5 And he hath fought with the king of the sons of Ammon, and prevaileth over them, and the sons of Ammon give to him in that year a hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand cors of wheat, and of barley ten thousand; this have the sons of Ammon returned to him both in the second year, and in the third.
And it cometh to pass, after a time, that the Bene-Ammon fight with Israel, and it cometh to pass, when the Bene-Ammon have fought with Israel, that the elders of Gilead go to take Jephthah from the land of Tob; and they say unto Jephthah, `Come, and thou hast been to us for captain, and we fight against the Bene-Ammon.' And Jephthah saith to the elders of Gilead, `Have not ye hated me? and ye cast me out from the house of my father, and wherefore have ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?' and the elders of Gilead say unto Jephthah, `Therefore, now, we have turned back unto thee; and thou hast gone with us, and fought against the Bene-Ammon, and thou hast been to us for head -- to all the inhabitants of Gilead.' And Jephthah saith unto the elders of Gilead, `If ye are taking me back to fight against the Bene-Ammon, and Jehovah hath given them before me -- I, am I to you for a head?' And the elders of Gilead say unto Jephthah, `Jehovah is hearkening between us -- if according to thy word we do not so.' And Jephthah goeth with the elders of Gilead, and the people set him over them for head and for captain, and Jephthah speaketh all his words before Jehovah in Mizpeh. And Jephthah sendeth messengers unto the king of the Bene-Ammon, saying, `What -- to me and to thee, that thou hast come in unto me, to fight in my land.' And the king of the Bene-Ammon saith unto the messengers of Jephthah, `Because Israel took my land in his coming up out of Egypt, from Arnon, and unto the Jabbok, and unto the Jordan; and now, restore them in peace.' And Jephthah addeth yet and sendeth messengers unto the king of the Bene-Ammon, and saith to him, `Thus said Jephthah, Israel took not the land of Moab, and the land of the Bene-Ammon, for in their coming up out of Egypt, Israel goeth in the wilderness unto the Red Sea, and cometh in to Kadesh, and Israel sendeth messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me pass over, I pray thee, through thy land, and the king of Edom hearkened not; and also unto the king of Moab hath `Israel' sent, and he hath not been willing; and Israel abideth in Kadesh, and he goeth through the wilderness, and compasseth the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and cometh in at the rising of the sun of the land of Moab, and they encamp beyond Arnon, and have not come into the border of Moab, for Arnon `is' the border of Moab. `And Israel sendeth messengers unto Sihon, king of the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and Israel saith to him, Let us pass over, we pray thee, through thy land, unto my place, and Sihon hath not trusted Israel to pass over through his border, and Sihon gathereth all his people, and they encamp in Jahaz, and fight with Israel; and Jehovah, God of Israel, giveth Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smite them, and Israel possesseth all the land of the Amorite, the inhabitant of that land, and they possess all the border of the Amorite from Arnon, and unto the Jabbok, and from the wilderness, and unto the Jordan. `And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorite from the presence of His people Israel, and thou wouldst possess it! That which Chemosh thy god causeth thee to possess -- dost thou not possess it? and all that which Jehovah our God hath dispossessed from our presence, -- it we do possess. `And now, `art' thou at all better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he at all strive with Israel? did he at all fight against them? In Israel's dwelling in Heshbon and in its towns, and in Aroer and in its towns, and in all the cities which `are' by the sides of Arnon three hundred years -- and wherefore have ye not delivered them in that time? And I -- I have not sinned against thee, and thou art doing with me evil -- to fight against me. Jehovah, the Judge, doth judge to-day between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.' And the king of the Bene-Ammon hath not hearkened unto the words of Jephthah which he sent unto him, and the Spirit of Jehovah is on Jephthah, and he passeth over Gilead and Manasseh, and passeth over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he hath passed over to the Bene-Ammon. And Jephthah voweth a vow to Jehovah, and saith, `If Thou dost at all give the Bene-Ammon into my hand -- then it hath been, that which at all cometh out from the doors of my house to meet me in my turning back in peace from the Bene-Ammon -- it hath been to Jehovah, or I have offered up for it -- a burnt-offering.' And Jephthah passeth over unto the Bene-Ammon to fight against them, and Jehovah giveth them into his hand, and he smiteth them from Aroer, and unto thy going in to Minnith, twenty cities, and unto the meadow of the vineyards -- a very great smiting; and the Bene-Ammon are humbled at the presence of the sons of Israel.
