141 In the second year of Joash, son of Joahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah, the son of Joash, became king of Judah. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king; and he was ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, though not like David his father; he did as Joash his father had done. 4 But still the high places were not taken away; the people went on making offerings and burning them in the high places. 5 Now when he became strong in the kingdom, straight away he put to death those servants who had taken the life of the king his father; 6 But he did not put their children to death; for the orders of the Lord recorded in the book of the law of Moses say, The fathers are not to be put to death for the children, or the children for their fathers; but a man is to be put to death for the sin which he himself has done. 7 He put to the sword twelve thousand men of Edom in the Valley of Salt, and took Sela in war, naming it Joktheel, as it is to this day.
8 Then Amaziah sent representatives to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us have a meeting face to face. 9 And Jehoash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, The thorn-tree in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a wife: and a beast from the woodland in Lebanon went by, crushing the thorn under his feet. 10 It is true that you have overcome Edom and your heart is uplifted; let that glory be enough for you, and keep in your country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself, and Judah with you, in danger of downfall? 11 But Amaziah gave no attention. So Jehoash, king of Israel, went up, and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, came face to face at Beth-shemesh, which is in Judah. 12 And Judah was overcome before Israel, so that they went in flight, every man to his tent. 13 And Jehoash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, prisoner at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and had the wall of Jerusalem pulled down from the doorway of Ephraim to the door in the angle, four hundred cubits. 14 And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels which were in the house of the Lord and in the store-house of the king, together with those whose lives would be the price of broken faith, and went back to Samaria.
15 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash, and his power, and how he went to war with Amaziah, king of Judah, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? 16 And Jehoash went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son became king in his place. 17 Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, went on living for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Kings 14:1-17
Commentary on 2 Kings 14:1-7
(Read 2 Kings 14:1-7)
Amaziah began well, but did not go on so. It is not enough to do that which our pious predecessors did, merely to keep up the common usage, but we must do it as they did, from the same principle of faith and devotion, and with the same sincerity and resolution.
Commentary on 2 Kings 14:8-14
(Read 2 Kings 14:8-14)
For some time after the division of the kingdoms, Judah suffered much from the enmity of Israel. After Asa's time, it suffered more by the friendship of Israel, and by the alliance made with them. Now we meet with hostility between them again. How may a humble man smile to hear two proud and scornful men set their wits on work, to vilify and undervalue one another! Unholy success excites pride; pride excites contentions. The effects of pride in others, are insufferable to those who are proud themselves. These are the sources of trouble and sin in private life; but when they arise between princes, they become the misery of their whole kingdoms. Jehoash shows Amaziah the folly of his challenge; Thine heart has lifted thee up. The root of all sin is in the heart, thence it flows. It is not Providence, the event, the occasion, whatever it is, that makes men proud, secure, discontented, or the like, but their own hearts do it.
Commentary on 2 Kings 14:15-22
(Read 2 Kings 14:15-22)
Amaziah survived his conqueror fifteen years. He was slain by his own subjects. Azariah, or Uzziah, seems to have been very young when his father was slain. Though the years of his reign are reckoned from that event, he was not fully made king till eleven years afterwards.