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2 Kings 13:1
Verse
Context
Jehoahaz Reigns in Israel
1In the twenty-third year of the reign of Joash son of Ahaziah over Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria seventeen years.2And he did evil in the sight of the LORD and followed the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.
Summary
Commentary
- Adam Clarke
- Keil-Delitzsch
- John Gill
- Matthew Henry
- Tyndale
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
In the three and twentieth year of Joash - The chronology here is thus accounted for; Jehoahaz began his reign at the commencement of the twenty-third year of Joash, and reigned seventeen years, fourteen alone, and three years with his son Joash; the fourteenth year was but just begun.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary
Reign of Jehoahaz. - Jehu was followed by Jehoahaz his son, "in the twenty-third year of Joash of Judah." This synchronistic statement is not only at variance with Kg2 13:10, but cannot be very well reconciled with Kg2 12:1. If Jehoahaz began to reign in the twenty-third year of Joash king of Judah, and reigned seventeen years, his son cannot have followed him after his death in the thirty-seventh year of Joash of Judah, as is stated in Kg2 13:10, for there are only fourteen years and possibly a few months between the twenty-third and thirty-seventh years of Joash; and even if he ascended the throne at the commencement of the twenty-third year of the reign of Joash and died at the end of the thirty-seventh, they could only be reckoned as fifteen and not as seventeen years. Moreover, according to Kg2 12:1, Joash of Judah began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and therefore Athaliah, who ascended the throne at the same time as Jehu, reigned fully six years. If, therefore, the first year of Joash of Judah coincides with the seventh year of Jehu, the twenty-eighth year of Jehu must correspond to the twenty-second year of Joash of Judah; and in this year of Joash not only did Jehu die, but his son Jehoahaz ascended the throne. Consequently we must substitute the twenty-second year of Joash, or perhaps, still more correctly, the twenty-first year (Josephus), for the twenty-third. (Note: On the other hand, Thenius, who follows des Vignoles and Winer, not only defends the correctness of the account "in the twenty-third year of Joash," because it agrees with the twenty-eight years' reign of Jehu (Kg2 10:36), but also holds fast the seventeen years' duration of the reign of Jehoahaz on account of its agreement with Kg2 14:1; for 6 years (Athaliah) + 40 years (Joash) = 46 years, and 28 years (Jehu) + 17 years (Jehoahaz) = 45 years; so that, as is there affirmed, Amaziah the son of Joash ascended the throne in the second year of Joash the son of Jehoahaz. But to arrive at this result he assumes that there is an error in Kg2 13:10, namely, that instead of the thirty-seventh year we ought to read the thirty-ninth year there, according to the edit. Aldina of the lxx. But apart from the fact that, as we have shown above in the text, the datum "in the twenty-third year of Joash" does not harmonize with the twenty-eight years' reign of Jehu, this solution of the difference is overthrown by the circumstance that, in order to obtain this agreement between Kg2 13:1 and Kg2 13:14, Thenius reckons the years of the reigns not only of Athaliah and Joash, but also of Jehu and Jehoahaz, as full years (the former 16 + 40, the latter 28 + 17); whereas, in order to bring the datum in Kg2 13:1 (in the twenty-third year of Joash) into harmony with the emendation proposed in Kg2 13:10 (in the thirty-ninth year of Joash), he reckons the length of the reign of Jehoahaz as only sixteen years (instead of seventeen). For example, if Jehoahaz reigned seventeen years, supposing that he ascended the throne in the twenty-third year of Joash of Judah, he died in the fortieth year of Joash (not the thirty-ninth), and his son began to reign the same year. In that case Amaziah would have begun to reign in the first year of