2 Chronicleschapter 25
28 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
While he was still speaking, the king asked, “Have we made you the counselor to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?” So the prophet stopped, but he said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not heeded my advice.”
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 2 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for a community that had come home, rebuilt an altar and kept the feasts, but with divided hearts. It follows a king who obeyed the law of Moses in some things and not in others. Two prophets speak to him, and a king of Israel answers him with a parable. Listen for the costs the king is asked to accept for the sake of obedience. Watch for the strange choice he makes after a victory. The verdict at the start of the chapter explains everything that follows.
Context
- Who
- A community tempted to a partial return and a partial obedience
- What
- The reign of Amaziah: justice on his father's killers, a victory over Edom, the worship of Edom's gods, and defeat by Joash of Israel.
- Where
- Jerusalem, the Valley of Salt, the rock fortress of Sela in Edom, and Beth-shemesh.
- When
- About 796 to 767 BC, the twenty-nine years of Amaziah's reign.
- Why
- To show that doing right without a whole heart does not hold, and that pride goes before a fall.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Amaziah, twenty-five at his accession and reigning twenty-nine years. Thiele's reconstruction places the reign at about 796 to 767 BC.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The places are the Valley of Salt south of the Dead Sea, the rock stronghold of Sela in the mountains of Edom, and Beth-shemesh in the western foothills.
The occasion of the first act is a settling of accounts. Amaziah executed the servants who had killed his father and spared their children, citing the law of Moses that each is to die for his own sin.
Executing a traitor's whole family was normal practice in the region and Judah's law forbade it, so a king is obeying the text against the custom.
A first hearer knew the risk in the next decision as well. Dismissing a hundred thousand mercenaries already paid a hundred talents of silver is how an army turns on the towns it was hired to defend.
A first hearer knew, last, the logic behind the strangest turn in the chapter. A defeated nation's gods were thought to hold local power worth having, and the prophet's question is why the king sought gods that could not deliver their own people out of his hand.
Significance
The verdict on Amaziah is the sentence the first hearers were meant to carry away. He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and he did it with a divided heart.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
That was the danger of their own moment. They had come home, rebuilt an altar and kept the feasts, and Malachi was already asking about blemished offerings and half-hearted priests.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
Chronicles stands among the Writings in the Hebrew canon, and the annual cycle of Torah portions and their Haftarot draws on other books. A Jewish reader meets this chapter in study rather than in a reading appointed for a Sabbath or a feast, and the site's own reading data records the same for every chapter.
How it is read
The dismissal of the hired northern troops is read through the calves of Jeroboam. Rashi says God is not with those forces because Jeroboam came from Ephraim and was the first to make Israel sin. In every generation after him that sin remained their stumbling block (Rashi on II Chronicles 25:7:1). He reads the prophet's next words as a challenge rather than a promise. If the king will not believe him, let him go and make himself strong for the war and see (Rashi on II Chronicles 25:8:1).
The fall of Amaziah is read as counsel given and refused. Rashi has the prophet telling the king that God has taken counsel to destroy him, and then naming the counsel. It is the advice that drew him to provoke the king of Israel and fall before him (Rashi on II Chronicles 25:16:1, and 25:20:1). The taunt of the northern king is read plainly. The thistle of Lebanon is a thing of short stature (Rashi on II Chronicles 25:18:1). The charge against Amaziah is that his heart made him haughty and he wanted glory at another king's cost (Rashi on II Chronicles 25:19:1).
Rashi also reads the small movements of the account. He explains that the raid ran from Samaria toward Beth-horon because the troops went home first. The order of the names would be reversed had they struck on the way back (Rashi on II Chronicles 25:13:1). He says the battle site is named because it explains why the captured king was taken to Jerusalem and not to Samaria (Rashi on II Chronicles 25:21:1). The breaching of the wall he reads as a calculation, that a king with a broken wall will not rebel again (Rashi on II Chronicles 25:23:1). The conspiracy at the end he reads as grief turning to anger, each man mourning a son or a brother killed in a war the king provoked (Rashi on II Chronicles 25:27:1).
