2 Chronicles 25
Good King Amaziah turns to idols
Amaziah’s heart wasn’t into God
2 Kings 14:1-6 1Amaziah was 25 years old when he became king of Judah. He lived in Judah’s capital of Jerusalem and reigned for 29 years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddin, from Jerusalem. 2Amaziah followed the laws of the LORD, but his heart wasn’t in it.
3As soon as Amaziah came to power, he executed the royal servants who had murdered his father, King Joash. 4Amaziah did not, however, kill the families of the murderers. Instead, he followed the law that Moses gave the Hebrews: “Don’t execute parents because of something their kids did. And don’t execute children for the sins of their parents. We’re accountable for ourselves. If we’re executed, it’s because we sinned.” [1] Judah slaughters Edom’s people
2 Kings 14:7 5The king drafted soldiers for war. He called up all the men ages 20 and up, from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He assigned them to companies of 100 soldiers led by commanders. And those companies became a part of 300 battalions of 1,000 soldiers each—300,000 soldiers in all. 6The king hired an extra 100,000 warriors from the northern Jewish nation of Israel. That cost him almost eight tons [2] of silver.
7But a prophet went to the king and said, “Please don’t take the soldiers from Israel with you. They and the LORD have nothing to do with each other. The LORD won’t help them anymore. 8Instead, take your own army and fight bravely. But if you take Israel with you, the LORD will drop you to the ground. He can help you or he can end you.”
9Amaziah told the prophet, “But I already paid them. What am I supposed to do about that?” The prophet said, “Don’t worry about it. The LORD can give you a lot more than that.” 10So, the king sent the soldiers from Israel home. They were furious about it.
11Amaziah prepared himself emotionally for battle. He led his men down to Salt Valley [3] in the country of Edom, where they killed 10,000 people of Edom. 12Judah’s soldiers captured another 10,000. But they took them to a high cliff [4] and pushed them off. Their bodies broke to pieces. Israel’s angry mercenaries raid Judah
13But back home, the people of Judah were facing the wrath of those mercenary soldiers the king essentially fired and sent back to Israel in the north. They didn’t go. They started attacking Judah’s border town cities, from Samaria in the north to Beth-horon further south.
14When Amaziah came home from killing all those people of Edom, he came home with images of their gods. [5] He worshiped them with offerings. 15Angry, the LORD sent a prophet to Amaziah with this message: “Why on earth would you worship a god who couldn’t even save his own people from slaughter?”
16The king interrupted him, saying, “Did I miss something? Did we appoint you as an advisor to the king? No, that’s right, we didn’t. Shut up, or I’ll shut you up for good.” The prophet answered, “Okay, but you’re making your situation worse. First you sinned with the idols. Now you’re rejecting this warning. It’s clear there’s punishment ahead for you.” Judah challenges Israel to mortal combat
2 Kings 14:8-18 17Amaziah met with his advisors and then sent Israel’s King Jehoash, son of Jehu, an invitation to a fight. The message said, “Let’s settle our differences king to king on the battlefield.”
18Jehoash sent his reply: “I heard a story about a daddy thornbush that asked a daddy cedar tree in Lebanon to let the cedar’s daughter marry the bush’s son. But along came a wild animal from Lebanon and it crushed the little bush. 19You defeated Edom and you’re feeling pretty good about yourself. Enjoy the glory of victory. Why risk the agony of defeat? If you go down, so does Judah.”
20Amaziah pressed. God encouraged it, to punish him for embracing Edom’s gods. 21The two Israelite armies fought on Judah’s tribal land at the town of Beth-shemesh. [6] 22Judah lost the battle, and their soldiers raced home.
