Amaziah

“ The people whispered to each other and an expectant silence followed, as the venerable priest walked through the row of bowed heads, toward the sanctuary. He stopped in front of Amos and looked at him curiously.
Amaziah was an old man, but as erect as a cedar in Lebanon. He was dressed in an ephod, the holy garment of his office. The robe was of fine twined linen, with threads of blue, scarlet and purple, embroidered in gold. ”

“ Amaziah, King of Judah, belonged to that numerous class of men who wish to stand well with both worlds. He was what we call in religious matters half-and-half. He wanted to secure the favour and protection of God without losing much or anything of the ungodly helps and advantages. One hardly knows whether to describe him as a bad sort of good man, or a better sort of bad man. ”

“ Some old authors relate that Amaziah, priest of Beth-el, whom we have spoken of, provoked by the discourses of the prophet, had his teeth broken in order to silence him. Others say that Hosea, or Uzziah, the son of Amaziah, struck him with a stake upon the temples, and knocked him down, and almost killed him; that in this condition he was carried to Tekoa, where he died, and was buried with his fathers. ”

“ Here is, I. The general character of Amaziah: He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, worshipped the true God, kept the temple service a going, and countenanced religion in his kingdom; but he did not do it with a perfect heart (v. 2) , that is, he was not a man of serious piety or devotion himself, nor had he any zeal for the exercises of religion. He was no enemy to it, but a cool and indifferent friend. Such is the character of too many in this Laodicean age: they do that which is good, but not with the heart, not with a perfect heart. ”

“ God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down.
9 And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.
10 Then Amaziah separated them, to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: wherefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in great anger. ”

“ In spite of the warning of the prophets, he sought a quarrel with King Joash of Israel, who likewise advised him to abandon his design. “But Amaziah would not hear; for it was of God, that He might deliver them over, because they had sought the gods of Edom” (2Ch 25:20) . With this compare 2Ch 25:27 : “After the time that Amaziah turned away from the following Jahve, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem.” Of Uzziah it is said (2Ch 26:5) , so long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper, so that he conquered his enemies and became very mighty. ”

“ Henry IV. of France is scarcely a parallel to Amaziah: he went to mass that he might hold his sceptre with a firmer grasp, while the king of Judah merely adopted foreign idols in order to gratify his superstition and love of novelty.
Apparently Amaziah was at first inclined to discuss the question: he and the prophet talked together; but the king soon became irritated, and broke off the interview with abrupt discourtesy: “Have we made thee of the king's counsel? Forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten?” Prosperity seems to have been invariably fatal to the Jewish kings who began to reign well ”

“ He condemns Amaziah for the opposition he gave them, and denounces the judgments of God against him, not from any private resentment or revenge, but in the name of the Lord and by authority from him, v. 16, 17. Amaziah would not suffer Amos to preach at all, and therefore he is particularly ordered to preach against him: Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord, hear it and tremble. Those that cannot bear general woes may expect woes of their own. The sin he is charged with is forbidding Amos to prophesy ”

“ So he replied, that he should indeed hold his peace; but foretold withal, that God would not overlook his attempts for innovation. But Amaziah was not able to contain himself under that prosperity which God had given him, although he had affronted God thereupon; but in a vein of insolence he wrote to Joash, the king of Israel, and commanded that he and all his people should be obedient to him, as they had formerly been obedient to his progenitors, David and Solomon; and he let him know, that if he would not be so wise as to do what he commanded him, he must fight for his dominion. ”

“ The Israelitish soldiers, sent back, ravage several of the cities of Judah, [348] . Amaziah becomes an idolater, [349] . Is reproved by a prophet, whom he threatens, and obliges to desist, [350] , [351] . He challenges Joash, king of Israel, [352] ; who reproves him by a parable, [353] , [354] . Not desisting, the armies meet, the Jews are overthrown, and Amaziah taken prisoner by Joash, who ravages the temple, and takes away all the treasures of the king, [355] . The reign of Amaziah: a conspiracy is formed against him; he flees to Lachish, whither he is pursued and slain ”

