2 Kings 15:8 - Meaning and Application

The best days of the kingdom of Israel were under Jehu’s family. During Jehu’s rule, and the next three reigns, there were still many shameful sins and heavy burdens in Israel, but the crown passed from one king to the next in order, the kings died peacefully, and some care was still taken of public matters. But once those days ended, the history in these verses, covering about thirty-three years, shows the kingdom in utter disorder. Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days (2 Kings 15:16), for great trouble must come when the land’s sins lead to so many rulers.

Several things stand out about these sad changes and the troubles that followed. First, God had tested Israel with both judgments and mercies, and he explained and pressed these lessons through his prophets. Yet the people stayed stubborn and unchanged, so God rightly brought these troubles on them, just as Moses had warned. If they would still walk against him, he would punish them even more severely (Leviticus 26:21 and following).

Second, God kept his promise to Jehu that his sons would sit on Israel’s throne to the fourth generation. That was a greater favor than he gave any other royal house, before or after. God had said it would happen (2 Kings 10:30), and here we are told that it did happen (2 Kings 15:12). This shows how faithfully God keeps his word. These calamities had long been planned for Israel, and they deserved them, but they did not fall until the promise to Jehu was fully carried out. In that way, God rewarded Jehu for his zeal in destroying Baal worship and the house of Ahab. Yet when the sins of Jehu’s own house reached their full measure, God also judged that house for the blood shed at Jezreel, called the blood of Jezreel (Hosea 1:4).

Third, all these kings did evil in the Lord’s sight, because they followed the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat. Though they opposed one another, they still agreed on one thing, they kept idolatry alive, and the people were glad to have it so. They were like wine poured from one vessel to another, yet the same bad taste remained. It was a sad thing that their government changed so often and still never changed for the better. Among all their rival factions, none saw it as their duty to destroy the golden calves that others had worked so hard to defend.

Fourth, except for one, each of these kings plotted against the one before him and killed him. Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hoshea were all traitors and murderers, and yet all ruled for a time, one for ten years, another for twenty, and another for nine. God may let wickedness prosper for a while and let it gain wealth and honor, but sooner or later blood will answer for blood, and the treacherous will be repaid with treachery. One evil man is often used as a rod to punish another, and in the end every evil man brings ruin on himself.

Fifth, the ambition of powerful men made the nation miserable. Tiphsah, a city in Israel, was cruelly destroyed, along with all its borders, by one of these claimants to the throne (2 Kings 15:16). No doubt each of them fought his way to power through bloodshed, and none of these kings could fall alone. No country has greater troubles, or worse enemies, than men who care nothing for the peace and good of their homeland, so long as they can satisfy revenge and desire for power.

Sixth, while the nation was torn apart by conflict at home, the kings of Assyria, first one (2 Kings 15:19) and then another (2 Kings 15:29), came against it and did what they pleased. Nothing makes a nation easier prey for a common enemy more than civil strife and disputes over the throne. Happy is the land where rule is settled and peace is stable.

Seventh, this was Israel’s condition just before it was finally ruined and taken captive, which happened in the ninth year of Hoshea, the last of these usurpers. If, in those days of confusion and distress, they had humbled themselves before God and sought his favor, that final destruction might have been prevented. But when God judges, he will overcome. These factions, the fruit of an evil spirit sent among them, hurried on their captivity, for a kingdom divided against itself will soon fall into ruin.

Now we turn briefly to the individual reigns. Zachariah, Jeroboam’s son, began to reign in the thirty-eighth year of Azariah, also called Uzziah, king of Judah (2 Kings 15:8). Some careful chronologers think the throne stood empty for twenty-two years between Jeroboam and Zachariah, while others say eleven years, because of the disturbances and disagreements in the kingdom. So it is no surprise that Zachariah was removed before he was firmly settled on the throne. He reigned only six months, and then Shallum killed him before the people. It may have been like Caesar’s death in the senate, or Shallum may have put him to death publicly as a criminal, with the people’s approval, because he had somehow made himself hated. In this way the line of Jehu came to an end.

