Now we complete 2 Kings 13, before continuing in chapter 14.
Amaziah has just become king in Judah, and two years before, Jehoash had become King in Israel.
Read 2 Kings 13:10-13
10 In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned for sixteen years. 11 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he continued in them.
12 As for the other events of the reign of Jehoash, all he did and his achievements, including his war against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? 13 Jehoash rested with his ancestors, and Jeroboam succeeded him on the throne. Jehoash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.
The writer of 2 Kings really doesn’t want to say very much about Jehoash at all. But then it seems he found a record of some curious events that had happened, so he adds it here.
Read 2 Kings 13:14-19
14 Now Elisha had been suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. ‘My father! My father!’ he cried. ‘The chariots and horsemen of Israel!’
15 Elisha said, ‘Get a bow and some arrows,’ and he did so. 16 ‘Take the bow in your hands,’ he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.
17 ‘Open the east window,’ he said, and he opened it. ‘Shoot!’ Elisha said, and he shot. ‘The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!’ Elisha declared. ‘You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.’
18 Then he said, ‘Take the arrows,’ and the king took them. Elisha told him, ‘Strike the ground.’ He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, ‘You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.’
Really? Does the course of history really depend on how many times someone hit the ground with some arrows?
Let’s look at the whole strange episode. We have just read that Jeroboam did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so it seems unlikely that he and Elisha were friends. Fifty years had passed since we last heard of Elisha – he was now in his eighties. Yet now the king had decided to visit him. Why?
Following the Lord’s instruction to Elijah, Elisha had anointed Hazael as king of the Arameans. The Lord then proceeded to use Hazael to punish the wicked kings of Israel (2 Kings 10:32), by occupying the tribal lands on the whole of the east side of the River Jordan. Is Jehoash worried that he was now going to launch a major attack across the Jordan? Who would be likely to have any insight into God’s plans for Hazael?
Jeroboam knew his history, the phrase ‘The chariots and horsemen of Israel!’ (see 2 Kings 2:12) may have alluded to the fact that Elijah was the only one who prepared to stand against the forces of evil on behalf of Israel. He knew also that he had handed that role to Elisha. He also remembered how Elisha had intervened when Moab had attacked (2 Kings 3:4-27). Now it appears his last hope was fading before his eyes.
When the King arrived, he wept. For Elisha or for himself? He was hoping for great things but now he found Elisha on his death-bed.
Whether Jehoash told Elisha of his concerns or not we are not told, But Elisha obviously knew, and was led to use the king’s own attitude to decide the Lord’s answer. Shooting an arrow east, in the direction of the enemy, with the symbolic touch from the Lord’s messenger on his hands, indicated that yes, he would have the victory.
Some have suggested that had the king been encouraged by that, had he been filled with zeal to go into battle, he might have hit the ground more vigorously with the arrows. But no, he was king after all, taking part in a charade, and hitting the ground with arrows was a bit beneath him, so he was very half hearted. So we read:
The man of God was angry with him and said, ‘You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.’ (See 2 Kings 13:25).
Read 2 Kings 13:20-21
20 Elisha died and was buried.
Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. 21 Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.
It wasn’t only Arameans from the North-West, but Moabites from the South-West too who continually attacked Israel.
In those days, caves were used as burial sites so panicking mourners would have quickly disposed of the body. But why the miracle? Obviously news like this would quickly reach the king – maybe it was to remind him that there was a God in Israel.
Read 2 Kings 13:22-23
22 Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz. 23 But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence.
The books of 1 & 2 Kings were obviously compiled from many contemporary records. The writer of this account is obviously aware of the covenants God had made. But also he was painfully aware of the warnings given through Moses in Deuteronomy 28 and 29 – see particularly Deuteronomy 28:36, 49, 64. To this date the Lord had been amazingly forgiving – but it couldn’t last forever.
Read 2 Kings 13:24-25
24 Hazael king of Aram died, and Ben-Hadad his son succeeded him as king. 25 Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured from Ben-Hadad son of Hazael the towns he had taken in battle from his father Jehoahaz. Three times Jehoash defeated him, and so he recovered the Israelite towns.
As we have seen before, as soon as a new king takes over from the previous one, before he has ‘got his boots under the table’, that is when the country is most vulnerable, and often the best time to retake captured land.
While all this had been going on, there had also been a new king in Judah, to the south.
Read 2 Kings 14:1-6
1 In the second year of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father David had done. In everything he followed the example of his father Joash. 4 The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
5 After the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king. 6 Yet he did not put the children of the assassins to death, in accordance with what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses where the Lord commanded: ‘Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.’
Obviously the king felt that having officials in his palace who were capable of killing a king was perhaps not ideal. (You may have noticed that this particular law of Moses had often been ignored when it came to royal children).
Read 2 Kings 14:7
7 He was the one who defeated ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt and captured Sela in battle, calling it Joktheel, the name it has to this day.