“ This fable is, of course, not to be interpreted literally, as though Amaziah were the thorn-bush, and Jehoash the cedar, and the wild beasts the warriors; but the thorn-bush putting itself upon an equality with the cedar is a figurative representation of a proud man overrating his strength, and the desire expressed to the cedar of a wish surpassing the bounds of one’s condition; so that Thenius is not warranted in inferring from this that Amaziah had in his mind the subjugation of Israel to Judah again. ”

“ Amaziah now sought to re-establish his rule over them, in which he was so far successful, that he completely defeated them, slaying 10,000 in the battle and then taking their capital, so that his successor Uzziah was also able to incorporate the Edomitish port of Elath in his own kingdom once more (2Ki 14:22) . On the Salt Valley (גּי־המּלח for גּיא־המּלח in the Chronicles) , a marshy salt plain in the south of the Dead Sea, see at 2Sa 8:13. ”

“ This may perhaps be associated with the Aramaean attacks upon Israel (2 below) , but the tradition recorded in 2 Chron. xxiv. 23 seq. differs widely and cannot be wholly rejected. The king perished in a conspiracy, the origin of which is not clear; it may have been for his attack upon the priests, it was scarcely for the course he took to save Jerusalem. He was succeeded by his son Amaziah, whose moderation in avenging his father’s death receives special mention. After defeating the Edomites, Amaziah turned his attention to Israel. ”

“ Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham. Amaziah indeed had turned away from following Jehovah at the end of his reign, but Uzziah had been zealous for Jehovah throughout, not wisely, but too well; and Jotham shares with Solomon the honour of a blameless record. Without counting Amaziah's reign, king and people had been loyal to Jehovah for sixty or seventy years. The court of the good kings would be the centre of piety and devotion. Ahaz, no doubt, had been carefully trained in obedience to the law of Jehovah, and had grown up in the atmosphere of true religion. ”

“ This Amaziah found in all Judah and Benjamin from 20 years and above, 30 thousand young men that went out into battle, and held spear and shield; and he hired of Israel a 100 thousand very strong men for a 100 talents of silver, to fight against the sons of Edom. And a man of God said to Amaziah, "O! you king, the host of Israel, don't have them go out with you, for the Lord is not with Israel, and with all the sons of Ephraim; that if you think that battles stand on the strength of the host, the Lord shall make you to be overcome with your enemies ”

“ Amaziah, the son of Joash, maintained his throne against the murderers of his father; his arms were successful against the Edomites, but failed against Israel. When he also was slain by conspirators, the people, in the year 792 B.C., raised his son Uzziah (Azariah) to the throne. Uzziah was only 16 years of age at the time of his accession, but [Pg 17] young as he was he learned well how to rule, and the length of his reign allowed him to see the fruit of his [Pg 18] labours. ”

“ But a poor man may love his country as much as a rich man; and, when the foolish war between Amaziah of Judah and Joash of Israel broke out, this "dresser of sycamore trees," from Tekoah, followed his king on the battlefield.
At the battle in which Amaziah was defeated and Joash gained his greatest victory, leading to the destruction of part of the fortifications of Jerusalem, this man, fighting valiantly in the front ranks, with many other patriotic Judeans, laid down his life for his country. ”

“ Because thou hast conquered Edom, thy heart grows proud. Guard thine honour, and remain at home. Why wilt thou plunge thyself into misfortune, that Judah may fall with thee?" But Amaziah refused to yield, and sent his army to the borders of the kingdom of Israel. Jehoash, encouraged by the victory he had just obtained over the Aramæans, went forth to meet him. A battle was fought on the frontier at Beth-Shemesh, where the men of Judah sustained a considerable defeat, and225 fled. Amaziah himself was taken prisoner by the king of Israel. ”

