OET INT FRT GEN EXO LEV NUM DEUT JOB YEHO (JOS) HERO (JDG) RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG YOEL (JOEL) MIC ISA ZEP HAB YIR (JER) LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBAD DAN EZEK EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL 2 PS WIS TOB MAN BAR G DAN G ESD L ESD ESG JDT 3 MAC SIR 1 MAC 2 MAC 4 MAC YHN (JHN) MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL LAOD PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN (1 JHN) 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
OET 2 KI Intro C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25
OET KI2 14 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 V14 V15 V16 V17 V18 V19 V20 V21 V22 V23 V24 V25 V26 V27 V28 V29
This is still an early look into the drafted text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.
14 In the second year of the reign of Yehoahaz’s son Yehoash over Yisrael (Israel), Amatsyah replaced his father Yoash as king of Yehudah (Judah). 2 He was twenty-five when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem (Jerusalem) for twenty-nine years. (His mother’s name was Yeho’adin from Yerushalem.) 3 He did what Yahweh had said was correct behaviour, although not as thoroughly as his ancestor David—his behaviour was more like that of his father Yoash. 4 However, the hilltop shrines weren’t removed—people were still sacrificing and burning incense at them.
5 Once he was firmly established as king, Amatsyah had the servants executed who had assassinated his father Yoash,[ref] 6 but he didn’t have their sons executed, because in the scroll where Mosheh (Moses) had written the laws, Yahweh had commanded, “Fathers shouldn’t be executed for what their sons do, nor should sons be executed for the crimes of their ancestors—rather an individual should only be executed for their own crime.”
7 He led the victory over ten thousand Edomim in the Salt Valley, seizing Sela in the battle and renaming it as Yakete’el which it’s still called today.
8 Then Amatsyah sent messengers to Yisrael’s (Israel) King Yehoash (the son of Yehoahaz, the son of Yehu (Jehu)) challenging, “Come on, let’s have it out with each other.” 9 But King Yehoash replied to Yehudah’s King Amatsyah, “The thistle that was in the Levanon forest sent to the cedar that was in the Levanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ But a wild animal that was in the Levanon passed by and it trampled the thistle. 10 It’s true that you won a battle with Edom and you’re feeling encouraged. Accept that honour, but stay home now. Why would you stir up trouble only to fall again—you and all Yehudah with you?”
11 But Amatsyah wouldn’t listen so the armies of Yisrael’s King Yehoash and Yehudah’s (Judah) King Amatsyah faced each other in Yehudah at Beyt-Shemesh (Heliopolis). 12 However, Yehudah was overcome by Yisrael, and its warriors had to flee home from the battlefield. 13 So Yisrael’s King Yehoash captured Yehudah’s King Amatsyah (the son of Yehoash, the son of Ahazyah) in Beyt-Shemesh. Then he went to Yerushalem (Jerusalem), and he broke down the city wall from the Efrayim Gate up to the Corner Gate—almost two hundred metres of it. 14 He took all the gold and silver, and all the equipment that was found in Yahweh’s temple and in the palace treasuries. Then taking some hostages as well, he returned to Shomron (Samaria).
15 Everything else that Yehoash said and did, including his battle with Yehudah’s King Amatsyah, is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yisrael. 16 Then Yehoash died and was buried in Shomron with the former kings of Yisrael, and his son Yarov’am (Jeroboam) replaced him as king.
14:2 OSHB variant note: יהועדין: (x-qere) ’יְהֽוֹעַדָּ֖ן’: lemma=3086 n=0.0 morph=HNp id=12rrT יְהֽוֹעַדָּ֖ן
14:6 OSHB variant note: ימות: (x-qere) ’יוּמָֽת’: lemma=4191 n=0 morph=HVHi3ms id=12ywD יוּמָֽת
14:7 OSHB variant note: המלח: (x-qere) ’מֶ֨לַח֙’: lemma=4417 n=1.1.0 morph=HNp id=12yHv מֶ֨לַח֙
14:12 OSHB variant note: ל/אהל/ו: (x-qere) ’לְ/אֹהָלָֽי/ו’: lemma=l/168 n=0 morph=HR/Ncmpc/Sp3ms id=12frk לְ/אֹהָלָֽי/ו
14:13 OSHB variant note: ו/יבאו: (x-qere) ’וַ/יָּבֹא֙’: lemma=c/935 n=0.2.0 morph=HC/Vqw3ms id=12zbT וַ/יָּבֹא֙
17 Yehudah’s (Judah) King Amatsyah (Yoash’s son) lived another fifteen years after the death of Yisrael’s (Israel) King Yehoash (Yehoahaz’s son). 18 Everything else that Amatsyah said is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah.
