2 Kings 22 – “Josiah’s Reign Begins; Hilkiah Finds a Scroll”

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Josiah becomes king and oversees the temple’s repairs. A priest named Hilkiah finds a scroll and Josiah laments how the people have abandoned God. Hulda the prophetess predicts the fall of Jerusalem.

II. Photo
Hilkiah has important news: “Then the high priest Hilkiah said to the scribe Shaphan, ‘I have found a scroll of the Teaching in the House of the Lord.’” (v. 8a)

III. Important Verses
2: [Josiah] did what was pleasing to the LORD and he followed all the ways of his ancestor David; he did not deviate to the right or to the left.
8: Then the high priest Hilkiah said to the scribe Shaphan, “I have found a scroll of the Teaching in the House of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, who read it.
11: When the king heard the words of the scroll of the Teaching, he rent his clothes.
15-20: [Hulda] responded: “Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: Say to the man who sent you to me: Thus said the LORD: I am going to bring disaster upon this place and its inhabitants, in accordance with all the words of the scroll which the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken Me and have made offerings to other gods and vexed Me with all their deeds, My wrath is kindled against this place and it shall not be quenched. But say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD: Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: As for the words which you have heard — because your heart was softened and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I decreed against this place and its inhabitants — that it will become a desolation and a curse — and because you rent your clothes and wept before Me, I for My part have listened — declares the LORD. Assuredly, I will gather you to your fathers and you will be laid in your tomb in peace. Your eyes shall not see all the disaster which I will bring upon this place.” So they brought back the reply to the king.

IV. Outline
1. Introductory statement: Josiah king of Judah
2. Josiah’s righteousness
3-7. Josiah oversees the temple finances
8a. Hilkiah finds a scroll in the temple
8b-10a. Josiah is informed of the temple work and the scroll
10b. Shaphan reads the scroll
11-13. Josiah’s dismay
14-20. Hulda augurs doom for Jerusalem, but not during Josiah’s lifetime

V. Comment
Chapter 22, which is the beginning of “Josiah’s great reform” (640–609 B.C.E.), is considered by many to be one of the most important chapters of the Hebrew Bible. This is because the priest Hilkiah “finds” a scroll that many consider to be the book of Deuteronomy. Cogan and Tadmor write: “It has become an accepted maxim in biblical scholarship ever since De Wette’s Dissertatio Critica in 1805 that the book is Deuteronomy or its early nucleus. Josiah’s acts of cultic reform (cf. 23:4-14, 21-24), which culminated in the centralization of all worship in Jerusalem, are presented in terms and style almost identical to that of Deuteronomy. Moreover no other book in the Pentateuch besides Deuteronomy requires cultic centralization in [God’s] chosen city. Josiah’s mournful reaction to the book also points to the Deuteronomy, in which the legal code concludes with lengthy maledictions, a dire warning to all violators of [God’s] covenant. Deuteronomy presents itself as a covenant, and from a literary point of view the book has the structure of a political treaty. It is, therefore, cardinal for the understanding of the Josianic reform that it is described as having emerged from ‘the book of the covenant which was found in the Temple’ (23:2), i.e. the book of Deuteronomy or a significant part of it.” (294)

Cogan and Tadmor point out that Josiah reigned at a critical juncture in ancient Near Eastern history. This is because the Assyrians, who had once dominated the land of Israel, lost their hegemony in the West. Cogan and Tadmor write: “In contradistinction to the age of Manasseh, when Assyrian pressure was actively felt in the West, in particular during the campaigns of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal to Egypt, Josiah’s reign occurred during the days of Assyria’s decline and fall. By the middle of the seventh century, Assyria had lost control of Egypt; and for over a decade was involved in wars in Babylonia and Elam. Babylon was reconquered in 648 B.C.E. after a long siege; Elam was ravaged and its capital Susa finally pillaged and destroyed by 645. On its northern borders, the Empire was troubled by the activity of nomadic hordes, the Cimmerians (or in the opinion of some scholars, the Scythians)… Shortly after 640, the written sources cease and very little is known of Assyrian history during the last decade of Ashurbanipal’s reign. After the king’s death in 627 B.C.E., there is reason to believe that Assyria was much weakened by internal strife stemming from the struggle between claimants to the throne. In 626 Babylonia rebelled and achieved independence, under Nabopolassar, a prince of Chaldean descent… In 614 the city of Ashur fell, and two years later the capital Nineveh was captured and sacked. For a few years the western part of the Assyrian Empire, with the city of Haran as its center, resisted under the last Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II. In 610 Haran, too, fell to the Babylonians… It is very hard to establish the date when Assyria lost both its hold over the province of Samaria and its hegemony over Judah. The earliest possible date is in the 630’s; another possibility would be 627 B.C.E., the year of Ashurbanipal’s death. Josiah’s thirty-one years of reign come, then, during a critical stage in the history of the ancient Near East. ” (291-293)

