SERIES N --- THE EXILE --- LESSON 01

THE TEMPLE LOOTED

KING AMAZIAH OF JUDAH

From 2 Kings 12:21; 14:1-20, 2 Chronicles 24:27; 25

After King Joash of Judah was assassinated and buried, his son Amaziah became king in his place. This happened during the second year of the reign of King Joash of Israel. King Amaziah was twenty-five when he began to reign and he ruled over Judah for twenty-nine years. His mother was Jehoaddan, a native of Jerusalem. During the early part of his reign, Amaziah practiced the things that were right in YHVH’s sight, though he did not always do so willingly. When he had become well established as king, he executed the men who had killed his father, but he did not execute their children. That was because Adonai had Commanded in the Law of Moses that fathers should not be punished for their children’s sins and children should not be punished for their father’s sins, but that each person should be punished for his own sins. At one time Amaziah assembled the leaders of Judah and organized them by their clans. Then he took a census and found that there were three hundred thousand men of military age, at least twenty years old, who could handle the spear and sword. King Amaziah also hired one hundred thousand trained men of Israel, paying them one hundred talents of silver, about two hundred thousand dollars. After he had paid them the fee, a prophet brought the king this message from Adonai. [You must not hire these men of Israel,] the prophet said. [Adonai is not with them. If you take them with you to fight your enemies, Adonai will cause you to be defeated because of them, for He has the power to give you victory or defeat.] [But I have already paid them all that money!] Amaziah protested. [Let them keep it, for Adonai can give you much more,] the prophet answered. Amaziah listened to the prophet and sent the hired soldiers back to Ephraim. That made them furious and they went home very angry. King Amaziah however, took courage and led his own army to the Valley of Salt where he struck down ten thousand men of Seir. He captured another ten thousand and forced them over the top of a cliff where they were dashed to pieces on the rocks below. When Amaziah returned victorious from the battle, he brought with him some of the idols of the Edomites, the people of Seir and set them up at home to worship them. Adonai was angry with him because he bowed down to these idols and offered sacrifices to them. Adonai sent a prophet to Amaziah with a message. [Why do you worship the gods of the defeated people when they could not even spare their own people from you?] the prophet demanded. [Why do you give me advice when I have not asked for it?] the king demanded in return. [Be quiet or I will have you executed!] The prophet however, gave the king one more message before he left. [I am sure that Adonai now will destroy you, for you have worshiped these heathen idols and refused His message which I bring.] King Amaziah called for his own counsellors to decide what they should do about Israel, for the hired soldiers of Israel had raided some villages of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon on their way home. They had killed about three thousand people of Judah and had taken many valuable things from them. When Amaziah’s counsellors advised that he declare war on Israel, he accepted their counsel and sent a message to King Joash of Israel, [Come, let us go to war against each other.] Joash sent a message back to Amaziah in the form of a parable. [A bramble bush of Lebanon demanded that a great cedar tree of Lebanon give him his daughter in marriage. But at that very time a wild animal came by and crushed the bramble bush into the ground. You are boasting because you defeated Edom, but you had better stay home now. If you go out looking for trouble, you and the people of Judah will both be brought to ruin.] Amaziah however, would not listen; YHVH was arranging his defeat because he had worshiped the idols of Edom. Joash of Israel and Amaziah of Judah went to war against each other in a battle at Beth-shemesh, which was in Judah. Judah was defeated in that battle and the survivors fled back to their tents. King Joash captured Amaziah at Beth-shemesh and brought him back to Jerusalem as a prisoner. Joash destroyed about six hundred feet of the Jerusalem wall, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. He took all the gold and silver and the temple vessels from the house of YHVH and carried them back to Samaria, along with Obed-edom, the man who guarded them. He also captured the treasures of the king’s palace in Jerusalem and took them, along with hostages, back to Samaria. The other adventures of King Joash of Israel are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. When he died, he was buried in Samaria with previous kings of Israel. His son Jeroboam became king of Israel in his place. King Amaziah lived for fifteen years after King Joash died. His further adventures are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah and Israel. From the time King Amaziah turned from Adonai to worship idols, a conspiracy began to form against him in Jerusalem. Eventually Amaziah escaped to Lachish, but his enemies found him and assassinated him there. They brought his body back to Jerusalem on horses and buried him in the royal tombs.

COMMENTARY

THE WARS OF JOASH AND AMAZIAH

Joash came to power in Israel during the first few years of the eighth century B.C., and Amaziah took the throne of Judah only two years later. Both kings launched attacks against neighbouring lands and eventually faced each other on the battlefield. The result of the conflict between them greatly changed the relationship between the northern and southern kingdoms. Joash had inherited a country suffering from the oppression of Syria. His father Johoahaz had lost much of Israel’s land to that country and Israel was little more than a vassal under Syrian control. During Joash’s reign, the situation began to improve. Syria unexpectedly found itself facing an enemy much stronger than Israel. Assyria marched westward under Adadnirari III, destroying Syrian military power and seizing the wealth of Damascus. As Syrian pressure relaxed, Israel began to regain its strength. Joash led three devastating attacks on Syria and recovered the territory his father had lost. Joash’s victories also removed Syrian pressure from the southern kingdom, freeing Amaziah to turn his attention to regaining land lost to Edom fifty years earlier. He reorganized Judah’s army, which had been weakened by Syria and added mercenaries - hired soldiers from Israel. At the warning of a prophet, Amaziah dismissed the mercenaries and attacked Edom without aid. The armies met in the Valley of Salt, a deep gorge cutting an eight-mile path through chalk cliffs south of the Dead Sea. The Edomites were badly defeated; thousands were killed and the capital taken. Meanwhile, the mercenaries had taken revenge on Judah. Although they had been paid, they had lost the means of gaining more wealth - the booty that would have come with war. As they returned to Israel, they plundered and destroyed a string of Judean villages. In response, Amaziah issued a battle challenge to King Joash. The Israelite army was ready and strong, and Joash marched. At Beth-shemesh, the Judean army was defeated and Amaziah taken prisoner. The remaining Judean army fled, and Joash marched into Jerusalem without opposition. There he destroyed Jerusalem’s northern defences, gathered the wealth of the temple and the palace and returned to Samaria in triumph. The tables had been turned. With newly recovered strength, Israel had become the stronger power and almost made Judah into its powerless vassal.