2 Kings 14:25

He restored the coast of Israel Here, as before, -coast" has no reference to -seaboard". The territory which Jeroboam recovered was on the east of the Jordan, and so what is meant is that he acquired again the portions of Gilead and Bashan that had been lost under previous kings.

from the entering of Hamath R.V. entering in of H. This rendering is as in A.V. of 1 Kings 8:65 and elsewhere. The -entering in of Hamath" or -as men come to Hamath" is frequently mentioned as a northern limit of the Israelite territory, Hamath being a chief city of Syria and under the rulers of Damascus. Cf. Numbers 13:21; Numbers 34:8; Joshua 13:5; Judges 3:3.

unto the sea of the plain R.V. of the Arabah. The sea of the Arabah is the Dead Sea. Cf. Deuteronomy 3:17; Deuteronomy 4:49; Joshua 3:16; Joshua 12:3. The Arabah is the name given to the valley from the Sea of Galilee southward to the desert. The name is found in A.V. in Joshua 18:18, and has been introduced as a proper name in the R.V. constantly. The sea of the Arabah is defined in Joshua 3:16 as -the salt sea". The district restored by Jeroboam was on the east of the Jordan, and extended from the valley of the Orontes where Hamath was situated, southward to the frontiers of the Moabites.

the Lord God of Israel R.V. the God of I. As usual.

his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai This must be the same person to whom the prophecy of Jonah is ascribed, for it is impossible to believe that there were two persons of this name, both prophets and both sons of Amittai. Jonah must therefore have prophesied before (or early in) the reign of Jeroboam II., the commencement of whose reign is placed about b.c. 823. Thus Jonah must be the earliest of those prophets, whose writings have been preserved. That there is nothing in the book of Jonah about the prophecy mentioned in this verse need not surprise us. That book is very brief and deals with but one episode in the prophet's life. Yet a prophet, whose ministry God employed about distant Nineveh, may certainly be expected to have had messages also for his own countrymen. Hosea (2 Kings 1:1) and Amos (2 Kings 1:1) also prophesied in the days of Jeroboam II.

whichwas of Gath-hepher The same place is called Gittah-hepher in Joshua 19:13. It was not far from Nazareth in the tribe of Zebulon. Jonah therefore was a prophet of the northern Kingdom. Jewish tradition makes him to have been the son of the widow of Zarephath, whom Elijah restored to life, and says also that it was he who attended Elijah when he set forth into the wilderness, and who was sent to anoint Jehu. All which things have no foundation but conjecture.