2 Kings 14

2 Kings 14 belongs to the portion of the book covering the divided monarchy, in which accounts of the kings of Judah in the south and of Israel in the north alternate. Chapter 12 covers the death of Joash king of Judah, and chapter 13 covers Jehoahaz and Jehoash, kings of Israel, as well as the death of Elisha. This chapter records the reigns of their successors, Amaziah king of Judah and Jeroboam II king of Israel.

Outline

• Verses 1–4 Amaziah becomes king at twenty-five and reigns twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. He does what is right in the sight of the LORD, yet not like David his father, and he does not remove the high places (local altars outside the Jerusalem temple).
• Verses 5–6 Amaziah executes the servants who had killed his father. In keeping with what is written in the book of the law of Moses, he does not put their children to death.
• Verse 7 He kills ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt, takes Sela, and renames it Joktheel.
• Verses 8–14 Amaziah challenges Jehoash king of Israel to battle. Jehoash tries to dissuade him with a parable of a thistle and a cedar, but Amaziah will not listen. Judah is defeated at Beth-shemesh, and Amaziah is taken captive. Jehoash breaks down four hundred cubits of the wall of Jerusalem and carries off to Samaria the gold and silver and the vessels of the temple and the palace, along with hostages.
• Verses 15–16 Jehoash dies and is buried in Samaria, and his son Jeroboam becomes king.
• Verses 17–22 Amaziah lives fifteen years after the death of Jehoash. When a conspiracy arises in Jerusalem, he flees to Lachish but is killed there. The people make sixteen-year-old Azariah king, and Azariah builds Elath and restores it to Judah.
• Verses 23–27 Jeroboam reigns forty-one years in Samaria. He does not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Nevertheless, in accordance with the word spoken through the prophet Jonah, he restores the border of Israel from the entering of Hamath to the sea of the plain. The text presents this as a deliverance brought about by the LORD, who saw the affliction of Israel.
• Verses 28–29 The chapter notes that Jeroboam's recovery of Damascus and Hamath, among his other deeds, is written in the chronicles of the kings of Israel. His son Zechariah succeeds him.

Key Verses

• 2 Kings 14:6 "nor the children be put to death for the fathers" — Citing the law of Deuteronomy, this verse illustrates the principle that responsibility for sin rests only on the one who committed it.
• 2 Kings 14:10 "Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up" — This sums up the movement of the first half of the chapter, in which pride following victory leads to defeat.
• 2 Kings 14:25 "which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah" — This verse attests to the ministry of the prophet Jonah outside the book of Jonah.

People and Places

• Amaziah: Son of Joash king of Judah. His reign is also recorded in 2 Chronicles 25.
• Jehoash (king of Israel): Son of Jehoahaz and grandson of Jehu.
• Jeroboam: Son of Jehoash king of Israel. He is commonly called "Jeroboam II" to distinguish him from Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the first king of northern Israel.
• Azariah: Son of Amaziah, also called Uzziah in 2 Kings 15 and in 2 Chronicles.
• Jonah: A prophet from Gath-hepher, the son of Amittai. He is generally identified with the central figure of the book of Jonah.
• Places: Edom was a nation southeast of Judah. The Valley of Salt takes its name from salt, and Sela was a city of Edom. Beth-shemesh was a town in western Judah, and Lachish a fortified city in southwestern Judah. Elath was a port on the Gulf of Aqaba, an arm of the Red Sea, and Hamath a city in northern Syria. The sea of the plain (the Arabah) refers to the Dead Sea. Jerusalem, Samaria, and Damascus also appear.

Points for Reflection

• Verse 6 quotes Deuteronomy 24:16 and is often read together with the teaching on individual responsibility in Ezekiel 18:19–20.
• The parable in verse 9 is often cited, along with the fable of the trees told by Jotham (son of Gideon) in Judges 9, as one of the rare examples of fable in the Old Testament.
• 2 Chronicles 25 contains material not found in 2 Kings: Amaziah's dismissal of Israelite mercenaries, his bringing in and worshiping the gods of Edom, and a prophet's rebuke. Chronicles explains Amaziah's refusal to heed the warning as the will of God, a consequence of his seeking the gods of Edom (2 Chronicles 25:20). Because the text of 2 Kings alone does not identify the cause of the defeat in this way, the two accounts should be read with their differences in mind.
• Verses 26–27 emphasize God's compassion in not forsaking Israel even in the days of a king who did evil. The era of Jeroboam II was also the time when Amos and Hosea ministered (Amos 1:1; Hosea 1:1), so the prosperity described in this chapter is sometimes read alongside the rebukes of these two prophets.
• Scholars differ in how they reconcile the regnal figures in this chapter (twenty-nine years, fifteen years, forty-one years, and so on) with those in other chapters; proposed explanations include theories of coregency.
• In the New Testament, Jesus speaks of "the sign of the prophet Jonas" (Matthew 12:39; see Matthew 12:41). In addition, because Gath-hepher lay in the region of Galilee, Jonah is sometimes mentioned in connection with the Pharisees' claim, "out of Galilee ariseth no prophet" (John 7:52).