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://www.inyomonotitle.com/scrol2.jpg

2 Kings 21 – “Menasseh’s Wickedness; Amnon’s Brief Reign”

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Menasseh reinstitutes the idolatrous practices that his father uprooted. Amon succeeds Menasseh as king of Judah, but he is quickly killed in a coup. Amnon’s son Josiah becomes the next king.

II. Photo
Manasseh upsets God: “He consigned his son to the fire… he did much that was displeasing to the Lord, to vex Him.” (v. 6)

III. Important Verses
2-9: He did what was displeasing to the LORD, following the abhorrent practices of the nations that the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites. He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal and made a sacred post, as King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the host of heaven and worshiped them, and he built altars for them in the House of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “I will establish My name in Jerusalem.” He built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the House of the LORD. He consigned his son to the fire; he practiced soothsaying and divination, and consulted ghosts and familiar spirits; he did much that was displeasing to the LORD, to vex Him. The sculptured image of Asherah that he made he placed in the House concerning which the LORD had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this House and in Jerusalem, which I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My name forever. And I will not again cause the feet of Israel to wander from the land that I gave to their fathers, if they will but faithfully observe all that I have commanded them — all the Teachings with which My servant Moses charged them.” But they did not obey, and Manasseh led them astray to do greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
11-12: Because King Manasseh of Judah has done these abhorrent things — he has outdone in wickedness all that the Amorites did before his time — and because he led Judah to sin with his fetishes, assuredly, thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that both ears of everyone who hears about it will tingle.
16: Moreover, Manasseh put so many innocent persons to death that he filled Jerusalem [with blood] from end to end — besides the sin he committed in causing Judah to do what was displeasing to the LORD.
23-24: Amon’s courtiers conspired against him; and they killed the king in his palace. But the people of the land put to death all who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his stead.

IV. Outline
1-18. Menasseh king of Judah
1. Introductory statement
2-9. Menasseh’s idolatrous ways
10-15. God’s warning
16. Menasseh’s murderous ways
17-18. Summary statement
19-26. Amnon king of Judah
19. Introductory statement
20-22. Amnon’s sins
23. Amnon is killed
24. The people kill the conspirators
25-26. Summary statement

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

2 Kings 20 – “Hezekiah’s Illness; The Babylonians Visit Jerusalem”

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Hezekiah prays to God and recovers from his illness. The Babylonians send messengers to Jerusalem and Hezekiah shows them his treasurehouses. Isaiah warns Hezekiah that the Babylonians will raid Jerusalem and plunder its wealth.

II. Photo
An ailing Hezekiah prays for recovery: “Thereupon Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord.” (v. 2a)

III. Important Verses
1-6: In those days Hezekiah fell dangerously ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “Thus said the LORD: Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die; you will not get well.” Thereupon Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD. He said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You sincerely and wholeheartedly, and have done what is pleasing to You.” And Hezekiah wept profusely. Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: “Go back and say to Hezekiah, the ruler of My people: Thus said the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. I am going to heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the House of the LORD. And I will add fifteen years to your life. I will also rescue you and this city from the hands of the king of Assyria. I will protect this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.”
9-11: Isaiah replied, “This is the sign for you from the LORD that the LORD will do the thing that He has promised: Shall the shadow advance ten steps or recede ten steps?” Hezekiah said, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for the shadow to recede ten steps.” So the prophet Isaiah called to the LORD, and He made the shadow which had descended on the dial of Ahaz recede ten steps.
16-18: Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD: A time is coming when everything in your palace which your ancestors have stored up to this day will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will remain behind, said the LORD. And some of your sons, your own issue, whom you will have fathered, will be taken to serve as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

