2 Kings 14

In the second year that Jehoash son of Jehoahaz was king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash became king of Judah.

1In the second year of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel reigned Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah.

NoteSince Solomon's death the old kingdom had been two separate states: Israel in the north, with its capital at Samaria, and Judah in the south, with its capital at Jerusalem. Each had its own line of kings, and the writer dates events in one kingdom by counting the regnal years of the other. Note also that the king of Israel here (Jehoash) and the father of the king of Judah (Joash) bear the same Hebrew name, which English spells two ways; the text uses both forms for both men, which is why the two kingdoms can look confusingly alike in these chapters.

2He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddan, and she was from Jerusalem.

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

NoteThe records of Judah's kings regularly name the king's mother. The queen mother held a recognized official position at court, ranking above the king's wives.

3He did what was right in the LORD's sight, but not as well as his forefather David had done. He did everything the way his father Joash had done it.

3And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, yet not like David his father: he did according to all things as Joash his father did.

Note"Right in the LORD's sight" is the writer's standing verdict on each king, and it turns almost entirely on how worship was conducted rather than on the king's wider policy. David is called Amaziah's father in the Hebrew in the older sense of ancestor; David lived some six generations earlier.

4Even so, the local worship sites on the hills were not removed. The people kept on offering sacrifices and burning incense there.

4Howbeit the high places were not taken away: as yet the people did sacrifice and burnt incense on the high places.

NoteHigh places were open-air shrines, usually on a hilltop, where people offered sacrifices in their own districts instead of traveling to the temple in Jerusalem. The writer of Kings counts leaving them standing as a defect even in a king he otherwise approves of.

5As soon as his hold on the kingdom was firm, Amaziah put to death the officials who had murdered his father the king.

5And it came to pass, as soon as the kingdom was confirmed in his hand, that he slew his servants which had slain the king his father.

NoteAmaziah's father Joash had been assassinated by members of his own court (2 Kings 12:20–21). A new king commonly waited until his hold on power was secure before settling accounts of this kind.

6But he did not put the murderers' children to death. He followed what is written in the book of the law of Moses, where the LORD commanded: fathers must not be put to death for their children, and children must not be put to death for their fathers; each person is to be put to death for his own sin.

6But the children of the murderers he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

NoteThe words quoted are from Deuteronomy 24:16. Executing a condemned man's whole family was ordinary practice in the ancient Near East, which is why the writer singles out Amaziah's refusal to do it.

7He killed ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt. He also captured the city of Sela in battle and named it Joktheel, which is still its name today.

7He slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day.

NoteEdom was the kingdom south-east of the Dead Sea, long a rival of Judah and at times its subject. The Valley of Salt lay in the arid country south of the Dead Sea. Sela means "rock" in Hebrew and was probably a cliff stronghold in Edomite territory. Renaming a captured city was a standard way of asserting ownership of it.

8Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, with this message: "Come, let us face each other."

8Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face.

NoteThe Hebrew is literally "let us look one another in the face." It is a formal challenge to meet in battle, not an invitation to negotiate.

9Jehoash king of Israel sent this answer to Amaziah king of Judah: "A thistle in Lebanon sent word to a cedar tree in Lebanon, saying, 'Give your daughter to my son as his wife.' Then a wild animal in Lebanon came by and trampled the thistle down.

9And Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle.

NoteA short fable like this was a recognized way of delivering an insult. The thistle is a worthless roadside weed; the cedar of Lebanon was the most prized timber in the region and a standing image of greatness. Asking for a king's daughter in marriage was a bid for alliance between equals, so the thistle's request is absurd, and it is then crushed by an animal that never even noticed it was there. Jehoash is casting Amaziah as the thistle.

10You have indeed defeated Edom, and now you are full of pride. Be proud of that, but stay home. Why stir up trouble that will hurt you, so that you fall, and Judah falls with you?"

10Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up: glory of this, and tarry at home: for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?

11But Amaziah would not listen. So Jehoash king of Israel marched out, and he and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other in battle at Beth-shemesh, a town belonging to Judah.

11But Amaziah would not hear. Therefore Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Bethshemesh, which belongeth to Judah.

NoteBeth-shemesh lay in the low hill country about fifteen miles west of Jerusalem, near the frontier of Judah's territory.

12Judah was defeated by Israel, and every soldier ran away to his home.

12And Judah was put to the worse before Israel; and they fled every man to their tents.

Note"Every man fled to his tents" is the standard Hebrew phrase for an army breaking apart and the soldiers scattering to their homes.

13At Beth-shemesh, Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah. Then Jehoash went to Jerusalem and broke down a six-hundred-foot section of the city wall, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate.

13And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Bethshemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate, four hundred cubits.

