A verse by verse commentary on 2 Chronicles 25 dealing with Amaziah King of Judah.

1. 2 CHRO ICLES 25 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Amaziah King of Judah
1 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he
became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-
nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan;
she was from Jerusalem.
BAR ES, "This chapter is evidently taken to a large extent from the same document
as Kings (see the marginal reference and the notes). At the same time it contains large
and important additions; e. g. 2Ch_25:5-10, 2Ch_25:13-16.
GILL 1-4, "Amaziah was twenty five years old when he began to reign,.... Of
these verses; see Gill on 2Ki_14:2. See Gill on 2Ki_14:3. See Gill on 2Ki_14:5. See Gill on
2Ki_14:6.
HE RY, "Here is, I. The general character of Amaziah: He did that which was right in
the eyes of the Lord, worshipped the true God, kept the temple service a going, and
countenanced religion in his kingdom; but he did not do it with a perfect heart (2Ch_
25:2), that is, he was not a man of serious piety or devotion himself, nor had he any zeal
for the exercises of religion. He was no enemy to it, but a cool and indifferent friend.
Such is the character of too many in this Laodicean age: they do that which is good, but
not with the heart, not with a perfect heart.
JAMISO , "
K&D, "
COFFMA , "THE TRAGIC RECORD OF AMAZIAH'S REIG I JUDAH
VIII. AMAZIAH (800-783 B.C.)
We have already written about a dozen pages in 2 Kings 14 regarding the reign of
Amaziah, taking due note of the additional information provided in this chapter.
We shall do little here except print the chapter.

2. ELLICOTT, "THE REIG OF AMAZIAH. (Comp. 2 Kings 14:1-20.)
DURATIO A D CHARACTER OF THE REIG . EXECUTIO OF THE
MURDERERS OF JOASH (2 Chronicles 25:1-4).
(1, 2) Amaziah . . . the Lord.—So 2 Kings 14:2.
But not with a perfect heart.—This is a brief equivalent of the words of the older
text: “only not like David his father: according to all that Joash his father had done,
he did.” The reference to Joash is omitted, perhaps because that king appears to less
advantage in the Chronicles than ill Kings. In fact, the chronicler’s estimate of both
princes is less favourable than that of the older historian. Such differences are
perfectly natural, and it is needless to attempt to “reconcile” or eliminate them.
GUZIK, "A. His victory over Edom.
1. (2 Chronicles 25:1-2) The limited good of the reign of Amaziah.
Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-
nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. And he
did what was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a loyal heart.
a. He did what was right in the sight of the LORD: Amaziah, son of the great
reformer Joash, continued the generally godly reign began by his father.
i. “He made a good beginning in thus adhering closely to the law. Happy would it
have been for him and for his kingdom had he continued as he began.” (Knapp)
b. But not with a loyal heart: Compared to Joash, Amaziah faithfully continued his
policies. Yet some of those policies allowed compromises, such as the allowing of
continued sacrifices and incense offerings on the high places (2 Kings 14:1-4).
Compared to David - the greatest merely human king to reign over the people of
God - Amaziah did not match up favorably (2 Kings 14:1-4).
i. “The root idea of the Hebrew word translated ‘perfect’ [loyal in the KJV] is
being whole, complete. Imperfection of heart consists in incomplete surrender. Some
chamber of the temple is retained for selfish purposes. What it was in the case of
Amaziah we are not told, but the fact remains that notwithstanding the general
direction of his life . . . the whole heart was not set on doing the will of God.”
(Morgan)
PULPIT, "This chapter is filled up with a very graphic account of the entire career
of Amaziah, and its twenty-eight verses are paralleled by the twenty verses of 2
Kings 14:1-20, where the narrative reads in several places much more curtly. Our
chapter opens with the familiar anticipatory summary of the man, his age, pedigree,

3. and character, whose course is to be detailed more precisely in following verses,
again and yet again sounding the clear key-note of an unclean character and reign
(2 Chronicles 25:1, 2 Chronicles 25:2); it proceeds to record the king's avenging of
his father's murder (2 Chronicles 25:3, 2 Chronicles 25:4); his successful sally
against "the children of Seir," with the incident of the affronted division of army,
formed of them that "came to him out of Ephraim" (2 Chronicles 25:5-13); his
defection to idolatry, and insult put upon the faithful "prophet" (2 Chronicles
25:14-16); his jaunty and provocative challenge to Joash of Israel, to his own
overthrow (2 Chronicles 25:17-24); his end (2 Chronicles 25:25-28).
2 Chronicles 25:1
Twenty and five years old … reigned twenty and nine years. Glance at notes on 2
Chronicles 25:1, 2 Chronicles 25:15, 2 Chronicles 25:17 of foregoing chapter, from
which it appears that, as Joash died aetat. forty-seven, and Amaziah was now
twenty-five, he must have been born when his father was twenty-two years old, and
Jehoaddan correspondingly likely to have been one of the two wives Jehoiada
selected for Joash, at the age, on other data, of twenty-one years. Of Jerusalem. This
affix to the mother's name may perhaps carry credit to the memory of Jehoiada, for
having been careful to select a woman of the honoured city rather than of any
provincial or even less worthy city.
2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,
but not wholeheartedly.
CLARKE, "He did that which was right - He began his reign well, but soon
became an idolater, 2Ch_25:14, 2Ch_25:15.
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 25:2. But not with a perfect heart — He was not an enemy
to religion, but a cool and indifferent friend. He was not a man of serious piety, for
his heart was not whole with God. But of this, and the two following verses, see
notes on 2 Kings 14:1-7.
COFFMA , ""He did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah" (2 Chronicles
25:2). The qualifying clause, "not with a perfect heart" is in effect an admission that

4. his reign was evil. His doing right in God's sight apparently applies only to his
sparing the children of his servants whom he executed for the death of his father.
The commandment of God through Moses, mentioned in 2 Chronicles 25:4, is found
in Deuteronomy 24:16. (See our comments in the Commentary on 2 Kings 14 for the
very great significance of this reference.)
PARKER, "THE most remarkable feature in the character of Amaziah is his half-
heartedness. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned nine-
and-twenty years, and was murdered at Lachish by conspirators. He was neither all
bad nor all good. His day was made up of cloud and glory. He was neither wise nor
foolish; yet he was both. He came as near as any man in history ever came to be that
mysterious fountain that can send forth both sweet water and bitter.
"And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect
heart" ( 2 Chronicles 25:2).
That is the history of the Church in a sentence; that, too, is the history of many a
man who sometimes wonders whether he will die, or live; whether he will fall over
the abyss into the bottomless pit, or whether he will take wing and fly away to the
gate of the morning. The Scriptures insist upon knowing and revealing the state of
the heart. Everything depended upon that in the estimate of biblical judges; and
everything depends upon that in the appraisement of God himself,—not what is the
intellect, the head, the genius, the acquisition, the treasure held by the hand; but
what is the supreme emotion, the uppermost wish, the dominating desire, the
purpose that struggles through all things that embody the life. Our answer to that
question settles everything. Could we have a perfect heart we should know the
meaning of consecration. We are not consecrated until the heart is filled with divine
fire, sanctified by divine ministry, permeated by the Holy Ghost. So we are called
upon to grow, to advance, to become wiser, to add to our faith virtue, and to
continue the mysterious addition until the pillar of a noble life is crowned with the
capital of brotherly kindness and charity. What a marvellous thing is a double life!
Men are not all insincere who are adjudged to be double-minded. There is a
psychological mystery about this, as well as a spiritual enigma. Let us beware of
rough-and-ready estimates of characters. Many a man wants to be good who
cannot; that is to say, he cannot realise all his desire and purpose. o one can tell
what he suffers; we see the things which he does, but we do not see the temptations
which he has resisted; we see when he has gone one mile towards the wrong place,
but if he had gone at the speed dictated by the satanic impulse which was focussed
in terrific temptation, he would have been there, he would have been all the way, he
would have been in the very centre of the flame. It is easy to judge men, saying how
imperfect they are, how poor in knowledge, how feeble in character, how mixed in
the quality of motive and purpose. Only God knows what some have to do in order
to go to church at all. It is almost like winning in a wrestle with death; it will be set
down among the battles of the universe which have been crowned with victory.
Blessed be God, man is not judge; the Father keeps the judgment in his own hand;

5. and with what graciousness must his face be irradiated when he sees some men
moving in the direction of the sanctuary, how reluctantly soever; and when they
cross the threshold, who can tell the joy that is in heaven? Judging one another thus,
if we judge at all, there will be found to be many better men in the world than we
have often reckoned. The statistics are all wrong that are not founded upon charity,
love, comprehensiveness of feeling, yea, that sacred enthusiasm which will not let
any man be outside who can possibly be brought within. "In my Father"s house are
many mansions"—many compartments, many chambers, many provinces; they
have not all the same aspect or the same garden-land, they do not all accommodate
the same wealth of summer; still they are included within the golden circle, and men
may grow out of them up into higher possessions—for heaven is but another name
for progress.
Amaziah being thus double-minded felt the less difficulty in working out a certain
law:—
" ow it came to pass, when the kingdom was established [or, the sovereignty
(power) was confirmed] to him, that he slew his servants that had killed the king his
father [After establishing his own government he punished the murderers of his
father with death; but, according to the law in Deuteronomy 24:16, he did not slay
their children also, as was commonly the custom in the East in ancient times, and
may very frequently have been done in Israel as well.—Keil]. But he slew not their
children, but did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, where the Lord
commanded, saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the
children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin" ( 2 Chronicles
25:3-4).
Here we find two opposing forces—revenge on the one side, and forbearance on the
other. It is here that human criticism so often fails. It is hard not to deal one blow at
the son as well as the father. It is almost impossible to distinguish between the one
and the other. It requires divine faculty to discriminate, and to use a sword with
fineness of justice. Who has not been offended with the son because of something the
father has done? Who has not renounced the whole family because one member of it
has been found guilty of offence? God doth not thus judge us. He has one in a house,
and two in a family, and three in a commonwealth; he will not confound the wise
and the unwise, the good and the bad; as he hath himself two hands, so he will make
two divisions—on the one side shall be the sheep, and on the other the goats, and he
will prepare for the destiny of each. Our criticism is rough; we condemn whole
nations. If we find that a man who has done something wrong belongs to a certain
nationality, we simply send the whole nation down to the bottomless pit. Again,
blessed be God, man is not the judge. He will, with fingers of justice that cannot
mistake, take the sister from the side of the brother; two women shall be grinding,
the one shall be taken, and the other left; yea, two shall be in one bed, and one shall
be taken and the other left; it is in this discrimination, this individualisation of
judgment, that God shows the fulness of his wisdom and the majesty of his
sovereignty. Observe how all this is declared and established in the law of Moses,
which is in very deed the law of God. The Lord has trained men by certain