IV. Outline
1a. Hezekiah falls ill
1b. Isaiah informs him of his coming death
2-3. Hezekiah’s prayer
4-6. God tells Isaiah that he will save Hezekiah
7. Isaiah heals Hezekiah
8-11. A sign of recovery: a shadow recedes 10 steps
12. Berodach-baladan of Babylon sends a gift to Hezekiah
13. Hezekiah shows the messengers his riches
14-18. Isaiah predicts a Babylonian raid of Jerusalem
19. Hezekiah accepts the decree
20-21. Summary statement: Hezekiah king of Judah

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

2 Kings 19 – “Hezekiah’s Prayer; An Angel Smites the Assyrian Camp”

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Hezekiah petitions God to save him, God guarantees him salvation, and an angel kills 185,000 Assyrians in one night. Sennacherib flees and is killed by his sons in Nineveh.

II. Photo
God quotes the Assyrians: “You thought, ‘Thanks to my vast chariotry, it is I who have climbed the highest mountains, to the remotest parts of the Lebanon, and have cut down its loftiest cedars, its choicest cypresses, and have reached its remotest lodge, its densest forest.’” (v. 23b)

III. Important Verses
14-19: Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Hezekiah then went up to the House of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD of Hosts, Enthroned on the Cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. O LORD, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see. Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to blaspheme the living God! True, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have annihilated the nations and their lands, and have committed their gods to the flames and have destroyed them; for they are not gods, but man’s handiwork of wood and stone. But now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hands, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”
20-25: Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: I have heard the prayer you have offered to Me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria. This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: “Fair Maiden Zion despises you, She mocks at you; Fair Jerusalem shakes Her head at you. Whom have you blasphemed and reviled? Against whom made loud your voice And haughtily raised your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! Through your envoys you have blasphemed my Lord. Because you thought, ‘Thanks to my vast chariotry, It is I who have climbed the highest mountains, To the remotest parts of the Lebanon, And have cut down its loftiest cedars, Its choicest cypresses, And have reached its remotest lodge, Its densest forest. It is I who have drawn and drunk the waters of strangers; I have dried up with the soles of my feet All the streams of Egypt.’ Have you not heard? Of old I planned that very thing, I designed it long ago, And now have fulfilled it. And it has come to pass, Laying waste fortified towns In desolate heaps.”
35: That night an angel of the LORD went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and the following morning they were all dead corpses.
36-37: So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and retreated, and stayed in Nineveh. While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sarezer struck him down with the sword. They fled to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.

IV. Outline
1. Hezekiah’s distress
2-4. Hezekiah sends messengers to Isaiah
5-7. Isaiah’s message of confidence
8-9. Sennacherib hears of a Nubian invader
10-13. Sennacherib’s warning to Hezekiah
14-19. Hezekiah’s prayer in the temple
20-34. God tells Isaiah that Sennacherib will fail
35. An angel kills 185,000 Assyrians
36-37. Sennacherib flees and is killed in Nineveh

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

2 Kings 18 – “Hezekiah’s Righteousness; Sennacherib Besieges Jerusalem”

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Hezekiah serves God, outlaws idolatry, and rebels against the Assyrians. Sennacherib marches on Judea and sends an officer to taunt the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

II. Photo
Hezekiah proscribes all types of idolatry: “He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until that time the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan.” (v. 4b)

