Commentaria in IV Regum
Chapter 15. Synopsis of the Chapter
Azarias reigns in Juda, and his son Joathan succeeds him. In Israel reign in succession Jeroboam, Zacharias, Sellum, Manahem, Phaceia, Phacee, and last Osee. For Phul and Theglathphalasar, kings of the Assyrians, invade Israel, and carry part of it away into Assyria.
1. In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azarias the son of Amasias king of Juda began to reign. 2. He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem: his mother’s name was Jechelia of Jerusalem. 3. And he did that which was pleasing before the Lord, according to all that his father Amasias had done. 4. But the high places he did not demolish: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. 5. And the Lord struck the king, and he was a leper unto the day of his death, and he dwelt in a free house apart: and Joatham the king’s son governed the palace, and judged the people of the land. 6. And the rest of the acts of Azarias, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda? 7. And Azarias slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his ancestors in the city of David, and Joathan his son reigned in his stead. 8. In the thirty-eighth year of Azarias king of Juda, Zacharias the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months; 9. And he did that which is evil before the Lord, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin. 10. And Sellum the son of Jabes conspired against him: and struck him openly, and slew him, and reigned in his place. 11. And the rest of the acts of Zacharias, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel? 12. This was the word of the Lord, which he spoke to Jehu, saying: Thy sons, unto the fourth generation, shall sit upon the throne of Israel. And so it came to pass. 13. Sellum the son of Jabes reigned in the thirty-ninth year of Azarias king of Juda: and he reigned one month in Samaria. 14. And Manahem the son of Gadi went up from Thersa, and came to Samaria, and struck Sellum the son of Jabes in Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his place. 15. And the rest of the acts of Sellum, and his conspiracy by which he laid snares, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel? 16. Then Manahem smote Thapsa, and all that were in it, and the borders thereof from Thersa; because they would not open to him: and he slew all the women thereof that were with child, and ripped them up. 17. In the thirty-ninth year of Azarias king of Juda, Manahem the son of Gadi reigned over Israel ten years in Samaria. 18. And he did that which was evil before the Lord: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, all his days. 19. And Phul the king of the Assyrians came into the land, and Manahem gave Phul a thousand talents of silver, to aid him, and to establish him in the kingdom. 20. And Manahem laid a tax of silver upon Israel, on all that were mighty and rich, to give the king of the Assyrians, fifty sicles of silver for every man: so the king of the Assyrians turned back, and did not stay in the land. 21. And the rest of the acts of Manahem, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel? 22. And Manahem slept with his fathers, and Phaceia his son reigned in his stead. 23. In the fiftieth year of Azarias king of Juda, Phaceia the son of Manahem reigned over Israel in Samaria two years; 24. And he did that which was evil before the Lord; he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin. 25. And Phacee the son of Romelias, his captain, conspired against him, and struck him in Samaria in the tower of the king’s house, near Argob, and near Arie, and with him fifty men of the sons of the Galaadites, and he slew him, and reigned in his stead. 26. And the rest of the acts of Phaceia, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel? 27. In the fifty-second year of Azarias king of Juda, Phacee the son of Romelias reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty years. 28. And he did that which was evil before the Lord: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin. 29. In the days of Phacee king of Israel came Theglathphalasar king of Assur, and took Aion, and Abel-beth-maacha, and Janoe, and Cedes, and Asor, and Galaad, and Galilee, and all the land of Nephthali: and carried them into Assyria. 30. And Osee the son of Ela conspired, and laid snares against Phacee the son of Romelias, and struck him, and slew him: and reigned in his place in the twentieth year of Joatham the son of Ozias. 31. And the rest of the acts of Phacee, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel? 32. In the second year of Phacee the son of Romelias king of Israel, Joatham the son of Ozias king of Juda reigned. 33. He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: his mother’s name was Jerusa, the daughter of Sadoc. 34. And he did that which was pleasing before the Lord: according to all that Ozias his father had done, so did he. 35. Nevertheless the high places he took not away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places: he built the highest gate of the house of the Lord. 36. And the rest of the acts of Joatham, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda? 37. In those days the Lord began to send into Juda Rasin king of Syria, and Phacee the son of Romelias. 38. And Joatham slept with his fathers, and was buried with them in the city of David his father, and Achaz his son reigned in his stead.
1. IN THE TWENTY-SEVENTH YEAR OF JEROBOAM KING OF ISRAEL, AZARIAS THE SON OF AMASIAS KING OF JUDA REIGNED (began to reign).—This Azarias is elsewhere called by another name, Ozias. For Azarias in Hebrew is the same as the help of God; Ozias, the same as the strength of God; and where there is the help of God, there is strength. For God is the strongest and most powerful. Whence in 2 Paralipomenon 26:7 it is said of him: “And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians, and against the Ammonites,” etc. From this place Francis Ribera on Amos, ch. 1, v. 1, thinks there was an interregnum of thirteen years between Amasias and Azarias, because Azarias was a three-year-old when his father Amasias died. He proves it by this: that in the fifteenth year of Amasias, as was said in the preceding chapter, v. 23, Jeroboam began to reign, in whose twenty-seventh year, as is here said, Azarias began to reign. Now Amasias reigned twenty-nine years. Therefore his 29th year was the fourteenth of Jeroboam. Therefore the kingdom of Juda was vacant from the 14th year of Jeroboam to the 27th of the same, that is, for a space of thirteen years. But I answer that this 27th year of Jeroboam is the 27th year from the time when Jeroboam began to reign together with his father Joas; for of the reign in which he reigned alone after his father this was only the fourteenth year, in which Amasias, dying in the twenty-ninth year of his reign, left his son Azarias as successor. That this is so is clear from 2 Paralipomenon 25:25, where Amasias, after the death of Joas, is said to have lived fifteen years. He died, therefore, at the end of the 14th year and the beginning of the 15th of Jeroboam, who immediately succeeded Joas his father. So Salianus, Cajetan and others. For interregna are to be avoided here, lest the continuous series of chronology be disturbed and made uncertain and doubtful. Hence Eusebius, Josephus and others commonly subjoin and connect immediately the reign and years of Azarias to the reign and years of Amasias.