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.
Parallel Translations
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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.
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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, and reigned forty and one years.
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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, and reigned forty and one years.
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to 2 Kings 14:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Kings 14:27 Yahweh didn’t say that he would blot out the name of Israel from under the sky; but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
- Hosea 1:1 Yahweh’s word that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
- Amos 1:1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
- Amos 7:9-11 The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’ ”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Ki 14:23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the…
2Ki 14:23 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, [and reigned] forty and one years.
Ver. 23. And reigned forty and one years.] This Jeroboam II was a long lived and a victorious prince: so was our Edward III.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here is an account of the reign of Jeroboam…
Here is an account of the reign of Jeroboam the second. I doubt it is an indication of the affection and adherence of the house of Jehu to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that they called an heir-apparent to the crown by his name, thinking that an honourable name which in the book of God is infamous and stigmatized as much as any.
I. His reign was long, the longest of all the reigns of the kings of Israel: He reigned forty-one years; yet his contemporary Azariah, the king of Judah, reigned longer, even fifty-two years. This Jeroboam reigned just as long as Asa had done (Kg1 15:10), yet one did that which was good and the other that which was evil. We cannot measure men's characters by the length of their lives or by their outward prosperity. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked.
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II. His character was the same with that of the rest of those kings: He did that which was evil (Kg2 14:24), for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam; he kept up the worship of the calves, and never left that, thinking there was no harm in it, because it had been the way of all his ancestors and predecessors. But a sin is never the less evil in God's sight, whatever it is in ours, for its being an ancient usage; and a frivolous plea it will be against doing good, that we have been accustomed to do evil.
III. Yet he prospered more than most of them, for though, in that one thing, he did evil in the sight of the Lord, yet it is likely, in other respects, there was some good found in him and therefore God owned him, 1. By prophecy. He raised up Jonah the son of Amittai, a Galilean (so much were those mistaken that said, Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet, Joh 7:52), and by him intimated the purposes of his favour to Israel, notwithstanding their provocations, encouraged him and his kingdom to take up arms for the recovery of their ancient possessions, and (which would contribute not a little to their success) assured them of victory. It is a sign that God has not cast off his people if he continue faithful ministers among them; when Elisha, who strengthened the hands of Joash, was removed, Jonah was sent to encourage his son. Happy is the land that has a succession of prophets running parallel with a succession of princes, that the word of the Lord may endure for ever. Of this Jonah we read much in that little book of scripture that bears his name. It is probable that it was when he was a young man, and fit for such an expedition, that God sent him to Nineveh, and that it was when he had yet been but a little conversant with the visions of God that he flew off and fretted as he did; and, if so, this is an undoubted evidence of the forgiveness of his faults and follies, that he was afterwards employed as a messenger of mercy to Israel. A commission amounts to a pardon, and he that had himself found mercy, notwithstanding his provocations, could the better encourage them with the hope of mercy notwithstanding theirs. Some that have been foolish and passionate, and have gone about their work very awkwardly at first, yet afterwards have proved useful and eminent. Men must not be thrown away for every fault. 2. By providence. The event was according to the word of the Lord: his arms were successful; he restored the coast of Israel, recovered those frontier-towns and countries that lay from Hamath in the north to the sea of the plain, (that is, the sea of Sodom) in the south, all which the Syrians had possessed themselves of, v. 25. Two reasons are here given why God blessed them with those victories: - (1.) Because their distress was very great, which made them the objects of his compassion, v. 26. Though he saw not any signs of their repentance and formation, yet he saw their affliction, that it was very bitter. Those that lived in those countries which the enemies were masters of were miserably oppressed and enslaved, and could call nothing their own; the rest, we may suppose, were much impoverished by the frequent incursions the enemy made upon them to plunder them, and continually terrified by their threatenings, so that there was none shut up or left, both towns and countries were laid waste and stripped of their wealth, and no helper appeared. To this extremity were they reduced, in many parts of the country, in the beginning of Jeroboam's reign, when God, in mere pity to them, heard the cry of their affliction (for no mention is made here of the cry of their prayers), and wrought this deliverance for them by the hand of Jeroboam. Let those whose case is pitiable take comfort from the divine pity; we read of God's bowels of mercy (Isa 63:15; Jer 31:20) and that he is full of compassion, Psa 86:15. (2.) Because the decree had not yet gone forth for their utter destruction; he had not as yet said he would blot out the name of Israel (Kg2 14:27), and because he had not said it he would not do it. If this be understood of the dispersion of the ten tribes, he did say it and do it, for that name still remains under heaven in the gospel Israel, and will to the end of time; and because they, at present, bore that name which was to have this lasting honour, he showed them this favour, as well as for the sake of the ancient honour of that name, Kg2 13:23.
IV. Here is the conclusion of Jeroboam's reign. We read (Kg2 14:28) of his might, and how he warred, but (Kg2 14:29) he slept with his fathers; for the mightiest must yield to death, and there is no discharge in that war. Many prophets there had been in Israel, a constant succession of them in every age, but none of the prophets had left any of their prophecies in writing till those of this age began to do it, and their prophecies are part of the canon of scripture. It was in the reign of this Jeroboam that Hosea (who continued very long a prophet) began to prophesy, and he was the first that wrote his prophecies; therefore the word of the Lord by him is called the beginning of the word of the Lord, Hos 1:2. Then that part of the word of the Lord began to be written. At the same time Amos prophesied, and wrote his prophecy, soon afterwards Micah, and then Isaiah, in the days of Ahaz and Hezekiah. Thus God never left himself without witness, but, in the darkest and most degenerate ages of the church, raised up some to be burning and shining lights in it to their own age by their preaching and living, and a few by their writings to reflect light upon us on whom the ends of the world have come.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that…
For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter,.... Being sorely oppressed by their enemies, especially the Syrians; and he was moved to have compassion upon them, and show mercy to them: for, there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel: they were in the most forlorn and helpless condition; See Gill on Deu 32:36.