NoteThe Hebrew gives the breach as four hundred cubits; a cubit was about eighteen inches, roughly the length of a forearm. Pulling down a long stretch of wall left Jerusalem open to any future attacker, a lasting humiliation rather than a conquest, since Jehoash did not occupy the city.

14He took all the gold and silver, and all the objects found in the house of the LORD and in the treasure rooms of the king's palace. He took hostages too, and then went back to Samaria.

14And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria.

NoteThe house of the LORD is the temple in Jerusalem, whose gold and silver served in effect as a national treasury. Hostages were leading men or royal sons held as a guarantee that the defeated kingdom would not retaliate. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom.

15The rest of the things Jehoash did, and his strength, and how he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are written in the book of the yearly records of the kings of Israel.

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

NoteThese were official court annals kept separately by each kingdom. They are not the biblical books of Chronicles, and no copy of them survives; the writer is citing a source his readers could in principle consult.

16Jehoash died like his ancestors before him and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. His son Jeroboam became king in his place.

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

Note"Slept with his fathers" is the set phrase for a king dying of natural causes and being laid in the ancestral tomb. The writer does not use it of kings who were assassinated or killed in battle.

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

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

18The rest of the things Amaziah did are written in the book of the yearly records of the kings of Judah.

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

19People in Jerusalem made a secret plan against him, so he ran away to the city of Lachish. But they sent men after him to Lachish and killed him there.

19Now they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem: and he fled to Lachish; but they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there.

NoteLachish was a heavily fortified city about thirty miles south-west of Jerusalem, the strongest place in Judah after the capital itself.

20They brought his body back on horses, and he was buried in Jerusalem with his ancestors in the City of David.

20And they brought him on horses: and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David.

NoteThe City of David was the oldest quarter of Jerusalem, the narrow ridge David had captured, and the burial place of the kings of Judah.

21Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

21And all the people of Judah took Azariah, which was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah.

NoteThis king is called Uzziah elsewhere in the Bible, including in the accounts of his reign in 2 Chronicles 26 and in the opening of Isaiah. Kings of this period often went by two names.

22Azariah was the one who rebuilt the town of Elath and returned it to Judah, after King Amaziah had died.

22He built Elath, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers.

NoteElath stood at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea, a port that gave Judah access to southern trade routes. The note runs ahead of the story: this was something Azariah did later in his reign.

23In the fifteenth year that Amaziah son of Joash was king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash became king of Israel in Samaria, and he ruled forty-one years.

23In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years.

NoteThis is a second Jeroboam, son of Jehoash of Israel, ruling roughly a century and a half after the Jeroboam son of Nebat named in the next verse. Historians call him Jeroboam II.

24He did what was evil in the LORD's sight. He did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had led Israel into sin.

24And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

NoteJeroboam son of Nebat was the first king of the breakaway northern kingdom. He set up rival shrines with golden calves at Bethel and Dan so his people would not travel to Jerusalem to worship (1 Kings 12). The writer of Kings measures every later northern king against him, and the phrase recurs as a fixed formula.

25He won back Israel's border territory, from Lebo-hamath in the north to the Sea of the Arabah in the south. This happened just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had said through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher.

25He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.

NoteLebo-hamath marked the traditional far-northern limit of Israel's territory, in the region of the city-state of Hamath in Syria; the Sea of the Arabah is the Dead Sea. Between them lies the fullest extent Israel ever claimed. Jonah son of Amittai is the prophet of the book of Jonah; this is the only other place in the Bible he is mentioned.

26The LORD had seen how bitter Israel's suffering was. No one at all was left to help Israel, whether slave or free.

26For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel.

NoteThe Hebrew here is literally "neither shut up nor left," a fixed idiom whose precise sense is uncertain. Translators render it "slave or free," "bond or free," or simply "no one at all"; in every case it is a way of saying the whole population without exception.

27The LORD had not said that he would wipe out the name of Israel from under the sky. So he rescued them through Jeroboam son of Jehoash.

27And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

NoteTo blot out a name "from under heaven" means to destroy a people so completely that even the memory of them is gone, the strongest phrase available for total annihilation.

28The rest of the things Jeroboam did, and his strength, and how he fought his wars, and how he won back Damascus and Hamath for Israel, which had belonged to Judah, are written in the book of the yearly records of the kings of Israel.

28Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

NoteDamascus was the capital of Aram (Syria), Israel's chief northern rival for generations; Hamath lay further north still. The Hebrew of the clause about Judah is obscure and has never been satisfactorily explained: it may mean these cities were taken for Israel from Judah, or that they were recovered as Judah had once held them, or the text may be damaged. Translations differ, and the rendering above preserves the difficulty rather than smoothing it out.

29Jeroboam died like his ancestors before him, the kings of Israel, and his son Zechariah became king in his place.

29And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead.

NoteThis Zechariah is a king of the northern kingdom. He is not the prophet Zechariah whose book appears later in the Bible.