2 kings 13 commentary

2 KI GS 13 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Jehoahaz King of Israel
1 In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah
king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king
of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned seventeen
years.
BAR ES, "In this chapter the history of the kingdom of Israel is traced through the
two reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoash. In 2 Kings 14 the history of Judah is resumed.
In the three and twentieth year - Rather, the “one and twentieth year.” See 2Ki_
13:10.
CLARKE, "In the three and twentieth year of Joash - The chronology here is
thus accounted for; Jehoahaz began his reign at the commencement of the twenty-third
year of Joash, and reigned seventeen years, fourteen alone, and three years with his son
Joash; the fourteenth year was but just begun.
GILL, "In the twenty and third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of
Judah,.... The same year he was so zealous and busy in repairing the temple, 2Ki_12:6,
Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria; whereas
Joash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and Jehu reigned but twenty eight
years, 2Ki_10:36, and 2Ki_12:1, this could be but the twenty first of Joash; to reconcile
which it must be observed, that it was at the beginning of the seventh year of Jehu that
Joash began to reign, and at the beginning of the twenty third of Joash that Jehoahaz
began to reign, as the Jewish commentators observe:
and reigned seventeen years; the two last of which were in common with his son, as
Junius, see 2Ki_13:10
HE RY 1-3, "This general account of the reign of Jehoahaz, and of the state of Israel
during his seventeen years, though short, is long enough to let us see two things which

are very affecting and instructive: -
I. The glory of Israel raked up in the ashes, buried and lost, and turned into shame.
How unlike does Israel appear here to what it had been and might have been! How is its
crown profaned and its honour laid in the dust! 1. It was the honour of Israel that they
worshipped the only living and true God, who is a Spirit, an eternal mind, and had rules
by which to worship him of his own appointment; but by changing the glory of their
incorruptible God into the similitude of an ox, the truth of God into a lie, they lost this
honour, and levelled themselves with the nations that worshipped the work of their own
hands. We find here that the king followed the sins of Jeroboam (2Ki_13:2), and the
people departed not from them, but walked therein, 2Ki_13:6. There could not be a
greater reproach than these two idolized calves were to a people that were instructed in
the service of God and entrusted with the lively oracles. In all the history of the ten tribes
we never find the least shock given to that idolatry, but, in every reign, still the calf was
their god, and they separated themselves to that shame. 2. It was the honour of Israel
that they were taken under the special protection of heaven; God himself was their
defence, the shield of their help and the sword of their excellency. Happy wast thou, O
Israel! upon this account. But here, as often before, we find them stripped of this glory,
and exposed to the insults of all their neighbours. They by their sins provoked God to
anger, and then he delivered them into the hands of Hazael and Benhadad, 2Ki_13:3.
Hazael oppressed Israel 2Ki_13:22. Surely never was any nation so often plucked and
pillaged by their neighbours as Israel was. This the people brought upon themselves by
sin; when they had provoked God to pluck up their hedge, the goodness of their land did
but tempt their neighbours to prey upon them. So low was Israel brought in this reign,
by the many depravations which the Syrians made upon them, that the militia of the
kingdom and all the force they could bring into the field were but fifty horsemen, ten
chariots, and 10,000 footmen, a despicable muster, 2Ki_13:7. Have the thousands of
Israel come to this? How has the gold become dim! The debauching of a nation will
certainly be the debasing of it.
JAMISO , "2Ki_13:1-7. Jehoahaz’s wicked reign over Israel.
Jehoahaz ... reigned seventeen years — Under his government, which pursued
the policy of his predecessors regarding the support of the calf-worship, Israel’s apostasy
from the true God became greater and more confirmed than in the time of his father
Jehu. The national chastisement, when it came, was consequently the more severe and
the instruments employed by the Lord in scourging the revolted nation were Hazael and
his son and general Ben-hadad, in resisting whose successive invasions the Israelitish
army was sadly reduced and weakened. In the extremity of his distress, Jehoahaz
besought the Lord, and was heard, not on his own account (Psa_66:18; Pro_1:28; Pro_
15:8), but that of the ancient covenant with the patriarchs (2Ki_13:23).
K&D, "Reign of Jehoahaz. - Jehu was followed by Jehoahaz his son, “in the twenty-
third year of Joash of Judah.” This synchronistic statement is not only at variance with
2Ki_13:10, but cannot be very well reconciled with 2Ki_12:1. If Jehoahaz began to reign
in the twenty-third year of Joash king of Judah, and reigned seventeen years, his son
cannot have followed him after his death in the thirty-seventh year of Joash of Judah, as
is stated in 2Ki_13:10, for there are only fourteen years and possibly a few months
between the twenty-third and thirty-seventh years of Joash; and even if he ascended the
throne at the commencement of the twenty-third year of the reign of Joash and died at

the end of the thirty-seventh, they could only be reckoned as fifteen and not as seventeen
years. Moreover, according to 2Ki_12:1, Joash of Judah began to reign in the seventh
year of Jehu, and therefore Athaliah, who ascended the throne at the same time as Jehu,
reigned fully six years. If, therefore, the first year of Joash of Judah coincides with the
seventh year of Jehu, the twenty-eighth year of Jehu must correspond to the twenty-
second year of Joash of Judah; and in this year of Joash not only did Jehu die, but his
son Jehoahaz ascended the throne. Consequently we must substitute the twenty-second
year of Joash, or perhaps, still more correctly, the twenty-first year (Josephus), for the
twenty-third.
(Note: On the other hand, Thenius, who follows des Vignoles and Winer, not only
defends the correctness of the account “in the twenty-third year of Joash,” because it
agrees with the twenty-eight years' reign of Jehu (2Ki_10:36), but also holds fast the
seventeen years' duration of the reign of Jehoahaz on account of its agreement with
2Ki_14:1; for 6 years (Athaliah) + 40 years (Joash) = 46 years, and 28 years (Jehu) +
17 years (Jehoahaz) = 45 years; so that, as is there affirmed, Amaziah the son of
Joash ascended the throne in the second year of Joash the son of Jehoahaz. But to
arrive at this result he assumes that there is an error in 2Ki_13:10, namely, that
instead of the thirty-seventh year we ought to read the thirty-ninth year there,
according to the edit. Aldina of the lxx. But apart from the fact that, as we have
shown above in the text, the datum “in the twenty-third year of Joash” does not
harmonize with the twenty-eight years' reign of Jehu, this solution of the difference
is overthrown by the circumstance that, in order to obtain this agreement between
2Ki_13:1 and 2Ki_13:14, Thenius reckons the years of the reigns not only of Athaliah
and Joash, but also of Jehu and Jehoahaz, as full years (the former 16 + 40, the latter
28 + 17); whereas, in order to bring the datum in 2Ki_13:1 (in the twenty-third year
of Joash) into harmony with the emendation proposed in 2Ki_13:10 (in the thirty-
ninth year of Joash), he reckons the length of the reign of Jehoahaz as only sixteen
years (instead of seventeen). For example, if Jehoahaz reigned seventeen years,
supposing that he ascended the throne in the twenty-third year of Joash of Judah, he
died in the fortieth year of Joash (not the thirty-ninth), and his son began to reign
the same year. In that case Amaziah would have begun to reign in the first year of
Jehoash of Israel, and not in the second, as is stated in 2Ki_14:1. - The reading of the
lxx (ed. Ald. v. 10), “in the thirty-ninth year,” is therefore nothing but a mistaken
emendation resorted to for the purpose of removing a discrepancy, but of no critical
value.)
If Jehu died in the earliest months of the twenty-eighth year of his reign, so that he
only reigned twenty-seven years and one or two months, his death and his son's ascent
of the throne might fall even in the closing months of the twenty-first year of the reign of
Joash of Judah. And from the twenty-first to the thirty-seventh year of Joash, Jehoahaz
may have reigned sixteen years and a few months, and his reign be described as lasting
seventeen years.
COFFMA , "The affairs in Judah are here dropped for the moment as this chapter
takes up the progress of corruption in Israel. "This chapter represents how
insidiously sin entrenches itself and spreads in spite of repeated efforts to check
it."[1] "Here we find the glory of Israel in ashes, buried and lost and turned into
shame. How unlike does Israel appear here to what it had been and what it might

have been. Here her crown is profaned and her honor dragged in the dust. It was
the honor of Israel that they worshipped the One True God; but by changing the
glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of an ox and the truth of God into
a lie, they had lost their glory and their honor and leveled themselves with the
nations who worshipped the work of their own hands."[2]
The first reign mentioned here is that of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, and, "The story
of his reign is one of unrelieved gloom. During the whole of it, Israel was under the
domination of Syria and was reduced to a state of complete helplessness."[3] The
apostate nation actually deserved to be cast off forever, but the heavenly Father, out
of regard for his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob spared them yet awhile.
THE REIG OF JEHOAHAZ; THE SO OF JEHU; I ISRAEL
"In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah,
Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned
seventeen years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and
followed the sin of Jeroboam the son of ebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin; he
departed not therefrom. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and
he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of
Benhadad the son of Hazael continually. And Jehoahaz besought Jehovah, and
Jehovah hearkened unto him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how that the king
of Syria oppressed them. (And Jehovah gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out
from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as
beforetime. evertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam,
wherewith he made Israel to sin, but walked therein: and there remained the
Asherah also in Samaria). For he left not to Jehoahaz of the people, save fifty
horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria
destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing. ow the rest of the acts
of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of
the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers; and they
buried him in Samaria: and Joash his son reigned in his stead."
"In the three and twentieth year of Joash" (2 Kings 13:1). Cook wrote that this
should be corrected to the "one and twentieth year on the basis of what is written in
2 Kings 13:10."[4]
"He ... followed the sins of Jeroboam" (2 Kings 13:2). We cannot accept the
allegations that the calf worship set up by Jeroboam I at Dan and Bethel was
anything other than outright rebellion against God. It is disgusting to this writer
how one liberal scholar after another lines up to claim that there was in any manner
whatever a suggestion of the true worship of God in all that calf business. For
example, Auld wrote that, "The shrines at Bethel and Dan were in fact a part of
Yahweh worship."[5] Ridiculous! They were no such thing. The worship of those
calves was sinful, reprobate, licentious and totally wicked. Some appeal to the fact
that Aaron did it in the wilderness with his Golden Calf. All right, go back to that
episode and see what happened!