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2 Kings 14:27
kg2 14:27
kg2 14:27
kg2 14:27And the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven,.... Had not as yet declared it by any of his prophets, that he would do it, as he afterwards did by Hosea, Hos 1:4, and was fulfilled in the reign of Hoshea king of Israel, Kg2 17:1.
but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash; the instrument of their deliverance from the hands of their enemies, and of recovering their borders as afore time.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Jeroboam - This is the only instance, in the…
Jeroboam - This is the only instance, in the history of either kingdom, of a recurrent royal appellation. We can scarcely doubt that Jeroboam II was named after the great founder of the Israelite kingdom by a father who trusted that he might prove a sort of second founder. Perhaps the prophecy of Jonah (see 2Ki 14:25) had been already given, and it was known that a great deliverance was approaching.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain JEROBOAM'S WICKED REIGN OVER ISRAEL. (Kg2 14:23-29)
JEROBOAM'S WICKED REIGN OVER ISRAEL. (Kg2 14:23-29)
Jeroboam, the son of Joash king of Israel--This was Jeroboam II who, on regaining the lost territory, raised the kingdom to great political power (Kg2 14:25), but adhered to the favorite religious policy of the Israelitish sovereigns (Kg2 14:24). While God granted him so great a measure of national prosperity and eminence, the reason is expressly stated (Kg2 14:26-27) to be that the purposes of the divine covenant forbade as yet the overthrow of the kingdom of the ten tribes (see Kg2 13:23).
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Next: 2 Kings Chapter 15
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain REIGN OF JEROBOAM, THE SON OF JOASH, 2Ki_14:23-29.
REIGN OF JEROBOAM, THE SON OF JOASH, 2Ki_14:23-29.
23. Forty and one years — This is probably an error, and should be fifty-two years. See note on 2Ki_15:8.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 23–29. Accession of Jeroboam II. king of Israel. His…
23–29. Accession of Jeroboam II. king of Israel. His conquests and death (Not in Chronicles)
23. In the fifteenth year of Amaziah] Cf. verses 1 and 17. Amaziah reigned 29 years, and he lived 15 years after the death of Jehoash king of Israel. Therefore the numbers are in sufficiently close agreement, though we cannot be certain of the position which Amaziah occupied after his defeat by Jehoash at the battle of Beth-shemesh.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (23) Reigned forty and one years.—According to the statement…
THE REIGN OF JEROBOAM II. IN SAMARIA
(2Ki_14:23-29).
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(23) Reigned forty and one years.—According to the statement of this verse, Jeroboam reigned fourteen years concurrently with Amaziah, who reigned altogether twenty-nine years (2Ki_14:2); and thirty-seven years concurrently with Azariah (2Ki_15:8), so that he reigned altogether not forty-one but fifty-one years. (The discrepancy originated in a confusion of the Hebrew letters נא, fifty-one, with מא, forty-one.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 23-29. REIGN OF JEROBOAM THE SON OF JOASH…
Vers. 23-29. REIGN OF JEROBOAM THE SON OF JOASH OVER ISRAEL. This reign, the most important of those belonging to the kingdom of Israel since that of Ahab, is treated with great brevity by the writer, whose interest is far more in Judah than in Israel. Seven verses only are devoted to him. The result of his wars is given without any account of the wars themselves. And the great fact of his ruling over Damascus only comes in by a sort of afterthought (ver. 28). The usual formulas are followed in introducing his reign and missing it.
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash King of Judah this note of time agrees with those in 2Ki_13:10 and 2Ki 45:1, but not with that in 2Ki_15:1 (see the comment on that passage) Jeroboam the son of Joash King of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. Josephus says "forty years., Many moderns (Thenius, Bahr, and others) extend the term to fifty-one years. Some suppose that Jeroboam was joint-king with his father in Amaziah"s third year, solo king from his fifteenth. But it is better to acknowledge the general confusion of the chronology, and to regard it as uncertain, unless where a synchronism is distinctly made out. Such assured synchronisms are the following:
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(1) The synchronism of Ahab with Jehoshaphat:
(2) the synchronism of Jehoram, Ahab"s son, with the same;
(3) the synchronism of Jehu"s first year with the first year of Athaliah;
(4) the synchronism of Amaziah with Joash of Israel;
(5) the synchronism of Pekah with Ahaz;
(6) the synchronism of Hoshea"s last year with Hezekiah"s sixth;
(7) the synchronism of Amaziah"s fourteenth year with Jeroboam
II"s first, being twice asserted in two distinct forms (vers. 17 and 23), is, at any rate, highly probable.
Numbers which occur once only in ancient writers can seldom be implicitly trusted, since the liability of numbers to corruption is excessive.
Vers. 23-29. The reign of Jeroboam II
After the usual statement that Jeroboam "did evil in the sight of the Lord, and departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin," we have some brief notices of his reign. Note
I THE REVIVED FORTUNES OF ISRAEL.
1. Jeroboams successes in war. This able monarch continued the work of Joash. In fulfillment of the promise that God would give Israel a savior, Jeroboam was enabled to complete the recovery of the cities and territories of Israel from the Syrians. "He restored the coast of Israel from the entering in of Hamath unto the sea of the plain," that is, he extended the boundaries of the kingdom as widely as they had ever reached in the days of its greatest prosperity.
2. The cause of this God"s pity for Israel. This remarkable turn in the fortunes of Israel was strange when it is remembered that Jeroboam was not a man who had the fear of God before him. The explanation is that already given, (2Ki_13:23) the pity which God had for Israel, his desire to give it one more chance before blotting out its name, his respect for the covenant with the fathers, and, subordinately, his regard to the prayer of Jehoahaz. (2Ki_13:4, 2Ki_13:5) If, as the result of this revival of the nation"s fortunes, piety did not also revive, destruction would come all the more speedily. In raising up this powerful king to save Israel, we see God"s faithfulness to his promise.