Jehoash of Israel, and not in the second, as is stated in Kg2 14:1. - The reading of the lxx (ed. Ald. v. 10), "in the thirty-ninth year," is therefore nothing but a mistaken emendation resorted to for the purpose of removing a discrepancy, but of no critical value.) If Jehu died in the earliest months of the twenty-eighth year of his reign, so that he only reigned twenty-seven years and one or two months, his death and his son's ascent of the throne might fall even in the closing months of the twenty-first year of the reign of Joash of Judah. And from the twenty-first to the thirty-seventh year of Joash, Jehoahaz may have reigned sixteen years and a few months, and his reign be described as lasting seventeen years. Kg2 13:2-3 As Jehoahaz trod in the footsteps of his forefathers and continued the sin of Jeroboam (the worship of the calves), the Lord punished Israel during his reign even more than in that of his predecessor. The longer and the more obstinately the sin was continued, the more severe did the punishment become. He gave them (the Israelites) into the power of the Syrian king Hazael and his son Benhadad כּל־היּמים, "the whole time," sc. of the reign of Jehoahaz (vid., Kg2 13:22); not of the reigns of Hazael and Benhadad, as Thenius supposes in direct opposition to Kg2 13:24 and Kg2 13:25. According to Kg2 13:7, the Syrians so far destroyed the Israelitish army, that only fifty horsemen, ten war-chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers were left. Kg2 13:4-5 In this oppression Jehoahaz prayed to the Lord (יי פּני חלּה as in Kg1 13:6); and the Lord heard this prayer, because He saw their oppression at the hands of the Syrians, and gave Israel a saviour, so that they came out from the power of the Syrians and dwelt in their booths again, as before, i.e., were able to live peaceably again in their houses, without being driven off and led away by the foe. The saviour, מושׁיע, was neither an angel, nor the prophet Elisha, nor quidam e ducibus Joasi, as some of the earlier commentators supposed, nor a victory obtained by Jehoahaz over the Syrians, nor merely Jeroboam (Thenius); but the Lord gave them the saviour in the two successors of Jehoahaz, in the kings Jehoash and Jeroboam, the former of whom wrested from the Syrians all the cities that had been conquered by them under his father (Kg2 13:25), while the latter restored the ancient boundaries of Israel (Kg2 14:25). According to Kg2 13:22-25, the oppression by the Syrians lasted as long as Jehoahaz lived; but after his death the Lord had compassion upon Israel, and after the death of Hazael, when his son Benhadad had become king, Jehoash recovered from Benhadad all the Israelitish cities that had been taken by the Syrians. It is obvious from this, that the oppression which Benhadad the son of Hazael inflicted upon Israel, according to Kg2 13:3, falls within the period of his father's reign, so that it was not as king, but as commander-in-chief under his father, that he oppressed Israel, and therefore he is not even called king in Kg2 13:3. Kg2 13:6 "Only they departed not," etc., is inserted as a parenthesis and must be expressed thus: "although they departed not from the sin of Jeroboam." Kg2 13:7 "For (כּי) he had not left," etc., furnishes the ground for Kg2 13:5 : God gave them a saviour, ... although they did not desist from the sin of Jeroboam, ... for Israel had been brought to the last extremity; He (Jehovah) had left to Jehoahaz people (עם, people of war), only fifty horsemen, etc. For החטי instead of החטיא (Kg2 13:6), see at Kg1 21:21. The suffix בּהּ in Kg2 13:6 refers to הטּאת, just as that in ממּנּה in Kg2 13:2 (see at Kg2 3:3). "And even the Asherah was (still) standing at Samaria," probably from the time of Ahab downwards (Kg1 16:33), since Jehu is not said to have destroyed it (Kg2 10:26.). וגו וישׂמם "and had made them like dust for trampling upon," - an expression denoting utter destruction. Kg2 13:8-9 Close of the reign of Jehoahaz. Jehoahaz had probably shown his might in the war with the Syrians, although he had been overcome.
