2 Kings 13:1-9

Jehoahaz Reigns in Israel

1 In the twenty-third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned seventeen years.
2 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, 1which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from them.
3 2And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them continually into the hand of 3Hazael king of Syria and into the hand of 4Ben-hadad the son of Hazael.
4 Then Jehoahaz 5sought the favor of the LORD, and the LORD listened to him, 6for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria oppressed them.
5 (Therefore the LORD gave Israel 7a savior, so that they escaped from the hand of the Syrians, and the people of Israel lived in 8their homes as formerly.
6 Nevertheless, they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, 9which he made Israel to sin, but walked[a] in them; and 10the Asherah also remained in Samaria.)
7 For there was not left to Jehoahaz an army of more than fifty horsemen and ten chariots and ten thousand footmen, for the king of Syria had destroyed them and made them like the dust 11at threshing.
8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz and all that he did, and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
9 So Jehoahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria, and Joash his son reigned in his place.

2 Kings 13:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 13

This chapter gives an account of the wicked reign of Jehoahaz son of Jehu king of Israel, and of the low estate he was brought into by the Syrians, 2Ki 13:1-9, and of the reign of his son Joash, 2Ki 13:10-13, and of the sickness and death of Elisha; of the visit Joash made him in his sickness; and of his prediction of the king's success against the Syrians; and of the reviving of a dead man cast into the prophet's sepulchre, 2Ki 13:14-21 and of the success of Joash against the Syrians, according to the prediction of the prophet, 2Ki 13:22-25.

\\of Judah\\ The same year he was so zealous and busy in repairing the temple, 2Ki 12:6,

\\Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria\\; whereas Joash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and Jehu reigned but twenty eight years, 2Ki 10:36, and 2Ki 12:1, this could be but the twenty first of Joash; to reconcile which it must be observed, that it was at the beginning of the seventh year of Jehu that Joash began to reign, and at the beginning of the twenty third of Joash that Jehoahaz began to reign, as the Jewish commentators observe:

\\and reigned seventeen years\\; the two last of which were in common with his son, as Junius, see 2Ki 13:10 17831-941219-2104-2Ki13.2

Cross References 11

  • 1. See 1 Kings 14:16
  • 2. [Judges 2:14]
  • 3. 2 Kings 8:12; [1 Kings 19:17]
  • 4. ver. 24, 25
  • 5. Exodus 32:11; [Psalms 78:34]
  • 6. 2 Kings 14:26; Exodus 3:7, 9
  • 7. [Judges 3:9; Nehemiah 9:27]
  • 8. See 2 Samuel 18:17
  • 9. [See ver. 2 above]
  • 10. 1 Kings 16:33
  • 11. [Amos 1:3]

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Septuagint, Syriac, Targum, Vulgate; Hebrew he walked
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.