God Himself declared that the people "had corrupted themselves" (Exodus 32:7).
Some claim that they were, in fact, "worshipping God"; but God himself said that,
"They have made a calf and worshipped it and that they sacrificed to it"! (Exodus
32:8). There was absolutely no worship of God whatever in that reversion ` to
paganism.
Under heavenly orders from God Himself, three thousand persons were put to death
that day for their departure from the truth (Exodus 32:27-28). "The almost
universal combination of unchastity with pagan rituals raises a suspicion that those
who frequented the calf shrines in Dan and Bethel were not innocent of
impurity."[6] The wickedness of that calf worship indicates that nothing whatever
in it entitled it to be considered any less wicked than the outright worship of Baal.
The apologists for that calf worship are totally in error.
ote especially the words in Exodus 32:6, where it is stated that, "They sat down to
eat and drink, and rose up to play." There was nothing innocent in that "playing."
It is called "dancing" in Exodus 32:19; but whatever it was, it precipitated the fierce
anger of God Himself. There was nothing innocent about it. The slaughter of three
thousand people compels us to equate what happened in Exodus 32 with what
happened in umbers 25, where the reason for the slaughter of a similar high
number of the so-called `worshippers' sheds much more light on what happened.
"Continually" (2 Kings 13:3). "Israel during this period was little more than a
vassal of Syria."[7]
"Jehoahaz besought Jehovah ... And Jehovah gave Israel a saviour, so that they
went out from under the hands of the Syrians" (2 Kings 13:4-5). The terrible
oppression of Syria upon Israel forced Jehoahaz to turn to God in prayer. "He had
forgotten God, forsaken him and betrayed him. But now that he is at his wits' end,
he turns to him. This is the only kind of religion some people know. As long as all
goes well, they manage all right without religion; but let calamity bend them low,
and they cry to God in prayer."[8]
"Jehovah gave Israel a saviour" (2 Kings 13:5). Scholars differ about who that
saviour was. Dentan thought he was, "Adad-nirari III, an Assyrian ruler who
subjected Damascus and crippled Syria's military domination of Israel."[9]
However, LaSor rejected that interpretation on the basis that, "The date of Adad-
nirari who subjected Damascus in 805 BC does not fit Biblical chronology."[10]
Perhaps the safest opinion is that of Keil who wrote that, "The saviour was neither
an angel nor the prophet Elisha, but the two successors of Jehoahaz, namely, Joash
and Jeroboam II."[11] Hammond thought that perhaps, "The prophet Jonah, who
prophesied the great deliverance by Jeroboam II, might also have been in
mind."[12]
"And there remained the Asherah also in Samaria" (2 Kings 13:6). Some have
expressed surprise at an Asherah being in Samaria; but no surprise is in order. It

was a thoroughly pagan city. As a matter of fact they even had their gold calf just
like Dan and Bethel (See Hosea 8:6).[13]
"He left Jehoahaz ... ten chariots" (2 Kings 13:7). This indicates that Hazael had
forbidden Jehoahaz to maintain any kind of an armed force except for a small token
for use on state occasions. "During the reign of Ahab, Israel had over 2,000
chariots; but now they were reduced to ten"![14] What had become of all those
soldiers of Ahab? The next clause tells us.
"The king of Syria destroyed them and made them like the dust in threshing" (2
Kings 13:7b). Yes, this is a metaphor, perhaps; but it also described a merciless and
brutal type of destroying defeated enemies after a battle. Amos referred to this as
follows: "I will not turn away the punishment of Damascus; because they threshed
Gilead with threshing instruments of iron" (Amos 1:4). This was accomplished by
making the defeated troops lie down; and then their conquerors drove iron
threshing instruments over them to slay them. Those instruments were something
that resembled harrows.
" ow the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz ..." (2 Kings 13:8). These words are a kind of
formula repeated in connection with all of the kings whose lives are reported in
1Kings and 2Kings, and their verbatim repetition time after time in the exact words,
"Indicates that both 1and 2Kings are by one author and that they form only one
book."[15]
ELLICOTT, "(1) In the three and twentieth year of Joash.—Josephus makes it the
twenty-first year of Joash, but wrongly. According to 2 Kings 12:1, Joash succeeded
in the seventh year of Jehu, and Jehu reigned twentyeight years (2 Kings 10:36).
Seventeen years.—This agrees with 2 Kings 14:1.
(2) And he did.—See otes on 2 Kings 3:3.
(3) He delivered them into the hand of Hazael.—Comp. 2 Kings 10:32, seq. The
meaning is that Jehovah allowed Israel to be defeated in successive encounters with
the Syrian forces, and to Suffer loss of territory, but not total subjugation.
According to the Assyrian data, Shalmaneser warred with Hazael in 842 B.C. , and
again in 839 B.C. (See otes on 2 Kings 8:15; 2 Kings 9:2.)
All their days.—Rather, all the days, i.e., continually (not all the days of Jehoahaz,
nor of Hazael and Ben-hadad). The phrase is an indefinite designation of a long
period of disaster.
EBC, "THE DY ASTY OF JEHU

Jehoahaz
814-797
{2 Kings 13:1-9}
Joash
797-781
{2 Kings 13:10-21; 2 Kings 14:8-16}
Jeroboam II
781-740
{2 Kings 14:23-29}
Zechariah
740
{2 Kings 15:8-12}
"Them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly
esteemed."
- 1 Samuel 2:30
ISRAEL had scarcely ever sunk to so low a nadir of degradation as she did in the
reign of the son of Jehu. We have already mentioned that some assign to his reign
the ghastly story which we have narrated in our sketch of the work of Elisha. It is
told in the sixth chapter of the Second Book of Kings, and seems to belong to the
reign of Jehoram ben-Ahab; but it may have got displaced from this epoch of yet
deeper wretchedness. The accounts of Jehoahaz in 2 Kings 13:1-25 are evidently
fragmentary and abrupt.
Jehoahaz reigned seventeen years. aturally, he did not disturb the calf-worship,
which, like all his predecessors and successors, he regarded as a perfectly innocent
symbolic adoration of Jehovah, whose name he bore and whose service he professed.
Why should he do so? It had been established now for more than two centuries. His
father, in spite of his passionate and ruthless zeal for Jehovah, had never attempted
to disturb it. o prophet-not even Elijah nor Elisha, the practical establishers of his
dynasty-had said one word to condemn it. It in no way rested on his conscience as an
offence; and the formal condemnation of it by the historian only reflects the more
enlightened judgment of the Southern Kingdom and of a later age. But according to
the parenthesis which breaks the thread of this king’s story, {2 Kings 13:5-6} he was

guilty of a far more culpable defection from orthodox worship; for in his reign, the
Asherah-the tree or pillar of the Tyrian nature-goddess-still remained in Samaria,
and therefore must have had its worshippers. How it came there we cannot tell.
Jezebel had set it up, {1 Kings 16:33} with the connivance of Ahab. Jehu apparently
had "put it away" with the great stele of Baal, {2 Kings 3:2} but, for some reason or
other, he had not destroyed it. It now apparently occupied some public place, a
symbol of decadence, and provocative of the wrath of Heaven.
Jehoahaz sank very low. Hazael’s savage sword, not content with the devastation of
Bashan and Gilead, wasted the west of Israel also in all its borders. The king became
a mere vassal of his brutal neighbor at Damascus. So little of the barest semblance
of power was left him, that whereas, in the reign of David, Israel could muster an
army of eight hundred thousand, and in the reign of Joash, the son and successor of
Jehoahaz, Amaziah could hire from Israel one hundred thousand mighty men of
valor as mercenaries, Jehoahaz was only allowed to maintain an army of ten
chariots, fifty horsemen, and ten thousand infantry! In the picturesque phrase of the
historian, "the King of Syria had threshed down Israel to the dust," in spite of all
that Jehoahaz did, or tried to do, and "all his might." How completely helpless the
Israelites were is shown by the fact that their armies could offer no opposition to the
free passage of the Syrian troops through their land. Hazael did not regard them as
threatening his rear; for, in the reign of Jehoahaz, he marched southwards, took the
Philistine city of Gath, and threatened Jerusalem. Joash of Judah could only buy
them off with the bribe of all his treasures, and according to the Chronicler they
"destroyed all the princes of the people," and took great spoil to Damascus. {2
Chronicles 24:23}
Where was Elisha? After the anointing of Jehu he vanishes from the scene. Unless
the narrative of the siege of Samaria has been displaced, we do not so much as once
hear of him for nearly half a century.
The fearful depth of humiliation to which the king was reduced drove him to
repentance. Wearied to death of the Syrian oppression of which he was the daily
witness, and of the utter misery caused by prowling bands of Ammonites and
Moabites-jackals who waited on the Syrian lion-Jehoahaz "besought the Lord, and
the Lord hearkened unto him, and gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from
under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as
beforetime." If this indeed refers to events which come out of place in the memoirs
of Elisha; and if Jehoahaz ben-Jehu, not Jehoram ben-Ahab, was the king in whose
reign the siege of Samaria was so marvellously raised, then Elisha may possibly be
the temporary deliverer who is here alluded to. On this supposition we may see a
sign of the repentance of Jehoahaz in the shirt of sackcloth which he wore under his
robes, as it became visible to his starving people when he rent his clothes on hearing
the cannibal instincts which had driven mothers to devour their own children. But
the respite must have been brief, since Hazael (2 Kings 13:22) oppressed Israel all
the days of Jehoahaz. If this rearrangement of events be untenable, we must suppose
that the repentance of Jehoahaz was only so far accepted, and his prayer so far
heard, that the deliverance, which did not come in his own days, came in those of his