John Gill Bible Commentary
In the twenty and third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah,.... The same year he was so zealous and busy in repairing the temple, Kg2 12:6, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria; whereas Joash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and Jehu reigned but twenty eight years, Kg2 10:36, and Kg2 12:1, this could be but the twenty first of Joash; to reconcile which it must be observed, that it was at the beginning of the seventh year of Jehu that Joash began to reign, and at the beginning of the twenty third of Joash that Jehoahaz began to reign, as the Jewish commentators observe: and reigned seventeen years; the two last of which were in common with his son, as Junius, see
Matthew Henry Bible Commentary
This general account of the reign of Jehoahaz, and of the state of Israel during his seventeen years, though short, is long enough to let us see two things which are very affecting and instructive: - I. The glory of Israel raked up in the ashes, buried and lost, and turned into shame. How unlike does Israel appear here to what it had been and might have been! How is its crown profaned and its honour laid in the dust! 1. It was the honour of Israel that they worshipped the only living and true God, who is a Spirit, an eternal mind, and had rules by which to worship him of his own appointment; but by changing the glory of their incorruptible God into the similitude of an ox, the truth of God into a lie, they lost this honour, and levelled themselves with the nations that worshipped the work of their own hands. We find here that the king followed the sins of Jeroboam (Kg2 13:2), and the people departed not from them, but walked therein, Kg2 13:6. There could not be a greater reproach than these two idolized calves were to a people that were instructed in the service of God and entrusted with the lively oracles. In all the history of the ten tribes we never find the least shock given to that idolatry, but, in every reign, still the calf was their god, and they separated themselves to that shame. 2. It was the honour of Israel that they were taken under the special protection of heaven; God himself was their defence, the shield of their help and the sword of their excellency. Happy wast thou, O Israel! upon this account. But here, as often before, we find them stripped of this glory, and exposed to the insults of all their neighbours. They by their sins provoked God to anger, and then he delivered them into the hands of Hazael and Benhadad, Kg2 13:3. Hazael oppressed Israel Kg2 13:22. Surely never was any nation so often plucked and pillaged by their neighbours as Israel was. This the people brought upon themselves by sin; when they had provoked God to pluck up their hedge, the goodness of their land did but tempt their neighbours to prey upon them. So low was Israel brought in this reign, by the many depravations which the Syrians made upon them, that the militia of the kingdom and all the force they could bring into the field were but fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and 10,000 footmen, a despicable muster, Kg2 13:7. Have the thousands of Israel come to this? How has the gold become dim! The debauching of a nation will certainly be the debasing of it. II. Some sparks of Israel's ancient honour appearing in these ashes. It is not quite forgotten, notwithstanding all these quarrels, that this people is the Israel of God and he is the God of Israel. For, 1. It was the ancient honour of Israel that they were a praying people: and here we find somewhat of that honour revived; for Jehoahaz their king, in his distress, besought the Lord (Kg2 13:4), applied for help, not to the calves (what help could they give him?) but to the Lord. It becomes kings to be beggars at God's door, and the greatest of men to be humble petitioners at the footstool of his throne. Need will drive them to it. 2. It was the ancient honour of Israel that they had God nigh unto them in all that which they called upon him for (Deu 4:7), and so he was here. Though he might justly have rejected the prayer as an abomination to him, yet the Lord hearkened unto Jehoahaz, and to his prayer for himself and for his people (Kg2 13:4), and he gave Israel a saviour (Kg2 13:5), not Jehoahaz himself, for all his days Hazael oppressed Israel (Kg2 13:22), but his son, to whom, in answer to his father's prayers, God gave success against the Syrians, so that he recovered the cities which they had taken from his father, Kg2 13:25. This gracious answer God gave to the prayer of Jehoahaz, not for his sake, or the sake of that unworthy people, but in remembrance of his covenant with Abraham (Kg2 13:23), which, in such exigencies as these, he had long since promised to have respect to, Lev 26:42. See swift God is to show mercy, how ready to hear prayers, how willing to find out a reason to be gracious, else he would not look so far back as that ancient covenant which Israel had so often broken and forfeited all the benefit of. Let this invite and engage us for ever to him, and encourage even those that have forsaken him to return and repent; for there is forgiveness with him, that he may be feared.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
13:1-2 Jehoahaz (814–798 BC) began his reign in Israel in the year that King Joash of Judah assumed direction of repairs on the Temple (12:6). Because Jehoahaz perpetuated the state religion instituted by Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 12:26-33), his spiritual evaluation was negative.
