Chapter Twenty-Five

Amaziah, the 9th king of Judah

(Cf. (2 Kgs 14:1-20))

1–4. The beginning of the reign, punishment of Joash’s murderers. 5–13. War with Edom. 14–16. Amaziah’s worship of the gods of Seir and prophetic rebuke. 17–24. Amaziah’s war with Israel’s Jehoash, Amaziah’s defeat and capture, plundering of the temple and palace. 25–28. The second half of Amaziah’s reign, his violent death.

2 Chronicles 25:1. Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 25:2. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart. 2 Chronicles 25:3. As soon as the royal power was firmly in his hand, he put to death his servants who had murdered his father the king. 2 Chronicles 25:4. But he did not put their children to death, according to what is written in the law, in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded: “The parents shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the parents; but all shall be put to death for their own sin. Cf. (2 Kgs 14:2-6). In the characterization of Amaziah’s religious ambivalence in (2 Chr 25:2) it states that he “did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet,” instead of that which stands in (2 Kgs 14:3), “not with a whole heart” (Slavonic: “not with a perfect heart”). Amaziah was more faithful to the Lord in the first half of his reign (See “Expository Bible,” vol. II, p. 520–521).

2 Chronicles 25:5. And Amaziah assembled the people of Judah, and organized them by families under commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He mustered those twenty years old and upward, and found three hundred thousand picked warriors, equipped to go to war with spear and shield. 2 Chronicles 25:6. He also hired one hundred thousand mighty warriors from Israel for one hundred talents of silver. 2 Chronicles 25:7. But a man of God came to him and said: “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel, with all the Ephraimites. 2 Chronicles 25:8. But go yourself, act courageously in battle. Otherwise the Lord will make you fall before the enemy; for God has power to help and to cast down. 2 Chronicles 25:9. And Amaziah said to the man of God: “But what shall we do about the hundred talents I have given to the army of Israel?” And the man of God answered: “The Lord is able to give you much more than this. 2 Chronicles 25:10. Then Amaziah discharged the army that had come to him from Ephraim, to go home again. And they became very angry with Judah and returned to their own place in hot anger. 2 Chronicles 25:11. Amaziah took courage, and led out his people, and went to the Valley of Salt, and struck down ten thousand men of Seir. 2 Chronicles 25:12. The men of Judah also captured ten thousand alive, brought them to the top of a cliff, and threw them down from the top of the cliff so that all of them were dashed to pieces. 2 Chronicles 25:13. But the soldiers of the army whom Amaziah had sent back, not letting them go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, killed three thousand people in them, and took much spoil. Concerning Amaziah’s war with the Edomites in (2 Kgs 14) there is only a brief mention in a single verse – verse 7; here the event is related with full detail (cf. our explanatory remarks to (2 Kgs 14:7), “Expository Bible,” vol. II, p. 521). 2 Chronicles first of all adds the information that Amaziah, having ascertained the number of his own combat army of the Kingdom of Judah – 300,000 soldiers (v. 5), hired, in addition, 100,000 Israeli troops for 100 talents of silver (approximately 150,000 rubles) (v. 6). This is the first and only case in biblical-Hebrew antiquity of hiring foreign troops to aid one’s own army. Among classical nations, as well as among the Jews in their last centuries of independence, such hiring was often practiced and usually consisted of payment to the king or general of the troops, the soldiers themselves receiving nothing except booty and plunder. It is clear what an evil such hired troops represented for a country. And already for this reason, and even more because of the guilt of the Israelite kingdom from a theocratic perspective and the ungodly nature of the alliance of the Kingdom of Judah with it (cf. (2 Chr 20:37)), God’s prophet demanded that Amaziah dismiss the hired Israeli army (v. 7–8), which was done by Amaziah, though with regret at the money lost to pay the Israeli army (v. 9). The latter were extremely angered by the refusal (v. 10) and on the return path compensated themselves with great plundering and murder within the borders of the Kingdom of Judah (v. 13). The historical reliability of all this information in 2 Chronicles about the hiring of the Israeli army by King Amaziah and the subsequent dismissal cannot be doubted: in favor of the reliability of the fact speak its consequences: the war initiated at Amaziah’s instigation with Israeli Jehoash (v. 17 and f.), the underlying cause of which can only lie in Amaziah’s desire to avenge the outrages of the Israeli soldiers in Judah (v. 13), as well as to compensate himself for the money lost on hiring troops (v. 6, 9). Verses 11–12. In the description of Amaziah’s brilliant victory over the Edomites, 2 Chronicles adds, compared with (2 Kgs 14:7), that besides 10,000 slain in battle, Amaziah threw another ten thousand captives down a cliff – a manner of execution particularly cruel; a similar execution once the inhabitants of Nazareth wanted to apply to Jesus Christ (Luke 4:29); among the Romans it was customary to throw those being executed from the Tarpeian Rock. In this case there is the following difference between (2 Kgs 14:7) and (2 Chr 25:12): whereas according to 4 Kings Amaziah took the Edomite city of Sela (Greek: Petra), 2 Chronicles mentions only a cliff (Hebrew: sela, LXX: τοῦ κρημνοῦ, Vulgate: petrae, Slavonic: “precipice”). Evidently, both books here mutually supplement each other.

