27, which tells us that Israel enlarged its coasts, taking land back from the Syrians, just as Jonah had predicted. His book is perhaps the earliest prophetic book we have.
- Bitter — God began with Israel's misery: bitter affliction, and no one left to help.
- Covenant — the rescue rested on His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not on any goodness in the nation or its king.
- Instrument — He saved through an evil king. His longsuffering and His mercy work in ways we would not choose.
- Reach — the gift came in miles of land, from the entrance of Hamath to the Dead Sea, ground once held under Solomon.
- Servant — God records this failing prophet as His servant, and his Galilee hometown answers the leaders who claimed no prophet came from there.
For Jehovah saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter; and that there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel.
God's eye falls on a kingdom at the end of its rope: nobody left to help, and a king on the throne who did evil. What comes next is not judgment but rescue, and the whole weight of the verse rests on why.
A king who dishonoured God kept his throne. One writer finds the reason not in the king but in the state of the people.
You might think — and this history gives several examples — that God always cut short kings whose conduct dishonoured Him... but it is not so here. God has other ways, and He knows how to fit them with His patience and His mercy. His pity for Israel under oppression directs His ways in Jeroboam's reign.
The verse leaves nobody out: bond or free, no one could help. One writer still finds God's kindness in that pitiful state.
How good that the Lord gives some measure of gracious encouragement to His people, though they are in a pathetic state.
The same words appear elsewhere in Scripture. One writer applies them far beyond Israel.
"For the Lord will judge [vindicate, defend or avenge] His people and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone and there is none shut up or left." Precious grace for Israel in the days to come — and grace now, for each and for all who feel and own their need!
The verse gives the reason God acted: He saw. It says nothing about repentance, reform, or merit. One commentator states plainly what was and was not behind the rescue.
Jeroboam was, no doubt, the "savior" promised during the unhappy reign of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:5). "And the Lord did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven. Instead He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash." He did not do this for any goodness He saw in them or in Jeroboam their king. He did it "because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (2 Kings 13:23).
The prophet Jonah announced this rescue in advance. He is better known for the warning he carried to Nineveh. One writer holds the two messages side by side.
Jonah's prophecy mentioned here was surely far more to his liking than the message of coming judgment God used him to bring to the people of Nineveh in the book named after him. Both messages came from God, and both show His loving heart. Whether He uses a wicked king to deliver His undeserving people or turns a wicked nation to repentance, He is God and sovereign.
Another writer marks how long this deliverance was meant to last.
In this passage Jonah appears as a prophet of grace and of a temporary deliverance for Israel.
This rescue was not a one-off. Another writer sees in it a pattern the prophets repeat.
The prophets are full of this blessed truth. God allowed, and even sent, nation after nation to overcome and discipline His rebellious people. Yet He never gave them up completely. He watched over them with endless tenderness and longing of heart, and He stepped in again and again to help them, for the sake of His own name.
The rescue was real. The prosperity it brought did the people harm.
The great prosperity and expansion under Jeroboam II seems to have corrupted the people and led them to give free rein to their evil desires and violence... Those in authority, instead of checking this spirit of lawlessness, found pleasure in it.
- Cause — He saw. The reason given for the rescue is God's own sight of bitter affliction; His "pity for Israel's state of being oppressed directs His ways."
- Condition — no helper. Israel had no helper left, bond or free. When power is gone and none is shut up or left, grace moves.
- Ground — the covenant. Not goodness in the people or their king, but God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
- Instrument — anyone He chooses. A wicked king and a prophet of grace both serve His purpose. He is God and sovereign either way.
- Result — a mercy misused. The prosperity that followed corrupted the people, and the deliverance proved temporary.
And Jehovah had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under the heavens; and he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
Jeroboam II did evil in God's sight, yet God gave him a long reign and used him to rescue Israel. The reason had nothing to do with Israel's goodness: God had never said He would erase Israel's name from under heaven.
Jeroboam's reign raises a question: why did God let an evil king last so long? One writer answers it like this:
You might think God always cut off at once the kings whose conduct dishonoured Him, and this history gives several examples of it. That is what happened with Zechariah, the son of this same Jeroboam. But it is not what happened here. God has other ways, and He knows how to fit them together with His patience and His mercy. His pity for Israel in their oppression guides how He acts in Jeroboam's reign.
The reason for this rescue did not lie in Israel or in their king. One writer traces it to a rescuer God had promised in the days of an earlier king, Jehoahaz:
He was, no doubt, the "savior" promised under the unfortunate reign of Jehoahaz. … This was not for any goodness that He saw in them or Jeroboam their king, but "because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
The verse turns on a silence. God had never said He would erase Israel's name, and their survival hung on that unspoken word. One writer describes how God treated Israel through all their defeats:
God allowed, and even sent, nation after nation to defeat and discipline His rebellious people. Yet He never wholly gave them up. He watched over them with endless tenderness and longing of heart, and He stepped in again and again to rescue them for His own name's sake.