6. dispensations to the use of this very criticism which is so easily abused. "The fathers
shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers." When
the Lord laid down that law he taxed human forbearance to the uttermost. It may
not seem to be so in reality, but test the matter by human consciousness and by
human action. Have we not wronged whole families? Have we not often thrown in
the child as if he were part of the father, and let both be crushed by the mill of
revenge? When a man is in hot blood it is difficult to stop with the death of the
father: another life would gratify him; he is mad enough to slay a whole house now,
and if he should strike the whole family with the sword he will explain himself by a
reference to his ill-temper at the moment,—as if ill-temper could ever excuse or
mitigate any offence! But it is just thus, by calling a sudden Halt! that God educates
men to self-control, to nobleness of conduct, and trains them to distinguish between
justice and injustice—justice precisely administered, and justice roughly dealt out.
It is in the fineness of the discrimination that we reveal the extent of our spiritual
education.
A most gracious word is the last in the fourth verse, "Every man shall die for his
own sin": literally, Every man shall die in his own sin. Where, then, the foolish law
that says a man shall die because somebody has sinned; that is to say, shall die
eternally, and never know the joy of forgiveness, because some man has somewhere
at some time offended against God? One thing we cannot help: every man suffers
when any one connected with him sins. o one can help the working of that law. It is
a beneficent institution. From some points of view it seems to be severe, but the
severity of one aspect is the beneficence of another. o man can do good and keep
all the issue of it to himself. If sometimes we would slay the son because the father
has been bad, at other times we welcome the son to hospitality because the father
was a brave, chivalrous soul to us in the days of the wilderness and in the storms of
the winter. For thy father"s sake, we say, come in, and tarry long: would God he
were with thee at this moment, for then the joy of thy presence would be doubled!
The way of the Lord is equal. He has not a motion of one hand only. The Lord
Isaiah , so to say, ambidextrous; if he deals severely he also will deal
graciously:—"God is a consuming fire:" "God is love": who can connect those two
sentences? Yet they are connected, and in their union they make up a complete
revelation of the most high God. When it comes to a question of eternal destiny
every man stands upon his own feet. "Every one of us shall give account of himself
to God." o one is judged for another. Why, then, this repining, this impious
criticism, about being damned because Adam sinned? "Every man shall die for his
own sin." Yet there is the law, and we cannot explain it away, and the bedizening of
our fancy comes off like an ill plaster ill laid on. The father cannot sin, and the son
be unscathed. The curse that falls from the father"s lips blights the little flower that
blooms at his feet. We can only relieve ourselves in the presence of such mysteries by
saying that the blessing which falls from the father"s tongue settles like dew on the
flower of his house; the child is blessed because of the father"s goodness.
Again we see how double-minded was Amaziah by reading 2 Chronicles 25:5-10 :—
5. Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over

7. thousands [rather, arranged them by the houses of their fathers under captains of
thousands, and captains of hundreds], and captains over hundreds, according to the
houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and Benjamin; and he numbered them
from twenty years old and above [compare umbers 1:3; 1 Chronicles 27:23.
Twenty was regarded as the military age], and found them three hundred thousand
[Asa"s army had been nearly twice as numerous (ch. 2 Chronicles 14:8). The great
diminution of force must be ascribed to the Edomite, Arabian, Philistine, and Syrian
wars (ch. 2 Chronicles 21:8-16; 2 Chronicles 24:23-24), and in part to the general
decadence of the kingdom, attributable mainly to moral causes] choice men, able to
go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield.
6. He hired also an hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel [from the
northern kingdom] for an hundred talents of silver.
7. But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go
with thee; for the Lord is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim.
8. But if thou wilt go [But go thou alone, Acts , be strong for the battle; God shall
then not make thee to fail] do it, be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall
before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down.
9. And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred
talents which I have given to the army [troops] of Israel? And the man of God
answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.
10. Then Amaziah separated them, to wit, the army that was come to him out of
Ephraim, to go home again: wherefore their anger was greatly kindled against
Judah, and they returned home in great anger.
He was going to war, so he hired a hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of
Israel for a hundred talents of silver—say, forty thousand pounds of our money. All
his arrangements were made, but they were stopped—"There came a man of God to
him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee: for the Lord is not with
Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim. But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong
for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy."
The best critics say that a word has been omitted there, and that we should
read—"God shall not make thee fall before the enemy." So the reading must be
thus: If thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle: God hath power to help, and to
cast down; he will be with thee in this, but he does not want thee to go; he will not
leave thee defenceless, but he wishes thee to hold thine hand from this alliance and
this battle. Or it may be read precisely as we find it in the text: If thou wilt go, do it,
make thyself as strong as possible for the battle: but when thou hast strengthened
thyself at every point God shall touch thee, and thy knees shall melt, and the
strength of thy muscles shall be as molten lead. But, said the king, what am I to do?
I have invested a hundred talents: what about the money? I have committed myself,
the money is already paid: what do you say to that? The man of God answered, The

8. Lord is able to give thee much more than this: let the money go; better obey the
divine law than follow the issue of money that was spent without calculation and
without judgment. That is grand advice! It applies to every living man. Who does
not say, But I have money in it; I have money risked upon it; if I could have the
money returned I should willingly obey the law, but I have gone so far, and
therefore I must go farther? Such is the foolish reasoning of men; yea, they have
turned this reasoning into a proverb, and laughed over their own epigrammatic
cleverness; they have said, "As well be hung for a sheep as a lamb;" "In for a penny
in for a pound:" we have signed the document, we have deposited the money; how
can we go back? This was precisely the position of Amaziah. How few people like to
forfeit the deposit! Yet in saving the deposit they may lose the sum-total. The
reasoning of the man of God turned into modern language would run thus:—Better
suffer a little loss than the loss of everything; better endure the wrath of man than
the wrath of God; the first loss may be the best loss; no man ever yet obeyed the
right and did the good without God finding bread and water for him as long as
bread and water were needed; and even if there were no promise of bread and
water, do the right. The true gain is the gain of self-approval, not in any sense of
vanity, but in the highest moral sense, gaining the glad conviction that all life has
been guided by one light, inspired by one motive, and directed to one issue. What a
part "the man of God" plays in all this tragedy of life! We meet him at unexpected
corners. Why has the Lord instituted this ministry? How it troubles the conscience,
how it interferes with the easy working of plans, how it causes disquiet and
bubbling and foaming upon the fluency of an otherwise oily course! This man of
God is always importing into human counsels great moral judgments, calling men to
be measured by spiritual standards; he is a "theorist," an "enthusiast:" but for him
we could enjoy the feast. Yet there he is— hated. Still there is a fascination about
him all but irresistible. We want to see him and to hear him, and we are not easy
until we know his mind; but every word he says strikes us like a dagger. How
comfortably society would proceed but for this rough, hairy, shaggy Prayer of
Manasseh , coming up from the wilderness, leaving his banquet there that he may
trouble our feast here! He lives on locusts and wild honey, and he so digests them as
to turn them into the strongest manhood that fears nothing and that would as soon
snub a king as a peasant. We cannot all live on locusts and wild honey. The meat we
eat turns to timidity: the meat he eats turns to lion. He says to kings, "You are
wrong;" to the proud drunken ruler, "It is not lawful for thee to have her." The
king says to him, "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" "Art thou he that
troubleth Israel?" There is the man of God, sometimes mighty in prayer, sometimes
mighty in judgment, sometimes ruthless in criticism, coming down upon compacts
and treaties and alliances with a crushing and tremendous power that grinds
everything to powder. We plead with him, and say, What about the hundred talents
of silver? And he spurns forty thousand pounds as if they were forty thousand
feathers. He has no money of his own; there is no bank in the wilderness; there is no
stock-taking in the rocks. We cannot awe him by forty thousand times forty
thousand, for he knows nothing about arithmetic. Yet there he is! Such are the
miracles of God. What a comfortable house we could have but for the Bible! Even if
we neglect it, it becomes a judgment. We cannot shut it respectfully; we cannot hide
it, for it has a way of rubbing the dust off itself, and uttering mute claims. The bad

9. man never opened the Bible at a pleasant place: whenever he opened the Bible he
burnt his fingers, saying, "There is fire there!" There are moral influences in life,
judgments, criticisms, standards; there are voices that are only whispers, but they
are whispers that chill the marrow. Amaziah consented. It was to be as the man of
God had said; and when he detached himself from the evil alliance he came from the
slaughter of the Edomites, and "brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set
them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense
unto them." Here we have the double-minded man again. Yesterday he obeyed, and
to-day he disobeyed; a week ago he listened to the voice from heaven, and seven
days after he brought a whole houseful of gods up from Pagandom, and bowed
down himself before them, and burned incense unto them; and if they had been gods
with the slightest grain of intelligence they would have laughed at the fool. Our life
runs precisely upon these lines. It is not for us to sneer at the old king of Judah. On
Sunday we sing hymns, and on Wednesday we cheat the unwary, and when they
close the door of the place of business we smile at them; then on Thursday we sing
another hymn. Human life is all double. We are body and soul; outside and inside;
carcases that can be weighed and spirits that can fly.
PULPIT, " ot with a perfect heart. This is illustrated by his coming "to set up the
gods of Edom" (2 Chronicles 25:14-16, 2 Chronicles 25:20); also by what the
parallel supplies, that he resembled Joash rather than David, and did not suppress
"the high places, sacrifices, and in-cense-burning'' (2 Kings 14:3, 2 Kings 14:4). In
almost all cases, the not perfect heart speaks of that which began well, but did not
"endure unto the end."
BI, "And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect
heart.
Half-hearted, and therefore a failure
It was not because Amaziah was not sinless that his life proved such a failure, but
because he was not thorough going in his principle and piety. English life at present
seems to be afflicted with a plague of levity. There is so much hollowness and unreality,
so much veneer in character and work, that it behoves us to preach aloud the gospel of
thoroughness. A short time ago some workmen were engaged in trying to remove a piece
of old London wall. They tried with hammers, then with pick-axes, but to no purpose,
the wall seemed to smile at all their efforts; at last they were obliged to have recourse to
boring, and blowing it up like a piece of solid rock. That is hardly the way they build
nowadays, for a man might almost push over some of our brick walls with his hand.
Now, this is just an illustration of what I mean, the want of thoroughness in every
branch of industry and in every walk of life. When a man’s own character is not solid,
permeated through and through with Christian principle, you cannot have any guarantee
of the genuineness of his work. Shams abound everywhere. Gilt and paint carry the day.
Ours is an age of tinsel. And the worst of it is that this unrealness characterises much of
the religion amongst us. I sometimes meet with a horrible form of Antinomianism,
which virtually says, “Anything will do for me—I am a disciple of Christ”; and so the
work is actually more slovenly and imperfect because the individual claims to be “not
under the law, but under grace.” Why, it is almost as monstrous as the proposal a good