23Israel’s King Jehoash captured Judah’s King Amaziah, the son of King Jehoash [7] and grandson of King Ahaziah. Israel’s King Jehoash marched into Jerusalem and tore down 200 yards [8] of the city walls, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. [9]
24He raided treasuries of the Temple and the king’s palace. He took all the silver and gold, including the sacred utensils and furnishings in the Temple. He kidnapped some citizens, descendants of Obed-edom, [10] and took them back to his capital city of Samaria. King Amaziah assassinated
25King Amaziah of Judah lived 15 years longer than his captor, King Jehoash. 26The rest of Amaziah’s story and his accomplishments are preserved in the History of the Kings of Israel and Judah. [11]
27When Amaziah started worshiping other gods, some people in Jerusalem started working on a plan to kill him. He found out and fled to the city of Lachish. [12] But the people tracked him down and killed him there in Lachish. 28They brought his body to Jerusalem tied on his horse and buried him in the family tomb in the City of David. Footnotes
125:4Deuteronomy 24:16. This law of Moses is opposite from one reported in the famous Code of Hammurabi, which allowed a son to die for a father’s mistake. Law 230 of 282 says that if a builder builds a house that collapses and kills a man’s son, then “they should put to death a son of the builder.” These normally common-sense laws were popular in Bible times throughout what is now the Middle East. Hammurabi was a king in what is now Iraq. His laws are engraved into a seven-foot-high (2 meters) black stone pillar made in the 1700s BC. That’s several centuries before Moses. The stone is on display in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.
225:6The price in ancient Hebrew measurement was 100 talents of silver. That’s about 7,500 pounds or 3,400 kilograms. That’s about the weight of a heavy-duty pickup truck, a delivery truck, or an Asian elephant (smaller than African ones).
325:11Salt Valley may have been south of the Dead Sea, along the boundary of Edom and Israel.
425:12This same story expands on one verse in another Bible book, 2 Kings 14:7. There, Amaziah’s army decimates the town of Sela and renames in Joktheel. But here, the Hebrew word sela seems used as a description of the terrain. Sela can mean: rocky, cliff, mountain. Some scholars say the ruins known as el-Sela were once the ancient town of Sela. It’s about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of the town of Bozrah, now called Basira. It’s also about 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Jerusalem. That’s about a five-day walk through some hot and barren landscape.
525:14These may have been figurines and statues of various gods, crafted in gold and silver. The king and his soldiers could have considered them valuable property, which they earned in battle—spoils of war. The report that “he worshiped them” may refer to gratitude he expressed for any help those gods offered his army. Kings in ancient times occasionally acknowledged help from the gods of their enemies. Assyrians invading Judah later told King Hezekiah that God sent them: “I’m not fighting against your LORD. He’s the one who sent me here. He said, ‘Go, attack this nation, and destroy the towns.’ So, here I am” (2 Kings 18:25).
625:21Beth-shemesh was a town 15 miles (24 km) east of Jerusalem, in the Judean foothills where the highlands start blending into the coast.
725:23Alternate spelling is “Joash.”
825:23That’s about 200 meters. In the ancient Hebrew measure, it was 400 cubits. A cubit was the length of a man’s forearm, from elbow to fingertips. That’s roughly 18 inches or half a meter.
925:23It’s uncertain where the gates were. Some scholars place the Ephraim Gate in the city’s northern wall, and the Corner Gate along the adjoining western wall.
1025:24This was the family King David had apparently put in charge of guarding the Temple treasury (1 Chronicles 26:15). Their ancestor had once been entrusted with guarding Israel’s most sacred relic, the Ark of the Covenant. It was a gold-covered wooden chest that held the stone tablets etched with the Ten Commandments (1 Chronicles 13:13-14).
1125:26This was a lost book or part of a collection of lost books apparently filled with more details about the Israelite kings of Israel and Judah. Some scholars say they consider those books lost books of the Bible.
1225:27Lachish was about a day and a half’s walk south of Jerusalem, about 30 miles (48 km).
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Judah picks a fight with Israel
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3As soon as Amaziah came to power, he executed the royal servants who had murdered his father, King Joash. 4Amaziah did not, however, kill the families of the murderers. Instead, he followed the law that Moses gave the Hebrews: “Don’t execute parents because of something their kids did. And don’t execute children for the sins of their parents. We’re accountable for ourselves. If we’re executed, it’s because we sinned.” [1]
Judah slaughters Edom’s people
2 Kings 14:7 5The king drafted soldiers for war. He called up all the men ages 20 and up, from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He assigned them to companies of 100 soldiers led by commanders. And those companies became a part of 300 battalions of 1,000 soldiers each—300,000 soldiers in all. 6The king hired an extra 100,000 warriors from the northern Jewish nation of Israel. That cost him almost eight tons [2] of silver.
7But a prophet went to the king and said, “Please don’t take the soldiers from Israel with you. They and the LORD have nothing to do with each other. The LORD won’t help them anymore. 8Instead, take your own army and fight bravely. But if you take Israel with you, the LORD will drop you to the ground. He can help you or he can end you.”