II PROPHETIC ACTIVITY. We have allusion in the text to the prophetic activity of Jonah, the son of Amittai, the same who was sent to Nineveh, and we know that in this reign other prophets, notably Hosea and Amos, exercised their ministry. The writings of the latter prophets, show us how, amidst the sunshine of revived prosperity, the condition of the people did not improve, but grew more and more corrupt. But God"s faithfulness and care and love for his people are shown in sending such prophets to warn them (cf. 2Ki_17:13) What could exceed the tender pathos of a ministry like Hosea"s, or the fidelity and earnestness of a testimony like that of Amos, who bearded the highest in the land to bear witness against? (Amo_7:10) Yet the people would not hear, but attributed their prosperity to their idols, and worshipped them more than ever, while immorality, violence, and the loosening of all bonds between man and man abounded more and more. (Hos_4:1)
III THE EVE OF COLLAPSE. Jeroboam died, and was succeeded by his son Zachariah. This was the fourth generation of the house of Jehu, and it will be seen that he reigned only six months. From this time Israel went rapidly to its ruin. The height of prosperity reached in the reign of Jeroboam was but the last flicker of the light before final extinction. A little over thirty years after Jeroboam"s death forty at most the words of the prophets were fulfilled, and the kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and its people carried away by the Assyrian. J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain
THE DYNASTY OF JEHU (CONTINUED)
JEROBOAM II
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B.C. 781-740
2Ki_14:23-29
IF we had only the history of the kings to depend upon, we should scarcely form an adequate conception either of the greatness of Jeroboam II or of the condition of society which prevailed in Israel during his long and most prosperous reign of forty-one years (B.C. 781-740). In the Books of Chronicles he is merely mentioned accidentally in a genealogy. The Second Book of Kings only devotes one verse to him {2Ki_14:25} beyond the stock formulae of connection so often repeated. That verse, "however, gives us at least a glimpse of his great importance, for it tells us that he restored the coast of Israel from the entering in of Hamath unto the sea of the plain." Those two lines sufficiently prove to us that he was by far the greatest and most powerful of all the kings of Israel, as he was also the longest-lived and had the longest reign. His victories flung a broad gleam of sunset over the afflicted kingdom, and, for a time, they might have beguiled the Israelites into lofty hopes for the future; but with the death of Jeroboam the light instantly faded away, and there was no after-glow. And this sudden brightness, if it deceived others, did not deceive the prophets of the Lord. It happened in accordance with the promise of Jehovah given by Jonah, the son of Amittai, of Gath-Hepher; but Amos and Hosea saw that the glory of the reign was hollow and delusive, and that the outward prosperity did but "skin and film the ulcerous place" below. In truth, the possibility of this sudden outburst of success was due to the very enemy who, within a few years, was to grind Israel to powder. God pitied the deplorable overthrow of His chosen people: He saw that there was neither slave nor freeman-"neither any shut up, nor any left at large, nor any helper for Israel"; and in Jeroboam He gave them the savior who had been granted to the penitence of Jehoahaz. It was, so to speak, a last pledge to them of the love and mercy of Jehovah, which gave them a respite, and would fain have saved them altogether, if they had turned with their whole heart to Him. And, personally, Jeroboam II seems to have been one of the better kings. Not a single crime is laid to his charge; for under the circumstances of its deep-rooted continuance through the reigns of all his predecessors, it cannot be deemed a heinous crime that he did not put down the symbolic cult of Jehovah by the cherubic emblems at Dan and Bethel. The fact that he had been named after the founder of the kingdom of Israel shows that the kingdom was proud of the valiant and Heaven-commissioned rebel who had thrown off the yoke of the house of Solomon. The house of Jehu admired his policy and his institutions. The son of Nebat did not by any means appear in the eyes of his people as only worthy of the monotonous epitaph, "who made Israel to sin." It is true that now the voice of prophecy in Israel itself began to denounce the concomitants of the "calf-worship"; but the voices of the Jewish herdsman of Tekoa and of the Israelite Hosea probably raised but faint murmurs in the ears of the warrior-king, with whom they do not seem to have come into personal contact. In no case would he rank them as equal in importance with the fiery Elijah or the king-making Elisha, who had been for four generations the counselor of his race. Neither of those great prophets had insisted on the Deuteronomic law of a centralized worship, nor had they denounced the revered local sanctuaries with which Israel had been so long familiar. Jonah, indeed-who, if legend be correct, had been the boy of Zarephath, and the personal attendant of Elijah-had predicted the kings unbroken success, and had neither made it conditional on a religious revolution, nor, so far as we know, had in any way censured the existing institutions.
What rendered Jeroboams glory possible was the immediate paralysis and imminent ruin of the power of Syria. The Israelitish king was probably on good terms with Assyria, and, during this epoch, three Assyrian monarchs had struck blow after blow against the house of Hazael. Damascus and its dependencies had received shattering defeats at the hands of Rammanirari III, Shalmaneser III (782-772), and Assurdan III (772-754). Rammanirari had made expeditions against Damascus (773) and Hazael (772); and Assurdan had invaded the Syrian domains in 767, 755, and 754. Syria had more than enough to do to hold her own in a struggle for life and death against her atrocious neighbor. With Uzziah in Judah, Jeroboam II seems to have been on the friendliest terms; and probably Uzziah acted as a half-independent vassal, united with him by common interests. The day for Assyria to threaten Israel had not yet come. Syria lay in the path; and Assurdan III had been succeeded by Assurnirari, who gave the world the unusual spectacle of a peaceful Assyrian king.
Jeroboam II, therefore, was free to enlarge his domains; and unless there be a little patriotic exaggeration in the extent and reality of his prowess, he exercised at least a nominal suzerainty over a realm nearly as extensive as that of David. He first advanced against Damascus, and so far "recovered" it as to make it acknowledge his rule. His father Joash had won back all the Israelite cities which Benhadad III had taken from Jehoahaz; and Jeroboam, if he did not absolutely re-conquer the district east of Jordan, yet kept it in check and repressed the predatory incursions of the Emirs of Moab and Ammon. He thus extended the border of Israel to the sea of the Arabah and "the brook of willows" which divides Edom from Moab. {Isa_15:7; Amo_6:14} But this was not all. He pushed his conquests two hundred miles northwards of Samaria, and became lord of Hamath the Great. Ascending the gorge of the litany between the chains of Libanus and Antilibanus, which formed the northern limit of Israel, and following the river to its source near Baalbek, he then descended the Valley of the Orontes, which constitutes the "pass" or "entering in" of Hamath. Hamath was a town of the Hittites, the most powerful race of ancient Canaan. They were not of Semitic origin but spoke a separate language. They were the last great branch of the once famous and dominant Khetas, whose former importance has only recently been revealed by their deciphered inscriptions. A century and a half earlier the Hamathites had thrown off the yoke of Solomon, and they governed nearly a hundred dependent cities. In alliance with the Phoenicians and Syrians, they had been valuable members of a league, which, though defeated, had long formed a barrier against the southward movement of the Assyrians. How striking was the conquest of this city by Jeroboam is shown by the title of "Hamath the Great," bestowed upon it by the contemporary prophets, {Amo_6:2} with whom literary prophecy begins.