“ The later writer thus accounts for the folly and overthrow of this valorous and hitherto eminently pious king. Certain it is, as we shall narrate in the next chapter, that, in spite of warning, he had the temerity to challenge to battle the warlike Joash ben-Jehoahaz of Israel, grandson of Jehu. The kings met at Beth-Shemesh, and Amaziah was utterly routed, with consequences so shameful to himself and to Jerusalem that he was never able to hold up his head again. He could but eat away his own heart in despair, a ruined man. ”

“ But he might be induced to give these notices once more as he found them in his original sources, from the statement in 2Ki 14:17, that Amaziah outlived Jehoash fifteen years, seeing therein a manifestation of the grace of God, who would not destroy Amaziah notwithstanding his pride, but delivered him, through the death of his victor, from further injuries at his hands. ”

“ This notice is introduced, as a kind of appendix, at the close of Amaziah's life and quite out of its chronological position, because the conquest of Elath was the crowning point of the subjugation of Edom by Amaziah, and not, as Thenius supposes, because it was Azariah's first feat of arms, by which, immediately after his accession, he satisfied the expectations with which the army had made him king. For the victories gained by this king over Edom and the other neighbouring nations cannot have been obtained at the time when Amos prophesied, which was about the tenth year of Uzziah's reign. ”

“ Amaziah adopted the gods of Edom, as Ahaz the gods of Syria, but with less excuse, for Amaziah had conquered Edom. Other crimes are recorded among the evil doings of the kings: Asa had recourse to physicians, that is, probably to magic; Jehoram slew his brethren; Joash murdered the son of his benefactor Jehoiada; but the supreme sin was disloyalty to Jehovah and the Temple, and of this sin the chronicler's brief history of Ahaz is the most striking illustration. Ahaz is the typical apostate: he hardens his heart alike against the mercy of Jehovah and against His repeated judgment. ”

“ Some courage was needed to treat Amaziah and his blasphemous bluster as a mere parenthesis.
We have first to note the vision and its interpretation. It is such as a countryman, 'a dresser of sycamore trees' would naturally have. Experience supplies forms and material for the imagination, and moulds into which God-given revelations run. The point of the vision is rather obscured by the rendering 'summer fruit.' 'Ripe fruit' would be better, since the emblem represents the Northern Kingdom as ripe for the dreadful ingathering of judgment. ”

“ Amos wanted to make men repent of their sins, while Amaziah wanted only to make them easy in their minds; and no man can do both at once.
So it was then, my friends, and so it will be till the end of this wicked world. The way to please men, and be popular, always was, and always will be, Amaziah’s way; to tell men that they may worship God and the golden calf at the same time, that they may worship God and money, worship God and follow the ways of this wicked world which suit their fancy and their interest ”

“ And we are just as incredulous about another old tradition, to the effect that Amoz was the brother of Amaziah, the father and predecessor of Uzziah (b. Sota 10b) . There is some significance in this tradition, however, even if it is not true. There is something royal in the nature and bearing of Isaiah throughout. He speaks to kings as if he himself were a king. He confronts with majesty the magnates of the nation and of the imperial power. In his peculiar style, he occupies the same place among the prophets as Solomon among the kings. ”

“ If, for example, Azariah ascended the throne in the fifteenth year of Joash of Israel, and with his twenty-nine years’ reign outlived Joash fifteen years (2Ki 14:2, 2Ki 14:17) ; if, moreover, Jeroboam followed his father Joash in the fifteenth year of Amaziah (2Ki 14:23) , and Amaziah died in the fifteenth year of Jeroboam; Azariah (Uzziah) must have become king in the fifteenth year of Jeroboam, since, according to 2Ki 14:21, the people made him king after the murder of his father, which precludes the supposition of an interregnum. ”

“ How apt worldly men are to measure others by themselves. Amaziah, as a priest, aimed at nothing but the profits of his place, and he thought Amos, as a prophet, had the same views, and therefore advised him to prophesy were he might eat bread, where he might be sure to have as much as he chose ”