2 Kings 13:1-9

III. THE REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ IN THE NORTH 13:1-9

TRANSLATION

(1) In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria; and he reigned seventeen years. (2) And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin; he did not turn from it. (3) And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and He gave them into the hand of Hazael king of Aram, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael all those days. (4) And Jehoahaz sought the face of the LORD, and the LORD hearkened unto him; for He saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Aram oppressed them. (5) And the LORD gave to Israel a deliverer, and they went out from under the hand of Aram, and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as fan former days. (6) But they did not turn from the sins of the house of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin, but walked therein; and also the Asherah remained In Samaria. (7) Neither did he leave to Jehoahaz any people except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry; for the king of Aram had destroyed them and had made them like the dust by threshing. (8) And the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz and all which he did, and his valor, are they not written In the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? (9) And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers, and they burled him In Samaria; and Jehoash his son reigned In his place.

COMMENTS

In chapter 13 the account of the Northern Kingdom is taken up where it left off at the end of chapter 9 with the death of Jehu. Jehoahaz succeeded his father on the throne and ruled for seventeen years (2 Kings 13:1). Like all previous kings of Israel, Jehoahaz sinned by continuing to condone the calf worship at Dan and Bethel. Jehu had been chastised by God for failing to purge the land of this theological corruption (2 Kings 10:32-33), and Jehoahaz, because of his obstinacy in this respect, was punished even more severely (2 Kings 13:2). God delivered Israel into the hand of the ruthless Aramean Kings Hazael and Benhadad II all the days, i.e., all the days that God had appointed for the calamity[571] (2 Kings 13:3).

[571] The phrase all the days might be taken to mean all the days of Jehoahaz were it not for the fact that Hazael outlived Jehoahaz and therefore there would be no opportunity for Benhadad, Hazael's son, to fight against him. Of course it is possible that Benhadad warred against Jehoahaz in the capacity of a general in the army of his father.

In the midst of this Aramean oppression, Jehoahaz repented and cried out to God for deliverance. It is true that Jehoahaz did not abandon the practice of the calf worship, perhaps because he did not suspect that this was the sin which had provoked the anger of the Lord. But he did repent; and God accepted that repentance as imperfect as it was. God delivered His people from the destruction which they otherwise might have experienced at the hands of the Aramean Kings (2 Kings 13:4). But that deliverance did not come during the reign of Jehoahaz. God raised up one who would deliver His people from their oppressors. The deliverer referred to in 2 Kings 13:5 may be Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, who began to extricate Israel from the grasp of the Arameans. But more likely the reference is to Jeroboam II who was able to restore all the borders of Israel. Following the deliverance from the Aramean hegemony, the people of God dwelt in their tents as in former days. The word tents is a mere idiomatic way of referring to their homes. The peaceful conditions which prevailed in former days, i.e., prior to the Aramean oppression, were restored (2 Kings 13:5).

Eleventh King of Israel
JEHOAHAZ BEN JEHU
814-798 B.C.
(Yabweb seized)

2 Kings 13:1-9

Synchronism
Jehoahaz 1 = Jehoash 23
Contemporary Prophet
Elisha

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked bear rule, the people mourn. Proverbs 29:2

After jumping ahead to the repentance of Jehoahaz and the subsequent deliverance which God granted to Israel, the author reverts to the theme of the failings of this king. Again he mentions that Jehoahaz walked in the sinful paths of the house of Jeroboam by which he refers to the calf worship which had persisted in the Northern Kingdom from the days of Jeroboam I. The author now adds that Jehoahaz did not remove the Asherahthe wooden image of the consort of Baalfrom Samaria. This Asherah (KJV, grove [572]) had been set up at Jezebel's suggestion (1 Kings 16:33) by Ahab. It is surprising that Jehu did not remove this last vestige of the Ahab-Jezebel era during his long reign; but for some reason or other, it was spared and was still standing in the days of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:6). 2 Kings 13:7 amplifies the thought of the Aramean oppression alluded to already in 2 Kings 13:4. Hazael had such control over Israel that he was able to limit the standing army of the nation to fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry men. Jehoahaz was, it would appear, a vassal subject of Hazael. This sad state of affairs had come about because the Arameans had inflicted heavy casualties upon the Israelite army. The phrase had made them like the dust by threshing (2 Kings 13:7) may be a figurative way of describing the utter destruction which Hazael had inflicted on the armies of Israel. The phrase may also be an allusion to the execution of prisoners by driving threshing implements over thema barbaric practice known to have been practiced by the Arameans (cf. Amos 1:3). Though humiliated and reduced to subjection by the Arameans, Jehoahaz had distinguished himself by personal courage in the course of the war (2 Kings 13:8). When he died, Jehoahaz was buried in Samaria where all the kings since the time of Omri were buried (2 Kings 13:9).

[572] The mistranslation grove originated with the Septuagint translators who uniformly rendered the Hebrew word by alsos.