- 27-
Thence, during the reign of Jehoahaz, he extended his conquests over the Israelitish
territory west of the Jordan, till, in the judgment of God,* the army of the king of Israel,
gathered together in Samaria as the last stronghold, came to be reduced to,, fifty
horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen."**
- The subject in 2 Kings 13:7 ("he") is Jehovah, and not Hazael.
** We note these precise details as marking precise and accurate documentary
information.
The rest - in the expressive language of Scripture - "the king of Syria had destroyed,"
"and made them as dust to trample upon" (lit. "to tread down") (2 Kings 13:7).*
- This is the correct rendering of the words.
And we again mark, as indicated in the previous Chapter, that it was two years after the
accession of Jehoahaz, viz., in "the three and twentieth year of King Jehoash" (2 Kings
12:6), during the full progress of the Syrian conquest of Israel, when the restoration of the
Temple was begun. We can scarcely be mistaken in connecting this with a national
reaction against what had taken place in the north, and with fear of judgments such as had
overtaken Israel. Lastly, we should notice, in final explanation of the expedition of
Hazael against Gath (2 Kings 12:17), which ultimately eventuated in a march upon
Jerusalem, that the Assyrian monuments everywhere indicate a tributary dependence
upon Assyria of the Philistine cities along the seacoast.
From this glimpse into the political history we turn to what throughout is the main object
of the sacred writer, the indication of the religious causes which led up to these events.
The Biblical text seems here somewhat involved, in part from the mixture of remarks by
the writer with the historical notices extracted from existing documents. The following
appears its real order. The usual notice (2 Kings 13:1) of the accession of Jehoahaz, and
of the duration of his reign is followed by a general description of the character of that
monarch (in ver. 2): as doing that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and continuing
the wrongful religious institutions of Jeroboam. Then we have in ver. 3 a notice of the
Divine punishment of these sins in the surrender of Israel to Hazael, king of Syria, and to
Ben-Hadad, his son and successor. The following verse (ver. 4) marks the repentance and
prayer of Jehoahaz, occasioned by these calamities, and God's gracious answer, although
not in the immediate present (see vers. 22-25). Verses 5 and 6 form a parenthesis.
Possibly it may begin with ver. 4. The reference to the wars of Ben-Hadad in ver. 3,
which can only apply to the time of Jehoahaz,* may be rather of a general character (see
vers. 22 and 25).
(^)