Albert Barnes

So the LORD gave Israel a deliverer, and they escaped the power of the Arameans. Then the people of Israel lived in their own homes as they had before.

“The Lord gave Israel a saviour - Not immediately on the repentance of Jehoahaz but after his death (see 2Ki 13:25). They went out from under the hand of the Syrians - i. e.”

Jehoahaz had no army left, except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at…

“The meaning is that “he, the king of Syria” (2Ki 13:4 Hazael) limited the standing army of Jehoahaz. Like the dust by threshing - An expression not only employed metaphorically, and importing defeat, conquest, and grinding oppression Jer 51:33; Mic 4:12, but implying also the…”

“Open the east window,” said Elisha. So he opened it and Elisha said, “Shoot!” So he shot.

“Eastward - Syria of Damascus lay partly east, but still more north, of the holy land. The arrow was to be shot, eastward, not so much against Syria itself as against the scene of the recent Syrian successes, Gilead 2Ki 10:33, which was also to…”

But the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times.

“The unfaithfulness of man limits the goodness of God. Though Joash did the prophet’s bidding, it was without any zeal or fervour; and probably without any earnest belief in the efficacy of what he was doing. Compare Mar 6:5-6.”

Once, as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders, so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb.

“They cast the man - Rather, “they thrust the man.” The graves of the Jews were not pits dug in the ground, like ours, but caves or cells excavated in the side of a rock, the mouth of the cave being ordinarily shut by a…”

But the LORD was gracious to Israel and had compassion on them, and He turned toward them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

“The writer regards the captivity of Israel as God’s “casting them out of His sight” (see 2Ki 17:18, 2Ki 17:20); and notes that this extreme punishment, though deserved, was by God’s mercy not allowed to fall on them as yet.”

Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz took back from Ben-hadad son of Hazael the cities that Hazael had taken in battle from his father Jehoahaz.

“The cities which ... - Probably cities west of the Jordan, since the tract east of that river was conquered, mainly if not wholly, in the reign of Jehu 2Ki 10:33.”

He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem.

“Joash of Judah reigned forty years 2Ki 12:1, and Joash of Israel ascended the throne in his namesake’s thirty-seventh year 2Ki 13:10; hence, we should have expected to hear that Amaziah succeeded his father in the fourth rather than in the second year of Joash…”

And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not as his father David had done. He did everything as his father Joash had done.

“He did ... as Joash - There is a curious parity between the lives of Joash and Amaziah. Both were zealous for Yahweh in the earlier portion of their reigns, but in the latter part fell away; both disregarded the rebukes of prophets; and both…”

As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, Amaziah executed the servants who had murdered his father the king.

“The phrase, “confirmed in his hand” 2Ki 15:19, usually expresses the authorisation of a new reign by an imperial superior (see 2Ki 15:19 note); but here it describes the result when the troubles consequent upon the murder of Joash had passed away.”

Amaziah struck down 10,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. He took Sela in battle and called it Joktheel, which is its name to this very day.

“Amaziah’s Idumaean war is treated at length by the writer of Chronicles (marginal reference). The “Valley of Salt” is usually identified with the broad open plain called the Sabkah, at the southern end of the Dead Sea - the continuation of the Ghor or Jordan…”

But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son…

“The Oriental use of apologues on the most solemn and serious occasions is well known to all, and scarcely needs illustration (compare marginal reference).”

But Amaziah would not listen, and Jehoash king of Israel advanced. He and King Amaziah of Judah faced each other at Beth-shemesh in Judah.

“Jehoash did not wait to be attacked. Invading Judaea from the west, and so ascending out of the low coast tract, he met the army of Amaziah at Beth-shemesh (see Jos 19:21 note), about 15 miles from Jerusalem.”

And Judah was routed before Israel, and every man fled to his home.

“The author of Chronicles notes that Amaziah’s obstinacy, and his consequent defeat and captivity, were judgments upon him for an idolatry into which he had fallen after his conquest of Edom 2Ch 25:14, 2Ch 25:20.”

There at Beth-shemesh, Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah.

“The object of breaking down the wall was to leave Jerusalem at the mercy of her rival; and it must have been among the conditions of the peace that the breach thus made should not be repaired.”

As for the rest of the acts of Jehoash, along with his accomplishments, his might, and how he waged war against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in…

“These two verses (repeated from 2Ki 13:12-13) are out of place here, where they interrupt the history of Amaziah’s reign.”

They carried him back on horses and buried him in Jerusalem with his fathers in the City of David.

“They brought him on horses - i. e. they conveyed his body back to Jerusalem in the royal chariot. The combination of relentless animosity against the living prince with the deepest respect for his dead remains is very characteristic of an Oriental people.”

Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

“All the people of Judah - The words imply that the conspiracy was one in which the general mass of the people did not participate. There was no confusion and trouble as on the occasion of the murder of Joash.”

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Amaziah son of Joash over Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria forty-one years.

“Jeroboam - This is the only instance, in the history of either kingdom, of a recurrent royal appellation.”

This Jeroboam restored the boundary of Israel from Lebo-hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word that the LORD, the God of Israel, had spoken through His…

“He restored the coast of Israel - Jeroboam, in the course of his long reign, recovered the old boundaries of the holy land to the north, the east, and the southeast.”

and since the LORD had said that He would not blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.

“And the Lord said not - Though the Israelites were brought thus low, yet the fiat did not as yet go forth for their destruction.”

And the LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, so that he lived in a separate house while his son Jotham had charge of the palace…

“The Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper - The circumstances under which this terrible affliction befel one of the greatest of the Jewish kings, are given at some length by the author of Chronicles (marginal reference), who supplies us with a…”

In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah’s reign over Judah, Zechariah son of Jeroboam became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria six months.

“In the thirty and eighth year - Rather, according to the previous numbers 2Ki 14:23; 2Ki 15:2, the 27th year of Azariah. Some suppose an interregnum between Jeroboam and Zachariah, which, however, is very improbable.”

Then Shallum son of Jabesh conspired against Zechariah, struck him down and killed him in front of the people, and reigned in his place.

“Before the people - i. e. openly and publicly. The Septuagint turns the original of the above words into a proper name, Keblaam, and makes him the actual assassin, but without much ground.”

Then Menahem son of Gadi went up from Tirzah to Samaria, struck down and killed Shallum son of Jabesh, and reigned in his place.

“Tirzah, the old capital, once more appears as a place of importance, giving birth to the pretender, who alone of all these later kings died a natural death, and left the crown to his son 2Ki 15:22.”