Malbim comments at 25:1:1, 25:5:1, 25:11:1, 25:22:1 and 25:26:1, and Metzudat David at 25:4:1, 25:5:1, 25:9:1, 25:10:1, 25:15:1 and 25:28:1. The corpus holds no English text for either, so both stand cited and unquoted.
What the rabbis say
Rashi reports one saying and names where he found it. On the men thrown from the rock he cites Lamentations Rabbah (Rashi on II Chronicles 25:12:1). It applies to this king the proverb about a wise man contending with a fool, whether he rages or laughs.
The corpus carries fourteen locators on this chapter and holds the locator alone for each. The Talmud carries it at Sanhedrin 103a:8, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) Sanhedrin 11:79 beside it. The halakhic midrashim carry it at Sifrei Devarim 342:6, Sifrei Bamidbar 134:5 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 33:1:23. Midrash Lekach Tov carries it at Deuteronomy 33:1:2 and on Lamentations 2:2:1. The rest are Eikhah Rabbah Petichta 14, Kohelet Rabbah 1:16:1, Midrash Shmuel 20:2, Seder Olam Rabbah 19:2 and 20:2, and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 134:1 and 801:4.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Chronicles, the Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg (Sefaria, CC-BY); Malbim, Malbim on II Chronicles 25, cited by ref from the Sefaria corpus, which holds no English version of it; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Chronicles 25, cited by ref from the Sefaria corpus, which holds no English version of it; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/2-chronicles/25.json, fetched 2026-09-19; The reading data of this site, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed in this lane: 2-chronicles parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, hasSynagogueReading true for 0 of 36 chapters.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Hired soldiers sent home: the LORD is able to give much more
2 Chronicles 25:1-2
twenty-five years old when he became king: Amaziah’s opening formula follows Kings closely, but Chronicles drops the comparison with David and gives its own measure: he did right “but not wholeheartedly”. That divided heart breaks out at verse 14, when Amaziah brings home the gods of Seir. His mother, Jehoaddan of Jerusalem, is named in both accounts.
2 Chronicles 25:1
“This chapter is evidently taken to a large extent from the same document as Kings (see the marginal reference and the notes). At the same time it contains large and important additions; e. g. 2Ch 25:5-10, 2Ch 25:13-16.”
right in the eyes of the LORD: Barnes traces this verdict to the same record Kings used at 2 Kings 14:3. The early years of Amaziah still hold real obedience. He keeps the Law of Moses at verse 4 and sends the hired army of Israel home at verse 10.
2 Chronicles 25:2
“He did that which was right - He began his reign well, but soon became an idolater, 2Ch 25:14, 2Ch 25:15.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 25:3-4
As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp: Amaziah executes his father’s murderers but spares their sons. Chronicles keeps the citation Kings already carries at 2 Kings 14:5-6: “Fathers must not be put to death for their children”. The king who keeps that law here is the king who bows before the gods of Seir ten verses later.
what is written in the Law: The rule Amaziah keeps is Deuteronomy 24:16, and Ezekiel 18:20 later preaches it to the exiles. Athaliah had destroyed the royal family of Judah at 22:10, children and all. Amaziah spares the sons of his father's killers.
2 Chronicles 25:5-6
found 300,000 chosen men able to serve in the army: The muster and the hire belong to Chronicles alone. Amaziah's own army is a fourth the size Jehoshaphat once fielded, and his answer to the shortfall is money rather than prayer. Hiring Ephraim for silver is the same alliance with the north that Chronicles keeps flagging as a fault line.
2 Chronicles 25:5
“Three hundred thousand - Asa’s army had been nearly twice as numerous, amounting to 580, 000 2Ch 14:8. The diminution was due, in part, to wars 2Ch 21:8, 2Ch 21:16; 2Ch 24:23-24; in part, to the general decadence of the kingdom.”
hired 100,000 mighty warriors from Israel: Gill puts the wage at about five and a half florins a man, citing Beckius. The hire was for the one campaign against Edom. Amaziah paid in advance, and that payment becomes his objection at verse 9.
2 Chronicles 25:6
“He hired also one hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel,.... The ten tribes, judging his own army not sufficient for his expedition against the Edomites he was meditating: for one hundred talents of silver; which amounted to 35,300 pounds sterling, and according to Beckius (e) were about five florins and a half to each soldier. (e) Not. in Targum in loc.”
