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In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] seventeen years.

In the three and twentieth year of Joash. — In the tenth year of his reign, the city of Carthage was built by Queen Dido, as Josephus reporteth out of the annals of the Tyrians. Lib. i. contra Appion. This discrediteth Virgil’s poem of the hot affection between Dido and Aeneas, dead above two hundred years before.

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And he did [that which was] evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom.

And he did that which was evil. — The throne of Judah had some interchanges of good princes; Israel none at all.

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And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, all [their] days.

And the anger of the Lord. — God is said to be angry at evildoers, because, as angry men use to do, he threateneth and smiteth them.

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And Jehoahaz besought the LORD, and the LORD hearkened unto him: for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them.

And Jehoahaz besought the Lord. — Affliction exciteth devotion, as blowing doth the fire; whereas rarae fumant felicibus arae. Jehoahaz was now brought very low by the Syrians, 2 Kings 13:7 else God had not been thought on or sought unto.

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(And the LORD gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime.

And the Lord gave Israel a saviour. — An angel, say some; the prophet Elisha, say others; or rather king Jehoash, 2 Kings 13:25 encouraged by Elisha, with promise of a threefold victory over the Syrians.

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Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, [but] walked therein: and there remained the grove also in Samaria.)

Nevertheless they departed not. — Though first plagued, and then saved, yet they remained irreclaimable.

And there remained the grove. — Ahab’s grove. 1 Kings 16:33 Ballism, therefore, was not utterly abolished by Jehu.

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Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing.

Had made them like the dust by threshing. — Grain may be broken and scattered by overmuch threshing; so was Israel by the Syrian oppression.

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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 his might. — He did what he could, Defendit se quoad potuit. - A Lapide. but to no purpose, because God was against him.

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