2 Kings 13:1
Jehoahaz Reigns in Israel
1In the twenty-third year of the reign of Joash son of Ahaziah over Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria seventeen years.2And he did evil in the sight of the LORD and followed the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.
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- Commentary
- Adam Clarke
- Keil-Delitzsch
- John Gill
- Matthew Henry
- Tyndale
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
In the three and twentieth year of Joash - The chronology here is thus accounted for; Jehoahaz began his reign at the commencement of the twenty-third year of Joash, and reigned seventeen years, fourteen alone, and three years with his son Joash; the fourteenth year was but just begun.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary
Reign of Jehoahaz. - Jehu was followed by Jehoahaz his son, "in the twenty-third year of Joash of Judah." This synchronistic statement is not only at variance with Kg2 13:10, but cannot be very well reconciled with Kg2 12:1. If Jehoahaz began to reign in the twenty-third year of Joash king of Judah, and reigned seventeen years, his son cannot have followed him after his death in the thirty-seventh year of Joash of Judah, as is stated in Kg2 13:10, for there are only fourteen years and possibly a few months between the twenty-third and thirty-seventh years of Joash; and even if he ascended the throne at the commencement of the twenty-third year of the reign of Joash and died at the end of the thirty-seventh, they could only be reckoned as fifteen and not as seventeen years. Moreover, according to Kg2 12:1, Joash of Judah began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and therefore Athaliah, who ascended the throne at the same time as Jehu, reigned fully six years. If, therefore, the first year of Joash of Judah coincides with the seventh year of Jehu, the twenty-eighth year of Jehu must correspond to the twenty-second year of Joash of Judah; and in this year of Joash not only did Jehu die, but his son Jehoahaz ascended the throne. Consequently we must substitute the twenty-second year of Joash, or perhaps, still more correctly, the twenty-first year (Josephus), for the twenty-third. (Note: On the other hand, Thenius, who follows des Vignoles and Winer, not only defends the correctness of the account "in the twenty-third year of Joash," because it agrees with the twenty-eight years' reign of Jehu (Kg2 10:36), but also holds fast the seventeen years' duration of the reign of Jehoahaz on account of its agreement with Kg2 14:1; for 6 years (Athaliah) + 40 years (Joash) = 46 years, and 28 years (Jehu) + 17 years (Jehoahaz) = 45 years; so that, as is there affirmed, Amaziah the son of Joash ascended the throne in the second year of Joash the son of Jehoahaz. But to arrive at this result he assumes that there is an error in Kg2 13:10, namely, that instead of the thirty-seventh year we ought to read the thirty-ninth year there, according to the edit. Aldina of the lxx. But apart from the fact that, as we have shown above in the text, the datum "in the twenty-third year of Joash" does not harmonize with the twenty-eight years' reign of Jehu, this solution of the difference is overthrown by the circumstance that, in order to obtain this agreement between Kg2 13:1 and Kg2 13:14, Thenius reckons the years of the reigns not only of Athaliah and Joash, but also of Jehu and Jehoahaz, as full years (the former 16 + 40, the latter 28 + 17); whereas, in order to bring the datum in Kg2 13:1 (in the twenty-third year of Joash) into harmony with the emendation proposed in Kg2 13:10 (in the thirty-ninth year of Joash), he reckons the length of the reign of Jehoahaz as only sixteen years (instead of seventeen). For example, if Jehoahaz reigned seventeen years, supposing that he ascended the throne in the twenty-third year of Joash of Judah, he died in the fortieth year of Joash (not the thirty-ninth), and his son began to reign the same year. In that case Amaziah would have begun to reign in the first year of Jehoash