2 Chronicles 25:9

2 Chr. 25:9. "And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this." Amaziah seemed to look upon it a hard thing to part with so great a sum. But the words that the prophet spake to him were not vain words. God plentifully rewarded Amaziah for obeying God's command in this particular, for God gave him success against his enemies, that he was going to war with, and he obtained a victory over the children of Edom, as in verse 11, 12. so that he obtained the same end without the help of the army of Israel that he aimed at, by paying the one hundred talents to hire their help, and therefore lost nothing by not taking them with him; and probably Amaziah was much more than paid for his hundred talents by the spoils of his enemies. But yet this was not all that God did in reward for his obeying his command by the prophet, for though he carried himself very wickedly after this, so as to bring God's judgments on himself during his life, yet God seems to have remembered what he had done in his son Uzziah's days; and Amaziah's success in this very expedition against the Edomites was the occasion of vastly enriching his son Uzziah. For that which seems in times past to have been the principal source of wealth of the kings of Judah, was the trade that they had by the Red sea to Ophir for gold, which was carried on from two seaport towns upon the Red sea, viz. Elath, and Ezion-geber, which places were in the land of Edom, as appears by 1 Kings 9:26; 1 Kings 9:27. "And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Elath, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom;" and by means of this trade very much it was, in all probability, that Solomon so enriched the country in his time, so as to make silver as plenty as stones there. The principal sea-port that was made use of until Jehoshaphat's time, was Ezion-geber; but Jehoshaphat having there left his fleet that he had prepared to send from thence to Ophir, his ships being broken to pieces on the rocks there, as 1 Kings 22:48. they seem after that to have made use of Elath instead of Ezion-geber, as being a safer harbour. The kings of Judah continued in the possession of this trade to Ophir, as long as they continued in the possession of the land of Edom, where those sea-ports were, which was until the days of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat; but in his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves, as 2 Kings 8:20. And so the kings of Judah from that time lost Elath and their trade to Ophir, until the days of Amaziah, who conquered them, and brought them into subjection again in that expedition spoken of in the context, to assist in which he had given the one hundred talents to the army of Israel. But God gave him such success without this hired army, that he brought the country under, and so recovered Elath; and his son Uzziah rebuilt it, and so renewed the trade to Ophir from thence, as in the next chapter, 2 Chronicles 26:1; 2 Chronicles 26:2. "Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father, Amaziah. He built Elath, and restored it to Judah, and by this means he became an exceeding wealthy prince, and filled the land with riches; and therefore Isaiah, who, in the beginning of his prophecy, prophesied in the days of Uzziah, says, Isaiah 2:7. "The land also is full of silver, and there is no end of their treasures."

"This king lost one hundred talents by his obedience, and we find just that sum given to his grandson, Jotham, as a present, 2 Chronicles 27:5. Then the principal was repaid, and for interest, ten thousand measures of wheat, and as many of barley." Henry.

2 Chr. 32:31