2 Kings15chapter 15

2 Kings 15:1

“In the twenty amd seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah the son on Amaziah king of Judah to reign. Now Amaziah lived only to the fifteenth year of Jeroboam, 2Ki 14:2 in which year, and not in his twenty seventh, it might be thought Azariah his son began to reign. There are various ways taken to remove this difficulty, not to take notice of a corruption of numbers, "twenty seven for seventeen", which some insist on.”

2 Kings 15:1

“In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam - Dr. Kennicott complains loudly here, because of “the corruption in the name of this king of Judah, who is expressed by four different names in this chapter: Ozriah, Oziah, Ozrihu, and Ozihu. Our oldest Hebrew MS. relieves us here by reading truly, in 2Ki 15:1, 2Ki 15:6, 2Ki 15:7, עזיהו Uzziah, where the printed text is differently corrupted. This reading is called true, 1. Because it is supported by the Syriac and Arabic versions in these three verses.”

2 Kings 15:1-7

“Being a child only four years old when his father was murdered, a regency was appointed during Azariah's minority. began Azariah . . . to reign--The character of his reign is described by the brief formula employed by the inspired historian, in recording the religious policy of the later kings.”

2 Kings 15:4

“Save that the high places were not removed,.... That is, he did right, excepting in that instance, and which was the case of his father and other kings before him, and others afterwards, till Hezekiah came: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places; see 2Ki 12:3.”

2 Kings 15:5

“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 tolerably full account of this important reign, which the writer of Kings dismisses in half-a-dozen verses. A several house - “A house of liberation,” or, freedom.”

2 Kings 15:6

“And the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In the history of the reigns of those kings; some of them are recorded in the canonical book of the Chronicles, 2Ch 26:1 and some were written by the prophet Isaiah, 2Ch 26:22.”

2 Kings 15:7

“So Azariah slept with his fathers,.... Or died, when he had reigned fifty two years: and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David; but not in the sepulchres of the kings, but in the field of the burial, or the burying ground which belonged to them, because he was a leper, 2Ch 26:”

2 Kings 15:8

“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.”

2 Kings 15:8-10

“In his fate was fulfilled the prophecy addressed to Jehu (2Ki 10:30; also Ho 1:4), that his family would possess the throne of Israel for four generations; and accordingly Jehoahaz, Joash, Jehoram, and Zechariah were his successors--but there his dynasty terminated; and perhaps it was the public knowledge of this prediction that prompted the murderous design of Shallum.”

2 Kings 15:10

“And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him,.... A friend of his, as Josephus (q) calls him, encouraged by the dissatisfaction of the people to him: and smote him before the people, and slew him; in a public manner, the people consenting to it, and approving of it, not liking Zachariah to be their king: and reigned in his stead; though but a very short time. (q) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 11. sect. 1.”

2 Kings 15:10

“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.”

2 Kings 15:12

“This was the word of the Lord which he spake unto Jehu,.... Which was now fulfilled in the short reign of Zachariah: saying, thy sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation; see 2Ki 10:30, and so it came to pass; as every word of the Lord does, not one fails; for after Jehu reigned Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam the second, and Zachariah, all descendants of Jehu.”

2 Kings 15:12

“This was the word of the Lord - unto Jehu - God had promised to Jehu that his sons should sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation; and so it came to pass, for Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam, and Zachariah, succeeded Jehu, to whom this promise was made. But because he executed the Divine purpose with an uncommanded cruelty, therefore God cut his family short, according to his word by Hosea, I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu; and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel, Hos 1:4.”

2 Kings 15:13-17

“Shallum . . . reigned a full month--He was opposed and slain by Menahem, who, according to JOSEPHUS, was commander of the forces, which, on the report of the king's murder, were besieging Tirzah, a town twelve miles east of Samaria, and formerly a seat of the kings of Israel.”

2 Kings 15:14

“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. It would seem from the present passage to have been on lower ground than Samaria.”

2 Kings 15:14

“Probably he was general in the army, which then lay encamped at Tirzah, and, hearing of Shallum's treason and usurpation, hastened to punish it, as Omri did that of Zimri in a like case, 1 Kings xvi. Menahem held the kingdom ten years,”

2 Kings 15:16

“With respect to the supposed inability of Menahem to lead an expedition to Tiphsah (Thapsacus, see the marginal reference) on the Euphrates, we may note in the first place that such an expedition was a natural sequel to Jeroboam’s occupation of Hamath 2Ki 14:28; and further, that it would have been greatly facilitated by the weakness of Assyria at this time, that empire having fallen into a state of depression about 780 B.C.”

2 Kings 15:16

“Menahem . . . smote Tiphsah--Thapsacus, on the Euphrates, the border city of Solomon's kingdom (1Ki 4:24). The inhabitants refusing to open their gates to him, Menahem took it by storm.”

2 Kings 15:19

“This is the first distinct mention which we find in Scripture of Assyria as an aggressive power. From the native monuments we learn that she had been for above a century pushing her conquests beyond the Euphrates, and seeking to reduce under her dominion the entire tract between that river and Egypt. Jehu had paid tribute. Some - arguing from the use of the phrase “confirmed the kingdom” (here, and in 2Ki 14:5) - think that Jehoahaz had acknowledged Assyrian suzerainty, and consented that her monarchs should receive their investiture from the hands of the Ninevite king.”

2 Kings 15:19

“Pul the king of Assyria--This is the first Assyrian king after Nimrod who is mentioned in biblical history. His name has been recently identified with that of Phalluka on the monuments of Nineveh, and that of Menahem discovered also. came against the land--Elsewhere it is said "Ephraim [Israel] went to the Assyrian" [Ho 5:13].”

