CHAPTER 14

(839 B.C.)

AMAZIAH REIGNS OVER JUDAH

¹In the second year of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel reigned Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah (this was the fourth good king in Judah, but with reservations).

²He was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mothers name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.

³And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, yet not like David his father (his father, several times removed): he did according to all things as Joash his father did. (David is ever used as the example, and that despite his sins and failures. God thinks of his true nature, faithful heart, and zeal for Jehovah in living free from idolatry and the gross wickedness of so many of the rulers in those days. David was a man after Gods own Heart, who loved Jehovah, considered Him, and obeyed Him when corrected.)

⁴Howbeit the high places were not taken away: as yet the people did sacrifice and burnt incense on the high places. (Over and over again in the Sacred Text, the Holy Spirit points this out. The Temple in Jerusalem was to be the only place where the people were to offer sacrifice and burn incense, because the great Brazen Altar there was a Type of the Cross. Even though they burned sacrifice and incense to the Lord in these high places, still, the Lord was displeased, because, in a sense, they pointed to another Cross [II Cor. 11:4].)

Irrespective of our supposed worship, if it is not built supremely on the Cross of Christ, it is unacceptable to God. Regrettably, precious little worship today is, in fact, anchored in the Cross!)

⁵And it came to pass, as soon as the kingdom was confirmed in his hand, that he killed his servants who had killed the king his father (he put down the insurrectionists).

⁶But the children of the murderers he killed not: according unto that which is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, wherein the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin (Deut. 24:16; this was at the beginning of Amaziahs reign, and it seems that he was doing all within his power to obey the Word of God; had he continued thusly, great victory would have been his and Judahs; as Amaziah, so many begin well, and end poorly).

⁷He killed of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah (Petra) by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day (this Verse proclaims his great victory in taking the almost impregnable Petra, called Selah; the name Joktheel means subdued by God; thus, he honored God, Who gave him the victory).

AMAZIAHS WARS AGAINST JOASH OF ISRAEL

⁸Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face (Amaziah had a cause of complaint against Jehoash, the king of Israel, which does not appear in this narrative, but does in II Chron., Chpt. 25; however, Amaziah was wrong in doing this!).

⁹And Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle (according to Josephus, the reply to the challenge was given in a formal letter, which was in the form of a parable).

¹⁰You have indeed smitten Edom, and your heart has lifted you up: glory of this, and tarry at home: for why should you meddle to your hurt, that you should fall, even you, and Judah with you? (Your victory over Edom has caused you to be lifted up in pride.)

¹¹But Amaziah would not hear. (How many Christians have been given a correct word that was sent to them by the Lord, but would not hear?)Therefore Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah (went to battle!).

¹²And Judah was put to the worse before Israel; and they fled every man to their tents (the complete account tells us that God allowed Judah to be defeated, because Amaziah had sought after the gods of Edom [II Chron. 25:20]).

¹³And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate, four hundred cubits (according to Josephus, Joash threatened his prisoner with death, unless the gates of Jerusalem were opened to him, and his army admitted into the town; the breach in the wall was, therefore, not the result of siege operations, but the act of a conqueror, who desired to leave his enemy as defenseless as possible).

¹⁴And he (Joash, king of Israel) took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the House of the LORD, and in the treasures of the kings house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria (because of Amaziahs pride, Judah lost the war, the protection of the wall of Jerusalem, all the public silver and gold, all the vessels of the Temple, and all the treasures of the kings house, and was completely humiliated before her enemies; it took years to recover what was lost in a few hours of time, all through pride and selfishness).

DEATH OF JEHOASH, KING OF ISRAEL

¹⁵Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash which he did, and his might, and how he fought with Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel?

¹⁶And Jehoash slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in his stead (Jeroboam II).

DEATH OF AMAZIAH, KING OF JUDAH; AZARIAH (UZZIAH) HIS SUCCESSOR

¹⁷And Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years.

¹⁸And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?

¹⁹Now they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem: and he fled to Lachish; but they sent after him to Lachish, and killed him there (the author of Chronicles connects this conspiracy with the idolatry of which Amaziah was guilty [II Chron. 25:27]).

²⁰And they brought him on horses: and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David (as stated, he began well, and ended poorly!).

²¹And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah (this king was also known as Uzziah).

²²He built Elath, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers (it was in the year that this king died that Isaiah had the great vision where he saw the Lord, which began his great prophecies [Isa., Chpt. 6]).

JEROBOAM II REIGNS OVER ISRAEL

²³In 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, and reigned forty and one years.

²⁴And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam (after whom he was named) the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin (judgments which had fallen upon Jehu and Jehoahaz on account of these sins did not teach any lesson, it seems, to Joash or Jeroboam II; the fatal taint, which was congenital with the Israelite monarchy, could never be purged out; they clung to it until the end).

²⁵He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the Word of the LORD God of Israel, which He spoke by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the Prophet, which was of Gath-hepher (this Jonah was the author of the Book of Jonah, who was commanded by God to go preach in the city of Nineveh; the victories of Jeroboam II were of the Lord, but not recognized as such by Jeroboam II).

²⁶For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel (the prosperous reign of Jeroboam II seemingly conflicts with the fact that he worshipped the golden calf; however, Verses 25-28 reveal the profound depths of Love and Grace in the heart of God toward His erring children; but still, Jeroboam II would not turn).

²⁷And the LORD said not that He would blot out the name of Israel from under Heaven: but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash (even though Israel deserved to be blotted out, on the contrary, the Lord gave the nation a breathing-space, a gleam of light, a second summer, so to speak, before the winter set in a further opportunity of repenting, but all to no avail!).

²⁸Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which belonged to Judah (had belonged to Judah during the times of David and Solomon), for Israel (recovered them for Israel), are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel?

²⁹And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead. (Over and over again in these Passages concerning the kings of Israel and Judah, the Holy Spirit points out to us the reason for their blessings, which was the Grace of God, and the reason for their failure, which was sin. We would do well to heed this!)