III. Important Verses
3-8: [Hezekiah] did what was pleasing to the LORD, just as his father David had done. He abolished the shrines and smashed the pillars and cut down the sacred post. He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until that time the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan. He trusted only in the LORD the God of Israel; there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those before him. He clung to the LORD; he did not turn away from following Him, but kept the commandments that the LORD had given to Moses. And the LORD was always with him; he was successful wherever he turned. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. He overran Philistia as far as Gaza and its border areas, from watchtower to fortified town.
13-15: In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched against all the fortified towns of Judah and seized them. King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong; withdraw from me; and I shall bear whatever you impose on me.” So the king of Assyria imposed upon King Hezekiah of Judah a payment of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was on hand in the House of the LORD and in the treasuries of the palace.
19-22, 25: The Rabshakeh said to them, “You tell Hezekiah: Thus said the Great King, the King of Assyria: What makes you so confident? You must think that mere talk is counsel and valor for war! Look, on whom are you relying, that you have rebelled against me? You rely, of all things, on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which enters and punctures the palm of anyone who leans on it! That’s what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him. And if you tell me that you are relying on the LORD your God, He is the very one whose shrines and altars Hezekiah did away with, telling Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship only at this altar in Jerusalem… And do you think I have marched against this land to destroy it without the LORD? The LORD Himself told me: Go up against that land and destroy it.”
26-27: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah replied to the Rabshakeh, “Please, speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in Judean in the hearing of the people on the wall.” But the Rabshakeh answered them, “Was it to your master and to you that my master sent me to speak those words? It was precisely to the men who are sitting on the wall — who will have to eat their dung and drink their urine with you.”

IV. Outline
1-2. Introductory statement: Hezekiah king of Judah
3-7a. Hezekiah’s piety
7b. Hezekiah rebels against Assyria
8. Hezekiah defeats the Philistines
9-11. Shalmaneser exiles the inhabitants of Samaria
12. Theological reason for the exile
13-16. Hezekiah sends tribute to Sennacherib king of Assyria
17. Sennacherib besieges Jerusalem
18-25. The Rabshakeh taunts Hezekiah
26-28. The Rabshakeh continues to speak in Judean
29-35. The Rabshakeh tries to cajole the Judeans into joining his side
36. The people remain silent
37. The Rabshakeh’s message is delivered to Hezekiah

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

2 Kings 17 – “Shalmaneser Exiles the Israelites; Samaria’s New Inhabitants”

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Shalmeneser exiles the Israelites when he learns of Hoshea’s double-dealings. The sins that caused the exile are enumerated. Foreigners resettle the land and continue to worship their pagan deities.

II. Photo
Samaria’s new inhabitants are punished: “When they first settled there, they did not worship the Lord; so the Lord sent lions against them which killed some of them.” (v. 25)

III. Important Verses
3-6: King Shalmaneser marched against him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria caught Hoshea in an act of treachery: he had sent envoys to King So of Egypt, and he had not paid the tribute to the king of Assyria, as in previous years. And the king of Assyria arrested him and put him in prison. Then the king of Assyria marched against the whole land; he came to Samaria and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria. He deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, at the [River] Habor, at the River Gozan, and in the towns of Media.
13-18: The LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet [and] every seer, saying: “Turn back from your wicked ways, and observe My commandments and My laws, according to all the Teaching that I commanded your fathers and that I transmitted to you through My servants the prophets.” But they did not obey; they stiffened their necks, like their fathers who did not have faith in the LORD their God; they spurned His laws and the covenant that He had made with their fathers, and the warnings He had given them. They went after delusion and were deluded; [they imitated] the nations that were about them, which the LORD had forbidden them to emulate. They rejected all the commandments of the LORD their God; they made molten idols for themselves — two calves — and they made a sacred post and they bowed down to all the host of heaven, and they worshiped Baal. They consigned their sons and daughters to the fire; they practiced augury and divination, and gave themselves over to what was displeasing to the LORD and vexed Him. The LORD was incensed at Israel and He banished them from His presence; none was left but the tribe of Judah alone.
24-25: The king of Assyria brought [people] from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and he settled them in the towns of Samaria in place of the Israelites; they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its towns. When they first settled there, they did not worship the LORD; so the LORD sent lions against them which killed some of them.
27-29: The king of Assyria gave an order: “Send there one of the priests whom you have deported; let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the practices of the God of the land.” So one of the priests whom they had exiled from Samaria came and settled in Bethel; he taught them how to worship the LORD. However, each nation continued to make its own gods and to set them up in the cult places which had been made by the people of Samaria; each nation [set them up] in the towns in which it lived.