10. young man made to his landlady, that his own excellent Christian example should serve
in lieu of weekly payment for his lodgings! A men—I don’t care who he is—dishonours
Christ when any other person is put to disadvantage by his piety. If you imagine you are
more free to do slipshod work because you are a Christian, I say, it is precisely the
reverse. It is just because you claim to be the Lord’s that any sort of work will not do.
Bearing His name, you are responsible to Him for every detail of your daily life. If your
secular duties are more imperfectly discharged because you are a believer, you do great
wrong to the Redeemer. If you snatch a little of your employer’s time to scatter tracts, or
prepare for a Sabbath class, or even to read your Bible; or if, in business hours, your
thoughts are so given to spiritual themes that you cannot do justice to your work, in any
of these cases you do real harm to religion. (J. T. Davidson, D.D.)
The character of Amaziah
This history is adduced to lead to self-scrutiny.
I. The act of assembling is in accordance with God’s revealed wishes; and therefore the
act of assembling is a right act. But am I able to believe that every men and woman joins
the assembly from such motives as would stand the test of Heaven? Not with a perfect
heart.
II. Again, in the matter of listening to God’s Word preached. Some listen from the desire
of passing away a dull hour—as a sort of religious entertainment. Alas for the perfect
heart!
III. As to your conduct outside the walls of the sanctuary. You are upright and
honourable in trade. But why? It is a sad thing when a man’s actions are right because he
wishes to be aggrandised, or because he wishes a high place in human estimation, and
knows not the only right motive—a desire to please Him “who hath loved us, and given
Himself for us.” (T. W. Thompson, B.A.)
Not with a perfect heart
Off Cape Horn we witnessed a singular sight. For some miles there was a narrow strip of
water, where the great waves flew in broken spray and dashed high over the ship. On
either side the sea was comparatively calm, whilst this boiled with fury, rolling and
surging. Yet there was no rock about which the sea surged, nor was there any such fierce
wind as to account for it. Overhead the air was thick with sea-fowl. Thousands of the
birds dived into this troubled water. The smaller fish were, I suppose, flung up by the
toss, and thus fell a prey to the birds. I asked, naturally, what was the reason of this
strange sight, and found it was the point at which the tide met the strong current of the
sea, and here they raged together. Within, the tide only ran, and it was calm. Without,
the current prevailed, and there, too, was calm. On this troubled bit they met, and
neither prevailed. It is the picture of those who are at once too religious to belong to the
world—too worldly to belong to religion; torn by both and satisfied by neither. (Mark
Guy Pearse.)
Whole-hearted religion required
At one of the conferences between the Northern and Southern States of America during

11. the war of 1861-1866 the representatives of the Southern States stated what cession of
territory they were prepared to make, provided that the independence of the portion that
was not ceded to the Federal Government was secured. More and more attractive criers
were made, the portions to be ceded being increased, and those to be retained in a state
of independence being proportionately diminished. All the offers were met by a steadfast
refusal. At last President Lincoln placed his hand on the map so as to cover all the
Southern States, and in these emphatic words delivered his ultimatum: “Gentlemen, this
Government must have the whole.” God cannot share us with the world. (A. Plummet,
D.D.)
3 After the kingdom was firmly in his control, he
executed the officials who had murdered his
father the king.
HE RY 3-4, "II. A necessary piece of justice which he did upon the traitors that
murdered his father: he put them to death, 2Ch_25:3. Though we should suppose they
intended to avenge on their king the death of the prophet (as was intimated, 2Ch_
24:25), yet this would by no means justify their wickedness; for they were not the
avengers, but presumptuously took God's work out of his hands: and therefore Amaziah
did what became him in calling them to an account for it, but forbade the putting of the
children to death for the parents' sin, 2Ch_25:4.
GUZIK, "2. (2 Chronicles 25:3-4) An example Amaziah’s obedience.
ow it happened, as soon as the kingdom was established for him, that he executed
his servants who had murdered his father the king. However he did not execute
their children, but did as it is written in the Law in the Book of Moses, where the
LORD commanded, saying, “The fathers shall not be put to death for their children,
nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers; but a person shall die for his
own sin.”
a. He executed his servants who had murdered his father the king: This was both
just and in the best interest of Amaziah. It was good for him to eliminate those who
found the assassination of the king a reasonable way to change the kingdom.
i. It also fulfilled God’s command to punish murderers with execution, first given in

12. Genesis 9:5-7.
b. He did not execute their children, but did as it is written in the Law of the Book
of Moses: It was the standard practice of the ancient world to execute not only the
guilty party in such a murder, but also their family. Amaziah went against the
conventional practice of his day and obeyed the word of God instead (Deuteronomy
24:16).
i. “Wherein he showed some faith and courage, that he would obey this command of
God, though it was very hazardous to himself, such persons being likely to seek
revenge for their father’s death.” (Poole)
PULPIT, "Was established to him; Hebrew, ‫ָה‬‫ק‬ְ‫ז‬ָ‫ח‬ . This is kal conjugation of the
verb, which we found in piel in 2 Chronicles 25:5 of foregoing chapter, and there
rendered "repair." The kal force of the word is simply to "be strong" (Genesis
41:57; Joshua 17:13; 2 Kings 14:5). The hiph; to "make strong," or "confirm," as it
is rendered here, is found in 2 Kings 15:19. Again and again the disorders of the
kingdom and the violent deaths of prophets and kings must have greatly
contributed to nervous apprehensions, in fact only too just, when a new king
ascended the throne. In the parallel and in passage last quoted the words, "in his
hand," follow the verb. Amaziah both needed to get his own hand in, according to
modern phrase, and to get things well into his hand. His servants. It may be held
surprising that they should have been found "in the place," or should now be his
servants at all. The explanation may be either that their guilt had not yet been
known, or, if known, had not been fixed upon them.
4 Yet he did not put their children to death, but
acted in accordance with what is written in the
Law, in the Book of Moses, where the Lord
commanded: “Parents shall not be put to death
for their children, nor children be put to death for
their parents; each will die for their own sin.”[a]
ELLICOTT, "(4) But he slew not their children.—The verse coincides almost
exactly with 2 Kings 14:6. Literally, And their sons he put not to death; but

13. according to what is written in the Torah, in the book of Moses, which Jehovah
commanded, &c. The reference is evidently to Deuteronomy 24:16, which is more
exactly repeated in Kings than here.
But every man shall die for his own sin.—Literally, But, each for (in) his own sin,
shall they be put to death. Kings has the singular.
PULPIT, "Slew not their children. Emphasis (the emphasis of mention, at any rate)
is laid upon this, perhaps partly to show that Amaziah did in some measure walk by
"the Law of the Lord," and partly because of numerous cases that had grown up to
the opposite (2 Kings 9:8, 2 Kings 9:26; Joshua 7:24, Joshua 7:25, where, however,
very possibly all were more or less aiders and abettors of the wickedness). For
Moses' clearly written rehearsal of "the commandment of the Lord," on this
subject, see the marginal references, Deuteronomy 24:16; Jeremiah 31:29, Jeremiah
31:30; Ezekiel 18:4, Ezekiel 18:19, Ezekiel 18:20.
5 Amaziah called the people of Judah together
and assigned them according to their families to
commanders of thousands and commanders of
hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He then
mustered those twenty years old or more and
found that there were three hundred thousand
men fit for military service, able to handle the
spear and shield.
BAR ES, "Three hundred thousand - Asa’s army had been nearly twice as
numerous, amounting to 580, 000 2Ch_14:8. The diminution was due, in part, to wars
2Ch_21:8, 2Ch_21:16; 2Ch_24:23-24; in part, to the general decadence of the kingdom.
CLARKE, "Gathered Judah together - He purposed to avenge himself of the
Syrians, but wished to know his military strength before he came to a rupture.

14. GILL, "Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together,.... The inhabitants thereof:
and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds,
according to the houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and
Benjamin; he divided the people, according to their families throughout his kingdom,
into thousands and hundreds, and out of their respective families appointed captains
over them:
and he numbered them from twenty years old and above; the usual age men
were numbered at for war, to the fiftieth, according to Josephus; the Roman law (a)
obliged none to be soldiers after fifty, nor might any be dismissed before (b); the age of
military men with the Romans was from seventeen to forty six, or, as some, forty five;
but with the Persians from twenty as here to fifty (c):
and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able to go forth to
war, that could handle spear and shield; which shows that their number was
greatly decreased since the times of Jehoshaphat, 2Ch_17:14, occasioned by the wars
under Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Joash; some copies of the Vulgate Latin (d) have only
30,000.
HE RY 5-6, "III. An expedition of his against the Edomites, who, some time ago,
had revolted from under the dominion of Judah, to which he attempted to reduce them.
Observe,
1. The great preparation he made for this expedition. (1.) He mustered his own forces,
and marshalled them (2Ch_25:5), and found Judah and Benjamin in all but 300,000
men that were fit for war, whereas, in Jehoshaphat's time, fifty or sixty years before, they
were four times as many. Sin weakens a people, diminishes them, dispirits them, and
lessens their number and figure. (2.) He hired auxiliary troops out of the kingdom of
Israel, 2Ch_25:6. Finding his own kingdom defective in men, he thought to make up the
deficiency with his money, and therefore took into his pay 100,000 Israelites. If he had
advised with any of his prophets before he did this, or had but considered how little any
of his ancestors got by their alliances with Israel, he would not have had this to undo
again. But rashness makes work for repentance.
JAMISO , "2Ch_25:5-10. Having hired an army of Israelites against the Edomites,
at the word of a prophet he loses a hundred talents and dismisses them.
Amaziah ... made captains, etc. — As all who were capable of bearing arms were
liable to serve, it was quite natural in making up the muster-roll to class them according
to their respective families and to appoint the officers of each corps from the same
quarter; so that all the soldiers who formed a regiment were brothers, relatives, friends.
Thus the Hebrew troops were closely linked together, and had strong inducements to
keep steady in their ranks.
found them three hundred thousand choice men — This was only a fourth part
of Jehoshaphat’s army (2Ch_17:14-19), showing how sadly the kingdom of Judah had, in
the space of eighty-two years, been reduced in population by foreign wars, no less than
by internal corruptions. But the full amount of Amaziah’s troops may not be here stated.
K&D, "The succeeding section, 2Ch_25:5-16, enlarges upon Amaziah's preparations