2 Chronicles 25:7-8
do not let the army of Israel go with you: The man of God who confronts Amaziah has no counterpart in Kings. The Lord is not with Israel, because Ephraim's worship at the calves has cut it off. Fellowship with an unfaithful ally is treated as a spiritual liability before it is treated as a military one.
2 Chronicles 25:7
“The Lord is not with Israel - “The Word of the Lord is not the helper of the Israelites, nor of the kingdom of the tribe of Ephraim.” - Targum.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
God has power to help: Barnes gives two readings of this hard line. Taken as it stands, the prophet speaks with irony: fight bravely and still fall. Many later scholars add a negative, so the line promises that God will keep Amaziah from falling if he goes alone.
2 Chronicles 25:8
If the present text is regarded as sound, this passage must be taken ironically. But most recent commentators supply a second negative, and render it: “But go thou alone, act, be strong for the battle - God shall then not make thee to fall.”
Amaziah’s objection is the hundred talents already paid. The prophet’s answer becomes the chapter’s proverb: “The LORD is able to give you much more than this”. Amaziah obeys and loses the silver, and the rest of the chapter shows what he does when a harder word costs him more.
2 Chronicles 25:9
“And Amaziah said to the man of God, but what shall we do for the one hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?....”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 25:9
“The Lord is able to give thee much more than this - Better lose the money than keep the men, for they will be a curse unto thee.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 25:9
"Now," says he, "if I send them back, I shall lose that: But what shall we do for the 100 talents? " This is an objection men often make against their duty: they are afraid of losing by it. "Regard not that," says the prophet: " The Lord is able to give thee much more than this; and, thou mayest depend upon it, he will not see thee lose by him.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
they were furious with Judah: Amaziah sends the hired men home, and Ephraim's anger at the dismissal is the seed of verse 13's raid on Judah's own cities. Chronicles lets a single obedient decision carry a cost that falls on towns between Samaria and Beth-horon that Amaziah's army was not there to defend.
2 Chronicles 25:10
“They returned home in great anger - They thought they were insulted, and began to meditate revenge. See the notes on 2 Kings 14:1-20 (note), where almost every circumstance in this chapter is examined and explained.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 25:10
“And they went home in great anger, taking it as a great affront thus to be made fools of, and to be cashiered as men not fit to be employed, and being perhaps disappointed of the advantages they promised themselves in spoil and plunder by joining with Judah against Edom.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Chronicles 25:10
“Such a dismissal could not fail to arouse great indignation. The Israelites would suppose themselves dismissed because their good faith was suspected. On the consequences of their indignation, see 2Ch 25:13.”
2 Chronicles 25:10
“Anger kindled - Because they were both disgraced by this rejection, and disappointed of that spoil which they hoped to gain, whereas now they are sent away empty; for the hundred talents probably were given to their officers only to raise men for this service.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Chronicles 25:11-12
led his troops to the Valley of Salt: Kings records the ten thousand struck down in a single clause. Chronicles adds a second ten thousand, taken alive, carried to “the top of a cliff” and thrown down. It sharpens the irony of verse 14, where the victor bows to the gods of the people he defeated.
2 Chronicles 25:11
“And Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people,.... To go to war with the Edomites; not discouraged by the dismission of the hired troops, but trusting in the promise and power of God, he went forth with boldness and intrepidity: and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir, ten thousand; the Edomites; so called, not because they were the posterity of Seir, but because they dwelt in Seir, from whence they drove the descendants of Seir, and dwelt in their stead; see 2Ki 14:7.”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 25:11
“The savage cruelty dealt out to them was either in retaliation for similar barbarities inflicted on the Hebrews, or to strike terror into so rebellious a people for the future. The mode of execution, by dashing against stones (Ps 137:9), was common among many ancient nations.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Chronicles 25:11
“He left dead upon the spot, in the field of battle, 10,000 men; 10,000 more he took prisoners, and barbarously killed them all by throwing them down some steep and craggy precipice. What provocation he had to exercise this cruelty towards them we are not told; but it was certainly very severe.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
captured 10,000 men alive: Barnes reads the cliff top as the height of Selah, the rock city later called Petra. Kings adds at 2 Kings 14:7 that Amaziah took Selah by force and renamed it Joktheel. The feud between Judah and Edom was old and bloody.
