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2 Kings 15

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Azariah Reigns in Judah

¹In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam’s reign over Israel, Azariah^a son of Amaziah became king of Judah. ²He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem. ³And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done.

⁴Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there.

⁵And the LORD afflicted the king with leprosy^b until the day he died, so that he lived in a separate house while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.

⁶As for the rest of the acts of Azariah, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

⁷And Azariah rested with his fathers and was buried near them^c in the City of David. And his son Jotham reigned in his place.

Zechariah Reigns in Israel

⁸In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah’s reign over Judah, Zechariah son of Jeroboam became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria six months. ⁹And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done. He did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

¹⁰Then Shallum son of Jabesh conspired against Zechariah, struck him down and killed him in front of the people,^d and reigned in his place.

¹¹As for the rest of the acts of Zechariah, they are indeed written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ¹²So the word of the LORD spoken to Jehu was fulfilled: “Four generations of your sons will sit on the throne of Israel.”

Shallum Reigns in Israel

¹³In the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah’s^e reign over Judah, Shallum son of Jabesh became king, and he reigned in Samaria one full month.

¹⁴Then Menahem son of Gadi went up from Tirzah to Samaria, struck down and killed Shallum son of Jabesh, and reigned in his place.

¹⁵As for the rest of the acts of Shallum, along with the conspiracy he led, they are indeed written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

¹⁶At that time Menahem, starting from Tirzah, attacked Tiphsah and everyone in its vicinity, because they would not open their gates. So he attacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women.

Menahem Reigns in Israel

¹⁷In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah’s reign over Judah, Menahem son of Gadi became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria ten years. ¹⁸And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and throughout his reign he did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

¹⁹Then Pul^f king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver^g in order to gain his support and strengthen his own grip on the kingdom. ²⁰Menahem exacted this money from each of the wealthy men of Israel—fifty shekels of silver^h from each man—to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria withdrew and did not remain in the land.

²¹As for the rest of the acts of Menahem, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

²²And Menahem rested with his fathers, and his son Pekahiah reigned in his place.

Pekahiah Reigns in Israel

²³In the fiftieth year of Azariah’s reign over Judah, Pekahiah son of Menahem became king of Israel and reigned in Samaria two years. ²⁴And he did evil in the sight of the LORD and did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

²⁵Then his officer, Pekah son of Remaliah, conspired against him along with Argob, Arieh, and fifty men of Gilead. And at the citadel of the king’s palace in Samaria, Pekah struck down and killed Pekahiah and reigned in his place.

²⁶As for the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, along with all his accomplishments, they are indeed written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

Pekah Reigns in Israel

²⁷In the fifty-second year of Azariah’s reign over Judah, Pekah son of Remaliah became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria twenty years. ²⁸And he did evil in the sight of the LORD and did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

²⁹In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and he took the people as captives to Assyria.

³⁰Then Hoshea son of Elah led a conspiracy against Pekah son of Remaliah. In the twentieth year of Jotham son of Uzziah, Hoshea attacked Pekah, killed him, and reigned in his place.

³¹As for the rest of the acts of Pekah, along with all his accomplishments, they are indeed written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

Jotham Reigns in Judah

³²In the second year of the reign of Pekah son of Remaliah over Israel, Jotham son of Uzziah became king of Judah. ³³He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. His mother’s name was Jerushaⁱ daughter of Zadok. ³⁴And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done.

³⁵Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there.

Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the house of the LORD.

³⁶As for the rest of the acts of Jotham, along with his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

³⁷(In those days the LORD began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah.)

³⁸And Jotham rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David his father. And his son Ahaz reigned in his place.

Footnotes:

¹ ^aAzariah is also called Uzziah; also in verses 6, 7, 8, 17, 23, and 27; see 2 Chronicles 26:1.

⁵ ^bLeprosy was a term used for various skin diseases; see Leviticus 13.

⁷ ^cLiterally with his fathers; see 2 Chronicles 26:23.

¹⁰ ^dHebrew; some LXX manuscripts in Ibleam

¹³ ^eUzziah is also called Azariah; also in verses 32 and 34; see verse 1.

¹⁹ ^fPul is another name for Tiglath-pileser; see verse 29.

¹⁹ ^g1,000 talents is approximately 37.7 tons or 34.2 metric tons of silver.

²⁰ ^h50 shekels is approximately 1.26 pounds or 569.8 grams of silver.

³³ ⁱJerusha is a variant of Jerushah; see 2 Chronicles 27:1.

Adam Clarke
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
John Gill
Keil-Delitzsch
Matthew Henry
Tyndale

Introduction

Azariah begins to reign over Judah, and acts well, but does not remove the high places, Kg2 15:1-4. He becomes leprous, and dies, after having reigned fifty-two years; and Jotham, his son, reigns in his stead, Kg2 15:5-7. Zachariah reigns over Israel, and acts wickedly; and Shallum conspires against him and slays him, after he had reigned six months, Kg2 15:8-12. Shallum reigns one month, and is slain by Menahem, Kg2 15:13-15. Menahem's wicked and oppressive reign; he subsidizes the king of Assyria, and dies, after having reigned ten years, Kg2 15:16-22. Pekahiah, his son, reigns in his stead; does wickedly; Pekah, one of his captains, conspires against and kills him, after he had reigned two years, Kg2 15:23-26. Pekah reigns in his stead, and acts wickedly, Kg2 15:27-28. Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, carries into captivity the inhabitants of many cities, Kg2 15:29. Hoshea conspires against and slays Pekah, after he had reigned twenty years; and reigns in his stead, Kg2 15:30, Kg2 15:31. Jotham beans to reign over Judah; he reigns well; dies after a reign of sixteen years, and is succeeded by his son Ahaz, Kg2 15:32-38.

Verse 1

In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam - Dr. Kennicott complains loudly here, because of "the corruption in the name of this king of Judah, who is expressed by four different names in this chapter: Ozriah, Oziah, Ozrihu, and Ozihu. Our oldest Hebrew MS. relieves us here by reading truly, in Kg2 15:1, Kg2 15:6, Kg2 15:7, עזיהו Uzziah, where the printed text is differently corrupted. This reading is called true, 1. Because it is supported by the Syriac and Arabic versions in these three verses. 2. Because the printed text itself has it so in Kg2 15:32, Kg2 15:34 of this very chapter. 3. Because it is so expressed in the parallel place in Chronicles; and, 4. Because it is not Αζαριας, Azariah, but Οζιας, Oziah, (Uzziah), in St. Matthew's genealogy." There are insuperable difficulties in the chronology of this place. The marginal note says, "This is the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam's partnership in the kingdom with his father, who made him consort at his going to the Syrian wars. It is the sixteenth year of Jeroboam's monarchy." Dr. Lightfoot endeavors to reconcile this place with Kg2 14:16, Kg2 14:17, thus: "At the death of Amaziah, his son and heir Uzziah was but four years old, for he was about sixteen in Jeroboam's twenty-seventh year; therefore, the throne must have been empty eleven years, and the government administered by protectors while Uzziah was in his minority." Learned men are not agreed concerning the mode of reconciling these differences; there is probably some mistake in the numbers. I must say to all the contending chronologers: - Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites. When such men disagree, I can't decide.

Verse 3

He did that which was right - It is said, Ch2 26:5, that he sought the Lord in the days of Zechariah the prophet, and God made him to prosper; that he fought against the Philistines; broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod; prevailed over the Arabians and Mehunims; and that the Ammonites paid him tribute; and his dominion extended abroad, even to the entering in of Egypt; that he built towers in Jerusalem, at the corner gate, valley gate, and turning of the wall; and built towers also in the desert, and digged many wells; that he had a very strong and well-regulated military force, which he provided with a well-stocked arsenal; and constructed many military engines to shoot arrows and project great stones; and that his fame was universally spread abroad.

Verse 5

The Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper - The reason of this plague is well told in the above quoted chapter, Ch2 26:16. That his heart being elated, he went into the temple to burn incense upon the altar, assuming to himself the functions of the high priest; that Azariah the priest, with fourscore others, went in after him, to prevent him; and that while they were remonstrating against his conduct, the Lord struck him with the leprosy, which immediately appeared on his forehead; that they thrust him out as an unclean person; and that he himself hurried to get out, feeling that the Lord had smitten him; that he was obliged to dwell in a house by himself, being leprous, to the day of his death; and that during this time the affairs of the kingdom were administered by his son Jotham. A poet, ridiculing the conduct of those who, without an episcopal ordination, think they have authority from God to dispense all the ordinances of the Church, expresses himself thus: - But now the warm enthusiast cries, The office to myself I take; Offering the Christian sacrifice, Myself a lawful priest I make: To me this honor appertains, No need of man when God ordains. [Some go into the contrary extreme, and in effect say, no need of God when Man ordains.] Though kings may not so far presume, 'Tis no presumption in a clown, And, lo, without a call from Rome, My flail or hammer I lay down; And if my order's name ye seek, Come, see a new Melchisedek! Ye upstart (men-made) priests, your sentence know, The marks you can no longer hide; Your daring deeds too plainly show The loathsome leprosy of pride; And if ye still your crime deny, Who lepers live shall lepers die. Charles Wesley. This is very severe, but applies to every man who, through pride, presumption, or the desire of gain, enters into the priest's office, though he have the utmost authority that the highest ecclesiastical officer can confer.

Verse 10

Smote him before the people - In some public assembly: he probably became very unpopular.

Verse 12

This was the word of the Lord - unto Jehu - God had promised to Jehu that his sons should sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation; and so it came to pass, for Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam, and Zachariah, succeeded Jehu, to whom this promise was made. But because he executed the Divine purpose with an uncommanded cruelty, therefore God cut his family short, according to his word by Hosea, I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu; and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel, Hos 1:4.

Verse 13

He reigned a full month - Menahem is supposed to have been one of Zachariah's generals. Hearing of the death of his master, when he was with the troops at Tirzah, he hastened to Samaria, and slew the murderer, and had himself proclaimed in his stead. But, as the people of Tiphsah did not open their gates to him, he took the place by assault; and as the text tells us, practiced the most cruel barbarities, even ripping up the women that were with child!

