Commentary - 2 Kings 13:1-9

Bird's-eye view

This brief account of Jehoahaz's reign over Israel is a textbook case study in covenant dynamics. We see the predictable pattern laid out in Deuteronomy: persistent, institutionalized sin leads to devastating covenant curses. The Lord, in His righteous anger, hands His people over to their enemies. Yet, in the midst of this deserved judgment, we see a flicker of God's mercy. A desperate, foxhole prayer from a wicked king is heard, not because of the king's merit, but because of God's compassion on His oppressed people. God provides a temporary, political savior, granting a reprieve. But the story's tragic lesson is that deliverance from an external enemy does not equate to deliverance from an internal corruption. The repentance was superficial, the idols remained, and the fundamental problem was left unaddressed. This cycle of sin, oppression, desperate prayer, temporary relief, and a return to the status quo demonstrates the profound inadequacy of any salvation that does not deal with the root of sin in the human heart.

The narrative serves as a stark illustration of the difference between crying out for relief and crying out for righteousness. God, in His common grace, may grant the former, but it is only the regenerating grace of the gospel that can produce the latter. The unnamed "savior" here is a shadow, a temporary fix that highlights Israel's need for the true and final Savior who would not merely push back the Arameans, but would crush the head of the Serpent and cleanse His people from their idols once and for all.

Outline

Context In 2 Kings

This chapter follows the bloody, but ultimately incomplete, reformation under Jehu (2 Kings 9-10). Jehu was God's instrument to wipe out the house of Ahab and the cult of Baal worship. For this, God promised him a dynasty of four generations. Jehoahaz is the first of that next generation. However, while Jehu destroyed the worship of Baal, he pointedly did not remove the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up in Bethel and Dan (2 Kings 10:29). This was the foundational, political sin of the Northern Kingdom, a state-sponsored counterfeit religion designed to keep the people from worshiping Yahweh in Jerusalem. The narrative of Jehoahaz's reign demonstrates the consequences of this compromise. The cancer of idolatry, left untreated, metastasizes. The story of Israel's decline is now accelerating, and the oppression by Aram (Syria) under Hazael is the divine tool of judgment that will dominate the political landscape for both Israel and Judah in this period.

Key Issues

Oppression, Relief, and Unchanged Hearts

When a man is drowning, he will cry out for a rope. He is not, in that moment, concerned with the moral character of the one who might throw it. He is not contemplating a life of gratitude and service to his rescuer. He just wants out of the water. This is the nature of a crisis-driven plea. It is entirely understandable, and it is a mercy when a rope is thrown. But we must never mistake the cry for relief as a cry for reformation. The man pulled from the water may well go on to be the same drunkard who fell off the pier in the first place.

This is the story of Jehoahaz and Israel in miniature. They were drowning under the oppression of the Arameans, an oppression orchestrated by God Himself as a judgment on their sin. And in his desperation, the king cried out. God, seeing their misery, threw them a rope. He gave them a savior and a season of peace. But as soon as they were back on dry land, they went right back to the idols that got them into trouble. This passage is a masterful depiction of the difference between circumstantial repentance and true repentance. One seeks to change its circumstances; the other seeks to be changed by God.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 In the twenty-third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu became king over Israel at Samaria, and he reigned seventeen years.

The historian grounds us with the standard chronological markers. We are in the time of the divided kingdom, and the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah are interwoven. Jehoahaz is the son of Jehu, the one who executed God's judgment on the house of Ahab. The dynasty God promised to Jehu is now underway, but as we will see, a godly heritage is no guarantee of a godly reign.

2 And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel sin; he did not depart from them.

Here is the verdict, delivered without ceremony. The standard of judgment is not a relative one, but an absolute one: what was evil in the sight of Yahweh. The specific charge is not Baal worship, which his father Jehu had eradicated, but the more foundational sin of Jeroboam. This was the original sin of the Northern Kingdom, the establishment of a counterfeit worship system with golden calves. It was a sin of political expediency, designed to prevent the people from going to Jerusalem to worship, lest their hearts turn back to the Davidic king. It was, in short, spiritual treason. And notice the stubborn persistence: "he did not depart from them." This was not a momentary lapse; it was a settled policy.