2 Chronicles 25:12
“The top of the rock - Rather, “the height of Selah” (or, Petra), near which the battle was probably fought. On the cruel features of the Edomite wars, see 1Ki 11:15; Eze 25:12; Oba 1:14.”
raided the cities of Judah: The raid on Judah’s own cities has no parallel in Kings. The dismissed troops, angry since verse 10, strike the towns “from Samaria to Beth-horon” while Amaziah is away fighting Edom. The danger the man of God named falls on Judah after all, from the army Amaziah sent home.
2 Chronicles 25:13
“To revenge the insult 2Ch 25:10, the troops of Joash proceeded southward and ravaged all the Jewish towns and villages between the Israelite frontier and Bethboron. This invasion probably took place while Amaziah was still in Edom.”
Bowing to gods that could not save their own people
he brought back the gods of the Seirites: Amaziah comes home from Edom and sets up the gods of Seir, bowing down and burning incense to them. Chronicles states the irony: these are the gods of a people he has defeated. Kings never records this episode; the idolatry and everything that follows from it belongs to Chronicles alone.
2 Chronicles 25:14
“The revolt of Amaziah from the God of Israel to the gods of the Edomites. Ahaz worshipped the gods of those that had conquered him, for which he had some little colour, ch. xxviii. But to worship the gods of those whom he had conquered, who could not protect their own worshippers, was the greatest absurdity that could be.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 25:14
“The practice of carrying off the images of the gods from a conquered country, or city, as trophies of victory, was common among the nations of the East. Sometimes as with the Romans, the object was worship, especially when the gods were previously among those of the conquering country, and the images had the reputation of special sanctity.”
2 Chronicles 25:15-16
Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against Amaziah: The prophet asks the chapter’s question in verse 15, why Amaziah has sought gods “which could not deliver them from your hand”. Amaziah silences him with a threat, and the prophet stops, but first he gives the sentence: “I know that God has determined to destroy you”.
Barnes hears sharp irony in the king's question about a royal counselor. The prophet picks up the same word. Amaziah has refused his advice, and at verse 17 he takes counsel elsewhere and marches to defeat at Beth-shemesh.
2 Chronicles 25:16
“Art thou made of the king’s counsel? - A subtle irony: “Have I made thee one of my council? If not what entitles thee to offer thy advice?” For the fulfillment of the prophecy, see 2Ch 25:22-24, 2Ch 25:27.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 25:16
“But this prophet, who dissuaded him from worshipping the gods of the Edomites, he ran upon with an unaccountable rage, which must be attributed to the witchcraft of idolatry. He was easily persuaded to part with his talents of silver, but by no means with his gods of silver.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Thistle and cedar, and Jerusalem's wall broken down
2 Chronicles 25:17-19
Amaziah’s challenge and Jehoash’s fable of the thistle and the cedar follow 2 Kings 14:8-9 closely. In Kings the challenge follows straight on the Edom victory, while here it follows the idol worship and the silenced prophet. Jehoash’s counsel, “Now stay at home,” is the second warning Amaziah refuses.
2 Chronicles 25:17
“Not of the prophet--he was not made of the king's counsel; but of his statesmen that would flatter him and bid him go up and prosper. It is good to take advice, but then it must be of those that are fit to advise us.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke cites the Targum, which applies the fable to the hired men of verse 10. In that reading, Amaziah's dismissal of the Israelite troops was the insult that set the two kingdoms against each other. The raid of verse 13 stands behind the challenge.
2 Chronicles 25:18
The thistle that was in Lebanon - See the explanation of this 2Ki 14:9 (note). After reciting this fable, the Targum adds, “Thus hast thou done in the time thou didst send unto me, and didst lead up from the house of Israel a hundred thousand strong warriors for a hundred talents of silver: and after they were sent, thou didst not permit them to go with thee to war, but didst send them back, greatly enraged, so that they spread themselves over the country; and having cut off three thousand, they brought back much spoil.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
your heart has become proud and boastful: Jehoash names the fault in one line: a single win over Edom has puffed up the king. The same pride fells his son Uzziah at 26:16. Matthew Henry applies Proverbs 25:8 to Amaziah, that a man quick to quarrel ends in shame.
