2 Chronicles 25 Study Notes

25:1-4 Amaziah: Ninth king of Judah, son of Joash; turned from God to idol worship. Amaziah’s reign was mediocre. Even though he had a basic commitment to the Lord and to God’s law, he was not able to resist the lure of idolatry or the temptation to go to war unnecessarily. Amaziah executed the two men who had killed his father, but he did not follow the usual practice of executing an entire family (22:10; 2Kg 10:11), killing only the men and not . . . their children (Dt 24:16).

25:5-6 The nation of Edom had rebelled against Judah’s control during the reign of Jehoram (21:8). Now Amaziah decided to bring the Edomites back in line, and he assembled an army for this purpose. This was the first serious military excursion by Judah since Jehoram’s attempts to reconnect Edom. The army that Amaziah put together was also the smallest since the division of the kingdom. Even Abijah had been able to muster four hundred thousand men, while Jehoshaphat’s army had numbered over one million. Amaziah could only conscript three hundred thousand soldiers. He felt that this was not enough, so he hired one hundred thousand mercenaries from the northern kingdom of Israel. Once again a king of Judah allied himself with armed forces from Israel, though this time he did it in his own cause and at the hefty cost of 7,500 pounds of silver, paid in advance.

25:7-10 A prophet appeared on the scene to issue a warning from God to the king. He told Amaziah that if he took the northern soldiers on his venture, he would ensure defeat. Amaziah was flabbergasted that the Lord expected him to waste all that silver, but when the prophet told him that this amount was tiny compared to what God could provide for him, he consented and released the soldiers, expecting them to go home since they had already been paid. The mercenaries, perhaps hoping for a large amount of plunder, did not see it that way. They grew angry. Before they returned home they attacked a number of cities of Judah. They helped themselves to plunder to compensate for what they had missed by not participating in the war against Edom (v. 13).

25:11-12 As promised, Amaziah’s expedition against Edom was a success. The army of Judah killed ten thousand Edomites in battle and then executed another ten thousand prisoners of war.

25:13 After being paid and released (see note at vv. 7-10), the irate mercenaries collected plunder within Judah. It is hard to understand how northern troops could plunder cities of Judah starting from Samaria. Perhaps “Samaria” is another name for Migron in Judah. Another possibility is that the troops were released immediately after mustering in Samaria, and they worked their way south from there into Judah. Beth-horon is northwest of Jerusalem.

25:14-15 Amaziah’s next action is virtually unfathomable. A common mind-set in the ancient world was that the gods of a particular nation would help their people in battle. If they won, the gods were thought to be stronger than the gods of their enemies; but if they lost, then their gods were regarded as weak and unable to protect their own army. Amaziah had just won over the Edomites, and he did so after he had fulfilled God’s ultimatum when the prophet assured him of victory on that basis. But incredibly, Amaziah took the gods of the people whom he had defeated and started to worship them. As a follower of the Lord, he should have known that these idols were impotent and unreal because they had not protected the Edomites and therefore it was a waste of time as well as a grave offense to worship them.

25:16 When God sent another prophet to rebuke the king, Amaziah reacted defensively and threatened to kill the prophet (cp. 32:25-26), but the prophet managed to get in the last word and told Amaziah his destruction was assured.

25:17 Jehoash: Twelfth king of Israel; son of Jehoahaz; defeated Amaziah of Judah in response to Amaziah’s challenge. Once again, it is essential to keep track of the names of the kings because of the duplication of names in the northern and southern kingdoms. Jehoahaz of Israel was the son of Jehu, who had killed Ahab and made himself king of Israel. Jehoash was Jehoahaz’s son. Jehoash was the king of Israel contemporary with Amaziah of Judah. When Amaziah had returned home after his campaign against Edom and had learned of the damage done by the mercenaries from the north, he called for a show-down with Jehoash (though it would be difficult to prove that he was responsible for the way these men had behaved).

25:18-20 Amaziah had acquired an inflated sense of his military prowess, so when Jehoash tried to talk him out of going to war, Amaziah persisted with his plan to invade the northern kingdom. The Chronicler once again makes it clear that in the final analysis, this foolish action by the king was a part of God’s plan to bring about his downfall (cp. 10:15; Jdg 14:4; 2Sm 17:14).

25:21-24 When Jehoash realized that Amaziah was not going to let up, he marched with his army into Judah, and Amaziah got the opportunity for the military confrontation that he wanted. Jehoash decimated the army of Judah and captured Amaziah. The Jehoahaz referred to here (v. 23) is Amaziah’s grandfather, usually called Ahaziah who, again, is not identical with the northern king of the same name. Jehoash used Amaziah as a hostage to allow him to head straight to Jerusalem, where he destroyed two hundred yards of the city wall and then plundered all the valuables from the palace and the temple, as well as taking hostages. Obed-edom stems from the name of the Levite who played in the musical ensemble when the ark was moved, and who was made a guard of one of the gates of God’s house while his sons were put in charge of the storehouse (1Ch 26:15). Apparently from that time on the gatekeepers were called “Obed-edom” in honor of this man, and thus it was by this name that the Chronicler referred to them as he described Jehoash’s plundering.

25:25-28 Amaziah continued as king for many years, but just as his father Joash had done, he lost the confidence of his people. Eventually, because of an assassination plot against him, he had to flee Jerusalem and seek safety in the citadel of Lachish, thirty miles southwest of Jerusalem. His pursuers caught up with him there and killed him. At least he was accorded a proper burial in the royal tombs in Jerusalem.