15. for war with Edom, which had revolted under Joram of Judah, 2Ki_8:22; upon the
victory over the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, and on the results of this war; - on all
which we have in 2Ki_14:7 only this short note: “he smote Edom in the valley of Salt
10,000 men, and took Selah in war, and called its name Joktheel unto this day.” But the
more exact statements of the Chronicle as to the preparations and the results of this war
and victory are important for Amaziah's later war with Kings Joash of Israel, which is
narrated in 2Ch_25:17. of our chapter, because in them lie the causes of that war, so fatal
to Amaziah; so that the history of Amaziah is essentially supplemented by those
statements of the Chronicle which are not found in 2 Kings.
2Ch_25:5-7
The preparations for the war against Edom, and the victory over the Edomites in the
Valley of Salt. - 2Ch_25:5. Amaziah assembled Judah, i.e., the men in his kingdom
capable of bearing arms, and set them up (ordered them) according to the princes of
thousands and hundreds, of all Judah and Benjamin, and passed them in review, i.e.,
caused a census to be taken of the men liable to military service from twenty years old
and upward. They found 300,000 warriors “bearing spear and target” (cf. 2Ch_14:7); a
relatively small number, not merely in comparison with the numbers under
Jehoshaphat, 2Ch_17:14., which are manifestly too large, but also with the numberings
made by other kings, e.g., Asa, 2Ch_14:7. By Joram's unfortunate wars, 2Ch_21:17,
those of Ahaziah, and especially by the defeat which Joash sustained from the Syrians,
2Ch_24:23, the number of men in Judah fit for war may have been very much reduced.
Amaziah accordingly sought to strengthen his army against the Edomites, according to
2Ch_25:6, by having an auxiliary corps of 100,000 men from Israel (of the ten tribes)
for 100 talents of silver, i.e., he took them into his pay. But a prophet advised him not to
take the Israelitish host with him, because Jahve was not with Israel, viz., on account of
their defection from Jahve by the introduction of the calf-worship. To Israel there is
added, (with) all the sons of Ephraim, to guard against any misunderstanding.
COFFMA , ""Jehovah is not with Israel, to wit, the children of Ephraim" (2
Chronicles 25:7). The man of God here made it plain that the rebellion of the
northern tribes against the Davidic dynasty had forfeited their further identity as
"God's Chosen People." This is the reason that the Chronicler completely ignored,
in as much as it was possible, the entire orthern Israel, focusing his attention
completely upon the fortunes of Judah.
"The top of the rock" (2 Chronicles 25:12). "This was the height of Petra, the
Edomite capital, near where the battle was fought."[1]
Other Scriptures which relate the horrible cruelties of the Edomite wars with Israel
are 1 Kings 11:15; Ezekiel 25:12; and Obadiah 1:1:14. The Edomites were
descendants of Esau, Jacob's twin brother; and there is no more terrible an example
of brother hating brother in human history.
ELLICOTT, "AMAZIAH’S MILITARY STRE GTH, A D CO QUEST OF
EDOM
(2 Chronicles 25:5-13).

16. This section is for the most part peculiar to Chronicles. In Kings the conquest of
Edom is recorded in a single verse (2 Kings 14:7).
(5) And made them captains over thousands.—Rather, And made them stand
(marshalled them) according to father houses, to wit, according to the captains of
thousands and according to the captains of hundreds of all Judah and Benjamin.
umbered.—Mustered.
Twenty years old.—The military age: umbers 1:2-3; 1 Chronicles 27:23.
Three hundred thousand.—A total immensely below that of the forces of
Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 17:14-18), and not much more than half that of Asa’s (2
Chronicles 14:8). All these high numbers are no doubt suspicious; but a certain
relative propriety is observable in the present instance, inasmuch as the country had
suffered great losses by the disastrous wars of Jehoram, Ahaziah, Joash.
Able to go forth to war.—Literally, going out in the host. (See um. l.c.)
That could handle spear and shield.—Grasping lance and target, i.e., heavy-armed
warriors. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 12:8.)
GUZIK, "3. (2 Chronicles 25:5-8) Preparations for battle against Edom.
Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together and set over them captains of
thousands and captains of hundreds, according to their fathers’ houses, throughout
all Judah and Benjamin; and he numbered them from twenty years old and above,
and found them to be three hundred thousand choice men, able to go to war, who
could handle spear and shield. He also hired one hundred thousand mighty men of
valor from Israel for one hundred talents of silver. But a man of God came to him,
saying, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with
Israel; not with any of the children of Ephraim. But if you go, be gone! Be strong in
battle! Even so, God shall make you fall before the enemy; for God has power to
help and to overthrow.”
a. He also hired one hundred thousand mighty men of valor from Israel: In
assembling an army (that would eventually fight against Edom), Amaziah hired
mercenary troops from the northern tribes of Israel. This was a common practice in
the ancient world.
b. O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel:
This anonymous prophet warned King Amaziah to not use the Israelite troops that
he had hired. Going further, he warned him that if he should go to battle using these
Israelite troops, God shall make you fall before the enemy.
i. Even though it made military sense for Amaziah to hire and use these troops,

17. according to the word from God, it made no spiritual sense. This is because God has
power to help and to overthrow. To fight with God is to receive His help; to fight
against Him is have God overthrow you.
PULPIT, "This and the following five verses are entirely omitted in the parallel,
which contents itself with giving in its 2 Chronicles 25:7, in fewer words, but with
the supplement of other matter, what is contained in our 2 Chronicles 25:11. Found
them three hundred thousand. Compare Asa's "five hundred and eighty thousand"
(2 Chronicles 14:8), and Jehoshaphat's "eleven hundred and sixty thousand" (2
Chronicles 17:14-19; see note, however, on these verses, and the improbability of
numbers so high). The Hebrew text of the second clause of this verse simply says,
"he set them" ( ‫ם‬ֵ‫יד‬ִ‫מ‬ֲ‫ע‬ַ‫י‬ ), or placed them according to … fathers' houses, under
captains, etc; glancing most naturally at u 1:2-2:34. Twenty years old and above.
6 He also hired a hundred thousand fighting men
from Israel for a hundred talents[b] of silver.
GILL, "He hired also one hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of
Israel,.... The ten tribes, judging his own army not sufficient for his expedition against
the Edomites he was meditating:
for one hundred talents of silver; which amounted to 35,300 pounds sterling, and
according to Beckius (e) were about five florins and a half to each soldier.
JAMISO , "He hired also an hundred thousand mighty men of valour ...
for an hundred talents of silver — This sum was paid into the treasury of Jehoahaz
- not given as bounty to the mercenaries who were obliged to serve at the sovereign’s
call; their remuneration consisting only in the booty they might obtain. It was about
$170,000, being $17 per man, including officers - a very paltry pay, compared with the
bounty given for a soldier in this country. But it must be remembered that in ancient
times campaigns were short and the hazards of the service comparatively small.
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 25:6. He hired a hundred thousand men out of Israel —
Out of the kingdom of the ten tribes. If he had advised with any of his prophets
before he did this, or had but considered how little any of his ancestors had got by

18. their alliances with Israel, he would not have thus done what he had soon to undo
again. But rashness makes work for repentance.
ELLICOTT, "(6) He hired also . . . out of Israel—i.e., from the northern kingdom.
The number has probably suffered in transmission. Thenius pronounces the fact
historical, although not recorded in Kings.
An hundred talents of silver.—Worth about £40,000 of our money, reckoning £400
to the talent. What such a sum would represent in the days of Amaziah cannot be
determined with certainty.
PULPIT, "Out of Israel. The next verse tells us that "all the children of Ephraim"
(which was strictly the northern Israel's chief tribe) are hereby designated. It is not
quite clear that this Israel is exactly conterminous with the Israel of 2 Chronicles
13:3, the identity of which, however, with Joab's Israel (2 Samuel 24:9) is very
probable. The boundaries of the strict tribe of Ephraim, whose ancestor was
Joseph's younger son, are described in Joshua 16:5. The tribe were located as nearly
as possible in the centre of the land. Ephraim, however, is here, as in many other
places, as the name of the royal tribe, so named upon the whole of the northern
kingdom (Isaiah 9:8; Isaiah 17:3; Isaiah 28:3; several times in almost every chapter
of Hosea, and for a typical instance, cf. Hosea 14:8).
7 But a man of God came to him and said, “Your
Majesty, these troops from Israel must not march
with you, for the Lord is not with Israel—not with
any of the people of Ephraim.
CLARKE, The Lord is not with Israel - “The Word of the Lord is not the helper of
the Israelites, nor of the kingdom of the tribe of Ephraim.” - Targum.
GILL, "But there came a man of God to him,.... Who the Jews say (f) was the
brother of the king, Amos, the father of Isaiah, but without foundation:

19. saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; to war against Edom;
meaning the 100,000 men he had hired, and suggesting that to have them with him
would not be to his advantage, but his detriment, for the following reason:
for the Lord is not with Israel, to wit:
with all the children of Ephraim; they being idolaters, worshippers of the calves;
and as they had forsaken the Lord, he had forsaken them; therefore no help could be
expected from them; the Targum is,"the Word of the Lord is not their help.''
HE RY 7-8, "2. The command which God sent him by a prophet to dismiss out of
his service the forces of Israel, 2Ch_25:7, 2Ch_25:8. He would not have him call in any
assistance at all: it looked like distrust of God. If he made sure of God's presence, the
army he had of his own was sufficient. But particularly he must not take in their
assistance: For the Lord is not with the children of Ephraim, because they are not with
him, but worship the calves. This was a good reason why he should not make use of
them, because he could not depend upon them to do him any service. What good could
be expected from those that had not God with them, nor his blessings upon their
undertakings? It is comfortable to employ those who, we have reason to hope, have an
interest in heaven, and dangerous to associate with those from whom the Lord has
departed. The prophet assured him that if he persisted in his resolution to take these
idolatrous apostate Israelites with him, in hopes thereby to make himself strong for the
battle, it was at his peril; they would prove a dead weight to his army, would sink and
betray it: “God shall make thee fall before the enemy, and these Israelites will be the ruin
of thy cause; for God has power to help thee without them, and to cast thee down though
thou hast them with thee.”
JAMISO , "there came a man of God — sent to dissuade Amaziah from the
course he was following, on the ground that “the Lord is not with Israel.” This statement
was perfectly intelligible to the king. But the historian, writing long after, thought it
might require explanation, and therefore added the comment, “with all the children of
Ephraim.” Idolatry had long been the prevailing religion in that kingdom, and Ephraim
its headquarters. As to the other part of the prophet’s advice (2Ch_25:8), considerable
obscurity hangs over it, as the text stands; and hence some able critics have suggested
the insertion of “not” in the middle clause, so that the verse will be thus: “But if thou wilt
go [alone], do, be strong for the battle; God shall not make thee fall before the enemy.”
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 25:7-8. Let not the army of Israel go with thee — It is
comfortable to employ those who, we have reason to hope, have an interest in
heaven; but dangerous associating with those from whom the Lord is departed. For
the Lord is not with Israel — He hath forsaken them; and prosperity shall not
attend thy counsels and undertakings, if thou joinest thyself with them. But if thou
wilt go, do it — It is an ironical concession, like that of Micaiah to Ahab, Go and
prosper.

20. ELLICOTT, "(7) The Lord is not with Israel.—Comp. 2 Chronicles 19:2; 2
Chronicles 20:37; also 2 Chronicles 16:7.
To wit, with all the children of Ephraim.—Added as an explanation of the term
Israel. Ephraim was the name of the northern kingdom (Hosea 5:11; Hosea 5:14;
Hosea 6:4, and passim).
PULPIT, "(See foregoing chapter, 2 Chronicles 24:19.) The name of this man of
God does not transpire. To wit, with. These three words, all in italic type, if entirely
omitted, and not even the preposition adopted, as in the Revised Version, into the
ordinary type, will leave the intention of the writer clearer rather than less clear.
8 Even if you go and fight courageously in battle,
God will overthrow you before the enemy, for
God has the power to help or to overthrow.”
BAR ES, "If the present text is regarded as sound, this passage must be taken
ironically. But most recent commentators supply a second negative, and render it: “But
go thou alone, act, be strong for the battle - God shall then not make thee to fall.”
GILL, "But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle,.... An ironical
expression; if thou wilt not be advised, take them with thee, and try what thou canst do;
exert all thy courage, and use thy military skill, and mark the issue:
God shall make thee fall before the enemy; notwithstanding the number of thy
troops, and those of thy auxiliaries; though some take them to be spoken seriously, and
read the words, "but go thou"; that is, alone, without the hired troops, and fight boldly
and courageously; or otherwise "God shall make thee fall", &c.
for God hath power to help and to cast down; to help with a few, and to cast down
with many; to help without the hired Israelites, and to cast down with them.
K&D, "2Ch_25:8
Amaziah is to go alone, and show himself valiant in war, and the Lord will help him to

21. conquer. This is without doubt the thought in 2Ch_25:8, which, however, does not seem
to be contained in the traditional Masoretic text. ‫האל‬ ָ‫ך‬ ְ‫יל‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫כ‬ַ‫י‬ can hardly, after the
preceding imperatives - do, be strong for battle - be otherwise translated than by, “and
God will cause thee to stumble before the enemy.” But this is quite unsuitable. Clericus,
therefore, would take the words ironically: sin minus, tu vadito, etc.; i.e., if thou dost not
follow my advice, and takest the Israelites with thee to the war, go, show thyself strong
for the war, God will soon cause thee to stumble. But ‫ם‬ ִ‫א‬ ‫י‬ ִⅴ can never signify sin minus.
Others, as Schmidt and Ramb., translate: Rather do thou go alone (without the
Israelitish auxiliaries), and be valiant, alioquin enim, si illos tecum duxeris, corruere te
faciet Deus; or, May God make thee fall before the enemy (De Wette). But the supplying
of alioquin, which is only hidden by De Wette's translation, cannot be grammatically
justified. This interpretation of the ָ‫ך‬ ְ‫יל‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫כ‬ַ‫י‬ would be possible only if the negation ‫ּא‬‫ל‬ ‫ם‬ ִ‫א‬ ‫י‬ ִⅴ
stood in the preceding clause and ָ‫ך‬ ְ‫יל‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫כ‬ַ‫י‬ was joined to it by ְ‫.ו‬ The traditional text is
clearly erroneous, and we must, with Ewald and Berth., supply a ‫ּא‬‫ל‬ or ‫ּא‬‫ל‬ְ‫ו‬ before ָ‫ך‬ ְ‫יל‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫כ‬ַ‫:י‬
God thou (alone), do, be valiant for battle, and God will not let thee come to ruin.
(Note: Even the old translators could make nothing of the present text, and
expressed the first clause of the verse as they thought best. lxx, ᆋτι ᅚᆭν ᆓπολάβης
κατασχሞσαι ᅚν τούτοις; Vulg., quod si putes in robore exercitus bella consistere; after
which Luth., “denn so du komest das du eine künheit beweisest im streit, wird Gott
dich fallen lassen für deinen Feinden.”)
After this we have very fittingly the reason assigned: “for with God there is power to
help, and to cause to fall.”
COKE, "2 Chronicles 25:8. But if thou wilt go, do it, &c.— But if thou wilt be more
obstinate, and go to the war, the Lord shall cause thee to fall before the enemy.
Houbigant; who renders the last clause of the preceding verse, the Lord is not with
Israel, who are all the children of Ephraim.
ELLICOTT, "(8) But if thou wilt go.—Rather, But go thyself; in contrast with the
prohibition, “Let not the army of Israel go.”
Do it, be strong for the battle.—Compare 1 Chronicles 22:16 : “Arise! act!”
God shall make thee fall.—Before these words, the expression wĕlô’, “and not,”
must have dropped out of the text. “Venture on the expedition by thyself. with a
good courage,” says the prophet, “and God will not let thee stumble before the foe.”
For God hath power.—For there is strength in God, to help and to make to stumble.
(Comp. 2 Chronicles 20:6; 1 Chronicles 29:12; Psalms 9:3.) The ancient versions
were evidently embarrassed by the passage. The LXX. render: “Because if thou
think to prevail through them, then will the Lord rout thee before thy foes; because
it is from the Lord both to be strong and to rout.” Vulg.: “But if thou thinkest that
wars depend on the strength of an army, God will make thee to be overcome by the
enemy.” Syriac: “Because thou art going to make war, the Lord will cast thee down

22. before thy foes; because thou hast not praised the Lord, who is the helper and
uplifter.” It is noticeable that no version inserts the required negative; the omission,
therefore, is ancient.
PULPIT, "It is hard to feel satisfied as to the correct rendering of this verse. The
drift of the next verse, which shows Amaziah a convert to the strong exhortation of
the man of God, makes either alternative allowable under the present text very
untimely. and not very much in accord with what we should look for at the lips of
the man of God. The very conceivable way out of the difficulty is to read ‫,לא‬
hyphened to ‫אם‬ (all the rather that no vau is present inֹ ‫,בּא‬ as the present text is),
and proceed to supply ‫בּא‬ or ‫בּוא‬ again before ‫ה‬ָ‫תּ‬ַ‫,א‬ crediting some copyist with
confusion of eye through these having come close together in his manuscript. The
rendering will then be straightforward, and prepare the way for Amaziah's yielding
conformably with the tenor of the next verse. "But if not" (i.e. if thou wilt not be
guided by my remonstrance as to Ephraim), "go thou, be on the alert, exert all the
strength possible for the battle, and yet nevertheless God will cause thee to
stumble." And the remaining sentence may bear this significance, "For God hath
power to help thee though alone, or to cast thee down though supported by an extra
hundred thousand." If such alteration or conjectural restoration of the text be not
accepted, we may harmonize the facts of the case with the most utter faithfulness of
lip on the part of the prophet, by translating, "For in very truth, if thou go at all,
and though thou make the best preparations, God shall make it go ill with thee."
And Amaziah is persuaded to this point, that he will neither risk the lives of them of
Ephraim vainly, nor risk the likelier displeasure of God on himself. He yields only
partly, and therefore is nothing benefited. The difficulty is left untouched, that the
prophet did not simply in toto forbid Amaziah to go, and that, saving them of
Ephraim, he saves them to be a second scourge for the back of Amaziah, though he
took his prophet's advice so far, and lost his own money. A careful and devout
observer of human life and perverseness, when once these commit themselves to the
vain struggle with God, and equally vain attempt to haggle with his providence as to
how much to yield and how much to resist and with. hold, cannot but be struck with
the photograph here thrown off, and that it is a faithful one, of hard facts that have
met together disastrously times without number in men's lives. The sum, then, of the
matter of our 2 Chronicles 25:7, 2 Chronicles 25:8 may amount to this: "Under no
circumstances take Israel, and if thou go thyself with all best preparations, yet know
that God shall destroy thee."
9 Amaziah asked the man of God, “But what
about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite
troops?”