The result of these conquests was unwonted peace. Agriculture once more became possible, when the farmers of Israel were secure that their crops would not be reaped by plundering Bedouin. Intercourse with neighboring nations was revived, as in the golden days of Solomon, though it was regarded with suspicion. Civilization softened something of the old brutality. Prophecy assumed a different type, and literature began to dawn.
But to this state of things there was, as we learn from the contemporary prophets Amos and Hosea, a darker side. Of Jonah we know nothing more; for it is impossible to see in the Book of Jonah much more than a beautiful and edifying story, which may or may not rest on some surviving legends. It differs from every other prophetic book by beginning with the word "And," and its late origin and legendary character cannot any longer be reasonably disputed. We may hope, therefore, that the Northern prophet, whose home was not far from Nazareth, was not quite the morose and ruthless grumbler so strikingly portrayed in the book which bears his name. Of any historical intervention of his in the affairs of Jeroboam we know nothing further than the recorded promise of the kings prosperity.
AMOS, HOSEA, AND THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL
2Ki_14:23-29; 2Ki_15:8-12
"In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt
What makes a nation happy and keeps it so.
What ruins kingdoms and lays cities flat."
- MILTON, "Paradise Regained"
"We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of Fate:
But the soul is still oracular: amid the markets din
List the ominous Stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,
They enslave their childrens children who make compromise with sin."
- LOWELL
AMOS and Hosea are the two earliest prophets whose "burdens" have come down to us. From them we gain a near insight into the internal condition of Israel in this day of her prosperity.
We see, first, that the prosperity was not unbroken. Though peace reigned, the people were not left to lapse unwarned into sloth and godlessness. The land had suffered from the horrible scourge of locusts, until every carmel-every garden of God on hill and plain-withered before them. There had been widespread conflagrations; {Amo_7:4} there had been a visitation of pestilence; and, finally, there had been an earthquake so violent that it constituted an epoch from which dates were reckoned. There were also two eclipses of the sun, which darkened with fear the minds of the superstitious.
Nor was this the worst. Civilization and commerce had brought luxury in their train, and all the bonds of morality had been relaxed. The country began to be comparatively depleted, and the innocent regularity of agricultural pursuits palled upon the young, who were seduced by the glittering excitement of the growing towns. All zeal for religion was looked on as archaic, and the splendor of formal services was regarded as a sufficient recognition of such gods as there were. As a natural consequence, the nobles and the wealthy classes were more and more infected with a gross materialism, which displayed itself in ostentatious furniture, and sumptuous palaces of precious marbles inlaid with ivory. The desire for such vanities increased the thirst for gold, and avarice replenished its exhausted coffers by grinding the faces of the poor, by defrauding the hireling of his wages, by selling the righteous for silver, the needy for handfuls of barley, and the poor for a pair of shoes. The degrading vice of intoxication acquired fresh vogue, and the gorgeous gluttonies of the rich were further disgraced by the shameful spectacle of drunkards, who lolled for hours over the revelries which were inflamed by voluptuous music. Worst of all, the purity of family life was invaded and broken down. Throwing aside the old veiled seclusion of women in Oriental life, the ladies of Israel showed themselves in the streets in all "the bravery of their tinkling ornaments of gold," and sank into the adulterous courses stimulated by their pampered effrontery.
Such is the picture which we draw from the burning denunciations of the peasant-prophet of Tekoa. He was no prophet nor prophets son, but a humble gatherer of sycamore-fruit, a toil which only fell to the humblest of the people. Who is not afraid, he asks, when a lion roars? and how can a prophet be silent when the Lord God has spoken? Indignation had transformed and dilated him from a laborer into a seer, anti had summoned him from the pastoral shades of his native village-whether in Judah or in Israel is uncertain-to denounce the more flagrant iniquities of the Northern capital. First he proclaims the vengeance of Jehovah upon the transgressions of the Philistines, of Tyre, of Edom, of Ammon, of Moab, and even of Judah; and then he turns with a crash upon apostatizing Israel. {Amos 1:1-Amos 2:5} He speaks with unsparing plainness of their pitiless greed, their shameless debauchery, their exacting usury, their attempts to pervert even the abstinent Nazarites into intemperance, and to silence the prophets by opposition and obloquy. Jehovah was crushed under their violence. {Amo_2:6-13} And did they think to go unscathed after such black ingratitude? Nay! their mightiest should flee away naked in the day of defeat. Robbery was in their houses of ivory, and the few of them who should escape the spoiler should only be as when a shepherd tears out of the mouth of a lion two legs and a piece of an ear. {Amo_3:9-15} As for Bethel, their shrine-which he calls Bethaven, "House of Vanity," not Bethel, "House of God"-the horns of its altars should be cut off. Should oppression and licentiousness flourish? Jehovah would take them with hooks, and their children with fishhooks, and their sacrifices at Bethel and Gilgal should be utterly unavailing. Drought, and blasting, and mildew, and wasting plague, and earth-convulsions like those which had swallowed Sodom and Gomorrah, from which they should only be plucked as a "firebrand out of the burning," should warn them that they must prepare to meet their God. {Amo_4:1-13} It was lamentable; but lamentation was vain, unless they would return to Jehovah, Lord of hosts, and abandon the false worship of Bethel, Beersheba, and Gilgal, and listen to the voice of the righteous, whom they now abhorred for his rebukes. They talked hypocritically about "the day of the Lord," but to them it should be blackness. They relied on feast days, and services, and sacrifices; but since they would not give the sacrifice of judgment and righteousness, for which alone God cared, they should be carried into captivity beyond Damascus: yes! even to that terrible Assyria with whose king they now were on friendly terms. They lay at ease on their carved couches at their delicate feasts, draining the wine-bowls, and glistering with fragrant oils, heedless of the impending doom which would smite the great house with breaches and the little house with clefts, and which should bring upon them an avenger who should afflict them from their conquered Hamath southwards even to the wady of the wilderness. {Amo_6:1-14} The threatened judgments of locusts and fire had been mitigated at the prophets prayer, but nothing could avert the plumb-line of destruction which Jehovah held over them, and He would rise against the House of Jeroboam with His sword. {Amo_7:1-9} We infer from all that Amos and Hosea say that the calf-worship at Bethel (for Dan is not mentioned in this connection) had degenerated into an idolatry far more abject than it originally was. The familiarity of such multitudes of the people with Baal-worship and Asherah-worship had tended to obliterate the sense that the "calves" were cherubic emblems of Jehovah; and were it not for some confusions of this kind, it is inconceivable that Jehoram ben-Jehu should have restored the Asherah which his father had removed. Be that as it may, Bethel and Gilgal seem to have become centers of corruption. Dan is scarcely once alluded to as a scene of the calf-worship.