"By the hand of Jeroboam" is the striking phrase. God's instrument was the very king He had just condemned. The prophet who brought this good news, Jonah, also carried God's warning of judgment to the city of Nineveh:
The prophecy of Jonah mentioned here was surely far more to his liking than the message of coming judgment God gave him for the people of Nineveh. That message fills the book that carries his name. Both messages were equally of God and show His loving heart. Whether He uses a wicked king to deliver His undeserving people or turns a wicked nation to repentance, He is God and sovereign.
Prosperity returned, but God's prophets found no welcome. One writer describes how the nation treated Amos in those years:
Though there was political revival under his rule, there was no real moral or spiritual awakening among the people. People saw Amos as a troublemaker who disturbed the peace of the kingdom. Amaziah the priest of Bethel told him to run off to the land of Judah, "and there eat bread, and prophesy there" — as if God's prophet were nothing more than a hired hand like himself.
God's mercy delayed the end. It did not cancel it. One writer sets Amos's warning beside Jeroboam's victories:
Amos prophesied in the same period. He announced to the house of Israel that Jeroboam's conquests would not last long. The Assyrian would capture these from them. … By winning back Israel's borders as far as "Hamath the great" and the sea of the plain, Jeroboam had "put far away the evil day." Look, says Amos, the evil day is near at hand.
- Affliction — God saw Israel oppressed and helpless, and His pity for them shaped all that followed.
- Silence — God had never said He would erase Israel's name. That unspoken word kept them alive.
- Hand — God rescued them through a king who did evil. He is sovereign, and He can use anyone.
- Covenant — The reason lay outside Israel: God's promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and His own name.
- Limit — God won back the borders, but not the hearts. Amos warned that the evil day was only delayed.
And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered for Israel that [which had belonged] to Judah in Damascus and in Hamath, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
This closing note on Jeroboam II's reign sums up his wars and his recovery of Damascus and Hamath. The surprise is who God used for it — a king the same chapter calls evil. The question left open is how long such gains could last.
Damascus and Hamath were not border villages. They were the seats of two great powers, and David had taken them generations earlier.
Damascus and Hamath were both capitals of two once powerful kingdoms. David had conquered them long before (1 Chron. 18:3-6). Jeroboam won them back for Israel more than one hundred and fifty years after they broke away from Judah. That speaks strongly for the success and power of his armies against those hostile nations on his northern border. Hamath, called "the great" in Amos 6:2, was the chief city of upper Syria and an important strategic point. It commanded the whole valley of the Orontes, which leads to the countries to the south.
Part of this land had once belonged to Judah. Israel's gain came at the other kingdom's cost.
Jeroboam's victory restored to Israel "the entrance of Hamath," a very important strategic position. The city of Hamath itself does not seem to have been part of the conquest. But Israel's borders reached again from the entrance of Hamath to the Salt Sea, that is, the Dead Sea (cf. Joshua 3:16). Taking this land enlarged Israel's territory at Judah's expense, for part of Damascus and of Hamath had once belonged to Judah (v. 28).
Nothing in Jeroboam earned these victories. The reason lay in God's pity for a people with no one left to help them.
You might think God always cut off at once the kings whose conduct dishonoured Him, and this history gives us several examples... but it is not so here. God has other ways, and He knows how to fit them with His longsuffering and His mercy. His pity for Israel under oppression shapes His ways in Jeroboam's reign. "For the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter... and there was none to help Israel. But the LORD had not said that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash" (vv. 26-27).
Jonah is remembered for the warning he carried to the city of Nineveh. He also brought the prophecy mentioned in this chapter.
Jonah's prophecy mentioned here was surely far more to his liking than the message of coming judgment God gave him for the people of Nineveh, in the book named after him. Both messages came from God, and both show His loving heart. Whether He uses a wicked king to deliver His undeserving people or turns a wicked nation to repentance, He is God and sovereign.
The wide borders hid what was happening inside the nation.
Under the reign of Jeroboam II the northern kingdom of Israel flourished as never before or after. There was a great external prosperity. So the prophet mentions the rich, their great wealth and luxury, their arrogant pride and sense of security, and their oppression of the poor. Underneath it all was an awful moral corruption, the fruit of the false worship. In this state of prosperity, immorality and false worship they did not dream of any coming calamity whatever.
Political recovery is not spiritual recovery. The nation showed the difference by how it treated the prophet God sent.
Israel was blessed with the ministry of both Hosea and Amos during Jeroboam's reign. Their writings show plainly that there was political revival under his rule, but no real moral or spiritual awakening among the people. People saw Amos as a troubler of the kingdom's peace. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, told him to flee away to the land of Judah, and "eat bread there, and prophesy there," as if God's prophet were nothing more than a hired man like himself.
The verse sends us to another record for the details — and that record is gone.
These books refer often to the chronicles of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah... They have nothing to do with the Word of God. Whatever the Lord did not choose to record or explain is written there. These chronicles are lost... The believer needs none of them; he has God's Word. In God's account he finds all he needs, and God's own assessment of people, events, and things.