9Amaziah told the prophet, “But I already paid them. What am I supposed to do about that?” The prophet said, “Don’t worry about it. The LORD can give you a lot more than that.” 10So, the king sent the soldiers from Israel home. They were furious about it.
11Amaziah prepared himself emotionally for battle. He led his men down to Salt Valley [3] in the country of Edom, where they killed 10,000 people of Edom. 12Judah’s soldiers captured another 10,000. But they took them to a high cliff [4] and pushed them off. Their bodies broke to pieces. Israel’s angry mercenaries raid Judah
13But back home, the people of Judah were facing the wrath of those mercenary soldiers the king essentially fired and sent back to Israel in the north. They didn’t go. They started attacking Judah’s border town cities, from Samaria in the north to Beth-horon further south.
14When Amaziah came home from killing all those people of Edom, he came home with images of their gods. [5] He worshiped them with offerings. 15Angry, the LORD sent a prophet to Amaziah with this message: “Why on earth would you worship a god who couldn’t even save his own people from slaughter?”
16The king interrupted him, saying, “Did I miss something? Did we appoint you as an advisor to the king? No, that’s right, we didn’t. Shut up, or I’ll shut you up for good.” The prophet answered, “Okay, but you’re making your situation worse. First you sinned with the idols. Now you’re rejecting this warning. It’s clear there’s punishment ahead for you.” Judah challenges Israel to mortal combat
2 Kings 14:8-18 17Amaziah met with his advisors and then sent Israel’s King Jehoash, son of Jehu, an invitation to a fight. The message said, “Let’s settle our differences king to king on the battlefield.”
18Jehoash sent his reply: “I heard a story about a daddy thornbush that asked a daddy cedar tree in Lebanon to let the cedar’s daughter marry the bush’s son. But along came a wild animal from Lebanon and it crushed the little bush. 19You defeated Edom and you’re feeling pretty good about yourself. Enjoy the glory of victory. Why risk the agony of defeat? If you go down, so does Judah.”
20Amaziah pressed. God encouraged it, to punish him for embracing Edom’s gods. 21The two Israelite armies fought on Judah’s tribal land at the town of Beth-shemesh. [6] 22Judah lost the battle, and their soldiers raced home.
23Israel’s King Jehoash captured Judah’s King Amaziah, the son of King Jehoash [7] and grandson of King Ahaziah. Israel’s King Jehoash marched into Jerusalem and tore down 200 yards [8] of the city walls, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. [9]
24He raided treasuries of the Temple and the king’s palace. He took all the silver and gold, including the sacred utensils and furnishings in the Temple. He kidnapped some citizens, descendants of Obed-edom, [10] and took them back to his capital city of Samaria. King Amaziah assassinated
25King Amaziah of Judah lived 15 years longer than his captor, King Jehoash. 26The rest of Amaziah’s story and his accomplishments are preserved in the History of the Kings of Israel and Judah. [11]
27When Amaziah started worshiping other gods, some people in Jerusalem started working on a plan to kill him. He found out and fled to the city of Lachish. [12] But the people tracked him down and killed him there in Lachish. 28They brought his body to Jerusalem tied on his horse and buried him in the family tomb in the City of David. Footnotes
125:4Deuteronomy 24:16. This law of Moses is opposite from one reported in the famous Code of Hammurabi, which allowed a son to die for a father’s mistake. Law 230 of 282 says that if a builder builds a house that collapses and kills a man’s son, then “they should put to death a son of the builder.” These normally common-sense laws were popular in Bible times throughout what is now the Middle East. Hammurabi was a king in what is now Iraq. His laws are engraved into a seven-foot-high (2 meters) black stone pillar made in the 1700s BC. That’s several centuries before Moses. The stone is on display in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.
225:6The price in ancient Hebrew measurement was 100 talents of silver. That’s about 7,500 pounds or 3,400 kilograms. That’s about the weight of a heavy-duty pickup truck, a delivery truck, or an Asian elephant (smaller than African ones).
325:11Salt Valley may have been south of the Dead Sea, along the boundary of Edom and Israel.
425:12This same story expands on one verse in another Bible book, 2 Kings 14:7. There, Amaziah’s army decimates the town of Sela and renames in Joktheel. But here, the Hebrew word sela seems used as a description of the terrain. Sela can mean: rocky, cliff, mountain. Some scholars say the ruins known as el-Sela were once the ancient town of Sela. It’s about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of the town of Bozrah, now called Basira. It’s also about 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Jerusalem. That’s about a five-day walk through some hot and barren landscape.