Others, then, might be deceived by the surface-glitter of extended empire in the days of Jeroboam II. Not so the true prophets. It has often happened - as to Persia, when, in B.C. 388, she dictated the Peace of Antalcidas, and to Papal Rome in the days of the Jubilee of 1300, and to Philip II of Spain in the year of the Armada, and to Louis XIV in 1667-that a nation has seemed to be at its zenith of pomp and power on the very eve of some tremendous catastrophe. Amos and Hosea saw that such a catastrophe was at hand for Israel, because they knew that Divine punishment inevitably dogs the heels of insolence and crime. The loftiness of Israels privilege involved the utterness of her ruin. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities." {Amo_3:2} Such prophecies, so eloquent, so uncompromising, so varied, and so constantly disseminated among the people, first by public harangues, then in writing, could no longer be neglected. Amos, with his natural culture, his rhythmic utterances, and his "inextinguishable fire, was far different from the wild fanatics, with their hairy garments, and sudden movements, and long locks, and cries, and self-inflicted wounds, with whom Israel had been familiar since the days of Elijah, whom they all imitated. So long as this inspired peasant confined himself to moral denunciations the aristocracy and priesthood of Samaria could afford comfortably to despise him. What were moral denunciations to them? What harm was there in ivory palaces and refined feasts? This man was a mere red socialist who tried to undermine the customs of society. The hold of the upper classes on the people, whom their exactions had burdened with hopeless debt, and whom they could with impunity crush into slavery, was too strong to be shaken by the "hysteric gush" of a philanthropic faddist and temperance fanatic like this. But when he had the enormous presumption to mention publicly the name of their victorious king, and to say that Jehovah would rise against him with the sword, it was time for the clergy to interfere, and to send the intruder back to his native obscurity.
So Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, invoked the kings authority. "Amos," he said to the king, "hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel." The charge was grossly false, but it did well enough to serve the priests purpose. "The land is not able to bear all his words."
That was true; for when nations have chosen to abide by their own vicious courses, and refuse to listen to the voice of warning, they are impatient of rebuke. They refuse to hear when God calls to them.
"For when we in our viciousness grow hard,
Oh misery on it! the wise gods seal our eyes;
In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us
Adore our errors; laugh at us while we strut
To our confusion."
The priest tried further to inflame the kings anger by telling him two more of Amoss supposed predictions. He had prophesied (which was a false inference) that Israel should be led away captive out of their own land, and had also prophesied (which was a perversion of the fact) "that Jeroboam should die by the sword."
At the first prophecy Jeroboam probably smiled. It might indeed come true in the long-run. If he was a man of prescience as well as of prowess, he probably foresaw that the elements of ruin lurked in his transient success, and that though, for the present, Assyria was occupied in other directions, it was unlikely that the weaker Israel would escape the fate of the far more powerful Syria. As for the personal prophecy, he was, strong, and was honored, and had his army and his guards. He would take his chance. Nor does it seem to have troubled any one that Amos looked for the ultimate union of Israel with Judah. Since the time of Joash the inheritance of David had been but as "a ruined booth"; {Amo_9:11} but Amos prophesied its restoration. This touch may have been added later, when he wrote and published his "burdens"; but he did not hesitate to speak as if the two kingdoms were really and properly one. {Amo_9:11-15 Comp. Hos_3:5}
We are not told that Jeroboam II interfered with the prophet in any way. Had he done so, he would have been rebuked and denounced for it. He probably went no further than to allow the priest and the prophet to settle the matter between themselves. Perhaps he gave a contemptuous permission that, if Amaziah thought it worthwhile to send the prophet back into Judah, he might do so.
Armed with this nonchalant mandate, Amaziah, with more mildness and good-humor than might have been expected from one of his class, said to Amos, "O Seer, go home, and eat thy bread, and prophesy to thy hearts content at home; but do not prophesy any more at Bethel, for it is the kings sanctuary and the kings court." Amos obeyed perforce, but stopped to say that he had not prophesied out of his own mouth, but by Jehovahs bidding. He then hurled at the priest a message of doom as frightful as that which Jeremiah pronounced upon Pashur, when that priest smote him on the face. His wife should be a harlot in the city; his sons and daughters should be slain; his inheritance should be divided; he should die in a polluted land; and Israel should go into captivity. And as for his mission, he justified it by the fact that he was not one of a hereditary or a professional community; he was no prophet or prophets son. Such men might-like Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, and his four hundred abettors-be led into mere function and professionalism, into manufactured enthusiasm and simulated inspiration. From such communities freshness, unconventionality, courage, were hardly to be expected. They would philippize at times; they would get to love their order and their privileges better than their message, and-themselves best of all. It is the tendency of organized bodies to be tempted into conventionality, and to sink into banded unions chiefly concerned in the protection of their own prestige. Not such was Amos. He was a peasant herdsman in whose heart had burned the inspiration of Jehovah and the wrath against moral misdoing till they had burst into flame. It was indignation against iniquity which had called Amos from the flocks and the sycamores to launch against an apostatizing people the menace of doom. In that grief and indignation he heard the voice and received the mandate of the Lord of hosts. He heads the long line of literary prophets whose priceless utterances are preserved in the Old Testament. The inestimable value of their teaching lies most of all in the fact that they were-like Moses-preachers of the moral law; and that, like the Book of the Covenant, which is the most ancient and the most valuable part of the Laws of the Pentateuch, they count external service as no better than the small dust of the balance in comparison with righteousness and true holiness.