IV. Outline

1-6. Hoshea king of Israel; Exile
    1. Introductory statement
    2. Hoshea’s mitigated sins
    3-4. Shalmeneser imprisons Hoshea
    5-6. Shalmeneser exiles the Israelites
7-23. The reasons for exile
    7-12. Improper worship
    13-15. Israel ignored God’s warnings
    16-18. Israel ignored God’s teachings
    19. Judah’s sins
    20-23. The sins of Jeroboam
24-41. Samaria’s new inhabitants
    24. Shalmeneser resettles Samaria
    25-26. Lions attack the settlers
    27-28. A priest teaches them the religion of the land
    29-33. The settlers worship many gods
    34-40. The settlers violate God’s decree
    41. The settlers continue to worship other gods

V. Comment
Chapter 17 gives a brief description of Samaria’s fall (vv. 1-6) and a lengthy theological explanation for that fall (vv. 7-23). Hobbs explains the significance of this explanation: “In recording and commenting upon [the exile], the writer attempts to make sense of it. Change is a fundamental part of human experience, and indeed provides opportunities for reflection (see L. Gilkey, Reaping the Whirlwind [New York: Seabury Press, 1976] 3–35). In a time in which change does not normally take place rapidly, such violent change as was experienced by the people of God with the loss of the north and the subsequent exile of the south, forces a complete reassessment of the past. The reassessment is all the more urgent when one important ingredient of that past is seen as stability—a stability focused on the nature of God and his actions. How can this fundamental breaking of order and stability be integrated into one’s knowledge and understanding of the past? This, it seems, is the question addressed by our writer. The events of the recent past are understood in terms of the breaking of covenant (vv 15, 35). The social and religious organization that grows out of the notion of covenant is destroyed because the covenant is broken. The senior partner of that agreement reacts to the loss of fidelity on the part of the junior partner. But there is hope in this. The destruction of the north now has meaning. It is not an isolated, irrational, or capricious event. It is purposed. The same God is active in judgment. Reconstruction is therefore possible.” (241)

According to our chapter, the exile was carried out by the Assyrian king Shalmeneser V. Bright places this chapter within a historical perspective: “Hoshea had submitted to Assyria only to save what was left of his country, and no doubt planned defection as soon as he considered it safe. Not long after Tiglath-pileser had been succeeded by his son Shalmaneser V, Hoshea, thinking his chance had come, made overtures to Egypt and withheld tribute. This was Israel’s suicide. Egypt had at the time broken up into a number of unimportant rival states and was in no position to help anyone. The ‘So, king of Egypt’ who Hoshea approached (II Kings 17:4) was in all probability Tefnakhte of the weak Twenty-fourth dynasty, whose residence was in Sais, in the western Delta. No real aid could be expected from him, and none came. In 724, Shalmaneser attacked. Hoshea, who apparently appeared before his master hoping to make peace, was taken prisoner. The Assyrians then occupied the land, save for the city of Samaria, which continued to hold out for over two years. Although Shalmaneser’s successor, Sargon II, who seized the Assyrian throne on Shalmaneser’s death late in 722, repeatedly boasts of having taken Samaria, the Bible is probably correct in attributing its capture to Shalmaneser. The city apparently fell in the late summer or autumn of the year 722/721. Thousands of its citizens – 27,290 according to Sargon – were subsequently deported to Upper Mesopotamia and Media, there ultimately to vanish from the stage of history.” (275)

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Bright, John. “A History of Israel” (Kentucky: Westminster John Knox, 2000).
Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Tadmor. “II Kings” The Anchor Bible v. 11 (USA: Doubleday, 1988).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Hobbs, T.R. “2 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 13 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Photo taken from http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/sports/rap_sheet/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/african-lion-closeup.jpg

2 Kings 16 – “Ahaz King of Judah”

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Ahaz sacrifices burnt offerings outside the temple and consigns his son to fire. He pays Tiglath-pileser to destroy Damascus when the Arameans besiege Jerusalem. Ahaz builds a new altar and makes changes to the temple.

