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.