Verse 19

Pul, the king of Assyria - This is the first time we hear of Assyria since the days of Nimrod, its founder, Gen 10:11. Dean Prideaux supposes that this Pul was father of the famous Sardanapalus, the son himself being called Sardan; to which, as was frequent in those times, the father's name, Pul, was added, making Sardanpul of which the Greeks and Latins made Sardanapalus; and this Pul is supposed to be the same that reigned in Nineveh when Jonah preached the terrors of the Lord to that city. That his hand - That is, his power and influence, might be with him: in this sense is the word hand frequently used in Scripture.

Verse 20

Each man fifty shekels of silver - Upwards of five pounds sterling a man.

Verse 21

Are they not written in - the chronicles - There are no chronicles extant, in which there is any thing farther relative to this king.

Verse 25

Smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh - Who Argob and Arieh were we know not; some make them men, some make them statues. Pekah had fifty Gileadites in the conspiracy with him.

Verse 29

Came Tiglath-pileser - He is supposed to have been the successor of Sardanapalus: Dean Prideaux makes him the same with Arbaces, called by Aelian Thilgamus, and by Usher Ninus junior; who, together with Belesis, headed the conspiracy against Sardanapalus, and fixed his seat at Nineveh, the ancient residence of the Assyrian kings; as did Belesis, who is called, in Isa 39:1, Baladan, fix his at Babylon. Took Ijon - These places belonged to Israel; and were taken by Ben-hadad, king of Syria, when he was in league with Asa, king of Judah. See Kg1 15:20. They were regained by Jeroboam the second; and now they are taken from Israel once more by Tiglath-pileser. From Ch1 5:26, we learn that Pul and Tiglath-pileser, kings of Assyria, carried away into captivity the two tribes of Reuben, and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; all that belonged to Israel, on the other side of Jordan. These were never restored to Israel.

Verse 30

Hoshea the son of Elah - in the twentieth year of Jotham - There are many difficulties in the chronology of this place. To reconcile the whole, Calmet says: "Hoshea conspired against Pekah, the twentieth year of the reign of this prince, which was the eighteenth after the beginning of the reign of Jotham, king of Judah. Two years after this, that is, the fourth year of Ahaz, and the twentieth of Jotham, Hoshea made himself master of a part of the kingdom, according to Kg2 15:30. Finally, the twelfth year of Ahaz, Hoshea had peaceable possession of the whole kingdom, according to Kg2 17:1."

Verse 36

Now the rest of the acts of Jotham - These acts are distinctly stated in Ch2 27:1-9. He built the high gate of the house of the Lord, and he built much on the wall of Ophel. He built cities in the mountains of Judah; and in the forests he built castles and towers. He overthrew the Ammonites; and obliged them to give him one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley, for three consecutive years. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years. These are the particulars which we learn from the place in Chronicles quoted above; few of which are mentioned in this place. As to the higher gate of the house of the Lord, commentators are not well agreed: some think it was a gate which he then made, and which did not exist before, and is the same that is called the new gate, Jer 26:10, which is very likely.

Verse 37

In those days the Lord began to send - It was about this time that the Assyrian wars, so ruinous to the Jews, began; but it was in the following reigns that they arrived at their highest pitch of disaster to those unfaithful and unfortunate people. However much we may blame the Jews for their disobedience and obstinacy, yet we cannot help feeling for them under their severe afflictions. Grievously they have sinned, and grievously have they suffered for it. And if they be still objects of God's judgments, there is revelation to believe that they will yet be objects of God's goodness. Many think the signs of the times are favorable to this ingathering; but there is no evidence among the people themselves that the day of their redemption is at hand. They do not humble themselves; they do not seek the Lord.

Introduction

AZARIAH'S REIGN OVER JUDAH. (Kg2 15:1-7) In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam--It is thought that the throne of Judah continued vacant eleven or twelve years, between the death of Amaziah and the inauguration of his son Azariah. Being a child only four years old when his father was murdered, a regency was appointed during Azariah's minority. began Azariah . . . to reign--The character of his reign is described by the brief formula employed by the inspired historian, in recording the religious policy of the later kings. But his reign was a very active as well as eventful one, and is fully related (2Ch. 26:1-23). Elated by the possession of great power, and presumptuously arrogating to himself, as did the heathen kings, the functions both of the real and sacerdotal offices, he was punished with leprosy, which, as the offense was capital (Num 8:7), was equivalent to death, for this disease excluded him from all society. While Jotham, his son, as his viceroy, administered the affairs of the kingdom--being about fifteen years of age (compare Kg2 15:33) --he had to dwell in a place apart by himself (see on Kg2 7:3). After a long reign he died, and was buried in the royal burying-field, though not in the royal cemetery of "the city of David" (Ch2 26:23).

Verse 8

ZECHARIAH'S REIGN OVER ISRAEL. (Kg2 15:8-16) In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel--There was an interregnum from some unknown cause between the reign of Jeroboam and the accession of his son, which lasted, according to some, for ten or twelve years, according to others, for twenty-two years, or more. This prince pursued the religious policy of the calf-worship, and his reign was short, being abruptly terminated by the hand of violence. In his fate was fulfilled the prophecy addressed to Jehu (Kg2 10:30; also Hos 1:4), that his family would possess the throne of Israel for four generations; and accordingly Jehoahaz, Joash, Jehoram, and Zechariah were his successors--but there his dynasty terminated; and perhaps it was the public knowledge of this prediction that prompted the murderous design of Shallum.

Verse 13

Shallum . . . reigned a full month--He was opposed and slain by Menahem, who, according to JOSEPHUS, was commander of the forces, which, on the report of the king's murder, were besieging Tirzah, a town twelve miles east of Samaria, and formerly a seat of the kings of Israel. Raising the siege, he marched directly against the usurper, slew him, and reigned in his stead.

Verse 16

Menahem . . . smote Tiphsah--Thapsacus, on the Euphrates, the border city of Solomon's kingdom (Kg1 4:24). The inhabitants refusing to open their gates to him, Menahem took it by storm. Then having spoiled it, he committed the most barbarous excesses, without regard either to age or sex.

Verse 17

MENAHEM'S REIGN. (Kg2 15:17-21) reigned ten years in Samaria--His government was conducted on the religious policy of his predecessors.

Verse 19

Pul the king of Assyria--This is the first Assyrian king after Nimrod who is mentioned in biblical history. His name has been recently identified with that of Phalluka on the monuments of Nineveh, and that of Menahem discovered also. came against the land--Elsewhere it is said "Ephraim [Israel] went to the Assyrian" [Hos 5:13]. The two statements may be reconciled thus: "Pul, of his own motion, induced, perhaps, by the expedition of Menahem against Thapsacus, advanced against the kingdom of Israel; then Menahem sent him a thousand talents in order not only to divert him from his plans of conquest, but at the same time to purchase his friendship and aid for the establishment of his own precarious sovereignty. So Menahem did not properly invite the Assyrian into the land, but only changed the enemy when marching against the country, by this tribute, into a confederate for the security of his usurped dominion. This the prophet Hosea, less concerned about the historical fact than the disposition betrayed therein, might very well censure as a going of Ephraim to the Assyrians (Hos 5:13; Hos 7:1; Hos 8:9), and a covenant-making with Asshur" (Kg2 12:1) [KEIL]. a thousand talents of silver--Equal to Â£262,200. This tribute, which Menahem raised by a tax on the grandees of Israel, bribed Pul to return to his own country (see on Ch1 5:26).

Verse 23

PEKAHIAH'S REIGN. (Kg2 15:22-24) Pekahiah . . . son of Menahem began to reign--On comparing the date given with Azariah's reign, it seems that several months had intervened between the death of Menahem and the accession of Pekahiah, probably owing to a contest about the throne.

Verse 25

with Argob and Arieh, &c.--Many commentators view these as the captain's accomplices. But it is more probable that they were influential friends of the king, who were murdered along with him.

Verse 29

PEKAH'S REIGN. (Kg2 15:27-31) in the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser--This monarch, who succeeded Pul on the throne of Assyria, is the only one of all the kings who does not give his genealogy, and is therefore supposed to have been an usurper. His annals have been discovered in the Nimroud mound, describing this expedition into Syria. The places taken are here mentioned as they occurred and were conquered in the progress of an invasion.

Verse 30

Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy . . . and slew him--He did not, however, obtain possession of the kingdom till about nine or ten years after the perpetration of this crime [HALES]. in the twentieth year of Jotham--Jotham's reign lasted only sixteen years, but the meaning is that the reign of Hoshea began in the twentieth after the beginning of Jotham's reign. The sacred historian, having not yet introduced the name of Ahaz, reckoned the date by Jotham, whom he had already mentioned (see Ch2 27:8).

Verse 33

JOTHAM'S REIGN OVER JUDAH. (Kg2 15:32-38) Five and twenty years was he when he began to reign--that is, alone--for he had ruled as his father's viceroy [Kg2 15:5].

Verse 35

the higher gate of the house of the Lord--not the temple itself, but one of its courts; probably that which led into the palace (Ch2 23:20).

Verse 37

the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, &c.--This is the first intimation of the hostile feelings of the kings of Israel and Syria, to Judah, which led them to form an alliance and make joint preparations for war. [See on Ch2 27:5.] However, war was not actually waged till the reign of Ahaz. Next: 2 Kings Chapter 16

Introduction

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 15 This chapter begins with the reign of Azariah king of Judah, Kg2 15:1, and then gives a short account of the several kings of Israel, to the last of them; of Zachariah, Kg2 15:8, of Shallum, Kg2 15:13 of Menahem, Kg2 15:16 of Pekahiah, Kg2 15:23, of Pekah, succeeded by Hoshea, the last of them, Kg2 15:27, and is included with the reign of Jotham king of Judah, Kg2 15:32.

Verse 1

In the twenty amd seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah the son on Amaziah king of Judah to reign. Now Amaziah lived only to the fifteenth year of Jeroboam, Kg2 14:2 in which year, and not in his twenty seventh, it might be thought Azariah his son began to reign. There are various ways taken to remove this difficulty, not to take notice of a corruption of numbers, "twenty seven for seventeen", which some insist on. Ben Gersom and Abarbinel are of opinion, that those twenty seven years of Jeroboam's reign are not to be understood of what were past, but of what were to come before the family of Jehu was extinct; and that he reigned twenty six years, and his son six months, which made twenty seven imperfect years. Others suppose that Jeroboam reigned with his father eleven or twelve years before his death; and, reckoning from the different periods of his reign, this was either the twenty seventh year, or the fifteenth or sixteenth: and others, that the reign of Azariah may be differently reckoned, either from the time his father fled to Lachish, where he might remain eleven or twelve years, or from his death, and so may be said to begin to reign either in the fifteenth or twenty seventh of Jeroboam; or there was an interregnum of eleven or twelve years after the death of his father, he being a minor of about four years of age, which was the fifteenth of Jeroboam, during which time the government was in the hands of the princes and great men of the nation; and it was not till Azariah was sixteen years of age, and when it was the twenty seventh of Jeroboam's reign, that the people agreed to make him king, see Kg2 14:21 and which seems to be the best way of accounting for it. and which seems to be the best way of accounting for it. 2 Kings 15:2 kg2 15:2 kg2 15:2 kg2 15:2Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign,.... By the consent of the people and princes of Judah, Kg2 14:21. and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem: exclusive of the eleven or twelve years of his minority, from his father's death: and his mother's name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem; of whom there is no further account any where.