II. Photo
Ahaz sketches plans for a new altar: “King Ahaz sent the priest Uriah a sketch of the altar and a detailed plan of its construction.” (v. 10b)

III. Important Verses
2b-4: He did not do what was pleasing to the LORD his God, as his ancestor David had done, but followed the ways of the kings of Israel. He even consigned his son to the fire, in the abhorrent fashion of the nations which the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites. He sacrificed and made offerings at the shrines, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.
5, 7-9: Then King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel advanced on Jerusalem for battle. They besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome [him]… Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria to say, “I am your servant and your son; come and deliver me from the hands of the king of Aram and from the hands of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” Ahaz took the gold and silver that were on hand in the House of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent them as a gift to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria responded to his request; the king of Assyria marched against Damascus and captured it. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and put Rezin to death.
10-11: When King Ahaz went to Damascus to greet King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, he saw the altar in Damascus. King Ahaz sent the priest Uriah a sketch of the altar and a detailed plan of its construction. The priest Uriah did just as King Ahaz had instructed him from Damascus; the priest Uriah built the altar before King Ahaz returned from Damascus.

IV. Outline
1-2a. Introductory statement
2b-4. Ahaz’s sins
5. Jerusalem is besieged by Aram
6. The might of Rezin king of Aram
7-8. Ahaz seeks Tiglath-pileser’s help
9. Tiglath-pileser destroys damascus
10-11. Ahaz builds a Damascus-like altar
12-13. Ahaz consecrates the new altar
14. The old altar is moved
15-16. Ahaz commands Uriah to use the new altar
17-18. Other changes to the temple
19-20. Summary statement

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

2 Kings 15 – “The reigns of Azariah, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Jotham; Tiglath-pileser Invades Israel”

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
The reigns of Azariah, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Jotham are described. Tiglath-pileser exiles a group of Israelites to Assyria.

II. Photo
Azariah lives in solitude: “The Lord struck the king with a plague, and he was a leper until the day of his death; he lived in isolated quarters.” (v. 5a)

III. Important Verses
5: The LORD struck the king [Azariah] with a plague, and he was a leper until the day of his death; he lived in isolated quarters, while Jotham, the king’s son, was in charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.
10: Shallum son of Jabesh conspired against [Zechariah] and struck him down before the people and killed him, and succeeded him as king.
12: This was in accord with the word that the LORD had spoken to Jehu: “Four generations of your descendants shall occupy the throne of Israel.” And so it came about.
16: At that time, [marching] from Tirzah, Menahem subdued Tiphsah and all who were in it, and its territory; and because it did not surrender, he massacred [its people] and ripped open all its pregnant women.
19-20: King Pul of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver that he might support him and strengthen his hold on the kingdom. Menahem exacted the money from Israel: every man of means had to pay fifty shekels of silver for the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria withdrew and did not remain in the land.
29: In the days of King Pekah of Israel, King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor — Gilead, Galilee, the entire region of Naphtali; and he deported the inhabitants to Assyria.
37: In those days, the LORD began to incite King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah.

IV. Outline

1-7. Azariah king of Judah
    1-2. Introductory statement
    3. Azariah’s piety
    4. Azariah’s sins
    5. Azariah’s life of isolation
    6-7. Summary statement
8-11. Zechariah king of Israel
    8. Introductory statement
    9. Zechariah’s sins
    10. Shallum’s coup
    11. Summary statement
12. Editor’s note: A prophecy fulfilled
13-15. Shallum king of Israel
    13. Introductory statement
    14. Menahem’s coup
    15. Summary statement
16. Menahem’s wrath towards Tiphsah
17-22. Menahem king of Israel
    17. Introductory statement
    18. Menahem’s sins
    19-20. Menahem’s tribute to Pul king of Assyria
    21-22. Summary statement
23-26. Pekahiah king of Israel
    23. Introductory statement
    24. Pekahiah’s sins
    25. Pekah’s coup
    26. Summary statement
27-31. Pekah king of Israel
    27. Introductory statement
    28. Pekah’s sins
    29. Tiglath-pileser exiles many Israelites to Assyria
    30. Hoshea’s coup
    31. Summary statement
32-38. Jotham king of Judah
    32-33. Introductory statement
    34. Jotham’s piety
    35. Jotham’s sins
    36. Summary statement
    37. Israel and Aram harass Judah
    38. Summary statement concluded