son and of his grandson.
Of him and of his wretched reign we hear no more; but a very different epoch
dawned with the accession of his son Joash, named after the contemporary King of
Judah, Joash ben-Ahaziah.
In the Books of Kings and Chronicles Joash of Israel is condemned with the usual
refrains about the sins of Jeroboam. o other sin is laid to his charge; and breaking
the monotony of reprobation which tells us of every king of Israel without exception
that "he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord," Josephus boldly ventures
to call him "a good man; and the antithesis to his father."
He reigned sixteen years. At the beginning of his reign he found his country the
despised prey, not only of Syria, but of the paltry neighboring bandit-sheykhs who
infested the east of the Jordan; he left it comparatively strong, prosperous, and
independent.
In his reign we hear again of Elisha, now a very old man of past eighty years. early
half a century had elapsed since the grandfather of Joash had destroyed the house
of Ahab at the prophet’s command. ews came to the king that Elisha was sick of a
mortal sickness, and he naturally went to visit the death-bed of one who had called
his dynasty to the throne, and had in earlier years played so memorable a part in
the history of his country. He found the old man dying, and he wept over him,
crying, "My father; my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof."
{Comp. 2 Kings 2:12} The address strikes us with some surprise. Elisha had indeed
delivered Samaria more than once when the city had been reduced to direst
extremity; but in spite of his prayers and of his presence, the sins of Israel and her
kings had rendered this chariot of Israel of very small avail. The names of Ahab,
Jehu, Jehoahaz, call up memories of a series of miseries and humiliations which had
reduced Israel to the very verge of extinction. For sixty-three years Elisha had been
the prophet of Israel; and though his public interpositions had been signal on
several occasions, they had not been availing to prevent Ahab from becoming the
vassal of Assyria, nor Israel from becoming the appendage of the dominion of that
Hazael whom Elisha himself had anointed King of Syria, and who had become of all
the enemies of his country the most persistent and the most implacable.
The narrative which follows is very singular. We must give it-as it occurs, with but
little apprehension of its exact significance.
Elisha, though Joash "did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord," seems to
have regarded him with affection. He bade the youth take his bow, and laid his
feeble, trembling hands on the strong hands of the king.
Then he ordered an attendant to fling open the lattice, and told the king to shoot
eastward towards Gilead, the region whence the bands of Syria made their way over
the Jordan. The king shot, and the fire came back into the old prophet’s eye as he
heard the arrow whistle eastward. He cried, "The arrow of Jehovah’s deliverance,

even the arrow of victory over Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till
thou have consumed them." Then he bade the young king to take the sheaf of
arrows, and smite towards the ground, as if he was striking down an enemy. ot
understanding the significance of the act, the king made the sign of thrice striking
the arrows downwards, and then naturally stopped. But Elisha was angry-or at any
rate grieved. "You should have smitten five or six times," he said, "and then you
would have smitten Syria to destruction. ow you shall only smite Syria thrice."
The king’s fault seems to have been lack of energy and faith.
There are in this story some peculiar elements which it is impossible to explain, but
it has one beautiful and striking feature. It tells us of the death - bed of a prophet.
Most of God’s greatest prophets have perished amid the hatred of priests and
worldlings. The progress of the truth they taught has been "from scaffold to
scaffold, and from stake to stake."
"Careless seems the Great Avenger. History’s pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness ‘twixt old systems and the Word-
Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne;
Yet that scaffold sways the Future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own!"
ow and then, however, as an exception, a great prophetic teacher or reformer
escapes the hatred of the priests and of the world, and dies in peace. Savonarola is
burnt, Huss is burnt, but Wicliff dies in his bed at Lutterworth, and Luther died in
peace at Eisleben. Elijah passed away in storm, and was seen no more. A king comes
to weep by the death-bed of the aged Elisha. "For us," it has been said, "the scene at
his bedside contains a lesson of comfort and even encouragement. Let us try to
realize it. A man with no material power is dying in the capital of Israel. He is not
rich: he holds no office which gives him any immediate control over the actions of
men; he has but one weapon-the power of his word. Yet Israel’s king stands
weeping at his bedside-weeping because this inspired messenger of Jehovah is to be
taken from him. In him both king and people will lose a mighty support, for this
man is a greater strength to Israel than chariots and horsemen are. Joash does well
to mourn for him, for he has had courage to wake the nation’s conscience; the might
of his personality has sufficed to turn them in the true direction, and rouse their
moral and religious life. Such men as Elisha everywhere and always give a strength
to their people above the strength of armies, for the true blessings of a nation are
reared on the foundations of its moral force."
The annals are here interrupted to introduce a posthumous miracle-unlike any
other in the whole Bible-wrought by the bones of Elisha. He died, and they buried
him, "giving him," as Josephus says, "a magnificent burial." As usual, the spring
brought with it the marauding bands of Moabites. Some Israelites who were

burying a man caught sight of them, and, anxious to escape, thrust the man into the
sepulcher of Elisha, which happened to be nearest at hand. But when he was placed
in the rocky tomb, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his
feet. Doubtless the story rests on some real circumstance. There is, however,
something singular in the turn of the original, which says (literally) that the man
went and touched the bones of Elisha; and there is proof that the story was told in
varying forms, for Josephus says that it was the Moabite plunderers who had killed
the man, and that he was thrown by them into Elisha’s tomb. It is easy to invent
moral and spiritual lessons out of this incident, but not so easy to see what lesson is
intended by it. Certainly there is not throughout Scripture any other passage which
even seems to sanction any suspicions of magic potency in the relics of the dead.
But Elisha’s symbolic prophecy of deliverance from Syria was amply fulfilled.
About this time Hazael had died, and had left his power in the feebler hands of his
son Benhadad III. Jehoahaz had not been able to make any way against him, {2
Kings 13:3} but Joash his son thrice met and thrice defeated him at Aphek. As a
consequence of these victories, he won back all the cities which Hazael had taken
from his father on the west of Jordan. The east of Jordan was never recovered. It
fell under the shadow of Assyria, and was practically lost forever to the tribes of
Israel.
Whether Assyria lent her help to Joash under certain conditions we do not know.
Certain it is that from this time the terror of Syria vanishes. The Assyrian king
Rammanirari III about this time subjugated all Syria and its king, whom the tablets
call Mari, perhaps the same as Benhadad III. In the next reign Damascus itself fell
into the power of Jeroboam II, the son of Joash.
One more event, to which we have already alluded, is narrated in the reign of this
prosperous and valiant king.
Amity had reigned for a century between Judah and Israel, the result of the politic-
impolitic alliance which Jehoshaphat had sanctioned between his son Jehoram and
the daughter of Jezebel. It was obviously most desirable that the two small
kingdoms should be united as closely as possible by an offensive and defensive
alliance. But the bond between them was broken by the overweening vanity of
Amaziah ben-Joash of Judah. His victory over the Edomites, and his conquest of
Petra, had puffed him up with the mistaken notion that he was a very great man
and an invincible warrior. He had the wicked infatuation to kindle an unprovoked
war against the orthern Tribes. It was the most wanton of the many instances in
which, if Ephraim did not envy Judah, at least Judah vexed Ephraim. Amaziah
challenged Joash to come out to battle, that they might look one another in the face.
He had not recognized the difference between fighting with and without the sanction
of the God of battles.
Joash had on his hands enough of necessary and internecine war to make him more
than indifferent to that bloody game. Moreover, as the superior of Amaziah in every
way, he saw through his inflated emptiness. He knew that it was the worst possible

policy for Judah and Israel to weaken each other in fratricidal war, while Syria
threatened their northern and. eastern frontiers, and while the tread of the mighty
march of Assyria was echoing ominously in the ears of the nations from afar. Better
and kinder feelings may have mingled with these wise convictions. He had no wish
to destroy the poor fool who so vaingloriously provoked his superior might. His
answer was one of the most crushingly contemptuous pieces of irony which history
records, and yet it was eminently kindly and good-humoured: It was meant to save
the King of Judah from advancing any further on the path of certain ruin.
"The thistle that was in Lebanon" (such was the apologue which he addressed to his
would-be rival) "sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying: Give thy daughter to
my son to wife. The cedar took no sort of notice of the thistle’s ludicrous
presumption, but a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by, and trod down the
thistle."
It was the answer of a giant to a dwarf; and to make it quite clear to the humblest
comprehension, Joash good-naturedly added:
"You are puffed up with your victory over Edom: glory in this, and stay at home.
Why by your vain meddling should you ruin yourself and Judah with you? Keep
quiet: I have something else to do than to attend to you."
Happy had it been for Amaziah if he had taken warning! But vanity is a bad
counselor, and folly and self-deception-ill-matched pair-were whirling him to his
doom. Seeing that he was bent on his own perdition, Joash took the initiative and
marched to Beth-Shemesh, in the territory of Judah. There the kings met, and there
Amaziah was hopelessly defeated. His troops fled to their scattered homes, and he
fell into the hands of his conqueror. Joash did not care to take any sanguinary
revenge; but much as he despised his enemy, he thought it necessary to teach him
and Judah the permanent lesson of not again meddling to their own hurt.
He took the captive king with him to Jerusalem, which opened its gates without a
blow. We do not know whether, like a Roman conqueror, he entered it through the
breach of four hundred cubits which he ordered them to make in the walls, but
otherwise he contented himself with spoil which would swell his treasure, and amply
compensate for the expenses of the expedition which had been forced upon him. He
ransacked Jerusalem for silver and gold; he made Obed-Edom, the treasurer, give
up to him all the sacred vessels of the Temple, and all that was worth taking from
the palace. He also took hostages-probably from among the number of the king’s
sons-to secure immunity from further intrusions. It is the first time in Scripture that
hostages are mentioned. It is to his credit that he shed no blood, and was even
content to leave his defeated challenger with the disgraced phantom of his kingly
power, till, fifteen years later, he followed his father to the grave through the red
path of murder at the hand of his own subjects.
After this we hear no further records of this vigorous and able king, in whom the
characteristics of his grandfather Jehu are reflected in softer outline. He left his son