Verse 2

And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,.... At the beginning of his reign, and in an external way: according to all that his father Amaziah had done; who did not do what he did as David, sincerely and cordially, Kg2 14:3.

Verse 3

Save that the high places were not removed,.... That is, he did right, excepting in that instance, and which was the case of his father and other kings before him, and others afterwards, till Hezekiah came: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places; see Kg2 12:3.

Verse 4

And the Lord smote the king,.... With leprosy; the reason of it was, because he intruded into the priest's office, and went into the temple to burn incense on the altar of incense, Ch2 26:19, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death; but how long it was to it from his being smitten cannot be said with certainty; Dr. Lightfoot (l) thinks he died the same year he was smitten: and dwelt in a several house: without Jerusalem, as the Targum; for lepers, according to the law, were to dwell separate without the camp or city, Lev 13:46 the word for "several" signifies "free" (m); here he lived alone, free from the company and conversation of men, free from the business of government, his son doing that for him, and in the country, where he might freely walk about, as lepers did, and take the air; the Jews say (n), his house was among the graves, where he was free among the dead, as the phrase is, Psa 88:5, but not likely; much better is what Abendana observes from R. Jonah, that the word, in the Arabic (o) language, signifies a little house, and so this might be in which he dwelt out of the city, in comparison of his palace: and Jotham the king's son was over the house; had the direction of the palace, and the management of all affairs in it: judging the people of the land; administering justice in all cases, for which they came to him, and so filled up his father's place; he did not depose his father, nor take upon him to be king, only did the business of one. (l) Works, vol. 1. p. 99. (m) "in domo libero", V. L. Tigurine version, &c. (n) T. Hieros. apud Jarchium in loc. (o) "in exiqua domo resedit assidue", Castel. Lexic. col. 1345.

Verse 5

And the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In the history of the reigns of those kings; some of them are recorded in the canonical book of the Chronicles, Ch2 26:1 and some were written by the prophet Isaiah, Ch2 26:22. . 2 Kings 15:7 kg2 15:7 kg2 15:7 kg2 15:7So Azariah slept with his fathers,.... Or died, when he had reigned fifty two years: and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David; but not in the sepulchres of the kings, but in the field of the burial, or the burying ground which belonged to them, because he was a leper, Ch2 26:23. Benjamin of Tudela (p) places his grave near the pillar of Absalom, and the fountain of Siloah, near the brook Kidron: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead; who reigned sixteen years; a further account of him, and his reign, we have in the latter part of this chapter, after the reigns of several of the kings of Israel. (p) Itinerar. p. 43.

Verse 6

In the thirty eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months. Since Azariah began to reign in the twenty seventh of Jeroboam, Kg2 15:1, and Jeroboam reigned forty one years, Kg2 14:23, his last year must be the fifteenth or sixteenth of Azariah, in which year Zachariah must have begun to reign, had he immediately succeeded his father in the throne; there must be therefore an interregnum of twenty two years at least, which might be owing to the dissensions among the princes and people about the succession, and a dislike to Zachariah on some account; however, after all, he must reign, though but six months, to fulfil the word of the Lord, see Kg2 15:12. . 2 Kings 15:9 kg2 15:9 kg2 15:9 kg2 15:9Even all his predecessors, from the time of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, from whose sin, in worshipping the calves, they departed not.

Verse 7

And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him,.... A friend of his, as Josephus (q) calls him, encouraged by the dissatisfaction of the people to him: and smote him before the people, and slew him; in a public manner, the people consenting to it, and approving of it, not liking Zachariah to be their king: and reigned in his stead; though but a very short time. (q) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 11. sect. 1.

Verse 8

And the rest of the acts of Zachariah,.... During his six months' reign, and what he might do before in the interregnum: behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel: for be they more or fewer, good or bad, they were all recorded there which were of any moment.

Verse 9

This was the word of the Lord which he spake unto Jehu,.... Which was now fulfilled in the short reign of Zachariah: saying, thy sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation; see Kg2 10:30, and so it came to pass; as every word of the Lord does, not one fails; for after Jehu reigned Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam the second, and Zachariah, all descendants of Jehu.

Verse 10

Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of Judah,.... The same with Azariah: he is sometimes called by one name, and sometimes by the other, see Kg2 14:21, and he reigned a full month in Samaria: and no longer; so soon were the conspiracy against his sovereign, and the murder of him, punished.

Verse 11

For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah,.... A city in the tribe of Manasseh, the royal city of the kings of Israel before Omri, of which See Gill on Jos 12:24, whether Menahem was of this city, or was now besieging it with an army he had the command of, as Josephus (r) suggests, is not certain; however, hearing what had befallen Zachariah, he came from hence: and came to Samaria; which, according to Bunting (s), was six miles from Tirzah: and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead; judging he had as good a right to the throne as Shallum had. (r) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 11. sect. 1.) (s) Travels, &c. p. 169.

Verse 12

And the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. In which, no doubt, an account of the cause of the conspiracy, and of the persons assisting to him in it, was given, with other things done in his short reign. And the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. In which, no doubt, an account of the cause of the conspiracy, and of the persons assisting to him in it, was given, with other things done in his short reign. 2 Kings 15:16 kg2 15:16 kg2 15:16 kg2 15:16Then Menahem smote Tiphsah, and all that were therein, and the coasts thereof from Tirzah,.... The Jewish writers commonly take this Tiphsah to be without the land of Israel, the same with that in Kg1 4:24 on the borders of Syria, and near the Euphrates; but it seems to be some place nearer Samaria, and Tirzah; according to Bunting (t), it was but six miles from Samaria: because they opened not to him, therefore he smote it; they refused to open the gates of their city to him, and receive him, and acknowledge him as their king; therefore he exercised severity on the inhabitants of it, and the parts adjacent, as far as Tirzah, putting them to the sword: and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up: which was a most shocking instance of barbarity, and which he did, to terrify others from following their example. Ben Gersom interprets it of strong towers built on mountains, which he demolished, deriving "haroth", which we render "women with child", from "a mountain". (t) Travels, &c. p. 169.

Verse 13

In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel,.... Shallum reigning but one month, both their reigns began the same year. In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel,.... Shallum reigning but one month, both their reigns began the same year. 2 Kings 15:18 kg2 15:18 kg2 15:18 kg2 15:18And he did that which was evil,.... The same character is given of him as of those before him, Kg2 15:9.

Verse 14

And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land,.... The land of Israel, he invaded it; a Jewish chronologer (u) calls him Pulbelicho; and he is generally thought to be the same with Belochus or Belesis, governor of Babylon, who, with Arbaces the Mede, slew Sardanapalus, said to be the last of the Assyrian kings, and translated the empire to the Chaldeans; he ruling over Babylon and Nineveh, and Arbaces over the Medes and Persians; but Pul was not a Babylonian, but an Assyrian (w), and the first king of the Assyrians, at least, the Scriptures speak of: we read no more of him; but one Metasthenes, a Persian historian, feigned and published by Annius, and so named by him instead of Megasthenes, calls him Phulbelochus, and says (x) he reigned forty eight years: and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver; and a talent of silver, according to Brerewood (y) was three hundred and seventy five pounds; but Bishop Cumberland (z) calculates it at three hundred and fifty three pounds eleven shillings and ten pence half penny; 1,000 of them made a large sum of money, according to the former 375,000 pounds; and this he gave to him, not only to desist from the invasion of his land, but that his hand might be with him; and not against him: and to confirm the kingdom in his hand; which being got by usurpation, and supported by cruelty, was but tottering. (u) David Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 2. fol. 5. 2. (w) See the Universal History, vol. 4. B. 1. ch. 8. sect. 5. (x) De Judicio Temp. & Annal. Pers. fol. 221. 2. (y) De Ponder & Pret. Vet. Num. c. 4. (z) Scripture Weights and Measures, c. 4. p. 120.

Verse 15

And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth,.... Who were most able to pay it, by which means he eased the poor, and might thereby attach them to him: of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria: that is, he required them to pay fifty shekels apiece to make up the above sum as a present to Pul; though the words in the original text lie more naturally thus, "to give to the king of Assyria fifty shekels of silver for one man"; that is, for every man in his army; which amounted to about six pounds a man: so the king of Assyria turned back; to his own country: and stayed not there in the land; in the land of Israel, neither to distress nor to help Menahem, for which he gave him the money.

Verse 16

And the rest of the acts of Menahem,.... We are referred to the same book of chronicles for them as for those of the rest of the kings, which seems to be a form the historian uses of them all. And the rest of the acts of Menahem,.... We are referred to the same book of chronicles for them as for those of the rest of the kings, which seems to be a form the historian uses of them all. 2 Kings 15:22 kg2 15:22 kg2 15:22 kg2 15:22And Menahem slept with his fathers,.... Died a natural death, and in peace, though an usurper and a tyrant: and Pekahiah his son reigned in his stead; the kingdom he had usurped continued in his family.

Verse 17

In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria,.... As it was in the thirty ninth of Azariah that his father began his reign, and he reigned ten years, they must end in the forty ninth of Azariah, and therefore there must be an interregnum of a year; perhaps the title of Pekahiah might be disputed, and it was a year before he could get settled on the throne: and reigned two years; being slain by one of his captains, as after related.