of Israel, and not in the second, as is stated in Kg2 14:1. - The reading of the lxx (ed. Ald. v. 10), "in the thirty-ninth year," is therefore nothing but a mistaken emendation resorted to for the purpose of removing a discrepancy, but of no critical value.) If Jehu died in the earliest months of the twenty-eighth year of his reign, so that he only reigned twenty-seven years and one or two months, his death and his son's ascent of the throne might fall even in the closing months of the twenty-first year of the reign of Joash of Judah. And from the twenty-first to the thirty-seventh year of Joash, Jehoahaz may have reigned sixteen years and a few months, and his reign be described as lasting seventeen years. Kg2 13:2-3 As Jehoahaz trod in the footsteps of his forefathers and continued the sin of Jeroboam (the worship of the calves), the Lord punished Israel during his reign even more than in that of his predecessor. The longer and the more obstinately the sin was continued, the more severe did the punishment become. He gave them (the Israelites) into the power of the Syrian king Hazael and his son Benhadad כּל־היּמים, "the whole time," sc. of the reign of Jehoahaz (vid., Kg2 13:22); not of the reigns of Hazael and Benhadad, as Thenius supposes in direct opposition to Kg2 13:24 and Kg2 13:25. According to Kg2 13:7, the Syrians so far destroyed the Israelitish army, that only fifty horsemen, ten war-chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers were left. Kg2 13:4-5 In this oppression Jehoahaz prayed to the Lord (יי פּני חלּה as in Kg1 13:6); and the Lord heard this prayer, because He saw their oppression at the hands of the Syrians, and gave Israel a saviour, so that they came out from the power of the Syrians and dwelt in their booths again, as before, i.e., were able to live peaceably again in their houses, without being driven off and led away by the foe. The saviour, מושׁיע, was neither an angel, nor the prophet Elisha, nor quidam e ducibus Joasi, as some of the earlier commentators supposed, nor a victory obtained by Jehoahaz over the Syrians, nor merely Jeroboam (Thenius); but the Lord gave them the saviour in the two successors of Jehoahaz, in the kings Jehoash and Jeroboam, the former of whom wrested from the Syrians all the cities that had been conquered by them under his father (Kg2 13:25), while the latter restored the ancient boundaries of Israel (Kg2 14:25). According to Kg2 13:22-25, the oppression by the Syrians lasted as long as Jehoahaz lived; but after his death the Lord had compassion upon Israel, and after the death of Hazael, when his son Benhadad had become king, Jehoash recovered from Benhadad all the Israelitish cities that had been taken by the Syrians. It is obvious from this, that the oppression which Benhadad the son of Hazael inflicted upon Israel, according to Kg2 13:3, falls within the period of his father's reign, so that it was not as king, but as commander-in-chief under his father, that he oppressed Israel, and therefore he is not even called king in Kg2 13:3. Kg2 13:6 "Only they departed not," etc., is inserted as a parenthesis and must be expressed thus: "although they departed not from the sin of Jeroboam." Kg2 13:7 "For (כּי) he had not left," etc., furnishes the ground for Kg2 13:5 : God gave them a saviour, ... although they did not desist from the sin of Jeroboam, ... for Israel had been brought to the last extremity; He (Jehovah) had left to Jehoahaz people (עם, people of war), only fifty horsemen, etc. For החטי instead of החטיא (Kg2 13:6), see at Kg1 21:21. The suffix בּהּ in Kg2 13:6 refers to הטּאת, just as that in ממּנּה in Kg2 13:2 (see at Kg2 3:3). "And even the Asherah was (still) standing at Samaria," probably from the time of Ahab downwards (Kg1 16:33), since Jehu is not said to have destroyed it (Kg2 10:26.). וגו וישׂמם "and had made them like dust for trampling upon," - an expression denoting utter destruction. Kg2 13:8-9 Close of the reign of Jehoahaz. Jehoahaz had probably shown his might in the war with the Syrians, although he had been overcome.