23. The man of God replied, “The Lord can give you
much more than that.”
CLARKE, "The Lord is able to give thee much more than this - Better lose
the money than keep the men, for they will be a curse unto thee.
GILL, "And Amaziah said to the man of God, but what shall we do for the
one hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?.... They will be
lost, there is no demanding them back again; this he spake with some concern, as loath
to lose so much money:
and the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give thee much more than
this; whose is the earth, and the fulness thereof, the gold and silver, and all the riches of
it; and therefore he had no need to trouble himself about the loss of his money, which, if
obedient to the will of God, he might expect it would be abundantly repaid him.
HE RY, "3. The objection which Amaziah made against this command, and the
satisfactory answer which the prophet gave to that objection, 2Ch_25:9. The king had
remitted 100 talents to the men of Israel for advance-money. “Now,” says he, “if I send
them back, I shall lose that: But what shall we do for the 100 talents?” This is an
objection men often make against their duty: they are afraid of losing by it. “Regard not
that,” says the prophet: “The Lord is able to give thee much more than this; and, thou
mayest depend upon it, he will not see thee lose by him. What are 100 talents between
thee and him? He has ways enough to make up the loss to thee; it is below thee to speak
of it.” Note, A firm belief of God's all-sufficiency to bear us out in our duty, and to make
up all the loss and damage we sustain in his service abundantly to our advantage, will
make his yoke very easy and his burden very light. What is it to trust in God, but to be
willing to venture the loss of any thing for him, in confidence of the goodness of the
security he gives us that we shall not lose by him, but that whatever we part with for his
sake shall be made up to us in kind or kindness. When we grudge to part with any thing
for God and our religion, this should satisfy us, that God is able to give us much more
than this. He is just, and he is good, and he is solvent. The king lost 100 talents by his
obedience; and we find just that sum given to his grandson Jotham as a present (2Ch_
27:5); then the principal was repaid, and, for interest, 10,000 measures of wheat and as
many of barley.
K&D, "2Ch_25:9-10
Amaziah had regard to this exhortation of the prophet, and asked him only what he
should do for the 100 talents of silver which he had paid the Israelite auxiliary corps; to

24. which the prophet answered that Jahve could give him more than that sum. Amaziah
thereupon dismissed the hired Ephraimite mercenaries. ‫ם‬ ֵ‫יל‬ ִ ְ‫ב‬ַ‫,י‬ he separated them (sc.,
from his army prepared for battle), viz., the band, that they might go to their place, i.e.,
might return home. The ְ‫ל‬ before ‫דוּד‬ְ ַ‫ה‬ is nota accus., and ‫דוּד‬ְ ַ‫ה‬ ְ‫ל‬ is in apposition to the
suffix in ‫ם‬ ֵ‫יל‬ ִ ְ‫ב‬ַ‫.י‬ But the auxiliaries thus dismissed returned home full of wrath against
Judah, and afterwards fell upon the border cities of Judah, wasting and plundering
(2Ch_25:13). Their anger probably arose from the fact that by their dismissal the
opportunity of making a rich booty in war was taken away.
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 25:9. And Amaziah said, But what shall we do for the
hundred talents — The money remitted for the hire of the one hundred thousand
Israelitish soldiers. He considered, if he sent the men back he should lose that. Such
is the objection which men often make against complying with their duty: they are
afraid of losing by it. And the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee
much more — He hath many ways to make up that loss to thee, and certainly will
not suffer thee to be a loser by obeying his command. Observe, reader, a firm belief
of God’s all-sufficiency to bear us out in our duty, and to make up abundantly all
the loss and damage we sustain in his service, will render his yoke very easy, and his
burden very light. What is it to trust in God, but to be willing to venture the loss of
any thing for him, in confidence that it shall be amply made up to us in the way that
he sees will be best for us. This king lost one hundred talents of silver by his
obedience; and we find just that sum given to his grandson Jotham, as a present, 2
Chronicles 27:5. Then the principal was repaid, and for interest, ten thousand
measures of wheat, and as many of barley, were given him.
GUZIK, "4. (2 Chronicles 25:9) Amaziah’s question and the answer from the
prophet.
Then Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do about the hundred
talents which I have given to the troops of Israel?” And the man of God answered,
“The LORD is able to give you much more than this.”
a. But what shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the troops
of Israel? Amaziah heard and understood the word of God from His messenger. Yet
his question was familiar: “How much will it cost me to be obedient?” This is not
necessarily a bad question to ask, if we are willing to be persuaded by the LORD’s
answer.
b. The LORD is able to give you much more than this: The prophet wisely answered
Amaziah. Whatever obedience costs, it is always ultimately cheaper than
disobedience.
i. “But you say that you have already entered into so close an alliance that you
cannot draw back. You have invested your capital, you have gone to great
expenditure. Yet it will be better to forfeit these than Him.” (Meyer)

25. ISBET, "COU TI G THE COST
‘And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents
which I have given to the army of Israel?’ etc.
2 Chronicles 25:9
The subject brought before us in the text is the weighing of consequences.
I. The great principle which should guide all wise Christian people with regard to
the consideration of consequences is this: Wherever we are sure that duty leads,
wherever we are sure that God bids us go, then that way we should go, whatever
and however painful the consequences may be. The rule is that we are to do right,
and as for the consequences, leave them with God.
II. We are to do this humbly; we are not to do it in any strength of our own, but in
simple reliance on the promised grace of God.—The grand thing is, not that a man
should say that he will go on in the path of duty, whatever loss that may bring him,
but that those around him should see that he is going on in the path of duty, though
that should not be the path of worldly gain.
III. This subject is a most practical one.—The time will often come in which we see
plainly enough what is the path of duty, but are tempted to ask, What shall we do
for the hundred talents? There can be no doubt that in this world honesty is often
the very worst policy. But in the long run no man will ever lose by obeying God’s
bidding; and, just as assuredly, no man will ever gain by disobeying it.
Illustration
‘God cannot be in fellowship with us if we can tolerate fellowship with the ungodly.
We must choose between the two. If we can renounce all creature aid, and trust
simply in the eternal God, there is no limit to the victories He will achieve; but if,
turning from Him, we hold out our hand toward the world, we forfeit His aid. Oh,
child of God! let not the army of Israel go with thee. Do not adopt worldly policy,
methods, or partners. However strong you make yourself for the battle, in alliance
with these, you will fail. Indeed, God Himself will make you fall before the enemy,
that you may be driven back to Himself. But you say that you have already entered
into so close an alliance that you cannot draw back. You have invested your capital,
you have gone to great expenditure. But it will be better to forfeit these than Him.
Without these and with God beside you, you will be able to rout Edom, and smite
ten thousand men. Would that men knew the absolute deliverance which God will
effect for those whose hearts are perfect towards Him!’
SIMEO , "AMAZIAH’S CO FLICT BETWEE DUTY A D I TEREST
2 Chronicles 25:9. And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for
the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God

26. answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.
IT is humiliating to reflect, that move attention was often paid to the messengers of
the Most High by ungodly men under the Jewish dispensation, than is generally
paid to them even by the godly in the present day. At one time we read of a whole
army stopped and disbanded by one single declaration of a prophet [ ote: 1 Kings
12:21-24.]. At another time, a great national reformation was effected by the very
same means [ ote: 2 Chronicles 15:8-15.]. In like manner, when Amaziah king of
Judah was going with an army of four hundred thousand men against the Edomites,
one word from a man of God prevailed on him to dismiss one fourth of their
number, because, as being idolaters, they were under the displeasure of the Most
High. He was indeed concerned about the subsidy which he had paid them for their
assistance: but that only serves to shew more strongly what implicit obedience he
was disposed to pay to the commands of God, when he could so easily be induced to
sacrifice his temporal interests, and to release from their obligations so large a
portion of his army. The difficulty however which he started, and the solution of
that difficulty by the prophet, deserve particular attention. Let us consider,
I. The difficulty started—
Amaziah had hired one hundred thousand Israelites as auxiliaries in this war, and
had paid the money for their equipment; and, when he was required to discharge
them, he naturally concluded that he should lose all that he had advanced. Hence he
expressed to the prophet the difficulty that was in his mind. ow,
This is a common difficulty in the minds of men—
[Circumstances of necessity will sometimes arise, where duty and interest appear to
clash with each other. Sometimes they actually exist, as in the instance before us;
and sometimes they are only apprehended as likely to exist. It sometimes happens
that a person has been placed by his parents in a line of business where he cannot
get a livelihood without continually violating the laws of the land and the dictates of
his conscience. What is to be done in such a case? His property is embarked; and
cannot be disposed of without a considerable loss. And shall that be done? Shall
such a sacrifice be made to God? It is desirable indeed to maintain a conscience void
of offence; but is it to be done at such an expense?
It sometimes happens also that a person is educated for the ministry, with certain
expectation of preferment: but when the time for his ordination arrives, he finds no
disposition for the holy employment, no real determination to give himself wholly to
the service of the sanctuary. What then shall he do? To go to God with a lie in his
right hand, and profess that he is moved by the Holy Ghost to take on himself that
sacred function, when he is moved only by the temporal advantages annexed to it, is
very painful: and to contract a responsibility for the souls of hundreds and of
thousands, when he has scarcely any concern about his own, appears to him a very
dangerous step. But what must be done? He has been educated for it: he finds it
difficult to turn to any other line: and, above all, the provision designed for him will

27. be lost: and how can these difficulties be surmounted?
When the evils are in prospect only, their operation is exactly the same. One man
feels that it is his duty to become a faithful follower of Christ. But his parents will be
offended; his friends will be alienated: his prospects in life will be destroyed: and
how can he endure to make such sacrifices as these? A few pence he would readily
lose; but the loss of so many talents would be ruinous; and he knows not how to
combat evils of such magnitude as this.]
But the difficulty referred to would be no difficulty, if only we viewed things in their
true light—
[If we should suppose an angel sent down to sojourn for a time on earth, would he
find any hesitation whether to prefer his interest or his duty? or did the Apostle
Paul hesitate even when life itself was at stake: “I am ready,” says he, “not only to
be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the Lord’s sake.” or should we find any
difficulty if we formed a proper estimate of things around us. Should we regard our
temporal interests, if we reflected on the extreme emptiness and vanity of every
thing here below? Should we hesitate in our choice of evils, if we considered the
impossibility of ever being acknowledged by Christ, without forsaking all, even life
itself, for him? Above all, would we suffer the whole world to stand in competition
with Christ, if we considered what wonderful things he has done and suffered for
us? — — — Verily, the loss of all things compared with the loss of his favour, would
be only as a feather in a scale against a talent of lead; and, like Paul, we should
“count all things but loss, that we might win Christ;” and instead of repining at the
injuries sustained, should regard them rather as grounds of mutual congratulation;
saying with St. Paul, “If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I
joy and rejoice with you all: for the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me
[ ote: Philippians 2:17-18.].”]
But we cannot suggest a better view of this matter than that which is contained in
our text; in which we have,
II. The difficulty solved—
We are contented that men should lean to the side of interest, if only they will
consider wherein their true interest consists. If God cannot do more for them than
the world can, let them seek the world; or, if he cannot compensate all that they can
lose or suffer for him, let them seek the world. But we fear not to say, whatever be
the sacrifice which they make for him, “The Lord is able to give thee much more
than this;”
1. In this world—
[It is a certain truth, that God does often recompense the services or sufferings of his
people even with worldly prosperity: “Godliness hath in this respect the promise of
the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come [ ote: 1 Timothy 4:8.].” This