Verse 18

And he did that which was evil,.... Besides other sins, he cleaved to that of worshipping the calves, a piece of state policy all the kings of Israel gave into. And he did that which was evil,.... Besides other sins, he cleaved to that of worshipping the calves, a piece of state policy all the kings of Israel gave into. 2 Kings 15:25 kg2 15:25 kg2 15:25 kg2 15:25But Pekah the son of Remaliah, a captain of his,.... The word signifies a "third" man, the third to the king, as some think; Josephus (a) calls him a "chiliarch", one that had the command of a thousand men: conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house; Josephus (b) says it was at a banquet: with Argob, and Arieh; whom, according to Abarbinel, Pekah slew with the king, being mighty men, who were always about him; but they seem rather to be conspirators with Pekah, and assisting to him in smiting the king; the former of these, Ben Gersom thinks, was governor of Argob, a country on the other side Jordan, and the latter had his name from his fortitude, which signifies a lion: and with him fifty men of the Gileadites; which may seem to strengthen the above notion concerning Argob, since the Gileadites were of the same side of Jordan, and were near Argob, see Deu 3:13. and he killed him, and reigned in his room, as his father killed Shallum, and reigned in his stead. (a) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 11. sect. 1.) (b) Ibid.

Verse 19

And the rest of the acts of Pekahiah,.... The same form of expression is used as before, Kg2 15:21, of all the kings. , of all the kings. 2 Kings 15:27 kg2 15:27 kg2 15:27 kg2 15:27In the fifty second year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria,.... Which was the last year of the reign of Azariah: and reigned twenty years; which was a long reign for an usurper and murderer.

Verse 20

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Not only in committing the above crimes of usurpation and murder, but idolatry, and particularly the worshipping of the calves, hinted at in the text. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Not only in committing the above crimes of usurpation and murder, but idolatry, and particularly the worshipping of the calves, hinted at in the text. 2 Kings 15:29 kg2 15:29 kg2 15:29 kg2 15:29In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria,.... Into the land of Israel; he is called by a Jewish chronologer (c), Pul-Asir; so Phul-Assar by Metasthenes (d), who says he reigned twenty five years; he very probably was the son of Pul the Assyrian king, mentioned Kg2 15:19, and is thought to be the same that Aelianus (e) calls Tilgamos; some think he had the first part of his name from Diglath, or Diglito, by which the river Tigris is called in Pliny (f), with which Assyria was washed; and that Pil, or Pul, is Baal, Bel, Jupiter, and Azar is Mars (g); of all which his name is composed: and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah; of which see Kg1 15:20, and Janoah; a city in the tribe of Ephraim, Jos 16:6. and Kedesh, and Hazor; cities in Naphtali: Jos 19:36. and Gilead; a country beyond Jordan, which belonged to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh: and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; that is, upper Galilee, which lay in Naphtali: and carried them captive to Assyria; which was the first captivity of Israel in which half their tribes were carried away. (c) David Ganz. Ut supra. (Tzemach David, par. 2. fol. 3. 2.) (d) Ut supra. (De Judicio Temp. & Annal. Pers. fol. 221. 2.) (e) De Animal. l. 12. c. 21. (f) Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 27. (g) Hyde Hist. Relig. Pers. p. 65, 66.

Verse 21

And Hoshea the son or Elab made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead,.... Did by him as he had done by Pekahiah, Kg2 15:28, this was measure for measure, as the Jews say: and this he did in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah; and yet Jotham is said to reign but sixteen years, Kg2 15:33, this must be reckoned therefore either from the time of his being viceroy, and judging Israel in his father's lifetime, Kg2 15:5 or this was the fourth year of Ahaz, and the twentieth year, reckoning from the time Jotham began to reign, who is the rather mentioned, because as yet the historian had taken no notice of Ahaz.

Verse 22

And the rest of the acts of Pekah,.... Not recorded here, were to be read in the book of chronicles of the kings so often referred to. And the rest of the acts of Pekah,.... Not recorded here, were to be read in the book of chronicles of the kings so often referred to. 2 Kings 15:32 kg2 15:32 kg2 15:32 kg2 15:32In the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah king of Israel, began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign. Pekah began to reign in the fifty second year of Azariah, or Uzziah, which was his last year, Kg2 15:27, and which was the first of Pekah; Uzziah reigned full fifty two, and then Jotham succeeded, which was the beginning of the second of Pekah.

Verse 23

Five and twenty years old was he when he began to reign,.... Alone, after the death of his father: and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his reign, upon the whole, was a good reign: and his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok; a person well known in those times; Dr. Lightfoot (h) thinks he was high priest. (h) Works, vol. 1. p. 100.

Verse 24

And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,.... Jarchi, in Ch2 27:2, observes, from a writer of theirs, that in all the kings of Judah before him, even in the best, some sins were found; but in Jotham there was nothing scandalous and reproachful; and it is a high character Josephus (i) gives of him, that there was no virtue wanting in him; he was pious towards God, just towards men, and careful of the public good; but the inspired historian chiefly respects matters of religious worship; he did not give into idolatry: he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done; that is, according to what was well done by him; he did not imitate him in going into the temple to burn incense, which is particularly excepted. Ch2 27:2. (i) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 11. sect. 2.

Verse 25

Howbeit the high places were not removed,.... As they were not by his father, and the same is observed of the best of kings before: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still in the high places; from which they could not be brought off by prophets or kings: he built the higher gate of the house of the Lord; which was between the temple and the king's palace, which led to it; this he repaired and beautified, or added something to it; or otherwise it was built by Solomon, and therefore called the new gate, Jer 26:10 it is the same that was afterwards called the gate of Nicanor; the east gate, as say the Jewish writers (k). (k) T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 7. 1. Gloss. in ib. Maimon. Cele Hamikdash, c. 7. sect. 6.

Verse 26

Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Of which mention is often made by the inspired historians; some of Jotham's other acts are recorded in the canonical book of Chronicles, Ch2 27:1. . 2 Kings 15:37 kg2 15:37 kg2 15:37 kg2 15:37In those days,.... At the end of the days of Jotham, or after his death, things might be in design, and preparations made before, but nothing of what follows came to pass in his life, but in the times of his son: the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah: to make war with them as a scourge to Ahaz for his sins; of which is in the following chapter.

Verse 27

And Jotham slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father,.... Died, and was buried with the kings of Judah in their sepulchres: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead; an account of whose reign we have in the next chapter. Next: 2 Kings Chapter 16

Verse 1

Reign of Azariah (Uzziah) or Judah (cf. 2 Chron 26). - The statement that "in the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam Azariah began to reign" is at variance with Kg2 14:2, Kg2 14:16-17, and Kg2 14:23. If, for example, Azariah ascended the throne in the fifteenth year of Joash of Israel, and with his twenty-nine years' reign outlived Joash fifteen years (Kg2 14:2, Kg2 14:17); if, moreover, Jeroboam followed his father Joash in the fifteenth year of Amaziah (Kg2 14:23), and Amaziah died in the fifteenth year of Jeroboam; Azariah (Uzziah) must have become king in the fifteenth year of Jeroboam, since, according to Kg2 14:21, the people made him king after the murder of his father, which precludes the supposition of an interregnum. Consequently the datum "in the twenty-seventh year" can only have crept into the text through the confounding of the numerals טו (15) with כז (27), and we must therefore read "in the fifteenth year." Kg2 15:2-6 Beside the general characteristics of Uzziah's fifty-two years' reign, which are given in the standing formula, not a single special act is mentioned, although, according to 2 Chron 26, he raised his kingdom to great earthly power and prosperity; probably for no other reason than because his enterprises had exerted no permanent influence upon the development of the kingdom of Judah, but all the useful fruits of his reign were destroyed again by the ungodly Ahaz. Uzziah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Amaziah had done. For as the latter was unfaithful to the Lord in the closing years of his reign, so did Uzziah seek God only so long as Zechariah, who was experienced in divine visions, remained alive, and God gave success to his enterprises, so that during this time he carried on successful wars against the Philistines and Arabians, fortified the walls of Jerusalem with strong towers, built watch-towers in the desert, and constructed cisterns for the protection and supply of his numerous flocks, promoted agriculture and vine-growing, and organized a numerous and well-furnished army (Ch2 26:5-15). But the great power to which he thereby attained produced such haughtiness, that he wanted to make himself high priest in his kingdom after the manner of the heathen kings, and usurping the sacred functions, which belonged according to the law to the Levitical priests alone, to offer incense in the temple, for which he was punished with leprosy upon the spot (Kg2 15:5 compared with Ch2 26:16.). The king's leprosy is described in our account also as a punishment from God. יי ויננּע: Jehovah smote him, and he became leprous. This presupposes an act of guilt, and confirms the fuller account of this guilt given in the Chronicles, which Thenius, following the example of De Wette and Winer, could only call in question on the erroneous assumption "that the powerful king wanted to restore the regal high-priesthood exercised by David and Solomon" Oehler (Herzog's Cycl.) has already shown that such an opinion is perfectly "groundless," since it is nowhere stated that David and Solomon performed with their own hands the functions assigned in the law to the priests in connection with the offering of sacrifice, as the co-operation of the priests is not precluded in connection with the sacrifices presented by these kings (Sa2 6:17, and Kg1 3:4, etc.). - Uzziah being afflicted with leprosy, was obliged to live in a separate house, and appoint his son Jotham as president of the royal house to judge the people, i.e., to conduct the administration of the kingdom. - The time when this event occurred is not stated either in our account or in the Chronicles. But this punishment from God cannot have fallen upon him before the last ten years of his fifty-two years' reign, because his son, who was only twenty-five years old when his father died (Kg2 15:33, and Ch2 27:1), undertook the administration of the affairs of the kingdom at once, and therefore must have been at least fifteen years old. החפשׁית בּית is taken by Winer, Gesenius, and others, after the example of Iken, to signify nosocomium, an infirmary or lazar-house, in accordance with the verb Arab. xfs̆, fecit, II debilis, imbecillis fuit. But this meaning cannot be traced in Hebrew, where חפשׁי is used in no other sense than free, set at liberty, manumissus. Consequently the rendering adopted by Aquila is correct, οἶκος ἐλευθερίας; and the explanation given by Kimchi of this epithet is, that the persons who lived there were those who were sent away from human society, or perhaps more correctly, those who were released from the world and its privileges and duties, or cut off from intercourse with God and man. Kg2 15:7 When Uzziah died, he was buried with his fathers in the city of David, but because he died of leprosy, not in the royal family tomb, but, as the Chronicles (Kg2 15:23) add to complete the account, "in the burial-field of the kings;" so that he was probably buried in the earth according to our mode. His son Jotham did not become king till after Uzziah's death, as he had not been regent, but only the administrator of the affairs of the kingdom during his father's leprosy.