The rest of the predictions of Amos were added at a later date. They dwelt on the certainty and the awful details of the coming over throw; the doom of the idolaters of Gilgal and Beersheba; the inevitable swiftness of the catastrophe in which Samaria should be sifted like corn in a sieve in spite of her incorrigible security. {Amo_8:1-14; Amo_9:1-9; Amo_9:10} Yet the ruin should not be absolute. "Thus saith Jehovah: As the shepherd teareth out of the mouth of the lion two legs and the piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be rescued, that sit in Samaria on the corner of a couch, and on the damask of a bed."
The Hebrew Prophets almost invariably weave together the triple strands of warning, exhortation, and hope. Hitherto Amos has not had a word of hope to utter. At last, however, he lets a glimpse of the rainbow irradiate the gloom. The overthrow of Israel should be accompanied by the restoration of the fallen booth of David, and, under the rule of a scion of that house, Israel should return from captivity to enjoy days of peaceful happiness, and to be rooted up no more. {Amo_9:11-15}
Hosea, the son of Beeri, was of a somewhat later date than Amos. He, too, "became electric," to flash into meaner and corrupted minds the conviction that formalism is nothing, and that moral sincerity is all in all. That which God requires is not ritual service, but truth in the inward parts. He is one of the saddest of the prophets; but though he mingles prophecies of mercy with his menaces of wrath, the general tenor of his oracles is the same. He pictures the crimes of Ephraim by the image of domestic unfaithfulness, and bids Judah to take warning from the curse involved in her apostasy. {Hos_4:15-19} Many of his allusions touch upon the days of that deluge of anarchy which followed the death of Jeroboam II (Hosea 4-Hosea 6:3). That he was a Northerner appears from the fact that he speaks of the King of Israel as "our king" (Hos_7:5). Yet he seems to blame the revolt of Jeroboam I (Hos_1:2, Hos_8:4), although a prophet had originated it, and he openly aspires after the reunion of the Twelve Tribes under a king of the House of David (Hos_3:5). He points more distinctly to Assyria, which he frequently names as the scourge of the Divine vengeance, and indicates how vain is the hope of the party which relied on the alliance of Egypt. He speaks with far more distinct contempt of the cherub at Bethel and the shrine at Gilgal, and says scornfully, "Thy calf, O Samaria, has cast thee off." {Hos_8:5; Hos_9:15} Shalmaneser had taken Beth-Arbel, and dashed to pieces mother and children. Such would be the fate of the cities of Israel. {Hos_10:13-14} Yet Hosea, like Amos, cannot conclude with words of wrath and woe, and he ends with a lovely song of the days when Ephraim should be restored, after her true repentance, by the loving tenderness of God.
Jeroboam II must have been aware of some at least of these prophecies. Those of Hosea must have impressed him all the more because Hosea was a prophet of his own kingdom, and all of his allusions were to such ancient and famous shrines of Ephraim as Mizpeh, Tabor, Bethel, Gilgal, Shechem, Jezreel, and Lebanon. He was the Jeremiah of the North, and a passionate patriotism breathes through his melancholy strains. Yet in the powerful rule of Jeroboam II he can only see a godless militarism founded upon massacre (Hos_1:4), and he felt himself to be the prophet of decadence. Page after page rings with wailing, and with denunciations of drunkenness, robbery, and whoredom-"swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and adultery" (Hos_4:2).
If Jeroboam was as wise and great as he seemed to have been, he must have seen with his own eyes the ominous clouds on the far horizon, and the deep-seated corruption which was eating like a cancer into the heart of his people. Probably, like many another great sovereign-like Marcus Aurelius when he noted the worthlessness of his son Commodus, like Charlemagne when he burst into tears at the sight of the ships of the Vikings-his thoughts were like those of the ancient and modern proverbs-"When I am dead, let earth be mixed with fire." We have no trace that Jeroboam treated Hosea as did those guilty priests to whom he was a rebuke, and who called him "a fool" and "mad" (Hos_9:7-8, Hos_4:6-8, Hos_5:2). Yet the aged king-he must have reached the unusual age of seventy-three at least, before he ended the longest and most successful reign in the annals of Israel-could hardly have anticipated that within half a year of his death his secure throne would be shaken to its foundation, his dynasty be hurled into oblivion, and that Israel, to whom, as long as he lived, mighty kingdoms had curtsied, should,
"Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,
Do shameful execution on herself."
Yet so it was. Jeroboam II was succeeded by no less than six other kings, but he was the last who died a natural death. Every one of his successors fell a victim to the assassin or the conqueror. His son Zachariah ("Remembered by Jehovah") succeeded him (B.C. 740), the fourth in descent from Jehu. Considering the long reign of his father, he must have ascended the throne at a mature age. But he was the child of evil times. That he should not interrupt the "calf"-worship was a matter of course; but if he be the king of whom we catch a glimpse in Hos_7:2-7, we see that he partook deeply of the depravity of his day. We are there presented with a deplorable picture. There was thievishness at home, and bands of marauding bandits began to appear from abroad. The king was surrounded by a desperate knot of wicked counselors, who fooled him to the top of his bent, and corrupted him to the utmost of his capacity. They were all scorners and adulterers, whose furious passions the prophet compares to the glowing heat of an oven heated by the baker. They made the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with lying flatteries. On the royal birthday, apparently at some public feast, this band of infamous revelers, who were the boon companions of Zachariah, first made him sick with bottles of wine, and then having set an ambush in waiting, murdered the effeminate and self-indulgent debauchee before all the people. The scene reads like the assassination of a Commodus or an Elagabalus. No one was likely to raise a hand in his favor. Like our Edward II, he was a weakling who followed a great and warlike father. It was evident that troublous times were near at hand, and nothing but the worst disasters could ensue if there was no one better than such a drunkard as Zachariah to stand at the helm of state.