Jeroboam II to continue his career of prosperity, and to advance Israel to a pitch of
greatness which she had never yet attained, in which she rivaled the grandeur of the
united kingdom in the earlier days of Solomon’s dominion.
Verses 10-21
elete_me 2 Kings 13:10-21
THE DY ASTY OF JEHU
Jehoahaz
814-797
{2 Kings 13:1-9}
Joash
797-781
{2 Kings 13:10-21; 2 Kings 14:8-16}
Jeroboam II
781-740
{2 Kings 14:23-29}
Zechariah
740
{2 Kings 15:8-12}
"Them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly
esteemed."
- 1 Samuel 2:30
ISRAEL had scarcely ever sunk to so low a nadir of degradation as she did in the
reign of the son of Jehu. We have already mentioned that some assign to his reign
the ghastly story which we have narrated in our sketch of the work of Elisha. It is
told in the sixth chapter of the Second Book of Kings, and seems to belong to the
reign of Jehoram ben-Ahab; but it may have got displaced from this epoch of yet
deeper wretchedness. The accounts of Jehoahaz in 2 Kings 13:1-25 are evidently
fragmentary and abrupt.
Jehoahaz reigned seventeen years. aturally, he did not disturb the calf-worship,

which, like all his predecessors and successors, he regarded as a perfectly innocent
symbolic adoration of Jehovah, whose name he bore and whose service he professed.
Why should he do so? It had been established now for more than two centuries. His
father, in spite of his passionate and ruthless zeal for Jehovah, had never attempted
to disturb it. o prophet-not even Elijah nor Elisha, the practical establishers of his
dynasty-had said one word to condemn it. It in no way rested on his conscience as an
offence; and the formal condemnation of it by the historian only reflects the more
enlightened judgment of the Southern Kingdom and of a later age. But according to
the parenthesis which breaks the thread of this king’s story, {2 Kings 13:5-6} he was
guilty of a far more culpable defection from orthodox worship; for in his reign, the
Asherah-the tree or pillar of the Tyrian nature-goddess-still remained in Samaria,
and therefore must have had its worshippers. How it came there we cannot tell.
Jezebel had set it up, {1 Kings 16:33} with the connivance of Ahab. Jehu apparently
had "put it away" with the great stele of Baal, {2 Kings 3:2} but, for some reason or
other, he had not destroyed it. It now apparently occupied some public place, a
symbol of decadence, and provocative of the wrath of Heaven.
Jehoahaz sank very low. Hazael’s savage sword, not content with the devastation of
Bashan and Gilead, wasted the west of Israel also in all its borders. The king became
a mere vassal of his brutal neighbor at Damascus. So little of the barest semblance
of power was left him, that whereas, in the reign of David, Israel could muster an
army of eight hundred thousand, and in the reign of Joash, the son and successor of
Jehoahaz, Amaziah could hire from Israel one hundred thousand mighty men of
valor as mercenaries, Jehoahaz was only allowed to maintain an army of ten
chariots, fifty horsemen, and ten thousand infantry! In the picturesque phrase of the
historian, "the King of Syria had threshed down Israel to the dust," in spite of all
that Jehoahaz did, or tried to do, and "all his might." How completely helpless the
Israelites were is shown by the fact that their armies could offer no opposition to the
free passage of the Syrian troops through their land. Hazael did not regard them as
threatening his rear; for, in the reign of Jehoahaz, he marched southwards, took the
Philistine city of Gath, and threatened Jerusalem. Joash of Judah could only buy
them off with the bribe of all his treasures, and according to the Chronicler they
"destroyed all the princes of the people," and took great spoil to Damascus. {2
Chronicles 24:23}
Where was Elisha? After the anointing of Jehu he vanishes from the scene. Unless
the narrative of the siege of Samaria has been displaced, we do not so much as once
hear of him for nearly half a century.
The fearful depth of humiliation to which the king was reduced drove him to
repentance. Wearied to death of the Syrian oppression of which he was the daily
witness, and of the utter misery caused by prowling bands of Ammonites and
Moabites-jackals who waited on the Syrian lion-Jehoahaz "besought the Lord, and
the Lord hearkened unto him, and gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from
under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as
beforetime." If this indeed refers to events which come out of place in the memoirs
of Elisha; and if Jehoahaz ben-Jehu, not Jehoram ben-Ahab, was the king in whose

reign the siege of Samaria was so marvellously raised, then Elisha may possibly be
the temporary deliverer who is here alluded to. On this supposition we may see a
sign of the repentance of Jehoahaz in the shirt of sackcloth which he wore under his
robes, as it became visible to his starving people when he rent his clothes on hearing
the cannibal instincts which had driven mothers to devour their own children. But
the respite must have been brief, since Hazael (2 Kings 13:22) oppressed Israel all
the days of Jehoahaz. If this rearrangement of events be untenable, we must suppose
that the repentance of Jehoahaz was only so far accepted, and his prayer so far
heard, that the deliverance, which did not come in his own days, came in those of his
son and of his grandson.
Of him and of his wretched reign we hear no more; but a very different epoch
dawned with the accession of his son Joash, named after the contemporary King of
Judah, Joash ben-Ahaziah.
In the Books of Kings and Chronicles Joash of Israel is condemned with the usual
refrains about the sins of Jeroboam. o other sin is laid to his charge; and breaking
the monotony of reprobation which tells us of every king of Israel without exception
that "he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord," Josephus boldly ventures
to call him "a good man; and the antithesis to his father."
He reigned sixteen years. At the beginning of his reign he found his country the
despised prey, not only of Syria, but of the paltry neighboring bandit-sheykhs who
infested the east of the Jordan; he left it comparatively strong, prosperous, and
independent.
In his reign we hear again of Elisha, now a very old man of past eighty years. early
half a century had elapsed since the grandfather of Joash had destroyed the house
of Ahab at the prophet’s command. ews came to the king that Elisha was sick of a
mortal sickness, and he naturally went to visit the death-bed of one who had called
his dynasty to the throne, and had in earlier years played so memorable a part in
the history of his country. He found the old man dying, and he wept over him,
crying, "My father; my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof."
{Comp. 2 Kings 2:12} The address strikes us with some surprise. Elisha had indeed
delivered Samaria more than once when the city had been reduced to direst
extremity; but in spite of his prayers and of his presence, the sins of Israel and her
kings had rendered this chariot of Israel of very small avail. The names of Ahab,
Jehu, Jehoahaz, call up memories of a series of miseries and humiliations which had
reduced Israel to the very verge of extinction. For sixty-three years Elisha had been
the prophet of Israel; and though his public interpositions had been signal on
several occasions, they had not been availing to prevent Ahab from becoming the
vassal of Assyria, nor Israel from becoming the appendage of the dominion of that
Hazael whom Elisha himself had anointed King of Syria, and who had become of all
the enemies of his country the most persistent and the most implacable.
The narrative which follows is very singular. We must give it-as it occurs, with but
little apprehension of its exact significance.

Elisha, though Joash "did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord," seems to
have regarded him with affection. He bade the youth take his bow, and laid his
feeble, trembling hands on the strong hands of the king.
Then he ordered an attendant to fling open the lattice, and told the king to shoot
eastward towards Gilead, the region whence the bands of Syria made their way over
the Jordan. The king shot, and the fire came back into the old prophet’s eye as he
heard the arrow whistle eastward. He cried, "The arrow of Jehovah’s deliverance,
even the arrow of victory over Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till
thou have consumed them." Then he bade the young king to take the sheaf of
arrows, and smite towards the ground, as if he was striking down an enemy. ot
understanding the significance of the act, the king made the sign of thrice striking
the arrows downwards, and then naturally stopped. But Elisha was angry-or at any
rate grieved. "You should have smitten five or six times," he said, "and then you
would have smitten Syria to destruction. ow you shall only smite Syria thrice."
The king’s fault seems to have been lack of energy and faith.
There are in this story some peculiar elements which it is impossible to explain, but
it has one beautiful and striking feature. It tells us of the death - bed of a prophet.
Most of God’s greatest prophets have perished amid the hatred of priests and
worldlings. The progress of the truth they taught has been "from scaffold to
scaffold, and from stake to stake."
"Careless seems the Great Avenger. History’s pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness ‘twixt old systems and the Word-
Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne;
Yet that scaffold sways the Future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own!"
ow and then, however, as an exception, a great prophetic teacher or reformer
escapes the hatred of the priests and of the world, and dies in peace. Savonarola is
burnt, Huss is burnt, but Wicliff dies in his bed at Lutterworth, and Luther died in
peace at Eisleben. Elijah passed away in storm, and was seen no more. A king comes
to weep by the death-bed of the aged Elisha. "For us," it has been said, "the scene at
his bedside contains a lesson of comfort and even encouragement. Let us try to
realize it. A man with no material power is dying in the capital of Israel. He is not
rich: he holds no office which gives him any immediate control over the actions of
men; he has but one weapon-the power of his word. Yet Israel’s king stands
weeping at his bedside-weeping because this inspired messenger of Jehovah is to be
taken from him. In him both king and people will lose a mighty support, for this
man is a greater strength to Israel than chariots and horsemen are. Joash does well
to mourn for him, for he has had courage to wake the nation’s conscience; the might

of his personality has sufficed to turn them in the true direction, and rouse their
moral and religious life. Such men as Elisha everywhere and always give a strength
to their people above the strength of armies, for the true blessings of a nation are
reared on the foundations of its moral force."
The annals are here interrupted to introduce a posthumous miracle-unlike any
other in the whole Bible-wrought by the bones of Elisha. He died, and they buried
him, "giving him," as Josephus says, "a magnificent burial." As usual, the spring
brought with it the marauding bands of Moabites. Some Israelites who were
burying a man caught sight of them, and, anxious to escape, thrust the man into the
sepulcher of Elisha, which happened to be nearest at hand. But when he was placed
in the rocky tomb, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his
feet. Doubtless the story rests on some real circumstance. There is, however,
something singular in the turn of the original, which says (literally) that the man
went and touched the bones of Elisha; and there is proof that the story was told in
varying forms, for Josephus says that it was the Moabite plunderers who had killed
the man, and that he was thrown by them into Elisha’s tomb. It is easy to invent
moral and spiritual lessons out of this incident, but not so easy to see what lesson is
intended by it. Certainly there is not throughout Scripture any other passage which
even seems to sanction any suspicions of magic potency in the relics of the dead.
But Elisha’s symbolic prophecy of deliverance from Syria was amply fulfilled.
About this time Hazael had died, and had left his power in the feebler hands of his
son Benhadad III. Jehoahaz had not been able to make any way against him, {2
Kings 13:3} but Joash his son thrice met and thrice defeated him at Aphek. As a
consequence of these victories, he won back all the cities which Hazael had taken
from his father on the west of Jordan. The east of Jordan was never recovered. It
fell under the shadow of Assyria, and was practically lost forever to the tribes of
Israel.
Whether Assyria lent her help to Joash under certain conditions we do not know.
Certain it is that from this time the terror of Syria vanishes. The Assyrian king
Rammanirari III about this time subjugated all Syria and its king, whom the tablets
call Mari, perhaps the same as Benhadad III. In the next reign Damascus itself fell
into the power of Jeroboam II, the son of Joash.
One more event, to which we have already alluded, is narrated in the reign of this
prosperous and valiant king.
Amity had reigned for a century between Judah and Israel, the result of the politic-
impolitic alliance which Jehoshaphat had sanctioned between his son Jehoram and
the daughter of Jezebel. It was obviously most desirable that the two small
kingdoms should be united as closely as possible by an offensive and defensive
alliance. But the bond between them was broken by the overweening vanity of
Amaziah ben-Joash of Judah. His victory over the Edomites, and his conquest of
Petra, had puffed him up with the mistaken notion that he was a very great man
and an invincible warrior. He had the wicked infatuation to kindle an unprovoked

