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23 During the 15th year of Amaziah (Joash’s son), Jeroboam (Jehoash’s son) inherited Israel’s throne in Samaria. Jeroboam’s reign lasted 41 years. 24 Jeroboam (Joash’s son) committed evil in the Eternal’s eyes. He walked the wicked path of Jeroboam (Nebat’s son) causing the Israelites to live sinful lives. 25 He reinstated Israel’s border from the Hamath entrance to Aram all the way to the Arabah Sea. He did this exactly as the Eternal One, the True God of Israel, had said through his servant, the prophet Jonah (Amittai’s son) who was from Gath-hepher.

Several of the prophets whose writings are included in the Old Testament are active at this time. While the writings of Jonah do not relate to these events, many of the other prophets’ works do. Amos and Hosea are both prophesying to the Northern Kingdom, warning them to return to God or else their nation will be destroyed. Joel, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah are doing the same thing in the Southern Kingdom, while Isaiah and Micah really get around, prophesying to both kingdoms.

26 The Eternal One observed Israel’s intense, bitter suffering whether they were free men or slaves. There was no one who came to the aid of Israel. 27 The Eternal had not said He would erase the reputation or remembrance of Israel from under heaven, so He rescued them through Jeroboam (Joash’s son).

28 Is not the rest of Jeroboam’s story—how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah in Israel[a] through his military exploits—documented in the book of the chronicles of Israel’s kings? 29 Jeroboam left this world to sleep with his fathers, including Israel’s kings. His son, Zechariah, then inherited the throne.

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Footnotes

  1. 14:28 Meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

Jeroboam II King of Israel

23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam(A) son of Jehoash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit.(B) 25 He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath(C) to the Dead Sea,[a](D) in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah(E) son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

26 The Lord had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free,(F) was suffering;[b](G) there was no one to help them.(H) 27 And since the Lord had not said he would blot out(I) the name of Israel from under heaven, he saved(J) them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.

28 As for the other events of Jeroboam’s reign, all he did, and his military achievements, including how he recovered for Israel both Damascus(K) and Hamath,(L) which had belonged to Judah, are they not written in the book of the annals(M) of the kings of Israel? 29 Jeroboam rested with his ancestors, the kings of Israel. And Zechariah his son succeeded him as king.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 14:25 Hebrew the Sea of the Arabah
  2. 2 Kings 14:26 Or Israel was suffering. They were without a ruler or leader, and