3 So the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and He gave them continually into the hand of Hazael king of Aram, and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael.

Theology drives history. Because of the sin described in verse 2, the consequence in verse 3 is inevitable. God's anger is not a petty, volatile emotion; it is the settled, righteous opposition of a holy God to sin. And this anger is not impotent. God is the sovereign Lord of history, and He "gave" Israel into the hand of their enemies. Hazael and his son Ben-hadad were not independent actors; they were the rod of God's discipline. This is the outworking of the covenant curses promised in Deuteronomy 28. When God's people insist on spiritual adultery, He will hand them over to abusers.

4 Then Jehoahaz entreated the face of Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to him; for He saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Aram oppressed them.

The beating became so severe that the wicked king finally cried out for mercy. He "entreated the face of Yahweh," a phrase that implies a desperate seeking of favor. And remarkably, Yahweh listened. But the text is very careful to explain why. God did not listen because Jehoahaz was suddenly sincere or righteous. God listened because He saw the oppression of Israel. It was God's pity for His people, His covenant people, that moved Him. He saw their misery. This is a beautiful picture of God's compassion, which is not dependent on our worthiness. He acts out of His own character, even when we are getting exactly what we deserve.

5 And Yahweh gave Israel a savior, so that they came out from under the hand of the Arameans; and the sons of Israel lived in their tents as formerly.

In response to the plea, God provides a deliverer. The text doesn't name this "savior," who may have been a military leader or perhaps Jehoahaz's own son Joash, who had later success against Aram. The point is not the identity of the man, but the source of the deliverance: Yahweh gave him. The result was a return to a measure of peace and normalcy. They were able to come out from behind their fortified walls and live in their homes and villages again. This was a tangible, historical deliverance, a common grace gift from God.

6 Nevertheless they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel sin, but walked in them; and the Asherah also remained standing in Samaria.

This is the pivot on which the whole story turns. "Nevertheless." Despite the oppression, despite the prayer, despite the deliverance, nothing fundamental changed. They got the relief they wanted, but they did not abandon the sin that caused the problem. The state-sponsored idolatry continued, and even the cult of the Asherah, a Canaanite goddess, was still standing in the capital city. Their repentance was skin deep. They wanted God to be their savior from the Arameans, but they did not want Him to be their Lord in Samaria.

7 For he did not leave to Jehoahaz any people for the army except 50 horsemen and 10 chariots and 10,000 foot soldiers, for the king of Aram had caused them to perish and made them like the dust at threshing.

This verse functions almost as a parenthetical note, looking back to describe the severity of the oppression mentioned in verse 4. The military of Israel was utterly decimated. An army of 50 horsemen and 10 chariots is laughably small, a palace guard, not a national defense force. The image of being made "like the dust at threshing" is one of complete pulverization. They were ground down to nothing. This emphasizes how desperate their situation was and how gracious God's deliverance truly was.

8-9 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria; and Joash his son became king in his place.

The account concludes with the standard formula for the kings. The historian points to the official state records for more details. Jehoahaz dies, is buried, and the kingdom passes to his son. The cycle of sin, judgment, and superficial repentance is poised to continue. The story ends, but the problem remains unsolved.

Application

The story of Jehoahaz holds up a mirror to us. How often are our prayers motivated more by a desire for relief than by a desire for righteousness? We pray for the headache to go away, but not for the sin that caused the hangover. We pray for financial deliverance, but not for the greed and mismanagement that created the debt. We pray for our external enemies to be removed, while coddling the idols within our own hearts. God, in His mercy, often answers these selfish prayers. He gives us relief. He is a compassionate Father who sees our oppression, even when it is self-inflicted.

But the great danger is to mistake this common grace for saving grace. The great danger is to be content with living in our tents "as formerly," returning to a comfortable normalcy, without having dealt with the Asherah pole in our capital. True repentance, the kind that leads to life, is not satisfied with temporary deliverance. True repentance says, "Lord, save me from my enemies, yes, but save me primarily from my sin. Tear down the idols. I don't just want relief; I want You." The temporary saviors of this world, whether they be political movements, economic upturns, or personal successes, can only push back the Arameans for a little while. Only the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Savior, can grant deliverance from sin itself. He doesn't just get us out of the water; He gets the love of the water out of us.