Verse 8

Reign of Zachariah of Israel. - Kg2 15:8. "In the thirty-eighth year of Uzziah, Zachariah the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel six months." As Jeroboam died in the twenty-seventh year of Uzziah, according to our remarks on Kg2 14:29, there is an interregnum of eleven years between his death and the ascent of the throne by his son, as almost all the chronologists since the time of Usher have assumed. It is true that this interregnum may be set aside by assuming that Jeroboam reigned fifty-one or fifty-three years instead of forty-one, without the synchronism being altered in consequence. but as it is not very probable that the numeral letters נב or נג should be confounded with מא, and as the conflict for the possession of the throne, which we meet with after the very brief reign of Zachariah, when taken in connection with various allusions in the prophecies of Hosea, rather favours the idea that the anarchy broke out immediately after the death of Jeroboam, we regard the assumption of an interregnum as resting on a better foundation than the removal of the chronological discrepancy by an alteration of the text. Kg2 15:9-12 Zechariah also persevered in the sin of his fathers in connection with the calf-worship therefore the word of the Lord pronounced upon Jehu (Kg2 10:30) was fulfilled in him. - Shallum the son of Jabesh formed a conspiracy and put him to death קבל־עם, before people, i.e., openly before the eyes of all. (Note: Ewald in the most marvellous manner has made קבל־עם into a king (Gesch. iii. p. 598).) As Israel would not suffer itself to be brought to repentance and to return to the Lord, its God and King, by the manifestations of divine grace in the times of Joash and Jeroboam, any more than by the severe judgments that preceded them, and the earnest admonitions of the prophets Hosea and Amos; the judgment of rejection could not fail eventually to burst forth upon the nation, which so basely despised the grace, long-suffering, and covenant-faithfulness of God. We therefore see the kingdom hasten with rapid steps towards its destruction after the death of Jeroboam. In the sixty-two years between the death of Jeroboam and the conquest of Samaria by Shalmaneser anarchy prevailed twice, in all for the space of twenty years, and six kings followed one another, only one of whom, viz., Menahem, died a natural death, so as to be succeeded by his son upon the throne. The other five were dethroned and murdered by rebels, so that, as Witsius has truly said, with the murder of Zachariah not only was the declaration of Hosea (Hos 1:4) fulfilled, "I visit the blood-guiltiness of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu," but also the parallel utterance, "and I destroy the kingdom of the house of Israel," since the monarchy in Israel really ceased with Zachariah. "For the successors of Zachariah were not so much kings as robbers and tyrants, unworthy of the august name of kings, who lost with ignominy the tyranny which they had wickedly acquired, and as wickedly exercised." - Witsius, Δεκαφυλ. p. 320.

Verse 13

Reign of Shallum. - Shallum reigned only a full month (ירח־ימים, as in Deu 21:13; see at Gen 29:14). Menahem the son of Gadi then made war upon him from Tirzah; and by him he was smitten and slain. Menahem must have been a general or the commander-in-chief, as Josephus affirms. As soon as he became king he smote Tiphsach, - i.e., Thapsacus on the Euphrates, which has long since entirely disappeared, probably to be sought for in the neighbourhood of the present Rakka, by the ford of el Hamman, the north-eastern border city of the Israelitish kingdom in the time of Solomon (Kg1 5:4), which came into the possession of the kingdom of Israel again when the ancient boundaries were restored by Jeroboam II (Kg2 14:25 and Kg2 14:28), but which had probably revolted again during the anarchy which arose after the death of Jeroboam, - "and all that were therein, and the territory thereof, from Tirzah; because they opened not (to him), therefore he smote it, and had them that were with child ripped up." מתּרצה does not mean that Menahem laid the land or district waste from Tirzah to Tiphsach, but is to be taken in connection with יכּה in this sense: he smote Tiphsach proceeding from Tirzah, etc. The position of this notice, namely, immediately after the account of the usurpation of the throne by Menahem and before the history of his reign, is analogous to that concerning Elath in the case of Uzziah (Kg2 14:22), and, like the latter, is to be accounted for from the fact that the expedition of Menahem against Tiphsach formed the commencement of his reign, and, as we may infer from Kg2 15:19, became very eventful not only for his own reign, but also for the kingdom of Israel generally. The reason why he proceeded from Tirzah against Tiphsach, was no doubt that it was in Tirzah, the present Tallusa, which was only three hours to the east of Samaria (see at Kg1 14:17), that the army of which Menahem was commander was posted, so that he had probably gone to Samaria with only a small body of men to overthrow Shallum, the murderer of Zachariah and usurper of the throne, and to make himself king. It is possible that the army commanded by Menahem had already been collected in Tirzah to march against the city of Tiphsach, which had revolted from Israel when Shallum seized upon the throne by the murder of Zachariah; so that after Menahem had removed the usurper, he carried out at once the campaign already resolved upon, and having taken Tiphsach, punished it most cruelly for its revolt. On the cruel custom of ripping up the women with child, i.e., of cutting open their wombs, see Kg2 8:12; Amo 1:13, and Hos 14:1. Tiphsach, Thapsacus, appears to have been a strong fortress; and from its situation on the western bank of the Euphrates, at the termination of the great trade-road from Egypt, Phoenicia, and Syria to Mesopotamia and the kingdoms of Inner Asia (Movers, Phniz. ii. 2, pp. 164,165; and Ritter, Erdkunde, x. pp. 1114-15), the possession of it was of great importance to the kingdom of Israel. (Note: There is no foundation for the view propounded by Ewald (Gesch. iii. p. 599), Simson (Hosea, pp. 20, 21), Thenius, and many others, that Tiphsach was a city between Tirzah and Samaria, which Menahem laid waste on his march from Tirzah to Samaria to dethrone Shallum; for it rests upon nothing more than the perfectly unwarrantable and ungrammatical combination of מתרצה with את־גבוליה, "its boundaries towards Tirzah" (Sims.), and upon the two worthless objections: (1) that the great distance of מתרצה from יכה precludes the rendering "going out from Tirzah;" and (2) that Menahem was not the man to be able to conquer Thapsacus on the Euphrates. But there is no foundation for the latter assertion, as we have no standard by which to estimate the strength and bravery of the Israelitish army commanded by Menahem. And the first objection falls to the ground with the correct rendering of מתרצה, viz., "proceeding from Tirzah," which is preferred even by Ewald and Thenius. With this rendering, the words by no means affirm that Menahem smote Tiphsach from Tirzah on the way to Samaria. This is merely an inference drawn from v. 13, according to which Menahem went from Tirzah to Samaria to overthrow Shallum. But this inference is open to the following objections: (1) that it is very improbable that there was a strong fortress between Tirzah and Samaria, which Menahem was obliged to take on his march before he could overthrow the usurper in the capital of the kingdom; and (2) that the name Tiphsach, trajectus, ford, is by no means a suitable one for a city situated on the mountains between Tirzah and Samaria, and therefore, in order to carry out the hypothesis in question, Thenius proposes to alter Tiphsach into Tappuach, without any critical warrant for so doing.)

Verse 17

Reign of Menahem. - Menahem's reign lasted ten full years (see at Kg2 15:23), and resembled that of his predecessors in its attitude towards God. In Kg2 15:18, the expression כּל־ימיו (all his days) is a very strange one, inasmuch as no such definition of time occurs in connection with the usual formula, either in this chapter (cf. Kg2 15:24 and Kg2 15:28) or elsewhere (cf. Kg2 3:3; Kg2 10:31; Kg2 13:2, Kg2 13:11, etc.). The lxx have instead of this, ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις αὐτοῦ (in his days). If we compare Kg2 15:29, בּא פּקח בּימי (in the days of Pekah came, etc.), בּא בּימיו might possibly be regarded as the original reading, from which a copyist's error בּא כּל־מיו arose, after which כּל־ימיו was connected with the preceding clause.

Verse 19

In the time of Menahem, Pul king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave him 1000 talents of silver - more than two and a half millions of thalers (375,000) - "that his hands might be with him, to confirm the kingdom in his hand." These words are understood by the majority of commentators from the time of Ephraem Syrus, when taken in connection with Hos 5:13, as signifying that Menahem invited Pul, that he might establish his government with his assistance. But the words of Hosea, "Ephraim goes to the Assyrian," sc. to seek for help (Kg2 5:13, cf. Kg2 7:11 and Kg2 8:9), are far too general to be taken as referring specially to Menahem; and the assumption that Menahem invited Pul into the land is opposed by the words in the verse before us, "Pul came over the land." Even the further statement that Menahem gave to Pul 1000 talents of silver when he came into the land, that he might help him to establish his government, presupposes at the most that a party opposed to Menahem had invited the Assyrians, to overthrow the usurper. At any rate, we may imagine, in perfect harmony with the words of our account, that Pul marched against Israel of his own accord, possibly induced to do so by Menahem's expedition against Thapsacus, and that his coming was simply turned to account as a good opportunity for disputing Menahem's possession of the throne he had usurped, so that Menahem, by paying the tribute mentioned, persuaded the Assyrian to withdraw, that he might deprive the opposing party of the Assyrian support, and thereby establish his own rule.

Verse 20

To collect the requisite amount, Menahem imposed upon all persons of property a tax of fifty shekels each. יצא with על, he caused to arise, i.e., made a collection. הציא in a causative sense, from יצא, to arise, to be paid (Kg2 12:13). חיל גּבּורי: not warriors, but men of property, as in Ruth. Kg2 2:1; Sa1 9:1. אחד לאישׁ, for the individual. Pul was the first king of Assyria who invaded the kingdom of Israel and prepared the way for the conquest of this kingdom by his successors, and for the extension of the Assyrian power as far as Egypt. According to the thorough investigation made by Marc. v. Niebuhr (Gesch. Assurs u. Babels, pp. 128ff.), Pul, whose name has not yet been discovered upon the Assyrian monuments, was the last king of Nineveh of the family of the Derketades, who still ruled over Babylon according to Berosus, and the last king but one of this dynasty. (Note: It is true that some trace of his expedition has been found in the monuments, since an inscription has been deciphered with tolerable certainty, stating that king Minikhimmi of Samirina (Menahem of Shomron or Samaria) paid tribute to an Assyrian king. But the name of this Assyrian king is not determined with certainty, as Rawlinson, and Oppert read it Tiglat-palassar, and suppose Tiglath-pileser to be intended; whereas M. v. Niebuhr (p. 132, note 1) imagines it to be the full name of Pul, since no Assyrian king ever had a name of one syllable like Pul as his official name, and even before that Hincks had detected in the name Minikhimmi the king Menahem who had to purchase the friendship of the Assyrian ruler Pul with 1000 talents of silver. (Comp. J. Brandis, uber d. histor. Gewinn aus der Entzifferung der assyr. Inschriften, Berl. 1856, p. 50.))