But Amaziah would not listen: Verse 20 has no counterpart in Kings. Amaziah’s refusal “had come from God in order to deliver them into the hand of Jehoash, because they had sought the gods of Edom”. The clause ties the defeat to the idolatry, and it frames the disaster as a sentence already passed.
2 Chronicles 25:20
“Is not sin also punishment for sin where Amaziah, king of Judah, did not wish to hear the good advice of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, not to go to war? We read, "Amaziah would not listen to him because it was the Lord's will that he should be delivered into their hands, because they sought the god of Edom."”
Augustine of Hippo · written before 430 · Against Julian 5.3.12patristic
2 Chronicles 25:21-24
So Jehoash king of Israel advanced: The defeat at Beth-shemesh, the broken wall and the plundered temple follow 2 Kings 14:11-14 closely. Chronicles adds one detail, that the articles taken were “with Obed-edom,” the family David had set as gatekeepers over the ark. Judah is routed before Israel as the prophet’s word had said.
Judah was routed before Israel: Jehoash had told Amaziah to stay at home. After the rout at Beth-shemesh, every soldier of Judah goes home anyway, in flight. Matthew Henry notes that a man eager for a fight may have his fill of it sooner than he expects.
There at Beth-shemesh, Jehoash king of Israel: Jehoash breaks down four hundred cubits of wall, about six hundred feet, running from the Ephraim Gate as far as the Corner Gate. Uzziah builds towers at that same Corner Gate at 26:9. Matthew Henry reads that work as repair of the breach Amaziah's pride had opened.
the house of God with Obed-edom: Clarke sends the reader to 2 Kings 14:14, where the same list of gold, silver and hostages stands. The hostages were a pledge that Judah would keep the peace. Joash had already paid the temple's gifts to Hazael at 2 Kings 12:18, and now the house is stripped again.
2 Chronicles 25:24
“In the house of God with Obed-edom - From 1Ch 26:15 we learn that to Obed-edom and his descendants was allotted the keeping of the house of Asuppim or collections for the Divine treasury. And - the hostages - See on 2Ki 14:14 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A conspiracy, a flight to Lachish, and a king brought back dead
2 Chronicles 25:25-26
lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash: The regnal notice, fifteen years lived after Joash's death and a pointer to the book of the kings of Judah and Israel, matches Kings' formula. The postscript years are commonly read as a slow decline rather than a recovery, the humiliation at Jerusalem never undone in the record that follows.
2 Chronicles 25:25
“And his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the L ORD , but not with a perfect heart. 3 Now it came to pass, when the kingdom was established to him, that he slew his servants that had killed the king his father.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the rest of the acts of Amaziah: The Targum, cited by Adam Clarke, reads from beginning to end as the two halves of this reign. The first half was lived in the fear of the LORD, and the last half was lived after he turned away. Verse 27 dates the plot against him from that turn.
2 Chronicles 25:26
“The rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last - Says the Targum; “The first, when he walked in the fear of the Lord, the last, when he departed from the right way before the Lord; are they not written,” etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 25:27-28
From the time that Amaziah turned from following the LORD: The conspiracy, the flight to Lachish and the killing there follow 2 Kings 14:19-20. Chronicles frames the death with its own hinge, “From the time that Amaziah turned from following the LORD,” and names that turn as the reason. His body is carried home “on horses”.
2 Chronicles 25:27
“After the time ... - The writer means that the violent death of Amaziah followed on his apostasy, not closely in point of time - for it must have been at least 15 years after 2Ch 25:25 - nor as, humanly speaking, caused by it; but, in the way of a divine judgment, his death was a complete fulfillment of the prophecy of 2Ch 25:16.”
carried him back on horses: Barnes places this death at least fifteen years after the apostasy and still reads it as the sentence of verse 16 carried out. Kings gives the burial place as the City of David, and Chronicles as the City of Judah. Both name Jerusalem.