war against the orthern Tribes. It was the most wanton of the many instances in
which, if Ephraim did not envy Judah, at least Judah vexed Ephraim. Amaziah
challenged Joash to come out to battle, that they might look one another in the face.
He had not recognized the difference between fighting with and without the sanction
of the God of battles.
Joash had on his hands enough of necessary and internecine war to make him more
than indifferent to that bloody game. Moreover, as the superior of Amaziah in every
way, he saw through his inflated emptiness. He knew that it was the worst possible
policy for Judah and Israel to weaken each other in fratricidal war, while Syria
threatened their northern and. eastern frontiers, and while the tread of the mighty
march of Assyria was echoing ominously in the ears of the nations from afar. Better
and kinder feelings may have mingled with these wise convictions. He had no wish
to destroy the poor fool who so vaingloriously provoked his superior might. His
answer was one of the most crushingly contemptuous pieces of irony which history
records, and yet it was eminently kindly and good-humoured: It was meant to save
the King of Judah from advancing any further on the path of certain ruin.
"The thistle that was in Lebanon" (such was the apologue which he addressed to his
would-be rival) "sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying: Give thy daughter to
my son to wife. The cedar took no sort of notice of the thistle’s ludicrous
presumption, but a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by, and trod down the
thistle."
It was the answer of a giant to a dwarf; and to make it quite clear to the humblest
comprehension, Joash good-naturedly added:
"You are puffed up with your victory over Edom: glory in this, and stay at home.
Why by your vain meddling should you ruin yourself and Judah with you? Keep
quiet: I have something else to do than to attend to you."
Happy had it been for Amaziah if he had taken warning! But vanity is a bad
counselor, and folly and self-deception-ill-matched pair-were whirling him to his
doom. Seeing that he was bent on his own perdition, Joash took the initiative and
marched to Beth-Shemesh, in the territory of Judah. There the kings met, and there
Amaziah was hopelessly defeated. His troops fled to their scattered homes, and he
fell into the hands of his conqueror. Joash did not care to take any sanguinary
revenge; but much as he despised his enemy, he thought it necessary to teach him
and Judah the permanent lesson of not again meddling to their own hurt.
He took the captive king with him to Jerusalem, which opened its gates without a
blow. We do not know whether, like a Roman conqueror, he entered it through the
breach of four hundred cubits which he ordered them to make in the walls, but
otherwise he contented himself with spoil which would swell his treasure, and amply
compensate for the expenses of the expedition which had been forced upon him. He
ransacked Jerusalem for silver and gold; he made Obed-Edom, the treasurer, give
up to him all the sacred vessels of the Temple, and all that was worth taking from

the palace. He also took hostages-probably from among the number of the king’s
sons-to secure immunity from further intrusions. It is the first time in Scripture that
hostages are mentioned. It is to his credit that he shed no blood, and was even
content to leave his defeated challenger with the disgraced phantom of his kingly
power, till, fifteen years later, he followed his father to the grave through the red
path of murder at the hand of his own subjects.
After this we hear no further records of this vigorous and able king, in whom the
characteristics of his grandfather Jehu are reflected in softer outline. He left his son
Jeroboam II to continue his career of prosperity, and to advance Israel to a pitch of
greatness which she had never yet attained, in which she rivaled the grandeur of the
united kingdom in the earlier days of Solomon’s dominion.
PARKER, "The Dying Prophet
This chapter opens with an account of the wicked reign of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu,
who reigned seventeen years over Israel in Samaria. He was a weak-minded and a
bad-hearted man. In this respect he was no exception to the kings of Israel. It is a
remarkable thing, that whilst Judah had now end again a good king, Israel never
had one after the division of the kingdom. How are we to account for this? Israel
and Judah were practically one family, yet along the one line from the point of
departure there is nothing but stubbornness, selfishness, idolatry, and love of evil.
Along the other line there were occasional gleams of goodness, high quality of
character, and some approach to patriotic statesmanship. This would be a marvel to
us if the same thing were not happening every day in the year, within our own
knowledge, and perhaps within our own families. The mystery is not to be
accounted for, and certainly it is not to be lightly treated. All these things are for our
instruction: they call upon us to halt, and think, and pray; they make us quiet, when
otherwise we might be tumultuous and violent in the face of heaven. But is not the
mystery deepened by the fact that every man is himself two selves—both Israel and
Judah in his own personality? Look at him for days together, and say if ever sweeter
man lived,—apt in religious thinking, gifted even in the power of prayer, carrying
with him as it were the very key of heaven, and having boldest and broadest access
to God at all hours. The same man shall descend from heaven like a star that has
lost its centre, and shall plunge in darkness, and do wickedness with both hands.
Instances of this kind are known to us, and may be too painfully known to us by
reason of our own consciousness. Which will be uppermost at the last? Determining
the personal life by a majority—for even personal lives are settled by majorities as
well as the affairs of state—on which side will the majority be at the last? Let us
hope the best, even of those who now seem to be the worst. The men whom we have
seen farthest away from the throne of God and the cross of Christ and all spiritual
loveliness, have come back again, and have almost claimed the very highest place
known to Christ. Then when they have returned, we have said, After all, the good
will get the upper hand: "Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at
the last." There remains, however, this broad lesson in the history now before us,
that whilst in Judah there were occasional kings worthy of the name, yet in Israel

from the point of division there was one continual succession of bad men.
What was the Lord"s action in relation to the city which had been ruined by the
policy of this evil Jehoahaz? A very tender word supplies the answer:—"Jehoahaz
besought the Lord,"—and the Lord is very pitiful and kind; a touch at his robe and
he turns round as if a friend had greeted him; one look through blinding tears, and
he comes back to the prodigal as if he himself had something to make up to the
wayward man. The Lord heard even Jehoahaz—"And the Lord gave Israel a
saviour" ( 2 Kings 13:5). A beautiful word this! We have come to love it. It stands in
our English Bible, however, in significant typography; it has not a capital initial; it
has but a small letter, like the rest of the word. Still, coming back upon it from
Christian associations, it reads like the ew Testament in the midst of the Old. "A
saviour,"—the very syllables have music in them; the word itself sounds like a
gospel. There has always been in the world a man who especially represented God—
not God"s majesty only, but God"s love and tenderness, pity and mercy. Here again
is a great mystery—that one man should be different from another. A marvellous
thing that one man should be as a saviour, and another should be as a saved one.
Why this difference? This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is
excellent in counsel, and wonderful in working. Have no fear of the cry about
equality, because equality is impossible. There are kingships that come up out of
eternity; there are rulerships which are ordained of God. In the highest sense, the
powers that be are ordained of God, not in the case of the individual men, viewed
within the limits of their own personality, but in the idea which they represent—an
idea of righteousness, clemency, purity, progress. God has always had his Abel in
the world, who offered the acceptable sacrifice; he has always had a Moses or a
Joshua , or some brave judge in Israel who knew right from wrong, and who could
not be bribed to do that which was corrupt; he has always had his Eli or Samuel, or
mighty singer who turned righteousness into music;—evermore has God had his
representative upon the earth. Why did not Israel create their own saviour? Why
was not Jehoahaz made the saviour of his own people? Saviours are divine
creations. Redeemers come from heaven. Great prophet-minds are creations of God,
and they are as it were sent down here like lights to show us the road in darkness,
and to reveal to us beauties which but for them would have been undiscovered. We
know them when they come. If we do not give them instant welcome, we
acknowledge the mystery of their personality, We say regarding each of them,
"Whence hath this man this wisdom?" He is no scholar, he has not gone through the
usual curriculum, certainly; yet when he speaks he seems to have a right to speak;
when he gives his judgments we feel that the words which proceed out of his mouth
are gracious and wise. In all these things Christ teaches us to recognise the hand of
God, and we are thus trained towards Christ himself—the real Saviour, so mighty
that he could humble himself; so majestic that he could take upon him the form of a
servant; so infinite that he was first, last; the beginning, the end,—the unbeginning
beginning, the unconcluding end. Thus early we come upon sweet names. They
surprise us as flowers would amaze us in a wilderness.
What a tremendous hold sin gets upon the heart. " evertheless they departed not
from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, but walked therein" (