V. Comment
Chapter 15 describes the Israelite and Judean kings of the 8th century BCE. Collins highlights the political instability in the north during this period: “After the death of Jeroboam, there was rapid turnover of rulers in northern Israel. Six kings ruled in the space of just over twenty years. Four of these were assassinated. Zechariah, son of Jeroboam, was assassinated after a few months on the throne, and his assassin, Shallum, survived only a month.” (271)

It seems that the Israelite-Assyrian relationship was in steady decline throughout the 8th century. Collins writes: “Menahem (745-737), had to deal with a new factor in Israelite history, the encroachment of the Assyrian Empire. Menahem paid a heavy tribute to the Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser, and in return was confirmed on his throne (2 Kgs 15:19). King Joash, father of Jeroboam, had already paid tribute to Assyria at the beginning of the eighth century, but the Assyrian threat had receded at that time. Assyrian power posed a much more serious threat in the 730s that it had sixty years earlier. Menahem’s son, Pekahiah, was assassinated by one Pekah, son of Remaliah, who is mentioned in Isaiah 7. The statement that Pekah reigned for twenty years (15:28) must be a mistake. Modern historians credit him only with a short reign of three or four years. During his reign, Tiglath-pileser of Assyria captured territory in the north of Israel, in Gilead, Galilee, and Naphtali, and took the people captive to Assyria (Damascus was destroyed at this time). Shortly thereafter Pekah was assassinated by Hoshea, the last king of Israel. He ruled for nine years, paying tribute to Assyria, but in the end he made the disastrous mistake of conspiring with Egypt and withholding tribute. In 722 Samaria was destroyed by the Assyrians, and the area was placed under direct Assyrian rule.” (ibid.)

Verses 19-20 mention a certain Pul king of Assyria: “King Pul of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver that he might support him and strengthen his hold on the kingdom. Menahem exacted the money from Israel: every man of means had to pay fifty shekels of silver for the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria withdrew and did not remain in the land.” Who was king Pul? Hobbs writes: “Evidence from the Babylonian King List (ANET, 272) makes clear that Tiglath Pileser and Pul are the same person, the latter name being given to him after he seized the throne of Babylon. The older separation between the two (see I. Benzinger, Die Bucher der Könige, 168–69) is no longer possible. The date of the Assyrian lordship over Israel, which undoubtedly took place during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser (745–727 BC), is a disputed one. More than once the Assyrian records mention tribute from Menahem of Samaria. These inscriptions, translated in Luckenbill’s collection (Ancient Records 1:269–96), are extremely difficult to interpret, in spite of the detail they provide for the reign of the Assyrian king. In the order found in Luckenbill, it would appear that tribute was exacted from Menahem during the third-year campaign to the west (ca 743 BC).” (198)

2 Kings 14 – “The Reigns of Jehoash, Amaziah, and Jeroboam”

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Amaziah becomes king of Judah and defeats the Edomites. The Judeans are crushed by Jehoash king of Israel, Jerusalem is plundered, and Amaziah is murdered. Jeroboam becomes king of Israel and conquers vast swaths of land.

II. Photo
Amaziah has mercy: “But he did not put to death the children of the assassins, in accordance with what is written in the Book of the Teaching of Moses.” (v. 6a)