525:14These may have been figurines and statues of various gods, crafted in gold and silver. The king and his soldiers could have considered them valuable property, which they earned in battle—spoils of war. The report that “he worshiped them” may refer to gratitude he expressed for any help those gods offered his army. Kings in ancient times occasionally acknowledged help from the gods of their enemies. Assyrians invading Judah later told King Hezekiah that God sent them: “I’m not fighting against your LORD. He’s the one who sent me here. He said, ‘Go, attack this nation, and destroy the towns.’ So, here I am” (2 Kings 18:25).
625:21Beth-shemesh was a town 15 miles (24 km) east of Jerusalem, in the Judean foothills where the highlands start blending into the coast.
725:23Alternate spelling is “Joash.”
825:23That’s about 200 meters. In the ancient Hebrew measure, it was 400 cubits. A cubit was the length of a man’s forearm, from elbow to fingertips. That’s roughly 18 inches or half a meter.
925:23It’s uncertain where the gates were. Some scholars place the Ephraim Gate in the city’s northern wall, and the Corner Gate along the adjoining western wall.
1025:24This was the family King David had apparently put in charge of guarding the Temple treasury (1 Chronicles 26:15). Their ancestor had once been entrusted with guarding Israel’s most sacred relic, the Ark of the Covenant. It was a gold-covered wooden chest that held the stone tablets etched with the Ten Commandments (1 Chronicles 13:13-14).
1125:26This was a lost book or part of a collection of lost books apparently filled with more details about the Israelite kings of Israel and Judah. Some scholars say they consider those books lost books of the Bible.
1225:27Lachish was about a day and a half’s walk south of Jerusalem, about 30 miles (48 km).
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- Sorry, there are currently no questions for this chapter.
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Judah picks a fight with IsraelIsrael and Judah grab landVideos
7But a prophet went to the king and said, “Please don’t take the soldiers from Israel with you. They and the LORD have nothing to do with each other. The LORD won’t help them anymore. 8Instead, take your own army and fight bravely. But if you take Israel with you, the LORD will drop you to the ground. He can help you or he can end you.”
9Amaziah told the prophet, “But I already paid them. What am I supposed to do about that?” The prophet said, “Don’t worry about it. The LORD can give you a lot more than that.” 10So, the king sent the soldiers from Israel home. They were furious about it.
11Amaziah prepared himself emotionally for battle. He led his men down to Salt Valley [3] in the country of Edom, where they killed 10,000 people of Edom. 12Judah’s soldiers captured another 10,000. But they took them to a high cliff [4] and pushed them off. Their bodies broke to pieces.
Israel’s angry mercenaries raid Judah
13But back home, the people of Judah were facing the wrath of those mercenary soldiers the king essentially fired and sent back to Israel in the north. They didn’t go. They started attacking Judah’s border town cities, from Samaria in the north to Beth-horon further south.14When Amaziah came home from killing all those people of Edom, he came home with images of their gods. [5] He worshiped them with offerings. 15Angry, the LORD sent a prophet to Amaziah with this message: “Why on earth would you worship a god who couldn’t even save his own people from slaughter?”
16The king interrupted him, saying, “Did I miss something? Did we appoint you as an advisor to the king? No, that’s right, we didn’t. Shut up, or I’ll shut you up for good.” The prophet answered, “Okay, but you’re making your situation worse. First you sinned with the idols. Now you’re rejecting this warning. It’s clear there’s punishment ahead for you.”
Judah challenges Israel to mortal combat
2 Kings 14:8-18 17Amaziah met with his advisors and then sent Israel’s King Jehoash, son of Jehu, an invitation to a fight. The message said, “Let’s settle our differences king to king on the battlefield.”
18Jehoash sent his reply: “I heard a story about a daddy thornbush that asked a daddy cedar tree in Lebanon to let the cedar’s daughter marry the bush’s son. But along came a wild animal from Lebanon and it crushed the little bush. 19You defeated Edom and you’re feeling pretty good about yourself. Enjoy the glory of victory. Why risk the agony of defeat? If you go down, so does Judah.”