So did the dynasty of the mighty Jehu expire like a torch blown out in stench and smoke.
Its close is memorable most of all because it evoked the magnificent moral and spiritual teaching of Hebrew prophecy. The ideal prophet and the ordinary priest are as necessarily opposed to each other as the saint and the formalist. The glory of prophecy lies in its recognition that right is always right, and wrong always wrong, apart from all expediency and all casuistry, apart from "all prejudices, private interests, and partial affections." "What Jehovah demands," they taught, "is righteousness-neither more nor less; what He hates is injustice. Sin or offence to the Deity is a thing of purely moral character. Morality is that for the sake of which all other things exist; it is the most essential element of all sincere religion. It is no postulate, no idea, but a necessity and a fact; the most intensely living of human powers - Jehovah, the God of hosts. In wrath, in ruin, this holy reality makes its existence known: it annihilates all that is hollow and false."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain 2Ki_14:23. In the fifteenth year, &c., Jeroboam, king of…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
2Ki_14:23. In the fifteenth year, &c., Jeroboam, king of Israel, &c.—Israel’s history resumed. This was Jeroboam II. His reign was marked by idolatry, yet also with great political success (2Ki_14:25).
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2Ki_14:25. Spake by his servant Jonah—Not found in the Book of Jonah which we possess.
2Ki_14:26. There was not any shut up, &c.—Comp. Notes on Kings 2Ki_14:10.
2Ki_14:27. The Lord said not that He would blot out the name of Israel—The Divine purposes had not yet announced the obliteration of the ten tribes of the house of Israel.—W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki_14:23-29
NATIONAL PROSPERITY—AN OPPORTUNITY FOR NATIONAL REFORM
JEROBOAM reigned longer than any other king of Israel, and soon gave evidence of possessing considerable capacity and energy. He not only checked the Syrian invasion and regained the portions of his kingdom which had been seized by the foe, but carried the war into Syria and overawed Damascus into submission. Adversity having failed to bring back Israel to the true worship of Jehovah, a period of prosperity is granted, with no better result. Instead of tracing the goodness of God in their national blessings, the people are confirmed in their calf-worship, and attribute their successes to the influence of Baal. It is their last opportunity, and they see it not. Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first madden. The subsequent history of Israel is one of decline and disaster, until as a nation it becomes extinct. The long and prosperous reign of Jeroboam II. may be regarded as an opportunity for national reform. Observe—
I. That the misfortunes of a nation awaken the Divine compassion. “For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter” (2Ki_14:26). The Divine compassion seen—
1. In promising help and instruction by a duly authorized messenger. “According to the Word of the Lord God of Israel, which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet” (2Ki_14:26). We have no record of the prophecy uttered by Jonah on this occasion, but it doubtless had reference to the victories over the Syrians that would be granted to the arms of Jeroboam, and be accompanied with warnings and instructions to recognise the authority and power of Jehovah. The Lord pitied the ignorance and infatuation of Israel, and the misery which their own sins had brought upon them, and He once more sends His servant to call them to repentance and reformation. A faithful and earnest ministry is a boon to any people, and brings with it a solemn responsibility to all who hear.
2. In suspending the threat of extinction.—“And the Lord said not that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven” (2Ki_14:27). The idolatry and corruption of Israel merited the punishment of Jehovah, but in mercy He deferred the desolating stroke to give them space for repentance. The time came when the Divine compassion ceased, and the prophets Hosea, Amos, Micah, and others foretold the ruin that fell on Israel with such terrible force. Reprieves are not pardons. The Lord waits to be gracious; but where impenitence continues, the threatened vengeance will surely fall.
3. In providing a competent deliverer.—“He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam” (2Ki_14:27). Jeroboam was “a man of might” (2Ki_14:28), distinguished by personal prowess and military genius, and by those qualities that make the successful statesman and ruler. Though himself an idolater, he is used as an instrument to deliver Israel and raise the nation to an extraordinary height of prosperity. The Lord has His agents planted in unseen and unexpected quarters. They may seem the most unlikely to carry out His purposes, and may themselves be unconscious of the real drift of the work they are permitted and aided to accomplish.
II. That national prosperity is a token of the Divine beneficence. “He restored the coast, recovered Damascus” (comp. 2Ki_14:25; 2Ki_14:28). The dash and enterprise of Jeroboam roused the nation into new life. The success of his arms at the boundaries of his kingdom ensured protection and peace; and the wheels of commerce, once more set in motion, carried prosperity into every part of the land. Confucius has thus portrayed the signs of national prosperity—
Where spades grow bright, and idle words grow dull;
Where jails are empty, and where barns are full;
Where Church paths are with frequent feet outworn;
Law court-yards weedy, silent, and forlorn;
Where doctors foot it, and where farmers ride;
Where age abounds and youth is multiplied—
Where those signs are, they clearly indicate
A happy people and well-governed State.
Prosperity, like every other blessing, is from God; it is often the severest test applied to the conduct of individuals and of nations. The glitter and glut of prosperity may hide the hand that gives. The heart that adversity could not vitiate has been seduced by the subtle smiles of inconstant prosperity.
III. That national prosperity is abused when it does not lead to national reform. “He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam (2Ki_14:24). As was the king, so were the people. The sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, like a close-fitting Nessus garment, still clung to his idolatrous descendants. The goodness of God, that was intended to lead them to repentance, was misinterpreted as sanctioning and even rewarding their apostacy, and instead of weaning them from their idols, lulled them into a false confidence in the supremacy of Baal. It is sad to see blessings abused, opportunities neglected, warnings disregarded, and a whole nation sinking into the gulf of ruin. How unspeakable is the compassion of Him who observes the follies and sins of mankind, and yet shows Himself more eager to restore than destroy!