2 Kings 13:6). Israel was punished, and still sinned; Israel had a saviour sent, and
still sinned. Hazael, the cruel Syrian king, impoverished the army of Israel until
there was nothing left to Jehoahaz "but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten
thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them
like the dust by threshing" ( 2 Kings 13:7). He visited them with contempt. To leave
them fifty horsemen and ten thousand footmen was to brand them with an insult. So
has providence dealt with many men: they have been reduced to a minimum; they
have had the barest field in the world; one inch more taken away, and down they
would fall, and be irrecoverably lost. What is the meaning of this pruning, cutting,
impoverishment,—this almost total depletion? Why this mental darkness, this social
degradation, this loss of status and influence, this withdrawment from our
companionship, this intolerable solitude! Instead of answering the question in
words, let each ponder for himself the inquiry, and answer it according to his own
knowledge.
How very little we know even of the men whose lives are written: "The rest of the
acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, are they not written in the book
of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?" o! Another hand there indeed endeavours
to sketch the life, but how much is left out! o human chronicler can put down all
things concerning the subject which he has undertaken to depict. But the rest of our
lives is written. A diary is kept in heaven; the journal is not published for the
perusal of others; but the whole life, day by day, is put down in the book of
remembrance; and we shall be able to recognise the writing, and to confirm the
accuracy of the minute. We cannot get away from it, there is the writing, and it
abides—a perpetual witness for us or against us. What is the divine scribe now
writing? The pen is going. We are obliged to use such figures to represent the
spiritual reality. The writing is now proceeding: every thought registered, every
deed chronicled, every day"s work added up and carried over to the next page. It is
a solemn thing to live! We are stewards, trustees, servants sent on messages, and
entrusted with specified duties, and we are expected back with a definite answer and
a complete report of our lives.
These introductory points bring us to the decease of Elisha. The account begins in
the fourteenth verse and proceeds to the twenty-first, "Elisha was fallen sick of his
sickness whereof he died." He was supposed to be about a hundred years of age. We
have seen that he was a domestic rather than a public prophet; he was unlike his
great predecessor and father. The awful Elijah dwelt alone. He came upon society
now and then; came down like a flood from the threatening clouds: shot out like a
fire, and burned the men whom he approached. He needed no hospitality. He asked
for no testimonial, pledge, or favour, certificate, introduction, or commendation. He
was in very deed a son of thunder. Such a man is often wanted—a man who accepts
no invitation; a man who stands back in religious solitude and speaks the judgments
of God with an unfaltering voice. Elisha was exactly the contrary. He worked his
miracles in the house. He often called upon people; he was quiet, serene, most
sympathetic and tender-hearted; now and then he could stand bolt upright, and
send away proud men from his door with disdain they could never forget; but in the
usual process of his life he was a kind of mother-man in Israel. He went into

people"s houses, and asked them how they were. He consented to increase their oil
and their flour, and to bless their family life with prophetic benedictions. He was
most gentle to the young prophets, so much so that you could scarcely tell the old
man from the young man: he was young in heart: his voice was musical to the end,
and on the very last day there flashed out of him the old grand power. See in Elijah,
John the Baptist, monastic, solitary, self-involved, haughty in a certain sense,
disdainful and contemptuous of things valued by men who worship at base altars.
Then see in Elisha the type of the Messiah, the gentle One, who wrought his miracles
in houses, raised little children from the dead, healed the sick, opened the eyes of the
blind, brake bread at eventide for those who had given him hospitality; yet even he
could stand up sometimes and create a place for himself, and no man might venture
within the circumference of his elevated majesty. Still, he came back again to the
domestic life. " ow Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." A domestic
visitor, a domestic pastor, a family Saviour,—the God of the families of the earth:
not only Song of Solomon , see what the line of progress means, look at the historical
philosophy of the fact. First you have majesty, thunder, righteousness: all things
significant of divine rule and authority; then you have grace and truth: "first that
which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual:" the kingdom of heaven enclosed
within a parable; the whole purpose of God set forth in beatitudes: the awful voices
of Sinai displaced by the gentle Sermon on the Mount. Such is the line of
development or progress, from the outward to the inward; from the natural to the
spiritual; from the earthly to the celestial; and thus we proceed, being changed as it
were from glory to glory, at last losing all carnality, fleshliness, worldliness, all
sordidness and weight and sense of burden, and becoming finally angels bright with
everlasting light, and strong with knowledge that never fails. Thus one life is shed
off after another, until at last we are clothed upon with our house which is from
heaven.
A very beautiful incident occurred near the close of Elisha"s death. The king called
upon him, "and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father" ( 2 Kings
13:14). There are times when the heart gets the better even of the worst men; there
are hours in which even bad kings become almost good. In those hours it is the heart
that speaks. This man described Elisha well, for, said Hebrews , "The chariot of
Israel, and the horsemen thereof:" an expression equal to: Thou art worthy of
honour, for thou art greater than all the horses of Israel and all the chariots of the
kingdom; thou art stronger, thou hast done more for Israel than the army ever did:
O my father, my father, by thy removal Israel loses her defences and is exposed to
the enemy. Tributes come at last, righteous eulogiums are pronounced sometimes by
reluctant or unwilling lips. There are hours in which men are well rewarded for
whole years of neglect and contempt. How true it is that Elisha was the security of
Israel! It is ever so. The religious people of the country are its salvation. This is a
proposition which would be met with contempt in many quarters, but religious
people are accustomed to be contemned. They stand, however, on the foundations of
history, and they recall the words—If ten righteous men can be found, the cities
shall not be destroyed: ye are the salt of the earth; ye are the light of the world; a
city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Realise your position and its corresponding
responsibilities, and know that "righteousness exalteth a nation," and that the

Church—the living Church, the spiritual Church—of any country is its best army—
Christians are the most useful of all the restrictive and regulative influences of a
social kind. The teacher, the sick-visitor, those who sympathise with the wronged
and suffering, and the great prophets are the true army and the invincible defence
of the land. What then? Spread the Bible; uphold all Christian influences; prize
Christian instruction in the school, in the house, and in the church. Prayer is a
battering-ram. Faith in God will save the land, even when it is most corrupt in its
high places, when its kings have gone wrong, and its judges have accepted the bribe.
All this will be acknowledged at the last, as it was acknowledged in the case of
Elisha. Elisha then gave the king comfort. A beautiful transaction now took place:—
"And Elisha said unto him [Joash] take bow and arrows. And he said to the king of
Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put
his hands upon the king"s hands" ( 2 Kings 13:15-16).
That is the point We cannot live without contact with higher lives. There must be a
touch, a fellowship, an electric thrill, a unity that can hardly be expressed in verbal
symbols. The king"s hands were nothing but common fingers until Elisha touched
them and infused into them divine energy. And Elisha said, "Open the window
eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot." In many
nations, notably in ancient Rome, the challenge to war was this: the party intending
to conquer a nation took bow and arrow, and shot the arrow into the country which
he intended to subdue. That was accepted as a challenge, or, if not accepted,
possession was immediately taken of the land. Have we shot preliminary arrows into
the lands we ought to take for Christ? What arrow have we shot into the land of
ignorance, the land of oppression, the land of spiritual darkness, the land of
heathenism? We should find the Lord"s arrows in every land, and they should
mean: There is going to be a battle to-day—a great fight; and the Lord will conquer.
The Church should always be addressing its challenges to the world. When the
world has some new plan of pleasing, entertaining, or satisfying the people, the
Church should invent something infinitely superior. This is the duty to which we are
called in Christ Jesus. We should have nobler feasts, larger charities, medicines that
can heal more diseases; we should be enabled to say to the world, You need not go
away from the Church for anything; is any man sick? Let him call for the elders of
the Church; is any among you merry? Let him sing and dance and be glad. The
Church has an answer to every condition and every class of circumstances. If not—
if it is mumbling its obsolete dogmas, if it is talking sentences the world cannot
understand, if it is overshooting the mark by high references, literary allusions, and
learned things that are inapplicable and jejune, the world will go away and leave the
Church in its own society. Let us, then, take lessons, and so live that even our dead
bones shall have virtue in them. We see that when a body was let down into the
grave and touched the bones of Elisha, the dead man stood up on his feet and lived.
Herein is a mystery we cannot explain, but a parable the meaning of which is
evident. We get our life out of the dead Christ, and the Christ that rose again. We
have life out of death; we have deliverance out of the grave; we have heaven out of
the tomb in which the Saviour lay. These are mysteries. We acknowledge their
impenetrableness and their solemnity, and if we cannot explain them in words, yet

there are solemn occasions in life in which every one of them comes in like an angel,
and says, I am waiting, I am ministering, I am still of use in the upbuilding of the
world"s best life. Let not history be lost upon us. The history of evil is written in
plain letters. o Prayer of Manasseh , wayfarer though he be, need misunderstand
the solemn suggestion with which the history of evil is fraught. "The wicked shall be
turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." They have a sad fate who have
challenged God to battle. If they are not yet crushed, it is because his mercy
endureth for ever. On the other hand, let the Elishas of society work on, suffer on,
visit sick folk in their sickness, and give the message of God to those who are far
away from the father"s house as to thought and purpose and sacrifice. There is a
quiet ministry, as well a grand public one: there is an opening for Elisha as certainly
as there was for Elijah; nay, the world could not tolerate Elijah long. Who could live
always amid thunder and lightning and a great tempest of judgment? We live under
Christ, who has a word in season to him that is weary, a balm for every wound, an
answer to every desire that is pure. Blessed Saviour, we are under thy government,
under thy benediction; it is good to be there; it is like resting on high hills on
summer days, when the very sun is a friend, and the great heaven is a protection. As
for those who wish to receive this Saviour, he stands ready. The reluctance is not on
his side. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
GUZIK, "A. The reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoash, Kings of Israel.
1. (2 Kings 13:1-4) A summary of the reign of Jehoahaz and an answer to prayer.
In the twenty-third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the
son of Jehu became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years. And
he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of
ebat, who had made Israel sin. He did not depart from them. Then the anger of the
LORD was aroused against Israel, and He delivered them into the hand of Hazael
king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael, all their days. So
Jehoahaz pleaded with the LORD, and the LORD listened to him; for He saw the
oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them.
a. Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu became king over Israel: This was the beginning of the
fulfillment of a promise made to Jehu, recorded in 2 Kings 10:30. God promised him
that his descendants would sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. This
dynasty - though founded on a violent overthrow of the previous royal house -
continued, because Jehu came to the throne doing the will of God.
b. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed in the sins of Jeroboam: His
father Jehu also continued in the idolatry of Jeroboam (2 Kings 10:31). Jehoahaz
followed in the footsteps of both Jeroboam and his father Jehu.
c. He delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria: The northern kingdom
of Israel still had its own name and king, but they were a tributary and subservient
nation to Syria.

