19 In his day, Pul, the king of Assyria, came up against the land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that he might let him keep the kingdom.
Now when he became strong in the kingdom, straight away he put to death those servants who had taken the life of the king his father;
And they did evil against the God of their fathers, worshipping the gods of the people of the land, whom God had put to destruction before them. And the God of Israel put an impulse into the heart of Pul, king of Assyria, and of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, who took them away as prisoners, all the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to Halah and Habor and Hara and to the river of Gozan, to this day.
Then Jehoash, king of Judah, took all the holy things which Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, the kings of Judah, had given to the Lord, together with the things he himself had given, and all the gold in the Temple store and in the king's house, and sent it to Hazael, king of Aram; and he went away from Jerusalem.
And Ahaz took the silver and gold which were in the house of the Lord and in the king's store-house, and sent them as an offering to the king of Assyria.
Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Hoshea became his servant and sent him offerings. But Hoshea's broken faith became clear to the king of Assyria because he had sent representatives to So, king of Egypt, and did not send his offering to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: so the king of Assyria had him shut up in prison and put in chains.
In earlier times he made the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali of small value, but after that he gave it glory, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
This is what the Lord has said: Cursed is the man who puts his faith in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart is turned away from the Lord.
For they have gone up to Assyria like an ass going by himself; Ephraim has given money to get lovers. But though they give money to the nations for help, still I will send them in all directions; and in a short time they will be without a king and rulers.
And they will take it to Assyria and give it to the great king; shame will come on Ephraim, and Israel will be shamed because of its image.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Kings 15
Commentary on 2 Kings 15 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 15
In this chapter,
2Ki 15:1-7
This is a short account of the reign of Azariah.
2Ki 15:8-31
The best days of the kingdom of Israel were while the government was in Jehu's family. In his reign, and the next three reigns, though there were many abominable corruptions and miserable grievances in Israel, yet the crown went in succession, the kings died in their beds, and some care was taken of public affairs; but, now that those days are at an end, the history which we have in these verses of about thirty-three years represents the affairs of that kingdom in the utmost confusion imaginable. Woe to those that were with child (v. 16) and to those that gave suck in those days, for then must needs be great tribulations, when, for the transgression of the land, many were the princes thereof.
2Ki 15:32-38
We have here a short account of the reign of Jotham king of Judah, of whom we are told,