III. Important Verses
5-6: Once he had the kingdom firmly in his grasp, he put to death the courtiers who had assassinated his father the king. But he did not put to death the children of the assassins, in accordance with what is written in the Book of the Teaching of Moses, where the LORD commanded, “Parents shall not be put to death for children, nor children be put to death for parents; a person shall be put to death only for his own crime.”
7-10: He defeated ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt, and he captured Sela in battle and renamed it Joktheel, as is still the case. Then Amaziah sent envoys to King Jehoash son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu of Israel, with this message: “Come, let us confront each other.” King Jehoash of Israel sent back this message to King Amaziah of Judah: “The thistle in Lebanon sent this message to the cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ But a wild beast in Lebanon went by and trampled down the thistle. Because you have defeated Edom, you have become arrogant. Stay home and enjoy your glory, rather than provoke disaster and fall, dragging Judah down with you.”
13-14: King Jehoash of Israel captured King Amaziah son of Jehoash son of Ahaziah of Judah at Beth-shemesh. He marched on Jerusalem, and he made a breach of four hundred cubits in the wall of Jerusalem, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. He carried off all the gold and silver and all the vessels that there were in the House of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace, as well as hostages; and he returned to Samaria.
19: A conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem and he fled to Lachish; but they sent men after him to Lachish, and they killed him there.

IV. Outline

1-20. Jehoash king of Israel; Amaziah king of Judah
    1-2. Introductory statement: Amaziah king of Judah
    3-4. Amaziah’s religious successes and failures
    5-6. Revenge; Note about vengeance
    7. Amaziah defeats Edom
    8. Amaziah provokes Israel
    9-10. Jehoash’s deprecating response
    11-14. The Israelites prevail and raid Jerusalem
    15-16. Summary statement: Jehoash king of Israel
    17-20. Amaziah’s murder; Summary statement
21-22. Azariah becomes king in Judah; Military exploits
23-29. Jeroboam king of Israel
    23. Introductory statement
    24. Jeroboam’s sins
    25-27. Jeroboam’s military victories
    28-29. Summary statement

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

2 Kings 13 – “Jehoahaz and Jehoash; Elisha’s Death”

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
The Arameans torment the Israelites, Jehoash replaces Jehoahaz as king of Israel, and Jehoash defeats the Arameans in battle. Although Elisha is buried, his grave is disturbed.

II. Photo
Elisha dies: “Elisha died and he was buried.” (v. 20a)

III. Important Verses
3-5: The LORD was angry with Israel and He repeatedly delivered them into the hands of King Hazael of Aram and into the hands of Ben-hadad son of Hazael. But Jehoahaz pleaded with the LORD; and the LORD listened to him, for He saw the suffering that the king of Aram inflicted upon Israel. So the LORD granted Israel a deliverer, and they gained their freedom from Aram; and Israel dwelt in its homes as before.
7: In fact, Jehoahaz was left with a force of only fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers; for the king of Aram had decimated them and trampled them like the dust under his feet.
14-19: Elisha had been stricken with the illness of which he was to die, and King Joash of Israel went down to see him. He wept over him and cried, “Father, father! Israel’s chariots and horsemen!” Elisha said to him, “Get a bow and arrows”; and he brought him a bow and arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, “Grasp the bow!” And when he had grasped it, Elisha put his hands over the king’s hands. “Open the window toward the east,” he said; and he opened it. Elisha said, “Shoot!” and he shot. Then he said, “An arrow of victory for the LORD! An arrow of victory over Aram! You shall rout Aram completely at Aphek.” He said, “Now pick up the arrows.” And he picked them up. “Strike the ground!” he said to the king of Israel; and he struck three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said to him, “If only you had struck five or six times! Then you would have annihilated Aram; as it is, you shall defeat Aram only three times.”
20-21: Elisha died and he was buried. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land at the coming of every year. Once a man was being buried, when the people caught sight of such a band; so they threw the corpse into Elisha’s grave and made off. When the [dead] man came in contact with Elisha’s bones, he came to life and stood up.

IV. Outline

1-9. Jehoahaz king of Israel
    1. Introductory statement
    2. Jehoahaz’s sins
    3-7. Sin; Aramean harassment; Deliverance
    8-9. Summary statement
10-25. Jehoash king of Israel
    10. Introductory statement
    11. Jehoash’s sins
    12-13. Summary statement
    14-19. Elisha predicts victory over Aram
    20a. Elisha dies
    20b-21. A man is resurrected when his corpse touches Elisha’s
    22-23. Aramean harassment
    24-25. Jehoash recovers the cities from Aram

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.