i. In the general history of this time, the Assyrian Empire kept the Syrians weak and
unable to expand their domain into Israel. But there was a period when internal
problems made the Assyrians bring back their troops from the frontiers of their
empire, and the Syrians took advantage of this time of Assyrian distraction.
d. So Jehoahaz pleaded with the LORD, and the LORD listened to him: Jehoahaz
was an ungodly man, and this prayer did not mark a lasting or real revival in his
life. Yet God listened to his prayer because of His great mercy and because of His
care for Israel.
i. “The term ‘pleaded with the Lord’ comes from a word meaning ‘to be sick,’
implying weakness and dependency. Jehoahaz was at the end of his rope.” (Dilday)
ii. “This restoration to prosperity began under Joash son of Jehoahaz, and
culminated during the reign of his grandson Jeroboam II. So prayer is frequently
answered after the petitioner has passed away.” (Knapp)
PETT, "The Reign Of Jehoahaz, King of Israel (814/13-798 BC).
On the death of Jehu, his son Jehoahaz ascended the throne of Israel. It was at a
time when Assyria had not troubled the area for many years, and were being kept
busy elsewhere with attacks on its north-west and eastern frontiers, having
previously put down a great revolt in ineveh and other important centres
(mentioned in the Eponym Chronicle - 827-822 BC). Thus there was no restraint on
the now powerful kingdom of Aram, and they took advantage of it to pulverise a
now weak Israel (weakened by Jehu’s purges) over a number of years. It was a
shortsighted policy, for by diminishing the military power of Israel they were
rendering helpless a possible ally who in the time of Ahab had been able to supply
two thousand chariots in the alliance against Assyria. ow Israel was to be reduced
to ten chariots which were probably mainly for ceremonial occasions. They would
be able to provide no assistance if ever Assyria invaded again.
And invade they did, for things had got to such a pass that Jehoahaz turned
helplessly to YHWH, and YHWH heard him, with the result that in 804 BC Aram
found itself trying and failing in an attempt to keep back the might of Assyria (see
note on Hazael above, after 2 Kings 10:36). YHWH had raised up an unlikely
‘Saviour’, and the consequence was that Aram was in itself pulverised and Israel
were for a while left unmolested, even if almost unable to defend themselves.
Assyrian records suggest that Israel were paying ‘heavy tribute’ to Assyria.
Analysis.
a In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah,

seventeen years (2 Kings 13:1).
b And he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, and followed the sins of
Jeroboam the son of ebat, by which he made Israel to sin. He did not depart from
them (2 Kings 13:2).
c And the anger of YHWH was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them
into the hand of Hazael king of Aram (Syria), and into the hand of Benhadad the
son of Hazael, for a long time (or ‘continually’) (2 Kings 13:3).
d And Jehoahaz besought YHWH, and YHWH listened to him, for he saw the
oppression of Israel, how that the king of Aram oppressed them (2 Kings 13:4).
e And YHWH gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand
of the Aramaeans (Syrians), and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as
previously (2 Kings 13:5).
d evertheless they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, by
which he made Israel to sin, but walked in them, and there remained the Asherah
also in Samaria (2 Kings 13:6).
c For he left not to Jehoahaz of the people except for fifty horsemen, and ten
chariots, and ten thousand footmen, for the king of Aram destroyed them, and made
them like the dust in threshing (2 Kings 13:7).
b ow the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, are
they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? (2 Kings 13:8).
a And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria, and
Joash his son reigned instead of him (2 Kings 13:9).
ote that in ‘a’ Jehoahaz began to reign, and in the parallel he slept with his fathers
and his son reigned instead of him. In ‘b’ he did evil in the sight of YHWH and in
the parallel his acts can be found in the official annals of the kings of Israel. In ‘c’
Israel were subjected to Aram for a long time, and in the parallel they ended up
almost defenceless. In ‘d’ Jehoahaz turned to YHWH in a prayer for help, and in
the parallel he nevertheless continued to walk in his sins. Centrally in ‘e’ YHWH
raised up a saviour for His people enabling the to live quietly and at peace.
2 Kings 13:1
‘In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah,
seventeen years.’
Jehoahaz’ reign is described in the usual terms dated on the basis of the
corresponding king of Judah, coming to the throne in the twenty third year of Joash
of Judah.. The one year discrepancy with 2 Kings 12:1 is explicable in terms of the
different methods of assessing reigns in Israel and Judah already described.
Jehoahaz reigned for seventeen years. In 2 Kings 13:10 Jehoahaz’s son began to
reign in the thirty seventh year of Joash (Jehoash) king of Judah, but according to
the figures here it should have been in the thirty ninth/fortieth year (23+17). This
suggests that Joash had two/three years co-regency.
PULPIT, "2 Kings 13:1-9

THE REIG OF JEHOAHAZ. The writer returns in this chapter to the history of
the Israelite kingdom, taking it up from the death of Jehu, which was recorded in
the closing verses of 2 Kings 10:1-36. He sketches briefly the reign of Jehu's son and
successor, Jehoahaz, in the present section, after which he passes to that of John's
grandson, Jehoash or Joash. The Syrian oppression was the great event of
Jehoahaz's reign.
2 Kings 13:1
In the three and twentieth year of Joash; rather, as in Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 9.8. §
5), in the one and twentieth year. This is a correction required by 2 Kings 13:10 and
also by 2 Kings 12:1. The proof is given at somewhat tedious length by Keil and
Bahr. It seems unnecessary to enter into a lengthy discussion of the point, since all
the synchronisms of the later kings of Israel and Judah are in confusion, and appear
to be the work of a later hand. The son of Ahaziah King of Judah, Jehoahaz the son
of Jehu began to reign over Israel; literally, reigned over Israel. The "later hand,"
which inserted the synchronism, neglected to bring the two portions of the verse into
agreement. Our translators have sought to cover up his omission by translating
malak "began to reign," and then supplying "and reigned" in the next clause. And
reigned seventeen years (so also Josephus, l.s.c.).
2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord by following
the sins of Jeroboam son of ebat, which he had
caused Israel to commit, and he did not turn away
from them.
GILL, "And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Committed
idolatry:
and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to
sin; worshipping the golden calves:
he departed not therefrom; from the worship of them.
BI 2-13, "He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
Defection
Just as two roads that diverge from each other at a very sharp angle, get the wider apart

the further they go, till at last half a continent may be held betwixt them—the little
deflection from the narrow line of Christian duty and simple faithfulness, it is only God’s
mercy that will prevent it from leading thee away out, out, out into the waste plains and
doleful wildernesses, where all sinful, and dark, and foul things dwell for ever.
K&D, "2Ki_13:2-3
As Jehoahaz trod in the footsteps of his forefathers and continued the sin of Jeroboam
(the worship of the calves), the Lord punished Israel during his reign even more than in
that of his predecessor. The longer and the more obstinately the sin was continued, the
more severe did the punishment become. He gave them (the Israelites) into the power of
the Syrian king Hazael and his son Benhadad ‫ים‬ ִ‫מ‬ָ ַ‫ל־ה‬ ָⅴ, “the whole time,” sc. of the reign
of Jehoahaz (vid., 2Ki_13:22); not of the reigns of Hazael and Benhadad, as Thenius
supposes in direct opposition to 2Ki_13:24 and 2Ki_13:25. According to 2Ki_13:7, the
Syrians so far destroyed the Israelitish army, that only fifty horsemen, ten war-chariots,
and ten thousand foot soldiers were left.
PETT, "‘And he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, and followed the sins of
Jeroboam the son of ebat, by which he made Israel to sin. He did not depart from
them.’
He also continued in the ways of Jeroboam the son of ebat, supporting the
sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan with their syncretistic Yahwism. The activities of
Jehu had not led to a return to pure Yahwism, and unofficial worship was still
taking place at high places around the country.
PULPIT, "And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. There is no
reason to believe that Jehoahaz re-introduced the Baal-worship, or sinned in any
other flagrant way than by maintaining the calf-worship at Dan and Bethel. Jehu
had done the same (2 Kings 10:29), as had all previous kings of Israel from the time
of Jeroboam. The honor of God, however, required that idolatry of whatever kind
should be punished, and the Samaritan kingdom could not otherwise be saved from
destruction than by, "casting away all the works of darkness" and returning to the
pure worship of Jehovah. Hence Jehu himself, notwithstanding the good service that
he had done in crushing the Baal-worship, was chastised by God (2 Kings 10:32, 2
Kings 10:33) on account of his continuance in the "sin of Jeroboam;" and now
Jehoahaz was even more signally punished. As Keil remarks, "The longer and the
more obstinately the sin was continued, the more severe did the punishment
become." And followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of ebat which made Israel to
sin; he departed not therefrom. This is emphatic. Jehoahaz kept up the worship to
the full, and in no way suffered it to decline.
3 So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and
for a long time he kept them under the power of

Hazael king of Aram and Ben-Hadad his son.
BAR ES, "All their days - literally, “all the days.” Not “all the days” of the two
Syrian kings, for Ben-hadad lost to Joash all the cities which he had gained from
Jehoahaz 2Ki_13:25; but either “all the days of Jehoahaz” 2Ki_13:22, or “all the days of
Hazael” - both while he led his own armies, and while they were led by his son.
GILL, "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel,.... They doing as
their kings did:
and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the
hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, all their days; the word "their" should not
be supplied, since it was not true that Israel was delivered into the hands of both those
kings of Syria as long as they lived; for they were delivered out of the hands of Benhadad,
2Ki_13:25, but the word "his" should be inserted for it as to be understood of the days of
Jehoahaz, see 2Ki_13:22.
BE SO ,". The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel — Who, knowing the
only living and true God to be a spirit, an eternal mind, an infinitely wise and
mighty, just and holy, and absolutely perfect Being, besides all their other sins and
abominations, still continued to change the glory of this their incorruptible God into
the similitude of an ox, the truth of God into a lie, and, like the nations around them,
to worship the work of their own hands. There could not be a greater reproach than
the two idolized calves were, to a people acquainted with the nature and attributes
of God, and intrusted with his lively oracles, in which he had given them rules, of his
own appointment, to direct them how to worship him. Strange it is, indeed, that in
all the history of the ten tribes, we never find the least shock given to that idolatry,
but, in every reign, still the calf was their god! and that notwithstanding the many
and repeated judgments executed upon them to reclaim them from that senseless
and stupid practice. Well might the anger of God be kindled against them! And he
delivered them into the hand of Hazael — It had been the honour of Israel that they
were taken under the special protection of Heaven: God himself was their defence,
the shield of their help, and the sword of their excellency. But here again, as often
before, we find them stripped of this glory, and exposed to the insults of all their
neighbours. Surely never was any nation so often plucked and pillaged as Israel
was: but this they brought upon themselves by their sins: and when they had
provoked God to break down their hedge, the goodness of their land did but tempt
their neighbours. So low was Israel brought in this reign, by the many depredations
which the Syrians made upon them, that the militia of the kingdom, and all the force
they could bring into the field, was but fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten
thousand footmen, a despicable muster, 2 Kings 13:7. Are the thousands of Israel