2 Kings 15:20

“Menahem exacted the money - The kings of Israel had no such ready resource in difficulties as that possessed by the kings of Judah in the temple treasury 2Ki 12:18; 2Ki 16:8. Hence, the forced contribution from the people, the odium of which was diminished by confining the levy to the comparatively rich. Each man fifty shekels - As the silver talent contained 3,000 shekels, the levy of fifty shekels a head must have extended to 60,000 persons.”

2 Kings 15:23

“In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria,.... As it was in the thirty ninth of Azariah that his father began his reign, and he reigned ten years, they must end in the forty ninth of Azariah, and therefore there must be an interregnum of a year; perhaps the title of Pekahiah might be disputed, and it was a year before he could get settled on the throne: and reigned two years; being slain by one of his captains, as after related.”

2 Kings 15:25

“A captain of his - A mere “captain,” a person, therefore, of very moderate rank. The low birth of Pekah is probably glanced at in Isaiah’s favorite designation of him as “Remaliah’s son” Isa 7:4-5, Isa 7:9; Isa 8:6. From the fact that Pekah employed Gileadites to carry out his designs, it has been conjectured that he himself belonged to the trans-Jordanic region. In the palace of the king’s house - Rather, “In the tower of the king’s palace;” or possibly “in the harem of the king’s palace” (1Ki 16:18 note).”

2 Kings 15:29

“Tiglath-Pileser is the first among the Assyrian monarchs of Scripture whom we can certainly identify with a king mentioned in the monuments. According to the Assyrian Dr. he reigned from 745 B.C. to 727 B.C.; and the monuments show us this energetic and powerful prince (though, probably, an usurper), building and repairing palaces, levying armies, and carrying on successful wars against Merodach-Baladan in Babylonia, Rezin at Damascus, Hiram at; Tyre, the Medes, the Armenians, the natives of Northern Mesopotamia, and the Arabs who bordered upon Egypt.”

2 Kings 15:29

“Nothing does more towards the making of a nation an easy prey to a common enemy than intestine broils and contests for the sovereignty. Happy the land where that is settled. This was the condition of Israel just before they were quite ruined and carried away captive, for that was in the ninth year of Hoshea, the last of these usurpers.”

2 Kings 15:30

“Hoshea the son of Elah - in the twentieth year of Jotham - There are many difficulties in the chronology of this place. To reconcile the whole, Calmet says: “Hoshea conspired against Pekah, the twentieth year of the reign of this prince, which was the eighteenth after the beginning of the reign of Jotham, king of Judah. Two years after this, that is, the fourth year of Ahaz, and the twentieth of Jotham, Hoshea made himself master of a part of the kingdom, according to 2Ki 15:”

2 Kings 15:30

“Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy . . . and slew him--He did not, however, obtain possession of the kingdom till about nine or ten years after the perpetration of this crime [HALES]. in the twentieth year of Jotham--Jotham's reign lasted only sixteen years, but the meaning is that the reign of Hoshea began in the twentieth after the beginning of Jotham's reign.”

2 Kings 15:32-36

"In the second year of King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel, King Jotham son of Uzziah of Judah began to reign." After rising to power in that year, Jotham administered the government [of Judah] for sixteen years, earning great praise. While the second book …

2 Kings 15:32-38

“The history of many of the kings of Israel that reigned at the same time is given us in short, five in succession, all of whom, except one, went down slain to the pit, and their murders were their successors. Zachariah, the last of the house of Jehu, reigned six months, and then was slain and succeeded by Shallum,”

2 Kings 15:33

“Five and twenty years old was he when he began to reign,.... Alone, after the death of his father: and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his reign, upon the whole, was a good reign: and his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok; a person well known in those times; Dr. Lightfoot (h) thinks he was high priest. (h) Works, vol. 1. p. 100.”

2 Kings 15:33

“This Jotham died at forty-one. He was too great a blessing to be continued long to such an unworthy people. His death was a judgment, especially considering the character of his son and successor.”

2 Kings 15:34

“Jotham imitated his father in all respects, excepting in his impious usurpation of the priestly functions (2Ki 15:5 note; 2Ch 27:2).”

2 Kings 15:35

“He built the higher gate - Jotham followed the example of his father in military, no less than in religious, matters (compare the marginal reference with 2Ch 26:9). The “higher” or “upper gate” of the temple is thought to have been that toward the north; and its fortification would seem to indicate fear of an attack from that quarter.”

2 Kings 15:36

“Now the rest of the acts of Jotham - These acts are distinctly stated in 2Ch 27:1-9. He built the high gate of the house of the Lord, and he built much on the wall of Ophel. He built cities in the mountains of Judah; and in the forests he built castles and towers. He overthrew the Ammonites; and obliged them to give him one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley, for three consecutive years. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years.”

2 Kings 15:37

“In those days,.... At the end of the days of Jotham, or after his death, things might be in design, and preparations made before, but nothing of what follows came to pass in his life, but in the times of his son: the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah: to make war with them as a scourge to Ahaz for his sins; of which is in the following chapter.”

2 Kings 15:37

“The recent invasions of Pul and Tiglath-Pileser had effectually alarmed Pekah and Rezin, and had induced them to put aside the traditional jealousies which naturally kept them apart, and to make a league offensive and defensive. Into this league they were anxious that Judaea should enter; but they distrusted the house of David, which had been so long hostile both to Damascus and to Samaria.”