Amos looked at the same borders and drew the opposite conclusion.
The prophet Amos... announced to the house of Israel that Jeroboam's conquests would not be long-lasting. The Assyrian would take them away... By winning back Israel's borders as far as "Hamath the great," Jeroboam had "put far away the evil day" (Amos 6:3)... But, says Amos, the evil day is near. On the eve of ruin, the prince was relaxing, thinking only of his ease (Amos 6:4).
- Cause — The victories came from God's pity for a people with no helper left, not from any good He saw in the king.
- Gift — Damascus and Hamath, capitals of two once powerful kingdoms, came back to Israel more than 150 years after they broke away.
- Reach — The borders stretched from the entrance of Hamath to the Dead Sea, gained partly at Judah's expense.
- Rot — Behind the wide borders lay great wealth, arrogant pride, oppression of the poor, and no spiritual awakening at all.
- Result — Jeroboam thought he had pushed the evil day far away; Amos said it was near, and the Assyrian would take it all back.
And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son reigned in his stead.
Jeroboam II ruled the northern kingdom longer than any other king, and he died in peace, with the throne passing to his son Zechariah. Yet he did evil in the Lord's sight, which raises a hard question: why did God leave such a king untouched for forty-one years?
Commentators notice the length of this reign first. It breaks the pattern of swift judgment found elsewhere in these chapters.
"He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin" (v. 24). Even so, his reign lasted forty-one years! You might think God always cut off kings quickly when their conduct dishonoured Him. This history gives several examples of it. That is what happened with Zechariah, the son of this same Jeroboam (2 Kings 15:8), 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's oppressed condition shaped His ways in Jeroboam's reign.
God rescued Israel through this same king, but the reason lay outside Israel altogether.
"He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash." This was not for any goodness that He saw in them or in Jeroboam their king, but "because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (2 Kings 13:23).
Two prophets spoke during these years, and their books show what the national success was hiding.
Israel was blessed with the ministries of both Hosea and Amos during Jeroboam's reign. Their writings make one thing clear. There was political revival under his rule, but no real moral or spiritual awakening among the people. People looked on Amos as a troubler of the kingdom's peace, and Amaziah the priest of Bethel told him to run away to the land of Judah, "and eat bread there, and prophesy there," as if God's prophet were nothing but a hired man like himself.
One writer sees the same pattern today.
Today too, in many countries believers face persecution. They are told what to preach and teach, and which topics they must avoid. In some places people are even trying to have the Bible classified as hate literature, because it presents God's holy standards without compromise.
Commentators differ about the prophecy of a violent death for this king. One reference work treats it as real:
Scripture records little of this king except that he won striking victories over the Syrians. "He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat." Amos announced his death by the sword.
Another writer calls the report a lie:
Amaziah, priest of the calf at Bethel, warns the king that Amos is prophesying against Israel, adding — which was a lie — that he had foretold the violent death of the king. With this slander Amaziah tried to get rid of the prophet and have him sent away to Judah. Amos was competing with him at Bethel, "the king's sanctuary… a temple of the kingdom."
Zechariah taking the throne looks like more of the same. In fact it closes an account opened four generations earlier, and one prophet writes as though the line ends with the father.
Hosea prophesied under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Strikingly, he mentions only Jeroboam, king of Israel, and says nothing of his successors, though he prophesied under them too (Hosea 1:1). For him their history seems to stop with Jeroboam. Yet Zechariah, this man's son, was the fourth generation the Lord granted to the house of Jehu (2 Kings 10:30). But Zechariah, the last link in this chain, is in fact already rejected. He reigns only six months. God turns away from him and his successors, just as He said: "I will never again pass by them" (Amos 7:8; 8:2). Hosea says the same: "They made kings, but not through me" (Hosea 8:4).
From this death the kingdom's decline runs one way, and God's voice grows louder, not quieter.
God's eyes were on "the sinful kingdom" (Amos 9:8) and its sinful kings. From the time of Jeroboam's death, decline set in. Less than seventy years later it ended in the kingdom's final overthrow and dissolution. From this time on prophetic ministry greatly increased. "Such is the way of our gracious God," an unknown writer says, "that when judgment is near, testimony is multiplied."
- Borrowed time. Jeroboam's forty-one years were not a reward. God's pity for an oppressed people and His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob kept a bad king on the throne.
- Borrowed prosperity. Jeroboam won back borders and land, but no moral or spiritual awakening followed — success on the outside, rot underneath.
- Borrowed patience. As judgment drew near, God gave more warning, not less. Testimony multiplied through Hosea and Amos.
- Borrowed silence. Amaziah told Amos to take his message elsewhere, and the same pressure to soften God's standards falls on believers today. Commentators differ on whether Amos really foretold a violent death for the king or the priest invented it.
- Borrowed throne. Zechariah inherits as the fourth generation promised to Jehu. He is the last link, already rejected, and he reigns just six months. From this quiet death the countdown to the kingdom's dissolution begins.