Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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2 Kings
Book: 2 Kings
Chapter: 14
Overview:
Amaziah's good reign.
(1-7) Amaziah provokes
Jehoash King of
Israel, and is overcome.
(8-14) He is slain
By conspirators.
(15-22) Wicked reign of
Jeroboam II.
(23-29)
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.
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.
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.
23-29 God raised up the
Prophet Jonah, and
By him declared the
purposes of his favour to
Israel. It is a sign that
God has not
cast off his people, if he continues
Faithful ministers among
them. Two reasons are given why
God blessed them with those
victories: 1. Because the distress was very great, which made
them objects of his compassion. 2. Because the decree was not
yet gone forth for their
Destruction. Many prophets there had
been in
Israel, but none left prophecies in
Writing till this
Age, and their prophecies are part of the
Bible.
Hosea began to
prophesy in the reign of this
Jeroboam. At the same time
Amos
prophesied; soon after
Micah, then
Isaiah, in the days of
Ahaz
and
Hezekiah. Thus
God, in the darkest and most degenerate ages
of the
Church, raised up some to be burning and shining lights
in it; to their own
Age,
By their preaching and living, and a
few
By their writings, to reflect
Light upon us in the last
times.