Two Kingdoms · c. 814–782 BC
Chapter 13
The Last of Elisha
Now Elisha became sick with the illness of which he died; and Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him, and said, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”
For parents
King Amaziah of Judah puts his father’s murderers to death (2 Kings 14:5); his army kills ten thousand Edomites and throws ten thousand prisoners from the top of a rock to their deaths (2 Chronicles 25:11–12); the soldiers he sent home kill three thousand people in Judah’s towns (25:13); and Amaziah himself is murdered (2 Kings 14:19). A dead man thrown into Elisha’s tomb comes back to life when he touches Elisha’s bones (13:21). None of it is described in detail.
In the twenty-third year of king of Judah, ’s son became king over Israel in . He reigned there seventeen years, and he did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes. He followed the sins of son of Nebat, the sins Jeroboam had led Israel into, and he never gave them up.
The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he kept handing them over to king of , and to Hazael’s son .
Jehoahaz pleaded with the Lord, and the Lord listened to him, because he saw how the king of Syria was oppressing Israel. The Lord gave Israel a savior, and they got free of the Syrians’ power. The people of Israel went back to living in their homes, the way they used to.
Even so, they did not give up the sins of Jeroboam’s family, the sins he had led Israel into. They went on living by them, and the was still there in Samaria.
Out of all his people, Jehoahaz was left with only fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand men on foot. The king of Syria had destroyed the others and made them like the dust from .
The rest of what Jehoahaz did, and his power, is written in the records of the kings of Israel. Jehoahaz died and joined his ancestors, and they buried him in Samaria. His son , who is also called Joash, took his place as king.
Jehoash son of Jehoahaz became Israel’s king in Samaria in the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah. He reigned sixteen years, and he did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes. He did not give up a single one of the sins Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel into, but went on living by them.
Now fell sick with the illness that would end his life. Jehoash king of Israel came down to him and wept over him, and said, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”
They were the same words Elisha had cried out on the day a chariot of fire and horses of fire came between him and , and he watched Elijah go up into heaven in a whirlwind.
“Take a bow and arrows,” Elisha told him, and the king took a bow and arrows. “Put your hand on the bow,” Elisha said to the king of Israel, and he put his hand on it. Then Elisha laid his hands on the king’s hands.
“Open the window to the east,” Elisha said, and the king opened it. “Shoot!” said Elisha, and the king shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory!” Elisha said. “The arrow of victory over Syria! You will strike the Syrians at until you have finished them off.”
“Pick up the arrows,” Elisha said, and the king picked them up. “Strike the ground,” he told the king of Israel. He struck three times, and then he stopped.
The was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times! Then you would have struck Syria until you had finished it off. But now you will strike Syria just three times.”
Elisha died, and they buried him. At the start of the year, bands of raiders came into the land.
While some people were burying a man, they caught sight of a band of raiders, and they threw the man into Elisha’s tomb. As soon as the man touched Elisha’s bones, he came back to life and got up on his feet.
Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel as long as Jehoahaz reigned. But the Lord was gracious to Israel and had compassion on them. He showed them favor because of his with , and , and would not destroy them. He had not yet driven them away from his presence.
Hazael king of Syria died, and Ben Hadad his son reigned after him. Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz won back the cities that had been taken in war from his father Jehoahaz. He took them from Ben Hadad son of Hazael. Jehoash beat him three times, as Elisha had said, and recovered the cities of Israel.
son of Joash became king of Judah when Jehoash son of Jehoahaz was in his second year as king of Israel. He was twenty-five years old at the time, and he reigned twenty-nine years in . His mother, Jehoaddin, came from Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles spells her name Jehoaddan.
He did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, but he was not like his ancestor . He did all the things his father Joash had done. (2 Chronicles says he did what was right, but not with his whole heart.) Even so, the were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned in the high places.
Amaziah’s father, King Joash, had been murdered by two of his own servants. As soon as Amaziah had a firm hold on the kingdom, he put those servants to death.
But he did not put the murderers’ children to death. He obeyed the Lord’s command written in the book of the law of : “Fathers must not be put to death for their children, and children must not be put to death for their fathers. Everyone must die for his own sin.”
2 Chronicles tells more about Amaziah’s army. He called together the men of all Judah and and arranged them by their families, under captains over thousands and captains over hundreds. He counted the men twenty years old and older. There were three hundred thousand picked men, ready to go to war and able to handle a spear and shield.
He also hired a hundred thousand brave fighting men out of Israel, paying one hundred of silver, about 6,600 pounds.