Verse 23

Reign of Pekahiah. - Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign "in the fiftieth year of Uzziah." As Menahem had begun to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah and reigned ten years, he must have died in the forty-ninth year of Uzziah; and therefore, if his son did not become king till the fiftieth year, some months must have elapsed between the death of Menahem and Pekahiah's ascent of the throne, probably cause, in the existing disorganization of the kingdom, the possession of the throne by the latter was opposed. Pekahiah reigned in the spirit of his predecessors, but only for two years, as his aide-de-camp (שׁלישׁ, see at Sa2 23:8) Pekah conspired against him and slew him in the citadel (ארמון, see at Kg1 16:8) of the king's palace, with Argob and Aryeh. Argob and Aryeh were not fellow-conspirators of Pekah, who helped to slay the king, but principes Pekachijae, as Seb. Schmidt expresses it, probably aides-de-camp of Pekahiah, who were slain by the conspirators when defending their king. We must take the words in this sense on account of what follows: וגו חמשּׁים ועמּו, "and with him (Pekah) were fifty men of the Gileadites" (i.e., they helped him). The Gileadites probably belonged to the king's body-guard, and were under the command of the aides-de-camp of Pekah.

Verse 27

Reign of Pekah. - Pekah the son of Remaliah reigned twenty years. (Note: As this is apparently at variance not only with Kg2 15:30, according to which Pekah was slain in the twentieth year of Jotham, i.e., in the fourth year of Ahaz, abut also with Kg2 17:1, according to which Hosea the murderer of Pekah became king in the twelfth year of Ahaz and reigned nine years, Ewald has added ותשׁע after עשׂרים without any hesitation, and lengthened Pekah's reign to twenty-nine years, whereas Thenius proposes to alter twenty into thirty. But we do not thereby obtain an actual agreement either with Kg2 15:30 or with Kg2 17:1, so that in both these passages Thenius is obliged to make further alterations in the text. For instance, if Pekah had reigned for thirty years from the fifty-second or closing year of Uzziah's reign, Hosea would have ascended the throne in the fourteenth year of Ahaz, supposing that he really became king immediately after the murder of Pekah, and not in the twelfth, as is stated in Kg2 17:1. It is only with a reign of twenty-eight years and a few months (one year of Uzziah, sixteen of Jotham, and eleven of Ahaz), which might be called twenty-nine years, that the commencement of Hosea's reign could fall in the twelfth year of Ahaz. But the discrepancy with Kg2 15:30, that Hosea conspired against Pekah and slew him in the twentieth year of Jotham, is not removed thereby. For further remarks see at Kg2 15:30 and Kg2 17:1.) During his reign the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser came, and after conquering the fortified cities round Lake Merom took possession of Gilead and Galilee, namely the whole land of Naphtali, and led the inhabitants captive to Assyria. Tiglath-pileser (פּלאסר תּגלת or פּלסר תּגלת, Kg2 16:7; פּלנאסר or פּלנסר תּלגת פּלנסר, Ch1 5:26, and Ch2 28:20; Θεγλαθφαλασάρ or Θαλγαθφελλασάρ, lxx; written Tiglat-palatsira or Tiglat-palatsar on the Assyrian monuments, and interpreted by Gesenius and others "ruler of the Tigris," although the reading of the name upon the monuments is still uncertain, and the explanation given a very uncertain one, since Tiglat or Tilgat is hardly identical with Diglath = Tigris, but is probably a name of the goddess Derketo, Atergatis), was, according to M. v. Niebuhr (pp. 156, 157), the last king of the Derketade dynasty, who, when the Medes and Babylonians threw off the Assyrian supremacy after the death of Pul, attempted to restore and extend the ancient dominion. (Note: M. Duncker (Gesch. des Alterthums, i. pp. 658, 659) also assumes that the dynasty changed with the overthrow of the Derketades, but he places it considerably earlier, about the year 900 or 950 b.c., because on the one hand Niebuhr's reasons for his view cannot be sustained, and on the other hand there are distinct indications that the change in the reigning family must have taken place about this time: viz., 1. in the ruins of the southern city of Nineveh, at Kalah, where we find the remains of the palace of two rulers, who sat upon the throne of Assyria between the years 900 and 830, whereas the castles of Ninos and his descendants must undoubtedly have stood in the northern city, in Nineveh; 2. in the circumstance that from the time mentioned the Assyrian kingdom advanced with fresh warlike strength and in a fresh direction, which would agree with the change in the dynasty. - Which of these two assumptions is the correct one, cannot yet be decided in the present state of the researches on this subject.) His expedition against Israel falls, according to Kg2 15:29 and Kg2 16:9, in the closing years of Pekah, when Ahaz had come to the throne in Judah. The enumeration of his conquests in the kingdom of Israel commences with the most important cities, probably the leading fortifications. Then follow the districts of which he took possession, and the inhabitants of which he led into captivity. The cities mentioned are Ijon, probably the present Ayun on the north-eastern edge of the Merj Ayun; Abel-beth-maacah, the present Abil el Kamh, on the north-west of Lake Huleh (see at Kg1 15:20); Janoach, which must not be confounded with the Janocha mentioned in Jos 16:6-7, on the border of Ephraim and Manasseh, but is to be sought for in Galilee or the tribe-territory of Naphtali, and has not yet been discovered; Kedesh, on the mountains to the west of Lake Huleh, which has been preserved as an insignificant village under the ancient name (see at Jos 12:22); Hazor, in the same region, but not yet traced with certainty (see at Jos 11:1). Gilead is the whole of the land to the east of the Jordan, the territory of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh (Ch1 5:26), which had only been wrested from the Syrians again a short time before by Jeroboam II, and restored to Israel (Kg2 14:25). הגּלילה (the feminine form of הגּליל, see Ewald, 173, h.) is more precisely defined by the apposition "all the land of Naphtali" (see at Kg1 9:11). - In the place of אשּׁוּרה, "to the land of Assyria," the different regions to which the captives were transported are given in Ch1 5:26. For further remarks on this point see at Kg2 17:6.

Verse 30

Pekah met with his death in a conspiracy organized by Hosea the son of Elah, who made himself king "in the twentieth year of Jotham." There is something very strange in this chronological datum, as Jotham only reigned sixteen years (Kg2 15:33), and Ahaz began to reign in the seventeenth year of Pekah (Kg2 16:1); so that Pekah's death would fall in the fourth year of Ahaz. The reason for this striking statement can only be found, as Usher has shown (Chronol. sacr. p. 80), in the fact that nothing has yet been said about Jotham's successor Ahaz, because the reign of Jotham himself is not mentioned till Kg2 15:32. (Note: Other attempts to solve this difficulty are either arbitrary and precarious, e.g., the conjectures of the earlier chronologists quoted by Winer (R. W. s. v. Jotham), or forced, like the notion of Vaihinger in Herzog's Cycl. (art. Jotham), that the words בן־עזיה ליותם are to be eliminated as an interpolation, in which case the datum "in the twentieth year" becomes perfectly enigmatical; and again the assertion of Hitzig (Comm. z. Jesaj. pp. 72, 73), that instead of in the twentieth year of Jotham, we should read "in the twentieth year of Ahaz the son of Jotham," which could only be consistently carried out by altering the text of not less than seven passages (viz., Kg2 15:33; Kg2 16:1, and Kg2 16:2, Kg2 16:17; Ch2 27:1 and Ch2 27:8, and Ch2 28:1); and lastly, the assumption of Thenius, that the words from בשׁנת to עזיה have crept into the text through a double mistake of the copyist and an arbitrary alteration of what had been thus falsely written, which is much too complicated to appear at all credible, even if the reasons which are supposed to render it probable had been more forcible and correct than they really are. For the first reason, viz., that the statement in what year of the contemporaneous ruler a king came to the throne is always first given when the history of this king commences, is disproved by Kg2 1:17; the second, that the name of the king by the year of whose reign the accession of another is defined is invariably introduced with the epithet king of Judah or king of Israel, is shown by Kg2 12:2 and Kg2 16:1 to be not in accordance with fact; and the third, that this very king is never described by the introduction of his father's name, as he is here, except where the intention is to prevent misunderstanding, as in Kg2 14:1, Kg2 14:23, or in the case of usurpers without ancestors (Kg2 15:32, Kg2 16:1 and Kg2 16:15), is also incorrect in its first portion, for in the case of Amaziah in Kg2 14:23 there was no misunderstanding to prevent, and even in the case of Joash in Kg2 14:1 the epithet king of Israel would have been quite sufficient to guard against any misunderstanding.)

Verse 32

Reign of Jotham of Judah (cf. Ch2 27:1-9). - Kg2 15:32. "In the second year of Pekah Jotham began to reign." This agrees with the statement in Kg2 15:27, that Pekah became king in the last year of Uzziah, supposing that it occurred at the commencement of the year. Jotham's sixteen years therefore came to a close in the seventeenth year of Pekah's reign (Kg2 16:1). His reign was like that of his father Uzziah (compare Kg2 15:34, Kg2 15:35 with Kg2 15:3, Kg2 15:4), except, as is added in Chr. Kg2 15:2, that he did not force himself into the temple of the Lord, as Uzziah had done (Ch2 26:16). All that is mentioned of his enterprises in the account before us is that he built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah, that is to say, that he restored it, or perhaps added to its beauty. The upper gate, according to Eze 9:2 compared with Kg2 8:3, Kg2 8:5,Kg2 8:14 and Kg2 8:16, is the gate at the north side of the inner or upper court, where all the sacrifices were slaughtered, according to Eze 40:38-43. We also find from Ch2 27:3. that he built against the wall of Ophel, and several cities in the mountains of Judah, and castles and towers in the forests, and subdued the Ammonites, so that they paid him tribute for three years. Jotham carried on with great vigour, therefore, the work which his father had began, to increase the material prosperity of his subjects.