But did Shallum have peace after killing his master? No, he did not (2 Kings 15:13). His reign lasted only one month, and then he was cut off. The prophet then living may refer to this when he says, “Now a month shall devour them with their portions” (Hosea 5:7). A rule built on blood and lies seldom lasts long. Menahem, either angered by Shallum’s crime or encouraged by his example, soon treated him the same way he had treated his master, killed him, and reigned in his place (2 Kings 15:14). He was probably the army commander, and when he heard of Shallum’s treason and takeover while the army was camped at Tirzah, he hurried to punish it, just as Omri did in a similar case with Zimri (1 Kings 16:17).

Menahem held the kingdom for ten years (2 Kings 15:17). Yet the kings of Israel had once been called merciful kings (1 Kings 20:31), but this Menahem, to his country’s shame, was outrageously cruel to his own people. When some people hesitated to submit to him, he not only ruined a city and its surrounding land, but, as if he had forgotten that he himself was born of a woman, he ripped open all the pregnant women (2 Kings 15:16). We can only wonder how any man could become so savage and so completely lose all human feeling.

By these cruel acts, he hoped to secure his rule and frighten everyone else into supporting him. But he did not seem to gain his goal, because when the king of Assyria came against him, he showed so little trust in his own people that he did not dare face him in battle. Instead, he had to buy peace at great cost. He also needed help to hold the kingdom in his hand, so he made part of his agreement with the king of Assyria, who no doubt knew how to profit from such a bargain later, that Assyria would help him against his own dissatisfied subjects.

The money he used to buy Assyria’s friendship was huge, a thousand talents of silver (2 Kings 15:19). Menahem probably took it by force from the wealthy, while sparing the poor and placing the burden on those best able to bear it. Once he had raised it, he gave it to the king of Assyria as payment for his army, fifty shekels of silver per soldier.

In this way, he escaped the king of Assyria for the moment. The Assyrian army did not stay to live in the land (2 Kings 15:20), but it went away rich from the plunder it had gained with little effort. That success likely encouraged them to come back later and lay everything waste. So the man who should have protected his country became the one who betrayed it.

Pekahiah, Menahem’s son, succeeded his father, but he ruled only two years and was then murdered by Pekah. He suffered because of both his own sin and his father’s sin. It is repeated about him, as before, that he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom. This is mentioned to show that God was right to bring destruction on them soon afterward, because they refused to change (2 Kings 15:24).

Pekah seems to have had some important allies, and two of them are named here (2 Kings 15:25). With their help, he carried out his plan.

Pekah, though he gained the throne through treason, held it for twenty years (2 Kings 15:27). It took a long time, but his violence finally came back on his own head. He became more powerful abroad than these other usurpers. In the later part of his reign, during Ahaz’s time, he was a great threat to Judah, as Isaiah later describes (Isaiah 7:1).

He also lost much of his kingdom to the king of Assyria. Several cities are named here (2 Kings 15:29), and these losses included all the land of Gilead beyond the Jordan and Galilee in the north, with the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun. The people were carried away to Assyria. God used this judgment to punish Pekah for attacking Judah and Jerusalem. Isaiah had foretold that within two or three years after that attack, before a child born then could even say, “My father” and “My mother,” the wealth of Samaria would be carried off by the king of Assyria (Isaiah 8:4). Here we see that promise fulfilled.

Soon after that, Pekah lost his life at the hands of his own countrymen. They were likely angry that he had left them open to a foreign enemy while he attacked Judah. Hoshea took advantage of that anger, killed Pekah, and ruled in his place. He must have wanted a crown very badly, because at that time it was a dangerous prize. The crown of Israel had already cost many rulers their lives, and it was under God’s judgment. It was like a crown no wise man would pick up from the street, yet Hoshea seized it, and it cost him dearly.