But a man of God came to Amaziah. “King,” he said, “don’t let the army of Israel go with you. The Lord is not with Israel, or with any of the people of . If you do go, then take action, and be strong for the battle. God will bring you down in front of the enemy, because God has power both to help and to bring down.”
Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what are we to do about the hundred talents I have given to the army of Israel?”
“The Lord has much more than that to give you,” the man of God answered.
Then Amaziah separated the army that had come to him out of Ephraim and sent them back home. Their anger blazed against Judah, and they went home in a fierce rage.
Amaziah took courage and led his army out to the . There he killed ten thousand men of , the people of . He also conquered the city of Sela and named it Joktheel, as it is still called today.
2 Chronicles adds that the men of Judah also captured ten thousand alive. They took them up to the top of the rock and threw them down from it, and every one of them died in the fall.
Amaziah had sent the hired soldiers home so that they would not go into battle with him. But they attacked the towns of Judah, from Samaria all the way to . They killed three thousand of the people there and carried away a lot of plunder.
When Amaziah came back from killing the Edomites, he brought along the gods of the people of Seir and set them up to be his own gods. He bowed down to them and burned incense to them.
The Lord’s anger burned against Amaziah, and he sent him a . “Why have you turned to the gods of this people?” the prophet asked him. “They did not rescue their own people from you!”
As the prophet was speaking, the king said to him, “Did we make you one of the king’s advisers? Stop! Why should you get yourself killed?”
Then the prophet stopped, and said, “I know that God has made up his mind to destroy you, because you have done this and would not listen to my advice.”
Then Amaziah talked it over with his advisers, 2 Chronicles says. He sent messengers to Jehoash king of Israel, the grandson of Jehu. “Come,” he said, “let’s face each other.”
Jehoash king of Israel sent this reply to Amaziah king of Judah: “The thistle in Lebanon sent word to the cedar there: ‘Give your daughter to my son as his wife.’ Then a wild animal in Lebanon came past and trampled the thistle down.
“It’s true that you have beaten Edom, and it has gone to your head. Enjoy the glory of it, and stay at home. Why go looking for trouble and get hurt? Why should you fall, and take Judah down with you?”
But Amaziah would not listen. 2 Chronicles says this came from God. God meant to hand them over to their enemies, because they had turned to the gods of Edom. Jehoash king of Israel marched out, and he and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other in battle at , a town that belongs to Judah.
Israel beat Judah, and every man of Judah fled home.
Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah prisoner at Beth Shemesh. Then he came to Jerusalem and broke down the city wall from the gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate. That stretch of wall was four hundred long, about two hundred yards.
He took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels he found in the Lord’s house and among the treasures of the king’s palace. (2 Chronicles says the things in God’s house had been in Obed-Edom’s care.) He took hostages too, and then he went back to Samaria.
The records of the kings of Israel tell the rest of what Jehoash king of Israel did: his power, and how he fought against Amaziah king of Judah. Then Jehoash died and joined his ancestors. They buried him in Samaria with the kings of Israel, and his son sat on his throne after him.
After Jehoash of Israel died, Amaziah of Judah lived another fifteen years.
The rest of what Amaziah did, from first to last, is written in the records of the kings of Judah. 2 Chronicles calls it the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
There was a plot against Amaziah in Jerusalem, and he fled to . But the plotters sent men to Lachish after him and killed him there. 2 Chronicles says the plot against him began from the time he turned away from following the Lord.
They carried his body back to Jerusalem on horses, and he was buried there with his ancestors in . 2 Chronicles calls it the City of Judah.
All the people of Judah took Amaziah’s son , who was sixteen years old, and made him king in his father’s place. He built up Elath and made it part of Judah again. After that, the king died and joined his ancestors.
Jeroboam, the son of Jehoash king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria when Amaziah son of Joash was in his fifteenth year as king of Judah. His reign lasted forty-one years, and he did evil in the Lord’s eyes. He did not give up a single one of the sins that the first Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had led Israel into.
He restored Israel’s border, from the entrance of to the sea of the . The Lord, the God of Israel, had said so through his servant son of Amittai, a prophet who came from Gath Hepher.
This was because the Lord saw how bitter Israel’s suffering was. Everyone suffered, slave and free, and Israel had no one to help them. The Lord had not said that he would wipe out Israel’s name from under the sky. Instead, he saved them through Jeroboam son of Jehoash.
The records of the kings of Israel tell the rest of what Jeroboam did: his power, how he fought, and how he won back for Israel, and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah.
Jeroboam died and joined his ancestors, the kings of Israel, and his son reigned after him.