Verse 37

In those days the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin, etc. It is evident from the position of this verse at the close of the account of Jotham, that the incursions of the allied Syrians and Israelites into Judah under the command of Rezin and Pekah commenced in the closing years of Jotham, so that these foes appeared before Jerusalem at the very beginning of the reign of Ahaz. - It is true that the Syrians had been subjugated by Jeroboam II (Kg2 14:28); but in the anarchical condition of the Israelitish kingdom after his death, they had no doubt recovered their independence. They must also have been overcome by the Assyrians under Pul, for he could never have marched against Israel without having first of all conquered Syria. But as the power of the Assyrians was greatly weakened for a time by the falling away of the Medes and Babylonians, the Syrians had taken advantage of this weakness to refuse the payment of tribute to Assyria, and had formed an alliance with Pekah of Israel to conquer Judah, and thereby to strengthen their power so as to be able to offer a successful resistance to any attack from the side of the Euphrates. - But as Kg2 16:6. and 2 Kings 17 show, it was otherwise decreed in the counsels of the Lord.

Introduction

In this chapter, I. The history of two of the kings of Judah is briefly recorded: - 1. Of Azariah, or Uzziah (Kg2 15:1-7). 2. Of Jotham his son (Kg2 15:32-38). II. The history of many of the kings of Israel that reigned at the same time is given us in short, five in succession, all of whom, except one, went down slain to the pit, and their murders were their successors. 1. Zachariah, the last of the house of Jehu, reigned six months, and then was slain and succeeded by Shallum (Kg2 15:8-12). 2. Shallum reigned one month, and then was slain and succeeded by Menahem (Kg2 15:13-15). 3. Menahem reigned ten years, or tyrannised rather, such were his barbarous cruelties (Kg2 15:16) and unreasonable exactions (Kg2 15:20), and then died in his bed, and left his son to succeed him first, and then suffer for him (Kg2 15:16-22). 4. Pekahiah reigned two years, and then was slain and succeeded by Pekah (Kg2 15:23-26). 5. Pekah reigned twenty years, and then was slain and succeeded by Hoshea, the last of all the kings of Israel (Kg2 15:27-31) for things were now working and hastening apace towards the final destruction of that kingdom.

Verse 1

This is a short account of the reign of Azariah. 1. Most of it is general, and the same that has been given of others; he began young and reigned long (Kg2 15:2), did, for the most part, that which was right, Kg2 15:3 (it was happy for the kingdom that a good reign was a long one), only he had not zeal and courage enough to take away the high places, Kg2 15:4. 2. That which is peculiar, Kg2 15:5 (that God smote him with a leprosy) is more largely related, with the occasion of it, Ch2 26:16, etc., where we have also a fuller account of the glories of the former part of his reign, as well as of the disgraces of the latter part of it. He did that which was right, as Amaziah had done; like him, he began well, but failed before he finished. Here we are told, (1.) That he was a leper. The greatest of men are not only subject to the common calamities, but also to the common infirmities, of human nature; and, if they be guilty of any heinous sin, they lie as open as the meanest to the most grievous strokes of divine vengeance. (2.) God smote him with this leprosy, to chastise him for his presumptuous invasion of the priests' office. If great men be proud men, some way or other God will humble them, and make them know he is both above them and against them, for he resisteth the proud. (3.) That he was a leper to the day of his death. Though we have reason to think he repented and the sin was pardoned, yet, for warning to others, he was continued under this mark of God's displeasure as long as he lived, and perhaps it was for the good of his soul that he was so. (4.) That he dwelt in a separate house, as being made ceremonially unclean by the law, to the discipline of which, though a king, he must submit. He that presumptuously intruded into God's temple, and pretended to be a priest, was justly shut out from his own palace, and shut up as a prisoner or recluse, ever after. We suppose that his separate house was made as convenient and agreeable as might be. Some translate it a free house, where he had liberty to take his pleasure. However, it was a great mortification to one that had been so much a man of honour, and a man of business, as he had been, to be cut off from society and dwell always in a separate house: it would almost make life itself a burden, even to kings, though they have never any to converse with but their inferiors; the most contemplative men would soon be weary of it. (5.) That his son was his viceroy in the affairs both of his court (for he was over the house) and of his kingdom (for he was judging the people of the land); and it was both a comfort to him and a blessing to his kingdom that he had such a son to fill up his room.

Verse 8

The best days of the kingdom of Israel were while the government was in Jehu's family. In his reign, and the next three reigns, though there were many abominable corruptions and miserable grievances in Israel, yet the crown went in succession, the kings died in their beds, and some care was taken of public affairs; but, now that those days are at an end, the history which we have in these verses of about thirty-three years represents the affairs of that kingdom in the utmost confusion imaginable. Woe to those that were with child (Kg2 15:16) and to those that gave suck in those days, for then must needs be great tribulations, when, for the transgression of the land, many were the princes thereof. I. Let us observe something, in general, concerning these unhappy revolutions and the calamities which must needs attend them - these bad times, as they may truly be called. 1. God had tried the people of Israel both with judgments and mercies, explained and enforced by his servants the prophets, and yet they continued impenitent and unreformed, and therefore God justly brought these miseries upon them, as Moses had warned them. If you will yet walk contrary to me, I will punish you yet seven times more, Lev 26:21, etc. 2. God made good his promise to Jehu, that his sons to the fourth generation after him should sit upon the throne of Israel, which was a greater favour than was shown to any of the royal families either before or after his. God had said it should be so (Kg2 10:30) and we are told in this chapter (Kg2 15:12) that so it came to pass. See how punctual God is to his promises. These calamities God long designed for Israel, and they deserved them, yet they were not inflicted till that word had taken effect to the full. Thus God rewarded Jehu for his zeal in destroying the worship of Baal and the house of Ahab; and yet, when the measure of the sins of the house of Jehu was full, God avenged upon it the blood then shed, called the blood of Jezreel, Hos 1:4. 3. All these kings did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, for they walked in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Though at variance with one another, yet in this they agreed, to keep up idolatry, and the people loved to have it so; though they were emptied from vessel to vessel, that taste remained in them, and that scent was not changed. It was sad indeed when their government was so often altered, yet never for the better - that among all those contending interests none of them should think it as much their interest to destroy the calves as others had done to support them. 4. Each of these (except one) conspired against his predecessor, and slew him - Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hoshea, all traitors and murderers, and yet all kings awhile, one of them ten, another twenty, and another nine years; for God may suffer wickedness to prosper and to carry away the wealth and honours awhile, but, sooner or later, blood shall have blood, and he that dealt treacherously shalt be dealt treacherously with. One wicked man is often made a scourge to another, and every wicked man, at length, a ruin to himself. 5. The ambition of the great men made the nation miserable. Here is Tiphsah, a city of Israel, barbarously destroyed, with all the coasts thereof, by one of these pretenders (Kg2 15:16), and no doubt it was through blood that each of them waded to the throne, nor could any of these kings perish alone. No land can have greater pests, nor Israel worse troubles, than such men as care not how much the welfare and repose of their country are sacrificed to their revenge and affectation of dominion. 6. While the nation was thus shattered by divisions at home the kings of Assyria, first one (Kg2 15:19) and then another (Kg2 15:29), came against it and did what they pleased. Nothing does more towards the making of a nation an easy prey to a common enemy than intestine broils and contests for the sovereignty. Happy the land where that is settled. 7. This was the condition of Israel just before they were quite ruined and carried away captive, for that was in the ninth year of Hoshea, the last of these usurpers. If they had, in these days of confusion and perplexity, humbled themselves before God and sought his face, that final destruction might have been prevented; but when God judgeth he will overcome. These factions, the fruit of an evil spirit sent among them, hastened that captivity, for a kingdom thus divided against itself will soon come to desolation. II. Let us take a short view of the particular reigns. 1. Zachariah, the son of Jeroboam, began to reign in the thirty-eighth year of Azariah, or Uzziah, king of Judah, Kg2 15:8. Some of the most critical chronologers reckon that between Jeroboam and his son Zachariah the throne was vacant twenty-two years, others eleven years, through the disturbances and dissensions that were in the kingdom; and then it was not strange that Zachariah was deposed before he was well seated on the throne: he reigned but six months, and then Shallum slew him before the people, perhaps as Caesar was slain in the senate, or he put him to death publicly as a criminal, with the approbation of the people, to whom he had, some way or other, made himself odious; so ended the line of Jehu. 2. But had Shallum peace, who slew his master? No, he had not (Kg2 15:13), one month of days measured his reign and then he was cut off; perhaps to this the prophet, who then lived, refers (Hos 5:7), Now shall a month devour them with their portions. That dominion seldom lasts long which is founded in blood and falsehood. Menahem, either provoked by his crime or animated by his example, soon served him as he had served his master - slew him and reigned in his stead, Kg2 15:14. Probably he was general in the army, which then lay encamped at Tirzah, and, hearing of Shallum's treason and usurpation, hastened to punish it, as Omri did that of Zimri in a like case, Kg1 16:17. 3. Menahem held the kingdom ten years, Kg2 15:17. But, whereas we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel were merciful kings (Kg1 20:31), this Menahem (the scandal of his country) was so prodigiously cruel to those of his own nation who hesitated a little at submitting to him that he not only ruined a city, and the coasts thereof, but, forgetting that he himself was born of a woman, ripped up all the women with child, Kg2 15:16. We may well wonder that ever it should enter into the heart of any man to be so barbarous, and to be so perfectly lost to humanity itself. By these cruel methods he hoped to strengthen himself and to frighten all others into his interests; but it seems he did not gain his point, for when the king of Assyria came against him, (1.) So little confidence had he in his people that he durst not meet him as an enemy, but was obliged, at a vast expense, to purchase a peace with him. (2.) Such need had he of help to confirm the kingdom in his hand that he made it part of his bargain with him (a bargain which, no doubt, the king of Assyria knew how to make a good hand of another time) that he should assist him against his own subjects that were disaffected to him. The money wherewith he purchased his friendship was a vast sum, no less than 1000 talents of silver (Kg2 15:19), which Menahem exacted, it is probable, by military execution, of all the mighty men of wealth, very considerately sparing the poor, and laying the burden (as was fit) on those that were best able to bear it; being raised, it was given to the king of Assyria, as pay for his army, fifty shekels of silver for each man in it. Thus he got clear of the king of Assyria for this time; he staid not to quarter in the land (Kg2 15:20), but his army now got so rich a booty with so little trouble that it encouraged them to come again, not long after, when they laid all waste. Thus was he the betrayer of his country that should have been the protector of it. 4. Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, succeeded his father, but reigned only two years, and then was treacherously slain by Pekah, falling under the load both of his own and of his father's wickedness. It is repeated concerning him as before that he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam. Still this is mentioned, to show that God was righteous in bringing that destruction upon them which came not long after, because they hated to be reformed, Kg2 15:24. Pekah, it seems, had some persons of figure in his interest, two of whom are here named (Kg2 15:25), and with their help he compassed his design. 5. Pekah, though he got the kingdom by treason, kept it twenty years (Kg2 15:27), so long it was before his violent dealing returned upon his own head, but it returned at last. This Pekah, son of Remaliah, (1.) Made himself more considerable abroad than any of these usurpers, for he was, even in the latter end of his time (in the reign of Ahaz, which began in his seventeenth year), a great terror to the kingdom of Judah, as we find, Isa 7:1, etc. (2.) He lost a great part of his kingdom to the king of Assyria. Several cities are here named (Kg2 15:29) which were taken from him, all the land of Gilead on the other side Jordan, and Galilee in the north containing the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon, were seized, and the inhabitants carried captive into Assyria. By this judgment God punished him for his attempt upon Judah and Jerusalem. It was then foretold that within two or three years after he made that attempt, before a child, then born, should be able to cry My father and my mother, the riches of Samaria should be taken away before the king of Assyria (Isa 8:4), and here we have the accomplishment of that prediction. (3.) Soon after this he forfeited his life to the resentments of his countrymen, who, it is probable, were disgusted at him for leaving them exposed to a foreign enemy, while he was invading Judah, of which Hoshea took advantage and, to gain his crown, seized his life, slew him, and reigned in his stead. Surely he was fond of a crown indeed who, at this time, would run such a hazard as a traitor did; for the crown of Israel, now that it had lost the choicest of its flowers and jewels, was lined more than ever with thorns, had of late been fatal to all the heads that had worn it, was forfeited to divine justice, and now ready to be laid in the dust - a crown which a wise man would not have taken up in the street, yet Hoshea not only ventured upon it but ventured for it, and it cost him dear.