LESSONS:—
1. That prosperity and adversity are tests of fidelity to principle.
2. An opportunity for reformation comes to every indiridual and every nation.
3. The abuse of opportunity intensifies the inveteracy of evil.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki_14:25-27. I. Israel’s deep misery (Jer_2:19). II. God’s great pity (Psa_103:10; Hos_9:8).—Lange.
—Our faithful God helps us out of trouble, according to His great compassion, even when we have not deserved it of Him; but often not until our distress has reached the highest pitch, and no help is to be expected from any other quarter.
2Ki_14:25. Jonah must have been prominent among his order in these stormy times, for we find him the counsellor of Jeroboam in a policy of vigour against Syria. Enthusiastically patriotic, the depression of Israel weighed on his heart. But he did not despair of his country even in its darkest hour. It was under the protection of Jehovah, and must rise again, if it repented and returned to its invisible King. With keen insight into the capacity of the new ruler in Samaria, he recognised him as the deliverer promised by God to save His chosen people, and animated him to take the field against the long-dreaded enemy, by the inspired assurance that he would be victorious, and would even extend the narrow limits of Israel well-nigh to the grandeur of David’s empire—from Hamath, in the northern valley of Lebanon, on the Orontes, to the south of the Dead Sea. That Jonah should have been sent on an errand of mercy to a great heathen city (Nineveh) is specially interesting, as the first prominent expression of the Divine love to all mankind found in the Old Testament. The very harshness and exclusive narrowness of the prophet himself heightens the charm of the narrative. God has pity on the great city, although idolatrous; but Jonah is unwilling to carry a message of love outside his own nation. His very conceptions of the Almighty show the imperfect ideas of his time. He thinks to escape from Him by leaving Palestine for a region beyond the sea. And even when forced on his journey, his Jewish bigotry shows itself in his anger that a heathen population should have averted its threatened doom by a timely repentance.—Geikie’s Hours with the Bible.
2Ki_14:26-27. God’s unfailing interest in His people.—I. He is minutely acquainted with their abject affliction. II. He delays the execution of the judgment their sins deserve. III. He mercifully delivers them from their distress.
2Ki_14:27. The reign of this king, which was distinguished by so extraordinary a flow of prosperity, increased the religious apostacy, and by consequence the moral degeneracy, of Israel. Under him the corruption of manners became extreme, and laid the foundation for those public calamities which befel the kingdom soon after his demise, and quickly accomplished the destruction of the nation. Hengstenberg observes: “The prosperity only confirmed the people still more in their temerity. Instead of being led to repentance by the unmerited mercy of God, they considered this prosperity as a reward of their apostacy, as a seal by which Jehovah-Baal confirmed the rectitude of their ways. The false prophets, too, did what was in their power to strengthen them in their delusion, whilst the true prophets preached to deaf ears.” Hengstenberg refers in this last sentence to the emphatic warnings addressed to Jeroboam by Hosea and Amos. Although his whole reign was marked by signal successes, notwithstanding that apostacy, which was usually punished by war and loss of national independence, the wrath of God was denounced against Israel, as well as the destruction of the house of Jeroboam, by the two named prophets, whose writings sufficiently attest the faithful execution of their mission.—Jamieson.
2Ki_14:28-29. Jeroboam had striven for the external prosperity of his people, and when he died, he left the kingdom in a more flourishing condition than any previous king of Israel. For its spiritual welfare, however, he had done nothing. Calf-worship and other service of false gods had continued, and a moral rottenness had found entrance, which brought the kingdom near to ruin. So has many a one at his death left to his children treasures which he has won by long labour and care, but those children have not been bred in the fear and love of God, and have not been taught that “the world passeth away,” &c. (1Jn_2:17; 1Pe_1:24).—Lange.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Jeroboam King of Israel
Jeroboam King of Israel
v. 23. 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, and reigned forty and one years. He is usually called Jeroboam II, to distinguish him from the first king of Israel.
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v. 24. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, in sanctioning idolatry; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
v. 25. He restored the coast of Israel, established the ancient boundaries, from the entering of Hamath, in the extreme north, in the valley of the Orontes, unto the Sea of the Plain, the Dead Sea, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher, probably the same man who wrote the Book of Jonah.
v. 26. For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter, 2Ki 13:4; for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel, as had been foretold Deu 32:36.
v. 27. And the Lord said not, He had not yet announced His intention through any prophet, 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, their time of grace had not yet fully expired.
v. 28. Now, the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, restoring the power of Israel as in the days of its greatest might,and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, namely, at the time of David, 2Sa 8:6, for Israel, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
v. 29. And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah, his son, reigned in his stead, although not immediately, since for a number of years a state of anarchy seems to have prevailed. God has patience with the sinners, desiring that they return to repentance. He often waits a long while before He pronounces the judgment of condemnation.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
This describes what King Uzziah did after he became king.
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In the fifteenth year of Amaziah
"In year 15 of Amaziah" (See: Numbers)
forty-one years
"41 years" (See: Numbers)
evil in the sight of Yahweh
Here "sight" is a metaphor for judging or considering. AT: "evil according to Yahweh" or "what Yahweh considered to be evil" (See: Metaphor)
He did not depart from any of the sins of Jeroboam
To stop sinning is spoken of as leaving a path. This can be stated in positive form. AT: "He did not stop committing the same sins as Jeroboam" or "He continued to commit the same sins as Jeroboam" (See: Metaphor)
He restored the border
This means his army restored the land up to the border. AT: "His soldiers conquered again some of the territory that had previously belonged to Israel" (See: Metonymy)
Lebo Hamath
This city was also called Hamath. (See: How to Translate Names)
the Sea of the Arabah
"the Dead Sea"
translationWords
Jeroboam
reign
Samaria
evil
Yahweh
sin
command
word of God
God
Jonah
prophet
Gath
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 14:23 The fifteenth year of King Amaziah’s reign in…
14:23 The fifteenth year of King Amaziah’s reign in Judah marks the beginning of Jeroboam II’s independent reign (782 BC). His reign of forty-one years includes the earlier co-regency with his father (793–782 BC).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.