19 Some people in Yerushalem (Jerusalem) had plotted to assassinate him, but he fled to Lakish. However, they followed him there and killed him in the city. 20 His body was carried back on horses, and he was buried in his ancestral tomb in Yerushalem in the city of David. 21 Then all the people of Yehudah took sixteen year old Azaryah and made him king to replace his late father Amatsyah. 22 Azaryah built up Eylot and he reestablished it as part of Yehudah before he died.
23 In the fifteenth year of Yoash’s son King Amatsyah’s reign over Yehudah (Judah), Yehoash’s son Yarov’am (Jeroboam) became king of Yisrael (Israel) and reigned from Shomron (Samaria) for forty-one years. 24 He did what Yahweh had said was evil—he imitated the customs of Nevat’s son Yarov’am who’d caused Yisrael to sin. 25 Yarov’am restored Yisrael’s border from Levo-Hamat through to the Sea of the Desert, as Yisrael’s god Yahweh had foretold via his servant Yonah (Jonah)—the son of the prophet Amitay from Gat-Hahefer. 26 That was because Yahweh had seen how Yisrael had suffered badly and had been unable to control their own destinies, and that no other country would help them. 27 But Yahweh had said that he wouldn’t allow Yisrael to be destroyed, so he’d used Yehoash’s son Yarov’am to save them.
28 Everything else that Yarov’am said and did, including how he fought and restored Damesek (Damascus) and Hamat to Yisrael, is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yisrael. 29 Then Yarov’am died and was buried with the former kings of Yisrael, and his son Zekaryah (Zechariah) replaced him as king.
2 Kings 14:23-29; 15:1-7; 2 Chronicles 26
The long, concurrent reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah (also called Azariah) of Judah marked a period of resurgence after their nations had suffered nearly sixty years of decline and unrest. By the time both kings ascended to the throne in 793 B.C. and 792 B.C., Moab had revolted from Israel and seized land belonging to the tribe of Reuben (2 Kings 1:1; see “The Nation of Moab and the Tribe of Reuben”), and Edom and Libnah had revolted from Judah (2 Kings 8:16-24; 2 Chronicles 21:1-11; see “Edom and Libnah Revolt”). Jehu then brutally overthrew Ahab’s dynasty, but he later suffered the loss of all Gilead to the rising power of Aram (2 Kings 1:1; 3:1-27; 8:12; 10:32-33; 2 Chronicles 21:8-10; see “Aram Captures Gilead”). Soon after this, however, the Assyrian king Adad-nirari III (who may be the “savior” of 2 Kings 13:5) attacked Aram, but then he withdrew, thus creating a power vacuum to the north. Jeroboam of Israel took advantage of this opportunity and captured much of Aram, though it is unclear how firmly he held Aram or for how long. During this same time, king Uzziah of Judah captured the Red Sea port city of Elath in the far south, which belonged to Edom, and he also attacked the Arabs of Gur, who were likely located nearby. He also attacked the Meunites who lived in Seir, the formerly Edomite region south of the Judean Negev, though the Meunites themselves do not appear to have been Edomites. The Meunites are probably the same as the “Maonites” mentioned in Judges 10:12, and they also joined the Moabite alliance that attacked king Jehoshaphat of Judah (2 Chronicles 20). About a century after Uzziah’s time, during the reign of Hezekiah, some Simeonites attacked some Meunites in the Negev and seized their land (1 Chronicles 4:41-43). According to the Septuagint, the Meunites also paid Uzziah tribute (2 Chronicles 26:7-8), and Uzziah likely captured some of the Meunites and gave them as servants for the Temple of the Lord, which appears to have been a common practice in Israel since the time of Moses and Joshua (see Numbers 31:30; Joshua 9:27; Ezra 8:20). Their descendants are listed among the “Nethinim,” who served at the Temple during time of Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra 2:50; Nehemiah 7:52). Uzziah also attacked the Philistine cities of Gath, Ashdod, and Jabneh and established other cities throughout Philistia. He built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and the Angle as well as towers in the wilderness. He also dug many cisterns to store water for his large herds, both in the Shephelah (the foothills near Gath) and in the plain. He also had large farms and vineyards and strengthened Judah’s army. As far as moral leadership, the writer of Kings deems Jeroboam as a bad king for allowing idolatry to continue in Israel, but Uzziah is deemed as good, though he later sinned and was afflicted with leprosy for making an offering on the altar of incense.