Verse 32

We have here a short account of the reign of Jotham king of Judah, of whom we are told, 1. That he reigned very well, did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, Kg2 15:34. Josephus gives him a very high character, stating that he was pious towards God, just towards men, and laid out himself for the public good, - that, whatever was amiss, he took care to have it rectified, - and, in short, wanted no virtue that became a good prince. Though the high places were not taken away, yet to draw people from them, and keep them close to God's holy place, he showed great respect to the temple, and built the higher gate which he went through to the temple. If magistrates cannot do all they would for the suppressing of vice and profaneness, let them do so much the more for the support and advancement of piety and virtue, and the bringing of them into reputation. If they cannot pull down the high places of sin, yet let them build and beautify the high gate of God's house. 2. That he died in the midst of his days, Kg2 15:33. Of most of the kings of Judah we are told how old they were when they began their reign, and by that may compute how old they were when they died; but no account is kept of the age of any of the kings of Israel that I remember, only of the years of their reigns. This honour God would put upon the kings of the house of David above those of other families. And by these accounts it appears that there was none of all the kings of Judah that reached David's age, seventy, the common age of man. Asa's age I do not find. Uzziah lived to be sixty-eight, Manasseh sixty-seven, and Jehoshaphat sixty; and these were the three oldest; many of those that were of note did not reach fifty. This Jotham died at forty-one. He was too great a blessing to be continued long to such an unworthy people. His death was a judgment, especially considering the character of his son and successor. 3. That in his days the confederacy was formed against Judah by Rezin and Remaliah's son, the king of Syria and the king of Israel, which appeared so very formidable in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz that, upon notice of it, the heart of that prince was moved and the heart of the people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind, Isa 7:2. The confederates were unjust in the attempt, yet it is here said (Kg2 15:37), The Lord began to send them against Judah, as he bade Shimei curse David, and took away from Job what the Sabeans robbed him of. Men are God's hand - the sword, the rod in his hand - which he makes use of as he pleases to serve his own righteous counsels, though men be unrighteous in their intentions. This storm gathered in the reign of pious Jotham, but he came to his grave in peace and it fell upon his degenerate son.

Verse 1

15:1-3 The name Uzziah means Yahweh is my strength. • fifty-two years: The length of Uzziah’s reign (792–740 BC) reflects changed conditions in the early 700s BC. Assyria was in decline and relations between Israel and Judah were cordial. Uzziah’s spiritual convictions earned God’s blessing so that Judah enjoyed its greatest prosperity since the days of Solomon (2 Chr 26:9-10).

Verse 4

15:4 In spite of his good spiritual evaluation, Uzziah continued to allow worship at the pagan shrines (14:4).

Verse 5

15:5 Because Uzziah usurped the prerogatives of the priesthood (2 Chr 26:16-21), the Lord struck the king with leprosy. His son Jotham became co-regent (about 750 BC). While Uzziah’s isolation kept him from public duties, he may have continued to exercise political power. King Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria (744–727 BC), in connection with his first western campaign (744–743 BC), mentioned an opponent named Azariau whom many scholars understand as Uzziah.

Verse 8

15:8-12 Jeroboam II’s son Zechariah was far less capable than his father. Zechariah perpetuated the sins that Jeroboam [I] . . . led Israel to commit. God had promised Jehu a royal line to the fourth generation (10:30); Zechariah’s six-month reign fulfilled that promise.

Verse 13

15:13 Jabesh, which lay east of the Jordan in northern Gilead, might have been the hometown of Shallum, whose reign was even shorter than Zechariah’s. Shallum was assassinated, as he had done to Zechariah (15:10).

Verse 14

15:14 Tirzah had been capital of the northern kingdom during Israel’s first two dynasties (1 Kgs 14:17; 15:21, 33; 16:8). • Menahem was an army commander.

Verse 16

15:16 At Tirzah, Menahem heard of King Zechariah’s assassination by Shallum. Menahem gathered his forces and moved against Samaria. • ripped open the pregnant women: This horrible wartime practice, noted in Assyrian and Babylonian documents, is also attributed to King Hazael of Aram (8:12). See also Hos 10:14; 13:16; Amos 1:13.

Verse 19

15:19-20 Tiglath-pileser: The NLT uses the Assyrian (see 15:29; 16:6) form of the name, rather than the Hebrew form, Pul, which is taken from the Babylonian. Tiglath-pileser III seized the throne of Assyria in 744 BC and provided able leadership until his death in 727 BC. • When Tiglath-pileser launched the western campaign to regain territory held by Aram, Menahem paid him a heavy tribute of thirty-seven tons of silver to keep him from overrunning Israel. • Although Menahem’s name means comfort, the unsettled conditions in the northern kingdom provided little consolation for God’s people during his reign (752–742 BC).

Verse 23

15:23-25 Menahem’s son Pekahiah reigned only two years before Pekah conspired to assassinate him. Pekahiah continued the sins associated with the religious policies initiated by Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 12:26-33). Pekah, an army commander, had apparently been a rival for the throne for some time.

Verse 27

15:27 fifty-second year of King Uzziah’s reign: The date for Pekah’s accession is the final year of Uzziah’s reign (740 BC). Because of the standing relationship between Tiglath-pileser and Menahem, Pekah confined his influence to Gilead during Menahem’s reign (752–742 BC). With Menahem’s death, Pekahiah made Pekah an army commander. This provided Pekah with a broader base of support and gave him opportunity to seize the throne of Israel in 740 BC.

Verse 29

15:29-30 With his second western campaign (734–732 BC), Tiglath-pileser . . . attacked Israel again. Pekah had allied himself with King Rezin of Aram in an ill-conceived anti-Assyrian coalition (see Isa 9:1). As a result of this invasion, Tiglath-pileser captured and conquered much of Israel’s northern and eastern territory. • Pekah’s doomed political policies caused dissension in Israel that led to his assassination by Hoshea, whose action was probably intended to placate the Assyrian king and preserve the northern kingdom. In his annals, Tiglath-pileser claimed that he put Hoshea on the throne and received his heavy tribute. • The twentieth year of Jotham, counting from the beginning of his co-regency with his father Uzziah in Judah, was 732 BC, the year of his death.

Verse 32

15:32-33 The second year of King Pekah’s reign reflects the first full year of Jotham’s independent reign; he was co-regent with his father for the previous decade. • sixteen years: From the beginning of his co-regency with his father Uzziah (750 BC) until his son Ahaz became the primary ruler of Judah (735 BC).

Verse 34

15:34-35 Although Jotham did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, he allowed worship at pagan shrines to continue. • rebuilt the upper gate of the Temple: The prosperity of Uzziah’s reign continued during his son Jotham’s reign. Jotham built onto Jerusalem’s wall at the hill of Ophel and did construction at many Judean sites (2 Chr 27:3-4). He also conquered the rebellious Ammonites (2 Chr 27:5), whom Uzziah had forced into subservience (2 Chr 26:8).

Verse 37

15:37 Rezin . . . Pekah: See 16:5.

Uzziah, King of Judah, or the Danger of Success

The Sins of Jeroboam, the Son of Nebat,

Holiness to See God

Introduction

Verse 1

Verse 3

Verse 5

Verse 10

Verse 12

Verse 13

Verse 19

Verse 20

Verse 21

Verse 25

Verse 29

Verse 30

Verse 36

Verse 37

Introduction

Verse 8

Verse 13

Verse 16

Verse 17

Verse 19

Verse 23

Verse 25

Verse 29

Verse 30

Verse 33

Verse 35

Verse 37

Introduction

Verse 1

Verse 2

Verse 3

Verse 4

Verse 5

Verse 6

Verse 7

Verse 8

Verse 9

Verse 10

Verse 11

Verse 12

Verse 13

Verse 14

Verse 15

Verse 16

Verse 17

Verse 18

Verse 19

Verse 20

Verse 21

Verse 22

Verse 23

Verse 24

Verse 25

Verse 26

Verse 27

Verse 1

Verse 8

Verse 13

Verse 17

Verse 19

Verse 20

Verse 23

Verse 27

Verse 30

Verse 32

Verse 37

Introduction

Verse 1

Verse 8

Verse 32

Verse 1

Verse 4

Verse 5

Verse 8

Verse 13

Verse 14