come to this? How is the gold become dim!
PETT, "‘And the anger of YHWH was kindled against Israel, and he delivered
them into the hand of Hazael king of Aram (Syria), and into the hand of Benhadad
the son of Hazael, continually.’
We are reminded here that any invasion is seen by the prophetic author as an
indication of YHWH’s anger. Were YHWH not angry He could in one way or
another have ensured that it did not happen. The consequence of YHWH’s anger at
Israel’s disobedience to His covenant resulted in a number of Aramaean invasions
by Hazael and his son Benhadad (acting as Hazael’s commander-in-chief) in which
Israel were badly mauled. Indeed we learn later that as well as being unable to
recover Transjordan from Hazael (see 2 Kings 10:32-33), he also lost a number of
cities to him west of Jordan (2 Kings 13:25).
PULPIT, "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. We know so much
less of the nature of the calf-worship and of the rites which accompanied it, that we
cannot to the same extent justify the Divine severity in connection with it as in
connection with the Baal and Astarte cult. Still, we must remember the coarse, lewd
dancing which accompanied the first calf-worship (Exodus 32:19), for which death
was not thought too heavy a penalty (Exodus 32:27), and the almost universal
combination of unchastity with idolatrous ceremonies, which raises a suspicion that
those who frequented the shrines at Dan and Bethel were not wholly innocent of
impurity. And he delivered them into the hand of Hazel King of Syria. The national
sins of Israel were mostly punished in this way, by the sword of some foreign foe.
Hazael had been already made an instrument for the chastisement of Jehu (2 Kings
10:32, 2 Kings 10:33). ow he was to chastise Jehoahaz still more severely. And into
the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, all their days; literally, all the days. ot
certainly all the days of the two kings Hazael and Benhadad, for Benhadad was
entirely worsted in his war with Joash (2 Kings 13:24, 2 Kings 13:25), but either all
the days of Jehoahaz, or all the days that God had appointed for the duration of the
calamity. It is perhaps against the former interpretation that Hazael appears to have
outlived Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:22-24); but Ben-hadad may have warred against him
as his father's general (2 Kings 13:25) during his father's lifetime.
4 Then Jehoahaz sought the Lord’s favor, and the
Lord listened to him, for he saw how severely the
king of Aram was oppressing Israel.

GILL, "And Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto
him,.... He did not apply in his distress to the calves he worshipped, but to the Lord;
who had a regard to his prayer, not for his sake, or any righteousness of his, or even his
repentance and humiliation, which were only external; but for the sake of Israel, and
because they were oppressed, who were his people, and he their God, though they had
sadly departed from him:
for he saw the oppression of Israel; not only with his eye of omniscience, but with
an eye of mercy and compassion:
because the king of Syria oppressed them; by his incursions upon them, and wars
with them.
HE RY 4-9, "II. Some sparks of Israel's ancient honour appearing in these ashes. It
is not quite forgotten, notwithstanding all these quarrels, that this people is the Israel of
God and he is the God of Israel. For, 1. It was the ancient honour of Israel that they were
a praying people: and here we find somewhat of that honour revived; for Jehoahaz their
king, in his distress, besought the Lord (2Ki_13:4), applied for help, not to the calves
(what help could they give him?) but to the Lord. It becomes kings to be beggars at God's
door, and the greatest of men to be humble petitioners at the footstool of his throne.
Need will drive them to it. 2. It was the ancient honour of Israel that they had God nigh
unto them in all that which they called upon him for (Deu_4:7), and so he was here.
Though he might justly have rejected the prayer as an abomination to him, yet the Lord
hearkened unto Jehoahaz, and to his prayer for himself and for his people (2Ki_13:4),
and he gave Israel a saviour (2Ki_13:5), not Jehoahaz himself, for all his days Hazael
oppressed Israel (2Ki_13:22), but his son, to whom, in answer to his father's prayers,
God gave success against the Syrians, so that he recovered the cities which they had
taken from his father, 2Ki_13:25. This gracious answer God gave to the prayer of
Jehoahaz, not for his sake, or the sake of that unworthy people, but in remembrance of
his covenant with Abraham (2Ki_13:23), which, in such exigencies as these, he had long
since promised to have respect to, Lev_26:42. See swift God is to show mercy, how
ready to hear prayers, how willing to find out a reason to be gracious, else he would not
look so far back as that ancient covenant which Israel had so often broken and forfeited
all the benefit of. Let this invite and engage us for ever to him, and encourage even those
that have forsaken him to return and repent; for there is forgiveness with him, that he
may be feared.
JAMISO , "he saw the oppression of Israel — that is, commiserated the fallen
condition of His chosen people. The divine honor and the interests of true religion
required that deliverance should be granted them to check the triumph of the idolatrous
enemy and put an end to their blasphemous taunts that God had forsaken Israel (Deu_
32:27; Psa_12:4).
K&D, "2Ki_13:4-5
In this oppression Jehoahaz prayed to the Lord (‫יי‬ ‫י‬ֵ‫נ‬ ְ ‫ה‬ ָ ִ‫ח‬ as in 1Ki_13:6); and the

Lord heard this prayer, because He saw their oppression at the hands of the Syrians, and
gave Israel a saviour, so that they came out from the power of the Syrians and dwelt in
their booths again, as before, i.e., were able to live peaceably again in their houses,
without being driven off and led away by the foe. The saviour, ַ‫יע‬ ִ‫ּושׁ‬‫מ‬, was neither an
angel, nor the prophet Elisha, nor quidam e ducibus Joasi, as some of the earlier
commentators supposed, nor a victory obtained by Jehoahaz over the Syrians, nor
merely Jeroboam (Thenius); but the Lord gave them the saviour in the two successors of
Jehoahaz, in the kings Jehoash and Jeroboam, the former of whom wrested from the
Syrians all the cities that had been conquered by them under his father (2Ki_13:25),
while the latter restored the ancient boundaries of Israel (2Ki_14:25). According to 2Ki_
13:22-25, the oppression by the Syrians lasted as long as Jehoahaz lived; but after his
death the Lord had compassion upon Israel, and after the death of Hazael, when his son
Benhadad had become king, Jehoash recovered from Benhadad all the Israelitish cities
that had been taken by the Syrians. It is obvious from this, that the oppression which
Benhadad the son of Hazael inflicted upon Israel, according to 2Ki_13:3, falls within the
period of his father's reign, so that it was not as king, but as commander-in-chief under
his father, that he oppressed Israel, and therefore he is not even called king in 2Ki_13:3.
BE SO ,"2 Kings 13:4. The Lord hearkened unto him — ot for his sake, for God
regards not the prayers of the wicked and impenitent, but for other reasons,
expressed 2 Kings 13:23. For he saw the oppression of Israel — His chosen and once
beloved people. He now helps them because of his former and ancient kindness to
them. Because the king of Syria oppressed them — To wit, very grievously, as it is
expressed 2 Kings 13:7. So that God helped them, not because they were worthy of
his help, but because of the rage of their enemies, and the blasphemies which
doubtless accompanied it. See Deuteronomy 32:27.
ELLICOTT, "(4) Besought.—Literally, stroked the face of; a metaphor which
occurs in Exodus 32:11; 1 Kings 13:6).
And the Lord hearkened unto him.— ot, however, immediately. (See 2 Kings 13:7.)
The Syrian invasions, which began under Jehu, were renewed again and again
throughout the reign of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:22), until the tide of conquest began to
turn in the time of Joash (2 Kings 13:15), whose incomplete victories (2 Kings 13:17;
2 Kings 13:19; 2 Kings 13:25) were followed up by the permanent successes of his
son Jeroboam II. (2 Kings 14:25-28).
The parenthesis marked in 2 Kings 13:5 really begins, therefore, with the words,
“And the Lord hearkened.” The historian added it by way of pointing out that
although the prayer of Jehoahaz did not meet with immediate response, it was not
ultimately ineffectual.
For he saw the oppression.—Comp. Exodus 3:7; Deuteronomy 26:7.
The king of Syria.—Intentionally general, so as to include both Hazael and Ben-
hadad III., his son (2 Kings 13:24).

PETT, "‘And Jehoahaz besought YHWH, and YHWH listened to him, for he saw
the oppression of Israel, how that the king of Aram oppressed them.’
In the end Jehoahaz turned in his extremity to YHWH in genuine prayer from the
heart. And the result was that YHWH, who could see Israel’s suffering at the hands
of the king of Aram, listened to him and responded to his prayer.
PULPIT, "And Jehoahaz besought the Lord; literally, besought the face of the
Lord. Jehoahaz, as Josephus says, "betook him-serf to prayer and supplication of
God, entreating that he would deliver him out of the hands of Hazael, and not suffer
him to continue subject" ('Ant. Jud.,' 2 Kings 9:8. § 5). He did not turn from his sin
of idolatry, perhaps did not suspect that it was this sin which had provoked God's
anger; but in a general way he repented, humbled himself, and besought God's
mercy and assistance. And the Lord hearkened unto him. God accepted his
repentance, all imperfect as it was, so far as to save the people from the entire
destruction with which it was threatened by the severe measures of Hazael (2 Kings
13:7), to continue the national existence (2 Kings 13:23), and ultimately to restore
the national prosperity (2 Kings 13:25 and 2 Kings 14:25-27). But he did not remove
the oppression, as Josephus imagines, in Jehoahaz's time. 2 Kings 13:22 makes this
fact absolutely certain. For he saw the oppression of Israel, because the King of
Syria oppressed them. Oppression is always hateful to God, even when he is using it
as his instrument for chastising or punishing a guilty people. He "sees" it, notes it,
lays it up in his remembrance for future retribution (camp. Exodus 3:7; Isaiah 10:5-
12, etc.). (On the nature and extent of the oppression of this period, see 2 Kings 13:7,
and the comment ad loc.)
5 The Lord provided a deliverer for Israel, and
they escaped from the power of Aram. So the
Israelites lived in their own homes as they had
before.
BAR ES, "The Lord gave Israel a saviour - Not immediately on the repentance
of Jehoahaz but after his death (see 2Ki_13:25).
They went out from under the hand of the Syrians - i. e. they ceased to be
oppressed by the Syrians; they shook off their yoke, and became once more perfectly
independent.
Tents - See 1Ki_8:66 note.

2 kings 13 commentary

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2 kings 13 commentary