Now it is the turn of the writer of 2 Kings to leave out something, so instead we’ll read from 2 Chronicles 25:5-10
5 Amaziah called the people of Judah together and assigned them according to their families to commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He then mustered those twenty years old or more and found that there were three hundred thousand men fit for military service, able to handle the spear and shield. 6 He also hired a hundred thousand fighting men from Israel for a hundred talents of silver.
7 But a man of God came to him and said, ‘Your Majesty, these troops from Israel must not march with you, for the Lord is not with Israel – not with any of the people of Ephraim. 8 Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow.’
9 Amaziah asked the man of God, ‘But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops?’
The man of God replied, ‘The Lord can give you much more than that.’
10 So Amaziah dismissed the troops who had come to him from Ephraim and sent them home. They were furious with Judah and left for home in a great rage.
Now there are four things to notice:
- It is interesting that God intervened in this way – yes, he was with the king of Judah, but he didn’t need to use people who were openly worshippers of other gods.
- Amaziah was ready to listen to God and be obedient.
- It seems that relationships across the border with Israel were cordial enough to arrange for a hundred thousand fighting men to come and join his army.
- The men from Israel were eager to fight – there were always spoils of war to take home!
Read 2 Chronicles 25:11-12
11 Amaziah then marshalled his strength and led his army to the Valley of Salt, where he killed ten thousand men of Seir. 12 The army of Judah also captured ten thousand men alive, took them to the top of a cliff and threw them down so that all were dashed to pieces.
No, I didn’t like that either. But Edom persisted in attacking Judah, so I could perhaps understand their motives.
Read 2 Chronicles 25:13
13 Meanwhile the troops that Amaziah had sent back and had not allowed to take part in the war raided towns belonging to Judah from Samaria to Beth Horon. They killed three thousand people and carried off great quantities of plunder.
Again, not pleasant, but indicative of the way soldiers behaved in those days.
Read 2 Chronicles 25:14-15
14 When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them. 15 The anger of the Lord burned against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, ‘Why do you consult this people’s gods, which could not save their own people from your hand?’
What was he thinking? Surely what the prophet said was blatantly obvious, especially as he had been helped to victory by the Lord God himself.
Read 2 Chronicles 25:16
16 While he was still speaking, the king said to him, ‘Have we appointed you an advisor to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?’
So the prophet stopped, but added ‘I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.’
The most likely reason for Amaziah’s behaviour was that he felt himself so invincible he could even steal his opponent’s gods, and add them to his own.
Read 2 Chronicles 25:17
17 After Amaziah king of Judah consulted his advisors, he sent this challenge to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel: ‘Come, let us face each other in battle.’
So we have been introduced to the two kings, and have been told that both had been successful in battle. Following the split after Solomon’s death, the two halves of the country – Judah and Israel – both probably felt that the land should be reunited again. But of course there could only be one King . . .
Back to 2 Kings. Read 2 Kings 14:9 -12
9 But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: ‘A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, “Give your daughter to my son in marriage.” Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle underfoot. 10 You have indeed defeated Edom and now you are arrogant. Glory in your victory, but stay at home! Why ask for trouble and cause your own downfall and that of Judah also?’
11 Amaziah, however, would not listen, so Jehoash king of Israel attacked. He and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other at Beth Shemesh in Judah. 12 Judah was routed by Israel, and every man fled to his home.
In those days, when conscripted soldiers (see verse 5 above) saw that they were on the losing side, they simply evaporated from the field of battle and went back to their homes.
This left the winner with no-one to fight. What could he do? Claiming victory over a whole nation was obviously beyond the aspirations of Jehoash. Normally, raiders from one country to another would do some vandalism, and then make off with whatever valuables they could carry. The term 'rape and pillage' probably applied.
Read 2 Kings 14:13-14
13 Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, at Beth Shemesh. Then Jehoash went to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate – a section about four hundred cubits long. 14 He took all the gold and silver and all the articles found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace. He also took hostages and returned to Samaria.
And seemingly, not knowing what to do with Amaziah, he let him go free.
Read 2 Kings 14:15-16
15 As for the other events of the reign of Jehoash, what he did and his achievements, including his war against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? 16 Jehoash rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. And Jeroboam his son succeeded him as king.
That leaves us with defeated Amaziah. Not the happiest person, and he obviously had political enemies at home who felt that his attack on the North had been an unnecessary and costly ego-trip.
Read 2 Kings 14:17-22
17 Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel. 18 As for the other events of Amaziah’s reign, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?
19 They conspired against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish, but they sent men after him to Lachish and killed him there. 20 He was brought back by horse and was buried in Jerusalem with his ancestors, in the City of David.
21 Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. 22 He was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after Amaziah rested with his ancestors.
(Confusingly, 2 Chronicles refers to Azariah as Uzziah and that is the name more generally used.)
Maybe this young king could be led to be more sensible.
We will have to wait and see. At this point, 2 Chronicles seems to turn its back on the kings of Israel, and now concentrates almost entirely on the remaining kings of Judah.
For the time being though, we will stay with 2 Kings and Israel, and return to Judah later.