28. very consideration is urged by God himself as a motive to charity [ ote: Proverbs
3:9-10.]: and our text suggests it as an argument for submitting cheerfully to losses
in the path of duty. And it is curious to observe, that the loss sustained by Amaziah
in obedience to God’s command, was not only recompensed by present victory, but
was restored in a three-fold proportion to his grandson Jotham; the same sum being
paid to him for three successive years by the Ammonites, which Amaziah his
grandfather sacrificed to the Lord on this occasion [ ote: ver. 11. with 2 Chronicles
27:5.]. But it is not three, or thirty-fold that we are to expect, but “an hundred-fold”
of whatever we sacrifice for the Lord [ ote: Mark 10:29-30.]: and is not this an
ample compensation?
It is true, the Israelites whom he dismissed on this occasion did him great injury in
their return home [ ote: ver. 13.]: and this might almost seem to contradict the
promise in our text: but we apprehend that this very circumstance was permitted by
God, on purpose to shew Amaziah how great a ruin he had been delivered from;
since these Israelites were not hearty in his cause, and would have turned against
him when once they saw the Edomites prevail, and would thus have utterly
completed his destruction. Other reasons might be assigned for this dispensation: it
might be supposed to be a punishment on Amaziah for hesitating to obey the divine
mandate, and for placing his interest in competition with his duty: or it might be
intended to guard him against the idolatry into which he was about to fall, by
suffering the most idolatrous part of his own dominions to participate in the
judgments inflicted on the Edomites. But we apprehend, that the reason first
assigned, is that which was more immediately in the mind of God, when he
permitted to dark and mysterious a judgment to fall on one who was obedient to his
command, yea to arise, as it were, out of that very obedience.
But, waving all consideration of temporal recompence, God can infinitely more than
counterbalance all temporal losses by the richer effusion of his Spirit on the soul. If
he suffer us to be deprived of earthly wealth, are we any losers, if he communicate to
us a proportionable increase of spiritual riches? Cannot he, by the consolations of
his Spirit, raise us far above all temporal distresses, and, by opening a prospect
beyond the grave, make us to rejoice and glory in all the sufferings that can be
inflicted on us here? Behold the Apostle Paul, how he “took pleasure in infirmities,
and reproaches, and necessities, and persecutions, and distresses, for Christ’s sake,”
because they tended to his spiritual welfare [ ote: 2 Corinthians 12:10.]: and others,
his companions, “took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had in
heaven a better and an enduring substance [ ote: Hebrews 10:34.].” Thus may we
expect it to be with us in this world: “if our afflictions abound, so shall also our
consolation abound by Christ;” and the very sense of having sought the glory of
God will make every pain a pleasure, and every loss a gain.]
2. In the world to come—
[“If we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with him:” and who can declare the
full import of that promise? Truly, the reward that awaits the faithful followers of
Christ hereafter, no words can express, no imagination can conceive. It will be in

29. vain to attempt any description of the glory and felicity of heaven: but I will ask,
Whether one single plaudit from our Judge will not overbalance all that we can
either do or suffer in a hundred years? How indignant shall we be in that day, to
think that we permitted the things of time and sense to warp our judgment, or
embarrass our practice! One glimpse of the Saviour’s glory will repay whole years
of trouble: and no sooner shall we be received into his bosom, than we shall adore
him for every trial that weaned us from the world, and for every loss that facilitated
our progress towards the heavenly kingdom. Let us only take eternity into our
estimate, and we shall instantly say with the Apostle, “I reckon (I compute) that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that
shall be revealed in us [ ote: Romans 8:18.].”]
Address,
1. Those who are yet undecided in the course they shall take—
[Strongly as we have condemned the conduct of Amaziah for hesitating between the
calls of interest and of duty, we yet will venture to propose him as an example,
changing only the object of your concern. Are you tempted to violate a duty, or to
draw back from suffering, ask yourselves immediately, ‘But what shall I do for the
favour of my God? what shall I do for the peace of my conscience? what shall I do
for the salvation of my soul? How can I bear the loss of all these?’ Let, I say, your
hesitation be on this side: let the consideration of your eternal interests rise in your
mind as instinctively and forcibly, as that of temporal interests does in the mind of a
worldling: and then we shall have no fear but that your obedience to God’s word
will be prompt, uniform, and unreserved. You will “buy the truth” at any price,
“and never sell it” for a thousand worlds.]
2. Those who have been enabled to give up all for Christ—
[Whatever you may have lost or suffered, have you ever for a moment repented of
the sacrifices you have made? o: if your hearts are right with God, you will feel
yourselves indebted to God in proportion to the losses you have sustained for him;
seeing that the privilege of suffering for him is an inestimable gift [ ote: Philippians
1:29.], and the highest honour that can be conferred upon a child of man [ ote: Acts
5:41. 1 Peter 4:12-14.]. Go on then, Beloved, “strong in the Lord, and in the power
of his might:” and let it be seen in you, that “a man’s life consisteth not in the
abundance of the things that he possesseth,” but that “in God’s favour is life;” and
that, with “his love shed abroad in your heart,” “though you have nothing, you are
yet possessing all things [ ote: 2 Corinthians 6:10.].”]
MACLARE , "PRUDENCE AND FAITH
The character of this Amaziah, one of the Kings of Judah, is summed up by the
chronicler in a damning epigram: ‘He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,
but not with a perfect heart.’ He was one of your half-and-half people, or, as Hosea says,

30. ‘a cake not turned,’ burnt black on one side, and raw dough on the other. So when he
came to the throne, in the buoyancy and insolence of youth, he immediately began to
aim at conquests in the neighbouring little states; and in order to strengthen himself he
hired ‘a hundred thousand mighty men of valour’ out of Israel for a hundred talents of
silver. To seek help from Israel was, in a prophet’s eyes, equivalent to flinging off help
from God. So a man of God comes to him, and warns him that the Lord is not with
Israel, and that the alliance is not permissible for him. But, instead of yielding to the
prophet’s advice, he parries it with this misplaced question, ‘But what shall we do for the
hundred talents that I have given to the army of Israel?’ He does not care to ask whether
the counsel that he is receiving is right or wrong, or whether what he is intending to do is
in conformity with, or in opposition to, the will of God, but, passing by all such
questions, at once he fastens on the lower consideration of expediency-’What is to
become of me if I do as this prophet would have me do? What a heavy loss one hundred
talents will be! It is too much to sacrifice to a scruple of that sort. It cannot be done.’
A great many of us may take a lesson from this man. There are two things in my text-a
misplaced question and a triumphant answer: ‘What shall we do for the hundred
talents?’ ‘The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.’ Now, remarkably enough,
both question and answer may be either very right or very wrong, according as they are
taken, and I purpose to look at those two aspects of each.
I. A misplaced question.
I call it misplaced because Amaziah’s fault, and the fault of a great many of us, was, not
that he took consequences into account, but that he took them into account at the wrong
time. The question should have come second, not first. Amaziah’s first business should
have been to see clearly what was duty; and then, and not till then, the next business
should have been to consider consequences.
Consider the right place and way of putting this question. Many of us make shipwreck of
our lives because, with our eyes shut, we determine upon some grand design, and fall
under the condemnation of the man that ‘began to build, and was not able to finish.’ He
drew a great plan of a stately mansion; and then found that he had neither money in the
bank, nor stones in his quarry, to finish it, and so it stood-a ruin. All through our Lord’s
life He was engaged rather in repressing volunteers than in soliciting recruits, and He
from time to time poured a douche of cold water upon swiftly effervescing desires to go
after Him. When the multitudes followed Him, He turned and said to them, ‘If you are
counting on being My disciples, understand what it means: take up the cross and follow
Me.’ When an enthusiastic man, who had not looked consequences in the face, came
rushing to Him and said: ‘Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest,’ His answer
to him was another pull at the string of the shower bath: ‘The Son of Man hath not where
to lay His head.’ When the two disciples came to him and said: ‘Grant that we may sit,
the one on Thy right hand and the other on Thy left, when Thou comest into Thy
kingdom,’ He said: ‘Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink of, and to be baptized
with the baptism that I am baptized withal?’ Look the facts in the face before you make
your election. Jesus Christ will enlist no man under false pretences. Recruiting-sergeants
tell country bumpkins or city louts wonderful stories of what they will get if they take the
shilling and put on the king’s uniform; but Jesus Christ does not recruit His soldiers in
that fashion. If a man does not open his eyes to a clear vision of the consequences of his
actions, his life will go to water in all directions. And there is no region in which such
clear insight into what is going to follow upon my determinations and the part that I take
is more necessary than in the Christian life. It is just because in certain types of
character, ‘the word is received with joy,’ and springs up immediately, that when ‘the sun