2 Chronicles 25:14. When Amaziah came from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought the gods of the people of Seir, set them up as his gods, and bowed down before them and made offerings to them. 2 Chronicles 25:15. Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Amaziah and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him: “Why have you resorted to a people’s gods that could not rescue their own people from your hand? 2 Chronicles 25:16. As he was speaking, the king said to him: “Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should I strike you down?” So the prophet stopped, but said: “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel. The report about Amaziah’s worship of some gods of Seir, found only in 2 Chronicles, characterizes Amaziah’s weakness in faith in Iehova, all the more culpable because it appeared soon after the victory God had granted him over the Edomites. It is possible that at first Amaziah took the “gods of the people of Seir” and set them up only as war trophies, monuments to his victory over Seir, and then descended to actual worship before them, for which he was rebuked by the prophet who foretold his destruction because of his pride.

2 Chronicles 25:17. Then Amaziah king of Judah took counsel and sent to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying: “Come, let us look one another in the face. 2 Chronicles 25:18. And Jehoash king of Israel sent word to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thornbush on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying: Give your daughter to my son for a wife. But a wild animal of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thornbush. 2 Chronicles 25:19. You say, I have defeated the Edomites, and your heart has made you proud. Now stay at home; why should you provoke trouble so that you fall, and Judah with you? 2 Chronicles 25:20. But Amaziah would not listen; for it was God’s doing, to give them into the hand of Jehoash, because they had sought the gods of Edom. 2 Chronicles 25:21. So Jehoash king of Israel went up; he and Amaziah king of Judah faced one another in battle at Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah. 2 Chronicles 25:22. And Judah was defeated by Israel, and every man fled to his home. 2 Chronicles 25:23. And Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, son of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, four hundred cubits. 2 Chronicles 25:24. And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God in the keeping of Obed-edom, and the treasures of the king’s house, also the hostages, and returned to Samaria. Cf. (2 Kgs 14:8-14), see “Expository Bible,” vol. II, p. 522. The only reason for Amaziah to send a military challenge to Jehoash of Israel (v. 17) could have been, as already stated, the desire to avenge the Kingdom of Israel for the robberies and murders committed by Israeli soldiers on the territory of the Kingdom of Judah. Verse 20: “for it was God’s doing...” – this remark found only in 2 Chronicles here establishes the religious pragmatism of events: the causal connection of Amaziah’s defeat with his godless worship of the idols of Seir (v. 14 ff.): here occurred God’s permission with respect to evil human actions, similar to the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart (cf. (Exod 14:4) and other passages), or regarding Rehoboam’s foolishness (cf. (1 Kgs 12:15), see “Expository Bible,” vol. II, p. 424). More strongly and, it seems, too harshly, the sacred writer of 2 Chronicles expresses this thought in Josephus: “In my opinion, the Eternal himself urged Amaziah to begin the war in order to punish him for all his lawlessness” (“Jewish Antiquities,” bk. IX, ch. 9, 2). Rightly do scholars point out in Josephus traces of his Pharisaic worldview, namely the Pharisaic doctrine of fate (cf. H. Scardonitsky, “Pharisees and Sadducees,” Kyiv, 1905, p. 79 ff.). Concerning the location of Beth-shemesh (v. 21). See commentaries to (Josh 15:10) and to (2 Kgs 14:13). Expository Bible vol. II, p. 92,522. Concerning the location in ancient Jerusalem of the Ephraim Gate and Corner Gate, see “Expository Bible,” vol. II, p. 522. In verse 23 Amaziah’s grandfather is called Jehoahaz – in the accepted Hebrew text Iehoachaz, LXX (Ἰοαχάζ), Vulgate: (Ioachaz), and Russian Synodal translation; meanwhile everywhere in 4 Kings and in 2 Chronicles, except (2 Chr 21:17) (Jehoahaz), this king is called Ahaziah (cf. commentary to (2 Chr 21:17), “Expository Bible,” vol. III, p. 139). In the Hebrew codices 117, 188, 224 in Kennicott and 31, 196, 737 in de Rossi stands the name Ahaziah, and likewise in the Greek codices 19, 93, 108, 121 in Holmes. Thus, the name Jehoahaz here arose, as also in (2 Chr 21:17), by accident, due to the transposition of the divine name Iehova from the end (Ahaziah) to the beginning (Jehoahaz) (cf. in Prof. Gulyaev, “Historical Books of the Old Testament,” p. 557). Obed-edom (Slavonic: “Abdedom”) – probably a person from the descendants of that Obed-edom to whom, when the duties of the Levites were first divided, oversight of the temple treasures was entrusted (1 Chr 26:15) (Gulyaev, “Historical Books of the Old Testament,” p. 557).

2 Chronicles 25:25. And Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah lived fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel. 2 Chronicles 25:26. Now the rest of the deeds of Amaziah, from first to last, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel? 2 Chronicles 25:27. From the time that Amaziah turned away from the Lord, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. And they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there. 2 Chronicles 25:28. And they brought him upon horses, and buried him with his ancestors in the city of Judah. Cf. (2 Kgs 14:17-20), “Expository Bible,” vol. II, p. 523.