2 Kings 14:1-22

The Reign of Amaziah, son of Joash, King of Judah. Amaziah was a virtuous king like his father Joash, but not according to the standard of David. This is the judgment of the Deuteronomist, who refers to the law-book of his age, approving the king's forbearance in not punishing the sons of his father's murderers (Deuteronomy 21:1 *, Deuteronomy 24:16). Amaziah was successful in his wars with Edom, whose territory was peculiarly important to Judah as giving access to the Red Sea. The Edomites were defeated in the Valley of Salt as in David's time (2 Samuel 8:13, LXX). There is a place of the same name near Beersheba, but the topography here seems to require it to be in the southern Arabah, S. of the Dead Sea, especially as the result of the campaign was the recovery and rebuilding of Elath (2 Kings 14:22). The Rock (Sela) was captured, and its name changed to Joktheel (2 Kings 14:7). Whether the famous rock city Petra is meant is doubtful. Petra lies in the extreme S. of the Edomite Arabah, between the Dead and Red Seas, and is approached by a wady on the eastern side (see Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 91ff.). It is possibly mentioned in Judges 1:36.* Stanley identified Sela, the cliff, with Kadesh Barnea, and this is the name of the rock which Moses smote there (Numbers 20:8 ff.); but Kadesh would lie outside the sphere of operations if the king of Judah was trying to get to the port of Elath. Amaziah, elated by his conquest of Edom, challenged Jehoash, king of Israel, to look him in the face. Whether this means in battle or to regard him no longer as a vassal is uncertain. The king of Israel replied in a parable comparing the king of Judah to a thistle, and himself to a cedar of Lebanon. After ignominiously defeating Amaziah, Joash demolished the northern wall of Jerusalem. Amaziah, like his father, was killed in a conspiracy, and was succeeded by his son Azariah.