31. is risen with a burning heat’-that is, as Christ explains, when the pinch of difficulty
comes-’immediately they fall away,’ and all their grand resolutions go to nothing.
‘Lightly come, lightly go.’ Let us face the facts of what is involved, in the way of sacrifice,
surrender, loss, if we determine to be on Christ’s side; and then, when the anticipated
difficulties come, we shall neither be perplexed nor swept away, but be able quietly to
say, ‘I discounted it all beforehand; I knew it was coming.’ The storm catches the ship
that is carrying full sail and expecting nothing but light and favourable breezes; while the
captain that looked into the weather quarter and saw the black cloud beginning to rise
above the horizon, and took in his sails and made his vessel snug and tight, rides out the
gale. It is wisdom that becomes a man, to ask this question, if first of all he has asked,
‘What ought I to do?’ But we have here an instance of a right thing in a wrong place. It
was right to ask the question, but wrong to ask it at that point. Amaziah thought nothing
about duty. There sprang up in his mind at once the cowardly and ignoble thought: ‘I
cannot afford to do what is right, because it will cost me a hundred talents,’ and that was
his sin. Consequences may be, must be, faced in anticipation, or a man is a fool. He that
allows the clearest perception of disagreeable consequences, such as pain, loss of ease,
loss of reputation, loss of money, or any other harmful results that may follow, to
frighten him out of the road that he knows he ought to take, is a worse fool still, for he is
a coward and recreant to his own conscience.
We have to look into our own hearts for the most solemn and pressing illustrations of
this sin, and I daresay we all of us can remember clear duties that we have neglected,
because we did not like to face what would come from them. A man in business will say,
‘I cannot afford to have such a high standard of morality; I shall be hopelessly run over
in the race with my competitors if I do not do as they do,’ or he will say, ‘I durst not take
a stand as an out-and-out Christian; I shall lose connections, I shall lose position. People
will laugh at me. What am I to do for the hundred talents?’ But we can find the same
thing in Churches. I do not mean to enter upon controversial questions, but as an
instance, I may remind you that one great argument that our friends who believe in an
Established Church are always bringing forward, is just a modern form of Amaziah’s
question, ‘What shall we do for the hundred talents? How could the Church be
maintained, how could its ministrations be continued, if its State-provided revenues
were withdrawn or given up?’ But it is not only Anglicans who put the consideration of
the consequences of obedience in the wrong place. All the Churches are but too apt to let
their eyes wander from reading the plain precepts of the New Testament to looking for
the damaging results to be expected from keeping them. Do we not sometimes hear, as
answer to would-be reformers, ‘We cannot afford to give up this, that, or the other
practice? We should not be able to hold our ground, unless we did so-and-so and so-
and-so.’
But not only individuals or Churches are guilty in this matter. The nation takes a leaf out
of Amaziah’s book, and puts aside many plain duties, for no better reason than that it
would cost too much to do them. ‘What is the use of talking about suppressing the liquor
traffic or housing the poor? Think of the cost.’ The ‘hundred talents’ block the way and
bribe the national conscience. For instance, the opium traffic; how is it defended? Some
attempt is made to prove either that we did not force it upon China, or that the talk
about the evils of opium is missionary fanaticism, but the sheet-anchor is: ‘How are we
ever to raise the Indian revenue if we give up the traffic?’ That is exactly Amaziah over
again, come from the dead, and resurrected in a very ugly shape.
So national policy and Church action, and-what is of far more importance to you and me
than either the one or the other,-our own personal relation to Jesus Christ and
discipleship to Him, have been hampered, and are being hampered, just by that

32. persistent and unworthy attitude of looking at the consequences of doing plain duties,
and permitting ourselves to be frightened from the duties because the consequences are
unwelcome to us.
Prudence is all right, but when prudence takes command and presumes to guide
conscience, then it is all wrong. In some courts of law and in certain cases, the judge has
an assessor sitting beside him, an expert about some of the questions that are involved.
Conscience is the judge, prudence the assessor. But if the assessor ventures up on the
judgment-seat, and begins to give the decisions which it is not his business to give-for
his only business is to give advice-then the only thing to do with the assessor is to tell
him to hold his tongue and let the judge speak. It is no answer to the prophet’s
prohibition to say, ‘But what shall I do for the hundred talents?’ A yet better answer than
the prophet gave Amaziah would have been, ‘Never mind about the hundred talents; do
what is right, and leave the rest to God.’ However, that was not the answer.
II. The triumphant answer.
‘The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.’ Now, this answer, like the question,
may be right or wrong, according as it is taken. In what aspect is it wrong? In what sense
is it not true? I suppose this prophet did not mean more than the undeniable truth that
God was able to give Amaziah more than a hundred talents. He was not thinking of the
loftier meanings which we necessarily, as Christian people, at a later stage of Revelation,
and with a clearer vision of many things, attach to the words. He simply meant, ‘You will
very likely get more than the hundred talents that you have lost, if you do what pleases
God.’ He was speaking from the point of view of the Old Testament; though even in the
Old Testament we have instances enough that prosperity did not always attend
righteousness. In the Old Testament we find the Book of Job, and the Book of
Ecclesiastes, and many a psalm, all of which were written in order to grapple with the
question, ‘How is it that God does not give the good man more than the hundred talents
that he has lost for the sake of being good?’ It is not true, and it is a dangerous mistake to
suggest that it is true, that a man in this world never loses by being a good, honest,
consistent Christian. He often does lose a great deal, as far as this world is concerned;
and he has to make up his mind to lose it, and it would be a very poor thing to say to
him, ‘Now, live like a Christian man, and if you are flinging away money or anything else
because of your Christianity, you will get it back.’ No; you will not, in a good many cases.
Sometimes you will, and sometimes you will not. It does not matter whether you do or
do not.
But the sense in which the triumphant answer of the prophet is true is a far higher one.
‘The Lord is able to give thee much more than this,’-what is ‘more’? a thousand talents?
No; the ‘much more’ that Christianity has educated us to understand is meant in the
depths of such a promise as this is, first of all, character. Every man that sacrifices
anything to convictions of duty gains more than he loses thereby, because he gains an
inward nobleness and strength, to say nothing of the genial warmth of an approving
conscience. And whilst that is true in all regions of life, it is most especially true in regard
to sacrifices made from Christian principle. No matter how disastrous may be the results
externally, the inward results of faithfulness are so much greater and sweeter and nobler
than all the external evil consequences that may follow, that it is ‘good policy’ for a man
to beggar himself for Christ’s sake, for the sake of the durable riches-which our Lord
Himself explains to be synonymous with righteousness-which will come thereby. He that
wins strength and Christ-likeness of character by sacrificing for Christ has won far more
than he can ever lose.
He wins not only character, but a fuller capacity for a fuller possession of Jesus Christ

33. Himself, and that is infinitely more than anything that any man has ever sacrificed for
the sake of that dear Lord. Do you remember when it was that there was granted to the
Apostle John the vision of the throned Christ, and that he felt laid upon him the touch of
the vivifying Hand from Heaven? It was ‘when I was in Patmos for the Word of God, and
for the testimony of Jesus.’ He lost Ephesus; he gained an open heaven and a visible
Christ. Do you remember who it was that said, ‘I have suffered the loss of all things, and
do count them but dung, that I may win Christ’? It was a good bargain, Paul! The
balance-sheet showed a heavy balance to your credit. Debit, ‘all things’; credit, ‘Christ.’
‘The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.’
Remember the old prophecy: ‘For brass I will bring gold; and for iron, silver.’ The brass
and the iron may be worth something, but if we barter them away and get instead gold
and silver, we are gainers by the transaction. Fling out the ballast if you wish the balloon
to rise. Let the hundred talents go if you wish to get ‘the more than this.’ And listen to
the New Testament variation of this man of God’s promise, ‘If thou wilt have treasure in
heaven, go and sell all that thou hast, and follow Me.’
BI, "And Amarish said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents
which I have given to the army of Israel?
Self-made difficulties
I. The path of duty was clearly before Amaziah. “Send the army of Israel away.”
II. He hesitated to tread it because there was a self-made difficulty in the way. So with
many to-day.
1. Worldly pleasure.
2. Worldly interests.
(1) A bad business, one you cannot ask God to bless.
(2) A legitimate business that is not conducted on Christian principles.
3. Worldly companions.
4. Bad habits.
III. God recognises the difficulty. “The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.”
When our first missionaries went to India, Dr. Cope died on the voyage. Some letters of
introduction to English gentlemen in India had been written. When his friends arrived
they went on shore and told how Dr. Cope had died and been buried in the deep sea. As
they knew nothing of the language of India they asked advice, and the advice given was,
“Take the first vessel that sails for England and go home again.” One of the young men of
the party said, “That is out of the question. I came here to preach the gospel, and, God
helping me, I mean to do it.” They said, “If you bring God into the matter, that alters it
altogether.” Bring God into your pleasure and into your business, and that will alter
them altogether. (Charles Garrett.)
God able to remunerate fidelity
I know a widow whose husband died and left her with a little family to struggle for. She
opened a little shop in the suburbs of the city, when one of the agents of a wine-
merchant waited upon her to ask her to be an agent for the sale of strong drink. She said,

34. “Never a drop shall enter my house.” He said “It will help you so much.” She said, “If it
helps me some, it will harm me more. I have children around me, and whether I prosper
or not, I will not gain anything to the injury of my fellow-creatures.” She has done
wonderfully. An intimate friend of mine went to see her, and said, “I cannot understand
how you get on, and why so many come to your shop, for they pass a number of good
shops to come to yours.” She said to her boy, “George, you are fond of ciphering; get
down your slate and put down how far off a man must live from my shop that God
cannot bring him there.” That settled it. “God is able to give more than this.” (Charles
Garrett.)
Rigid integrity may stand in the way
There can be no doubt that a certain flexibility and elasticity of soul and conscience may
make a man get on, as concerns this world, when rigid integrity would stand in his way.
Nothing would be easier than to mention striking instances in which men threw away
their chance of the highest places by an act of injudicious honesty. A trader who never
puffs his wares as better than they really are may not drive such a business as the brazen
individual who never spares the trumpet. A preacher who sets forth sound doctrine to
people who have not been accustomed to it, and who do not want it, may make himself
for a time obnoxious enough. But let us speak the truth and live the truth, no matter
what we may lose by it. (Charles Garrett.)
What shall we do for the hundred talents?
I. The command given. “Let not the army of Israel go with thee.”
1. It shows us God’s disapproval of union with the enemies of the truth. The children
of Ephraim had departed from the Lord, His favour was withdrawn from them:
Judah, if he hope for success, must send such helpers away. Yes, truly “the friendship
of the world is enmity with God.” To join affinity with such, as Amaziah did, is to run
into temptation and a snare.
2. But the command of God thus given leads us to notice, further, that His
disappointment of our hopes is in mercy, not in wrath. Perhaps to the mind of
Amaziah this only was wanting to ensure victory: his army was strong, and could he
but procure this aid from Israel all would be secure; and yet no sooner are they come
than the command is given. It is often thus in God’s dealings with our souls. “Not by
might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” “Could I but be
placed in such circumstances,” saith one, “Were but this diffficulty removed.” is the
thought of another, “then should I grow in grace, and prosper in my soul.” But it
cannot be, and you are discouraged. And yet it is in mercy, not in wrath, that your
wishes are crossed.
3. Observe that the command calls for immediate compliance. Not after aid received
in the battle, but now in the face of danger, at the risk of injury from those sent away,
injury, too, that was not feared without cause (2Ch_25:13). God’s command will not
bear delay.
II. the difficulty started. “And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for
the hundred talents that I have given to the army of Israel?” With some awe upon his
mind, a conviction of the necessity of obedience, Amaziah liked not the cost. This is the