2 Kings 14:19

_NOW THEY MADE A CONSPIRACY AGAINST HIM IN JERUSALEM: AND HE FLED TO LACHISH; BUT THEY SENT AFTER HIM TO LACHISH, AND SLEW HIM THERE._ They made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem. Amaziah's apostasy (2 Chronicles 25:27) was followed by a general mal-administration, especially the disastrous issue of the war with Israel-the ruinous condition of Jerusalem, the plunder of the temple, and the loss of their children, who were taken as hostages-lost him the respect and attachment, not of the grandees only, but of his subjects generally, who were in a state of rebellion. The king fled in terror to Lachish, frontier-town of the Philistines where however, he was traced and murdered. His friends had his corpse brought, without any pomp or ceremony, in a chariot to Jerusalem, where he was interred among his royal ancestors....

15-22 Amaziah survived his conqueror fifteen years. He was slain by his own subjects. Azariah, or Uzziah, seems to have been very young when his father was slain. Though the years of his reign are reckoned from that event, he was not fully made king till eleven years afterwards....

Verse 2 Kings 14:19. _THEY MADE A CONSPIRACY AGAINST HIM_] His defeat by Jehoash, and the consequent pillaging of the temple, and emptying the royal exchequer, and the dismantling of Jerusalem, had made him exceedingly unpopular; so that probably the whole of the last _fifteen_ years of his life were a series of troubles and distresses....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 14:1 REIGNS OF AMAZIAH, SON OF JOASH KING OF JUDAH, OVER JUDAH, AND OF JEROBOAM, SON OF JOASH KING OF ISRAEL, OVER ISRAEL. 2 KINGS 14:1 THE REIGN OF AMAZIAH OVER JUDAH. This chapter takes up the history of the kingdom of Judah from the each of...

NOW THEY MADE A CONSPIRACY AGAINST HIM IN JERUSALEM,.... Against Amaziah; the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the principal men of it; perhaps those whose sons the king of Israel had carried away as hostages, which they imputed to the ill conduct of Amaziah, as well as the breaking of the wall of Jerusalem, and the pillaging of the temple, and the king's palace: AND HE FLED TO LACHISH; a fortified city in the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:39 but they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there; in a private manner, as Josephus g relates. g Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 9. sect. 3.)...

6. KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH CHAPTER 14 _ 1. Amaziah's reign over Judah (2 Kings 14:1; 2 Chronicles 25)_ 2. The conflict between Israel and Judah (2 Kings 14:8; 2 Chronicles 25:17) 3. Judah's defeat and Jerusalem taken (2 Kings 14:12) 4. Jehoash and his successor (2 Kings 14:15) 5. Death of Amaziah (2 Kings 14

THE REIGN OF AMAZIAH, SON OF JOASH, KING OF JUDAH. Amaziah was a virtuous king like his father Joash, but not according to the standard of David. This is the judgment of the Deuteronomist, who refers to the law-book of his age, approving the king's forbearance in not punishing the sons of his father's murderers (Deuteronomy 21:1 *, Deuteronomy 24:16). Amaziah was successful in his wars with Edom, whose territory was peculiarly important to Judah as giving access to the Red Sea. The Edomites were defeated in the Valley of Salt as in David's time (2 Samuel 8:13, LXX). There is a place of the same name near Beersheba, but the topography here seems to require it to be in the southern Arabah, S. of the Dead Se

LACHISH. On the Philistine border in Judah (Joshua 15:39). Now _Tel-el-Hesy,_ and recently excavated with important results. SLEW HIM THERE. See note on 2 Kings 8:26....

_Now_[R.V. AND] _they made a conspiracy_ This was evidently the work of his own subjects. The Chronicler's statement is that the conspiracy was commenced -after the time that Amaziah did turn away from following the Lord". But this we see was immediately after the conquest of the Edomites, when the king -brought the gods of the children of Seir" into the land. There must then have been a feeling of hostility to Amaziah among the right-minded of his own people, even before the battle of Beth-shemesh. We cannot tell whether the conspiracy came to a head in a short time, or only gained strength when the forces of Judah had been so thoroughly overcome by the northern army. But everything points to a desire on the part of the people of Judah to put down Amaziah on the first possible opportunity. _and he fled to Lachish_ Lachish was considerably south of Jerusalem, and Amaziah probably thought...

NOW THEY MADE A CONSPIRACY AGAINST HIM IN JERUSALEM, &C.— What provoked the people of Jerusalem, more than those of any other part of the nation, against their king, was, their seeing their city spoiled of its best ornaments, exposed to reproach on account of the great breach that was made in their wall, and several of their children carried away as hostages for their good behaviour, Exodus 14:13 all which they imputed to their king's mal-administration; whereupon they entered into a conspiracy against him, which makes some commentators say, that he lived in a state of exile at Lachish the space of twelve years, not choosing to continue in Jerusalem after the defeat which Jehoash had given him. But our learned Usher has placed this conspiracy in the last year of Amaziah's reign; and Capellus supposes, that it was set on foot by the great men of Jerusalem upon the specious pretence of