John Gill Bible Commentary
In the twenty and third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah,.... The same year he was so zealous and busy in repairing the temple, Kg2 12:6, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria; whereas Joash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and Jehu reigned but twenty eight years, Kg2 10:36, and Kg2 12:1, this could be but the twenty first of Joash; to reconcile which it must be observed, that it was at the beginning of the seventh year of Jehu that Joash began to reign, and at the beginning of the twenty third of Joash that Jehoahaz began to reign, as the Jewish commentators observe: and reigned seventeen years; the two last of which were in common with his son, as Junius, see
Matthew Henry Bible Commentary
This general account of the reign of Jehoahaz, and of the state of Israel during his seventeen years, though short, is long enough to let us see two things which are very affecting and instructive: - I. The glory of Israel raked up in the ashes, buried and lost, and turned into shame. How unlike does Israel appear here to what it had been and might have been! How is its crown profaned and its honour laid in the dust! 1. It was the honour of Israel that they worshipped the only living and true God, who is a Spirit, an eternal mind, and had rules by which to worship him of his own appointment; but by changing the glory of their incorruptible God into the similitude of an ox, the truth of God into a lie, they lost this honour, and levelled themselves with the nations that worshipped the work of their own hands. We find here that the king followed the sins of Jeroboam (Kg2 13:2), and the people departed not from them, but walked therein, Kg2 13:6. There could not be a greater reproach than these two idolized calves were to a people that were instructed in the service of God and entrusted with the lively oracles. In all the history of the ten tribes we never find the least shock given to that idolatry, but, in every reign, still the calf was their god, and they separated themselves to that shame. 2. It was the honour of Israel that they were taken under the special protection of heaven; God himself was their defence, the shield of their help and the sword of their excellency. Happy wast thou, O Israel! upon this account. But here, as often before, we find them stripped of this glory, and exposed to the insults of all their neighbours. They by their sins provoked God to anger, and then he delivered them into the hands of Hazael and Benhadad, Kg2 13:3. Hazael oppressed Israel Kg2 13:22. Surely never was any nation so often plucked and pillaged by their neighbours as Israel was. This the people brought upon themselves by sin; when they had provoked God to pluck up their hedge, the goodness of their land did but tempt their neighbours to prey upon them. So low was Israel brought in this reign, by the many depravations which the Syrians made upon them, that the militia of the kingdom and all the force they could bring into the field were but fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and 10,000 footmen, a despicable muster, Kg2 13:7. Have the thousands of Israel come to this? How has the gold become dim! The debauching of a nation will certainly be the debasing of it. II. Some sparks of Israel's ancient honour appearing in these ashes. It is not quite forgotten, notwithstanding all these quarrels, that this people is the Israel of God and he is the God of Israel. For, 1. It was the ancient honour of Israel that they were a praying people: and here we find somewhat of that honour revived; for Jehoahaz their king, in his distress, besought the Lord (Kg2 13:4), applied for help, not to the calves (what help could they give him?) but to the Lord. It becomes kings to be beggars at God's door, and the greatest of men to be humble petitioners at the footstool of his throne. Need will drive them to it. 2. It was the ancient honour of Israel that they had God nigh unto them in all that which they called upon him for (Deu 4:7), and so he was here. Though he might justly have rejected the prayer as an abomination to him, yet the Lord hearkened unto Jehoahaz, and to his prayer for himself and for his people (Kg2 13:4), and he gave Israel a saviour (Kg2 13:5), not Jehoahaz himself, for all his days Hazael oppressed Israel (Kg2 13:22), but his son, to whom, in answer to his father's prayers, God gave success against the Syrians, so that he recovered the cities which they had taken from his father, Kg2 13:25. This gracious answer God gave to the prayer of Jehoahaz, not for his sake, or the sake of that unworthy people, but in remembrance of his covenant with Abraham (Kg2 13:23), which, in such exigencies as these, he had long since promised to have respect to, Lev 26:42. See swift God is to show mercy, how ready to hear prayers, how willing to find out a reason to be gracious, else he would not look so far back as that ancient covenant which Israel had so often broken and forfeited all the benefit of. Let this invite and engage us for ever to him, and encourage even those that have forsaken him to return and repent; for there is forgiveness with him, that he may be feared.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
13:1-2 Jehoahaz (814–798 BC) began his reign in Israel in the year that King Joash of Judah assumed direction of repairs on the Temple (12:6). Because Jehoahaz perpetuated the state religion instituted by Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 12:26-33), his spiritual evaluation was negative.