20Amaziah pressed. God encouraged it, to punish him for embracing Edom’s gods. 21The two Israelite armies fought on Judah’s tribal land at the town of Beth-shemesh. [6] 22Judah lost the battle, and their soldiers raced home.
23Israel’s King Jehoash captured Judah’s King Amaziah, the son of King Jehoash [7] and grandson of King Ahaziah. Israel’s King Jehoash marched into Jerusalem and tore down 200 yards [8] of the city walls, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. [9]
24He raided treasuries of the Temple and the king’s palace. He took all the silver and gold, including the sacred utensils and furnishings in the Temple. He kidnapped some citizens, descendants of Obed-edom, [10] and took them back to his capital city of Samaria. King Amaziah assassinated
25King Amaziah of Judah lived 15 years longer than his captor, King Jehoash. 26The rest of Amaziah’s story and his accomplishments are preserved in the History of the Kings of Israel and Judah. [11]
27When Amaziah started worshiping other gods, some people in Jerusalem started working on a plan to kill him. He found out and fled to the city of Lachish. [12] But the people tracked him down and killed him there in Lachish. 28They brought his body to Jerusalem tied on his horse and buried him in the family tomb in the City of David. Footnotes
125:4Deuteronomy 24:16. This law of Moses is opposite from one reported in the famous Code of Hammurabi, which allowed a son to die for a father’s mistake. Law 230 of 282 says that if a builder builds a house that collapses and kills a man’s son, then “they should put to death a son of the builder.” These normally common-sense laws were popular in Bible times throughout what is now the Middle East. Hammurabi was a king in what is now Iraq. His laws are engraved into a seven-foot-high (2 meters) black stone pillar made in the 1700s BC. That’s several centuries before Moses. The stone is on display in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.
225:6The price in ancient Hebrew measurement was 100 talents of silver. That’s about 7,500 pounds or 3,400 kilograms. That’s about the weight of a heavy-duty pickup truck, a delivery truck, or an Asian elephant (smaller than African ones).
325:11Salt Valley may have been south of the Dead Sea, along the boundary of Edom and Israel.
425:12This same story expands on one verse in another Bible book, 2 Kings 14:7. There, Amaziah’s army decimates the town of Sela and renames in Joktheel. But here, the Hebrew word sela seems used as a description of the terrain. Sela can mean: rocky, cliff, mountain. Some scholars say the ruins known as el-Sela were once the ancient town of Sela. It’s about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of the town of Bozrah, now called Basira. It’s also about 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Jerusalem. That’s about a five-day walk through some hot and barren landscape.
525:14These may have been figurines and statues of various gods, crafted in gold and silver. The king and his soldiers could have considered them valuable property, which they earned in battle—spoils of war. The report that “he worshiped them” may refer to gratitude he expressed for any help those gods offered his army. Kings in ancient times occasionally acknowledged help from the gods of their enemies. Assyrians invading Judah later told King Hezekiah that God sent them: “I’m not fighting against your LORD. He’s the one who sent me here. He said, ‘Go, attack this nation, and destroy the towns.’ So, here I am” (2 Kings 18:25).
625:21Beth-shemesh was a town 15 miles (24 km) east of Jerusalem, in the Judean foothills where the highlands start blending into the coast.
725:23Alternate spelling is “Joash.”
825:23That’s about 200 meters. In the ancient Hebrew measure, it was 400 cubits. A cubit was the length of a man’s forearm, from elbow to fingertips. That’s roughly 18 inches or half a meter.
925:23It’s uncertain where the gates were. Some scholars place the Ephraim Gate in the city’s northern wall, and the Corner Gate along the adjoining western wall.
1025:24This was the family King David had apparently put in charge of guarding the Temple treasury (1 Chronicles 26:15). Their ancestor had once been entrusted with guarding Israel’s most sacred relic, the Ark of the Covenant. It was a gold-covered wooden chest that held the stone tablets etched with the Ten Commandments (1 Chronicles 13:13-14).
1125:26This was a lost book or part of a collection of lost books apparently filled with more details about the Israelite kings of Israel and Judah. Some scholars say they consider those books lost books of the Bible.
1225:27Lachish was about a day and a half’s walk south of Jerusalem, about 30 miles (48 km).
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18Jehoash sent his reply: “I heard a story about a daddy thornbush that asked a daddy cedar tree in Lebanon to let the cedar’s daughter marry the bush’s son. But along came a wild animal from Lebanon and it crushed the little bush. 19You defeated Edom and you’re feeling pretty good about yourself. Enjoy the glory of victory. Why risk the agony of defeat? If you go down, so does Judah.”