How this psalm is built
The form: Historical narrative of a divided reign, with three warnings given and one heeded, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Right, but not wholeheartedly | Verse 2 gives the verdict and its limit in one sentence, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the limit forward into the chapter rather than back into his father's record. The divided heart named here is what breaks out at verse 14. John Gill notes the parallel account measures him against David and Joash instead.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 2 Chronicles 25:2. | 2 Chronicles 25:2, 2 Chronicles 25:14 |
| Sought, and sought wrongly | The book's measuring verb is turned on the king at verse 15, where the prophet asks why he has sought these people's gods. It returns at verse 20, where the defeat comes because they had sought the gods of Edom. Albert Barnes reads verse 20 as tying the disaster back to verse 14 rather than to bad diplomacy.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 2 Chronicles 25:20. | 2 Chronicles 25:15, 2 Chronicles 25:20 |
| The muster and the losses counted | The chapter counts in five places. It gives Judah's three hundred thousand and the hundred thousand hired from Israel. It then gives the ten thousand struck at the Valley of Salt, the ten thousand thrown from the cliff, and the three thousand killed in the raid on Judah's towns. Albert Barnes notes that Judah's army here is a fraction of the muster Jehoshaphat once fielded.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 2 Chronicles 25:5. | 2 Chronicles 25:5, 2 Chronicles 25:6, 2 Chronicles 25:11, 2 Chronicles 25:12, 2 Chronicles 25:13 |
| The thistle and the cedar | Jehoash answers the challenge at verses 18 and 19 with a fable spoken directly to Amaziah, and the counsel at the end of it is to stay at home. Keil and Delitzsch note the same exchange stands at 2 Kings 14:8 to 9 in nearly the same words. What this book changes is its placement, after the idol worship rather than after the victory.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Chronicles, on 2 Chronicles 25:17. | 2 Chronicles 25:17, 2 Chronicles 25:18, 2 Chronicles 25:19 |
| A word given, and a word refused | Three messengers come to the king in one chapter. The man of God at verse 7 is obeyed, the prophet at verse 15 is threatened into silence, and Jehoash at verse 19 is ignored. John Wesley reads the prophet's parting sentence at verse 16 as the verdict the narrator points back to at verse 27.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 2 Chronicles 25:15. | 2 Chronicles 25:7, 2 Chronicles 25:15, 2 Chronicles 25:19 |
The debated concept
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
The first question is the army numbers. The dossier's difficulties section sets three readings side by side for the large figures in this book. One takes them literally as written. One follows George Mendenhall in reading the Hebrew elep as a military unit or clan contingent rather than the number one thousand, which lowers the totals while leaving the text unchanged. One holds that numerals were enlarged or damaged in copying, which the same manuscripts make visible at 36:9. The page states the three and no verdict.
The second is what the hundred talents were for. The man of God does not answer the king's question about the money, and John Gill reads the reply as asking him to trust a gain he cannot see over a loss he can count. The king obeys and the loss falls anyway, in the raid of verse 13.
The third is why the challenge to Israel stands where it does. Keil and Delitzsch note that the parallel account places it straight after the Edom victory, where it reads as pride after a win. Here it follows the idolatry and the silenced prophet, so the same swagger reads as defiance of a word already given.
Where the chapter reaches
The law cited at verse 4 stands in the Berean text at Deuteronomy 24:16. Fathers shall not be put to death for their children nor children for their fathers, and each is to die for his own sin. The chapter names its source as the Book of Moses.
The question at verse 15 is the book's own test turned into an accusation. Gods that could not deliver their own people from the king's hand are the ones he has sought, and the same verb measures every reign in the book.
Verse 20 states the cause of the defeat plainly, and it has no counterpart in the parallel account. The dossier's theology section reads this kind of clause as the Chronicler closing the account inside the reign rather than centuries later.
The end at verse 27 points back to verse 16. The conspiracy forms from the time the king turned away from following the LORD, which is the prophet's verdict carried out.
Keep studying
Studies1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Chronicles, on 2 Chronicles 25:17; the dossier's theology section for this book, `src/components/book/dossier-content/2-chronicles.ts`, the theology section on the account closed in each reign and the guide's ledger for this book, `src/components/book/guides/2-chronicles/Book2ChroniclesGuide.tsx`, the kings ledger, Amaziah at 25:1 to 28.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.