If you ask someone today what biblical prophets did, they will likely tell you that they divinely foretold of future events. While this was often the case, most prophets in the Bible focused as much on “forthtelling” God’s messages as they did on “foretelling” the future. That is, their primary role was to simply “forthtell” divinely acquired messages to leaders and groups of people, and at times that included foretelling of coming judgment, blessing, rescue, etc. Also, though plenty of prophets (sometimes called “seers” in Scripture) often spoke in confrontational or eccentric language that put them at odds with kings and religious leaders, the biblical writers also applied the term prophet to people who communicated God’s messages in ways that many readers today might not think of as prophecy, such as worship leaders appointed by David to “prophesy with lyres, harps, and cymbals” (1 Chronicles 25:1). Similarly, the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings are typically categorized as history by Christians, but in the Hebrew canon they belong to the category of Former Prophets. The Lord raised up prophets throughout all of biblical history, from the giving of the law under Moses to the revelation of the last days by the apostle John, and the kings of Israel and Judah often recognized and supported specific people as official prophets of the royal court and consulted them to find out God’s perspective about official matters. Following is a list of nearly everyone designated as prophet or seer in the Old Testament and the primary area of their ministry.
• Zechariah (796 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 24:20] => Jerusalem
• Jonah (780 B.C.) [2 Kings 14:25; Jonah 1:1] => Gath-hepher, Nineveh
• Hosea (770 B.C.) [Hosea 1:1] => Samaria?
• Amos (760 B.C.) [Amos 1:1] => Bethel
• Isaiah (730 B.C.) [2 Kings 19:2; 20:1; 2 Chronicles 26:22; 32:20, 32; Isaiah 1:1] => Jerusalem
• Micah (730 B.C.) [Jeremiah 26:18; Micah 1:1] => Moresheth
• Nahum (650 B.C.) [Nahum 1:1] => Elkosh (Capernaum?)
• Zephaniah (630 B.C.) [Zephaniah 1:1] => Jerusalem?
• Huldah (630 B.C.) [2 Kings 22:14] => Jerusalem
• Habakkuk (600 B.C.) [Habakkuk 1:1; 3:1] => Jerusalem?
• Ezekiel (592 B.C.) [Ezekiel 1:3] => Babylonia/Chebar River
• Uriah (600 B.C.) [Jeremiah 26:20] => Kiriath-jearim
• Jeremiah (587 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 36:12; Jeremiah 1:1; 19:14] => Jerusalem
• Obadiah (586 B.C.) [Obadiah 1:1] => Jerusalem
• Daniel (560 B.C.) [Daniel 7:1; Matthew 24:15] => Babylon
• Haggai (520 B.C.) [Ezra 5:1; Haggai 1:1] => Jerusalem
• Zechariah (520 B.C.) [Ezra 5:1; Zechariah 1:1] => Jerusalem
• Malachi (432 B.C.) [Malachi 1:1] => Jerusalem?
2 Kings 14; 2 Chronicles 25
If only a single word could be used to summarize King Amaziah’s reign, perhaps conflicted might be the most fitting. To begin with, his own devotion to the Lord appears to have been conflicted, for he is described by the biblical writers as doing what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet he did not do it wholeheartedly, allowing the pagan high places to remain so that people continued to offer pagan sacrifices. Likewise, Amaziah’s reign was marked by at least two military conflicts–one against Edom and the other against Israel. His military conflict against Edom was itself marked by conflict, for initially Amaziah hired one hundred thousand warriors from Israel to help, but then he sent them home empty-handed after a prophet warned him against including Israelites in the battle, and this resulted in the warriors looting Judean towns on their way home. Amaziah’s conflicted decisions continued with his decision to bring home idols of the Edomites after he had just defeated them in battle, and then he worshiped them. This then led to Amaziah’s defeat by King Joash (or Jehoash) of Israel and the destruction of 200 yards (183 meters) of Jerusalem’s wall between the Gate of Ephraim and the Corner (see “Poster Map of Jerusalem in the Time of Nehemiah, circa 445 B.C.” map for further information regarding the location of the Corner Gate and the Gate of Ephraim). Joash also seized gold, silver, and vessels that were found in the Temple and the king’s palace, and he took many hostages back to Samaria. Later there was a conspiracy against Amaziah in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. His conspirators caught up with him there, however, and killed him.
OET 2 KI Intro C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25