20Amaziah pressed. God encouraged it, to punish him for embracing Edom’s gods. 21The two Israelite armies fought on Judah’s tribal land at the town of Beth-shemesh. [6] 22Judah lost the battle, and their soldiers raced home.
23Israel’s King Jehoash captured Judah’s King Amaziah, the son of King Jehoash [7] and grandson of King Ahaziah. Israel’s King Jehoash marched into Jerusalem and tore down 200 yards [8] of the city walls, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. [9]
24He raided treasuries of the Temple and the king’s palace. He took all the silver and gold, including the sacred utensils and furnishings in the Temple. He kidnapped some citizens, descendants of Obed-edom, [10] and took them back to his capital city of Samaria.
King Amaziah assassinated
25King Amaziah of Judah lived 15 years longer than his captor, King Jehoash. 26The rest of Amaziah’s story and his accomplishments are preserved in the History of the Kings of Israel and Judah. [11]27When Amaziah started worshiping other gods, some people in Jerusalem started working on a plan to kill him. He found out and fled to the city of Lachish. [12] But the people tracked him down and killed him there in Lachish. 28They brought his body to Jerusalem tied on his horse and buried him in the family tomb in the City of David.
Footnotes
Deuteronomy 24:16. This law of Moses is opposite from one reported in the famous Code of Hammurabi, which allowed a son to die for a father’s mistake. Law 230 of 282 says that if a builder builds a house that collapses and kills a man’s son, then “they should put to death a son of the builder.” These normally common-sense laws were popular in Bible times throughout what is now the Middle East. Hammurabi was a king in what is now Iraq. His laws are engraved into a seven-foot-high (2 meters) black stone pillar made in the 1700s BC. That’s several centuries before Moses. The stone is on display in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.
The price in ancient Hebrew measurement was 100 talents of silver. That’s about 7,500 pounds or 3,400 kilograms. That’s about the weight of a heavy-duty pickup truck, a delivery truck, or an Asian elephant (smaller than African ones).
Salt Valley may have been south of the Dead Sea, along the boundary of Edom and Israel.
This same story expands on one verse in another Bible book, 2 Kings 14:7. There, Amaziah’s army decimates the town of Sela and renames in Joktheel. But here, the Hebrew word sela seems used as a description of the terrain. Sela can mean: rocky, cliff, mountain. Some scholars say the ruins known as el-Sela were once the ancient town of Sela. It’s about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of the town of Bozrah, now called Basira. It’s also about 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Jerusalem. That’s about a five-day walk through some hot and barren landscape.
These may have been figurines and statues of various gods, crafted in gold and silver. The king and his soldiers could have considered them valuable property, which they earned in battle—spoils of war. The report that “he worshiped them” may refer to gratitude he expressed for any help those gods offered his army. Kings in ancient times occasionally acknowledged help from the gods of their enemies. Assyrians invading Judah later told King Hezekiah that God sent them: “I’m not fighting against your LORD. He’s the one who sent me here. He said, ‘Go, attack this nation, and destroy the towns.’ So, here I am” (2 Kings 18:25).
Beth-shemesh was a town 15 miles (24 km) east of Jerusalem, in the Judean foothills where the highlands start blending into the coast.
Alternate spelling is “Joash.”
That’s about 200 meters. In the ancient Hebrew measure, it was 400 cubits. A cubit was the length of a man’s forearm, from elbow to fingertips. That’s roughly 18 inches or half a meter.
It’s uncertain where the gates were. Some scholars place the Ephraim Gate in the city’s northern wall, and the Corner Gate along the adjoining western wall.
This was the family King David had apparently put in charge of guarding the Temple treasury (1 Chronicles 26:15). Their ancestor had once been entrusted with guarding Israel’s most sacred relic, the Ark of the Covenant. It was a gold-covered wooden chest that held the stone tablets etched with the Ten Commandments (1 Chronicles 13:13-14).
This was a lost book or part of a collection of lost books apparently filled with more details about the Israelite kings of Israel and Judah. Some scholars say they consider those books lost books of the Bible.
Lachish was about a day and a half’s walk south of Jerusalem, about 30 miles (48 km).
Discussion Questions
- Sorry, there are currently no questions for this chapter.
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