And it cometh to pass afterwards, that the king of the Bene-Ammon dieth, and Hanun his son reigneth in his stead, and David saith, `I do kindness with Hanun son of Nahash, as his father did with me kindness;' and David sendeth to comfort him by the hand of his servants concerning his father, and the servants of David come in to the land of the Bene-Ammon. And the heads of the Bene-Ammon say unto Hanun their lord, `Is David honouring thy father in thine eyes because he hath sent to thee comforters? for to search the city, and to spy it, and to overthrow it, hath not David sent his servants unto thee?' And Hanun taketh the servants of David, and shaveth off the half of their beard, and cutteth off their long robes in the midst -- unto their buttocks, and sendeth them away; and they declare `it' to David, and he sendeth to meet them, for the men have been greatly ashamed, and the king saith, `Abide in Jericho till your beard doth spring up -- then ye have returned.' And the Bene-Ammon see that they have been abhorred by David, and the Bene-Ammon send and hire Aram of Beth-Rehob, and Aram of Zoba, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah `with' a thousand men, and Ish-Tob `with' twelve thousand men; and David heareth, and sendeth Joab, and all the host -- the mighty men. And the Bene-Ammon come out, and set battle in array, at the opening of the gate, and Aram of Zoba, and Rehob, and Ish-Tob, and Maacah, `are' by themselves in the field; and Joab seeth that the front of the battle hath been unto him before and behind, and he chooseth of all the chosen in Israel, and setteth in array to meet Aram, and the rest of the people he hath given into the hand of Abishai his brother, and setteth in array to meet the Bene-Ammon. And he saith, `If Aram be stronger than I, then thou hast been to me for salvation, and if the Bene-Ammon be stronger than thou, then I have come to give salvation to thee; be strong and strengthen thyself for our people, and for the cities of our God, and Jehovah doth that which is good in His eyes.' And Joab draweth nigh, and the people who `are' with him, to battle against Aram, and they flee from his presence; and the Bene-Ammon have seen that Aram hath fled, and they flee from the presence of Abishai, and go in to the city; and Joab turneth back from the Bene-Ammon, and cometh in to Jerusalem.
Concerning the sons of Ammon: `Thus said Jehovah: Sons -- hath Israel none? heir -- hath he none? Wherefore hath Malcam possessed Gad? And his people in its cities have dwelt? Therefore, lo, days are coming, An affirmation of Jehovah, And I have sounded unto Rabbah of the sons of Ammon a shout of battle, And it hath been for a heap -- a desolation, And her daughters with fire are burnt, And Israel hath succeeded its heirs, Said hath Jehovah. Howl, Heshbon, for spoiled is Ai, Cry, daughters of Rabbah, gird on sackcloth, Lament, and go to and fro by the hedges, For Malcam into captivity doth go, His priests and his princes together. What -- dost thou boast thyself in valleys? Flowed hath thy valley, O backsliding daughter, Who is trusting in her treasures: Who doth come in unto me? Lo, I am bringing in upon thee a fear, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah of Hosts, From all round about thee, And ye have been driven out each before it, And there is no gatherer of the wandering. And after this I turn back the captivity of the sons of Ammon, An affirmation of Jehovah.'
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Commentary on 2 Chronicles 27 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Jotham having ascended the throne at the age of twenty-five, reigned altogether in the spirit and power of his father, with the single limitation that he did not go into the sanctuary of Jahve (cf. 2 Chronicles 26:16.). This remark is not found in 2 Kings 15, because there Uzziah's intrusion into the temple is also omitted. The people still did corruptly (cf. 2 Chronicles 26:16). This refers, indeed, to the continuation of the worship in the high places, but hints also at the deep moral corruption which the prophets of that time censure (cf. especially Isaiah 2:5., 2 Chronicles 5:7.; Micah 1:5; Micah 2:1.).
He built the upper gate of the house of Jahve, i.e., the northern gate of the inner or upper court (see on 2 Kings 15:35); the only work of his reign which is mentioned in the book of Kings. But besides this, he continued the fortifying of Jerusalem, which his father had commenced; building much at the wall of the Ophel. העפל was the name of the southern slope of the temple mountain (see on 2 Chronicles 33:14); the wall of Ophel is consequently the wall connecting Zion with the temple mountain, at which Uzziah had already built (see on 2 Chronicles 26:9). He likewise carried on his father's buildings for the protection of the herds (2 Chronicles 26:10), building the cities in the mountains of Judah, and castles ( בּירניּות , 2 Chronicles 17:12) and towers in the forests of the mountains of Judah ( חרשׁים from חרשׁ , a thicket).
He made war upon the king of the Ammonites, and overcame them. The Ammonites had before paid tribute to Uzziah. After his death they would seem to have refused to pay this tribute; and Jotham made them again tributary by force of arms. They were compelled to pay him after their defeat, in that same year, 100 talents of silver, 10,000 cor of wheat, and a similar quantity of barley, as tribute. לו השׁיבוּ זאת : this they brought to him again, i.e., they paid him the same amount as tribute in the second and third years of their subjection also. After three years, consequently, they would seem to have again become independent, or refused the tribute, probably in the last years of Jotham, in which, according to 2 Kings 15:37, the Syrian king Rezin and Pekah of Israel began to make attacks upon Judah.
2 Chronicles 27:6-7
By all these undertakings Jotham strengthened himself, sc. in the kingdom, i.e., he attained to greater power, because he made his ways firm before Jahve, i.e., walked stedfastly before Jahve; did not incur guilt by falling away into idolatry, or by faithless infringement of the rights of the Lord (as Uzziah did by his interference with the rights of the priesthood). From the כּל־מלחמתיו in the concluding remark (2 Chronicles 27:7) we learn that he had waged still other successful wars. The older commentators reckon among these wars, the war against Rezin and Pekah, which kings the Lord began in his days to send against Judah (see 2 Kings 15:37), but hardly with justice. The position of this note, which is altogether omitted in the Chronicle, at the end of the account of Jotham in 2 Kings 15:37, appears to hint that this war broke out only towards the end of Jotham's reign, so that he could not undertake anything important against this foe.
2 Chronicles 27:8-9
The repetition of the chronological statement already given in 2 Chronicles 27:1 is probably to be explained by supposing that two authorities, each of which contained this remark, were used.