2 Kings 14

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Amaziah king of Judah

¹ In the second year of Joash the son of Joahaz king of Israel, Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah began to reign. ² He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. ³ And he did what was right in the sight of Yahweh, yet not like David his father; he did according to all that Joash his father had done. ⁴ Nevertheless the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.

⁵ And as soon as the kingdom was firmly in his hand, he struck down his servants who had struck down the king his father. ⁶ But he did not put to death the sons of the murderers, according to what is written in the book of the Torah of Moses, in which Yahweh commanded, saying, "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; each person shall be put to death for his own sin." ⁷ He struck down ten thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt, and took Sela in battle, and called its name Joktheel, as it is to this day.

War between Judah and Israel

⁸ Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us look one another in the face." ⁹ And Jehoash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, "The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, 'Give your daughter to my son as his wife'; and a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle. ¹⁰ You have indeed struck down Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Enjoy your glory and stay at home; for why should you provoke trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you?" ¹¹ But Amaziah would not listen. So Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah. ¹² And Judah was defeated before Israel, and every man fled to his tent. ¹³ And Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash, the son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh; and he came to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, four hundred cubits. ¹⁴ And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of Yahweh and in the treasuries of the king's house, and hostages also, and he returned to Samaria.

¹⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash which he did, and his might, and how he fought with Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ¹⁶ And Jehoash lay down with his fathers and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in his place.

¹⁷ Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived fifteen years after the death of Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz king of Israel. ¹⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ¹⁹ And they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; but they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there. ²⁰ Then they carried him on horses, and he was buried in Jerusalem with his fathers in the City of David.

²¹ And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. ²² He built Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king lay down with his fathers.

Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel

²³ In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. ²⁴ He did evil in the sight of Yahweh; he did not turn aside from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he made Israel sin. ²⁵ He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, which He spoke by His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. ²⁶ For Yahweh saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter; there was no one left, bond or free, and there was no helper for Israel. ²⁷ But Yahweh had not said that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven; so He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

²⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah in Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ²⁹ And Jeroboam lay down with his fathers, with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son reigned in his place.

Notes

• 14:6 In the ancient world the family of a traitor was often destroyed with him. Amaziah instead kept the Torah, and the writer quotes it: "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; each person shall be put to death for his own sin" (Deuteronomy 24:16). This is one of the few places in Kings where a king's deed is measured by a specific commandment written in "the book of the Torah of Moses."
• 14:7 Sela means "the rock." Many have identified it with the rocky heights of Petra in southern Jordan, while others place it at es-Sela, a fortress rock near Bozrah; the site is uncertain. The Valley of Salt, probably south of the Dead Sea, had seen an earlier victory over Edom in David's day (1 Chronicles 18:12; compare 2 Samuel 8:13). Chronicles adds that Amaziah brought back the gods of Edom and bowed down to them, and that a prophet rebuked him for it (2 Chronicles 25:14-16); this helps explain the pride of verse 10.
• 14:9 "Let us look one another in the face" is a challenge to meet in battle. Jehoash answers with a fable, as Jotham once did (Judges 9:8-15): the little thistle that asks the cedar for a marriage alliance is crushed by a passing beast without the cedar lifting a branch. Amaziah, proud after his victory over Edom, is the thistle. Chronicles says that his refusal to listen "was from Elohim," because he had sought the gods of Edom (2 Chronicles 25:20).
• 14:14 Four hundred cubits is about 180 meters (600 feet) of wall, probably on the north side, where Jerusalem was easiest to attack: the Ephraim Gate opened on the road north toward Ephraim, and the Corner Gate seems to have stood at the northwest corner. "Hostages" is literally "sons of pledges," men taken to Samaria to guarantee Judah's good conduct. The treasuries that Joash of Judah had emptied to buy off Hazael (12:18) were now stripped again, this time by Israel.
• 14:25 Jonah son of Amittai is the prophet of the book of Jonah (Jonah 1:1). Here he speaks a word of rescue for Israel under a king who did evil; in his own book he is sent to Nineveh, the great city of Assyria. Gath-hepher was a town of Zebulun in Galilee (Joshua 19:13), usually placed near Nazareth. Yeshua spoke of "the sign of Jonah the prophet" (Matthew 12:39-41). The border "from Lebo-hamath to the Sea of the Arabah" (the Dead Sea) recalls the reach of Solomon's kingdom (1 Kings 8:65); verse 28 adds that Jeroboam restored Damascus and Hamath "to Judah in Israel," a hard phrase that may mean lands once ruled from Jerusalem in David's day (2 Samuel 8:5-10) now came under Israel.
• 14:27 Verse 26 uses the words of the Song of Moses: Yahweh will have compassion on His servants "when He sees that their strength is gone, and there is no one remaining, bond or free" (Deuteronomy 32:36). "Blot out the name … from under heaven" is the language of Deuteronomy 9:14 and 29:20. Yahweh rescued Israel through Jeroboam, though he did evil (verse 24): the rescue came from Yahweh's compassion, not from the king's faithfulness. Yet Amos and Hosea, who prophesied in these prosperous years, announced the judgment that would follow (Amos 7:9-11; Hosea 1:1-5).

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