…Amaziah son of Joash became king of Judah… and… killed ten thousand Edomite soldiers in Salt Valley; he captured the city of Sela in battle and called it Joktheel, the name it still has.
The lense through which men evaluate events. How you think differently, Lord (Isaiah 55:8-9; Hebrews 11).
Amaziah’s army was defeated, and all his soldiers fled to their homes. Jehoash took Amaziah prisoner, advanced on Jerusalem, and tore down the city wall from Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, a distance of two hundred yards. He took all the silver and gold he could find, all the Temple equipment and all the palace treasures, and carried them back to Samaria. He also took hostages with him.
Arrogance can be expensive. This event makes me think of Josiah, who went looking for a fight where there wasn’t one (2 Chronicles 35:20-24).
There was a plot in Jerusalem to assassinate Amaziah, so he fled to the city of Lachish, but his enemies followed him there and killed him. His body was carried back to Jerusalem on a horse and was buried in the royal tombs in David’s City.
In the French version I read, his body was carried back with great pomp: a chariot with multiple horses. That brings to mind the account described in Vingt Ans Après d’Alexandre Dumas where Charles I is assassinated and then honored in a funeral procession with great pomp.
Jeroboam son of Jehoash became king of Israel… He reconquered all the territory that had belonged to Israel, from Hamath Pass in the north to the Dead Sea in the south. This was what the Lord, the God of Israel, had promised through his servant the prophet Jonah son of Amittai from Gath Hepher.
But only for a little while…
Uzziah son of Amaziah became king of Judah… and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-two years. …The Lord struck Uzziah with a dreaded skin disease that stayed with him the rest of his life. He lived in a separate house, relieved of all duties, while his son Jotham governed the country.
Another example where the account is glossed over (2 Chronicles 26:16-23).
In the thirty-eighth year of the reign of King Uzziah of Judah, Zechariah son of Jeroboam II became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for six months. …Shallum son of Jabesh conspired against King Zechariah, assassinated him at Ibleam, and succeeded him as king.
So the promise was fulfilled which the Lord had made to King Jehu: “Your descendants down to the fourth generation will be kings of Israel.”
That was a quick fourth generation. This really is the beginning of the end – how far from what the Northern Tribes had envisioned in 1 Kings 12:16-19.