2 Kings 14:11

11 And Amaziah assented not to be in peace; and Jehoash, king of Israel, went up, and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, saw themselves (when they met in battle) in Bethshemesh, a city of Judah. (But Amaziah assented not to be at peace; and so Jehoash, the king of Israel, went up, and he and Amaziah, the king of Judah, faced each other when they met in battle, in Bethshemesh, a city of Judah.)

2 Kings 14:11 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 14:11

But Amaziah would not hear
Being given up to a judicial hardness of heart through pride; for this was of God, and by his overruling providence, that he might be punished for his idolatry, in setting up the gods of Edom to be his gods, and offering to them, ( 2 Chronicles 25:14 2 Chronicles 25:20 )

therefore Jehoash king Israel went up;
from Samaria to the land of Judah, which was higher ground:

and he and Amaziah looked one another in the face;
in the field of battle:

at Bethshemesh,
which belongeth to Judah; which is observed, not merely to distinguish it from another Bethshemesh in Naphtali, but to observe, that the king of Israel waited not for him to give him the challenge, but met his adversary in his own country, whither he carried the war, not suffering him to come into his.

2 Kings 14:11 In-Context

9 And Jehoash, king of Israel, sent again to Amaziah, king of Judah, and said mystically, The carduus, or thistle, that is, a low herb, and full of thorns, of the Lebanon sent to the cedar, that is in the Lebanon, and said, Give thy daughter (as) wife to my son; and the beasts of the forest, that be in the Lebanon, passed forth, and trode down the carduus.
10 Thou hast smitten Edom, and haddest the mastery upon it, and thine heart hath raised thee (up); be thou satisfied with this glory, and sit in thine house; why excitest thou evil, or stirrest thou (up) evil, so that thou fall, and Judah with thee?
11 And Amaziah assented not to be in peace; and Jehoash, king of Israel, went up, and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, saw themselves (when they met in battle) in Bethshemesh, a city of Judah. (But Amaziah assented not to be at peace; and so Jehoash, the king of Israel, went up, and he and Amaziah, the king of Judah, faced each other when they met in battle, in Bethshemesh, a city of Judah.)
12 And Judah was smitten before Israel; and they fled each man into his tabernacles.
13 Soothly Jehoash, king of Israel, took in Bethshemesh Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and brought him into Jerusalem (And Jehoash, the king of Israel, captured Amaziah, the king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, at Bethshemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem); and he brake the wall of Jerusalem, from the gate of Ephraim unto the gate of the corner, by four hundred cubits.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.