2 Kings 15:1-38
1 In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariaha son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign.
2 Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem.
3 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done;
4 Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places.
5 And the LORD smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house. And Jotham the king's son was over the house, judging the people of the land.
6 And the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
7 So Azariah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.
8 In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months.
9 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
10 And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.
11 And the rest of the acts of Zachariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
12 This was the word of the LORD which he spake unto Jehu, saying, Thy sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation. And so it came to pass.
13 Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziahb king of Judah; and he reigned a full month in Samaria.
14 For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.
15 And the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
16 Then Menahem smote Tiphsah, and all that were therein, and the coasts thereof from Tirzah: because they opened not to him, therefore he smote it; and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up.
17 In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria.
18 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
19 And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land: and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand.
20 And Menahem exactedc the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land.
21 And the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
22 And Menahem slept with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son reigned in his stead.
23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years.
24 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
25 But Pekah the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh, and with him fifty men of the Gileadites: and he killed him, and reigned in his room.
26 And the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
27 In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years.
28 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.
30 And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.
31 And the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
32 In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign.
33 Five and twenty years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.
34 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD: he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done.
35 Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places. He built the higher gate of the house of the LORD.
36 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
37 In those days the LORD began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah.
38 And Jotham slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.
He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, he reigned for fifty-two years (2 Kings 15:2).
One of the longest reigns.
He did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done; except that he left the high places where the people were sacrificing. And the LORD smote the king with leprosy (2 Kings 15:3-5).
We will get the full story of this when we get to Chronicles.
until the day of his death. [And so his son was sort of a go-between.] Jotham his son was over the house, judging the people [but Uzziah was the king though leprous] (2 Kings 15:5).
Very popular king. A very good king. In fact, during his reign as we get into the Chronicles, it will tell us that the name Uzziah was on the lips of all the people. They were all, he was a powerful, strong leader, good king and the people really came to trust in him and all because he had brought the kingdom into a place of prosperity.
Now the rest of the acts of Azariah (2 Kings 15:6),
We're going to get when we get to Second Chronicles.
So Azariah slept with his fathers; they buried him in the city of David: and Jotham his son began to reign in his stead. And in the thirty-eighth year of Azariah the king of Judah Zachariah who was the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel and he reigned for six months (2 Kings 15:7-8).
Very short reign.
He did evil in the sight of the LORD. And Shallum conspired against him, and killed him and reigned in his stead (2 Kings 15:9-10).
Now, he was the fourth generation from Jehu, so the Lord promised four generations to Jehu. And with the death of Jeroboam that ends the line or the dynasty of Jehu. And thus, the word of the Lord was fulfilled when He promised Jehu four generations.
"Shallum conspired and killed him in order that he might have the throne and he reigned for a full month in Samaria." Ain't that the way it goes? You know, you spend your whole life to fulfill an ambition. I'm finally there. Alright, I've got it made. And then you get wiped out. So many people, you know, they finally, oh, I finally retired. And in a month they're gone. I was talking with old railroad man down in Moundsville, Virginia, West Virginia. And he worked for the B & L Railroad. He said, "I've been working for them for fifty-seven years." I said, "When are you going to retire?" And he got angry at me. I said, "Why? I didn't mean to offend you, what's wrong?" He said, "When you retire from the railroad, you die." And he told me all of his friends that have retired and died within the year. So he said, "You ought to just keep going." So he was still going on the railroad. And but here is one of those things of life, you know, it's interesting how so often when a person just gets to the place of the achieving of all of his dreams and goals, that it's sort of...
Remember in the New Testament Jesus told about this guy, successful farmer and all. And he said, "Well, what am I going to do? My barns are full. I know what I'm going to do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger and all." And the Lord said, "Thou fool, tonight your soul's going to be required of you" (Luke 12:16-20). Life hangs on such a tenuous string. We need to be not laying up store for this life, but laying up store for the life to come, which will never end. We put much too much into this life. An emphasis into this life and much too little emphasis and input into the other life, the eternal life that we have.
And so he reigned for a month in Samaria and he was assassinated.
And the rest of his acts of conspiracy are written in the books of the chronicles of the kings of Israel (2 Kings 15:15).
And Menahem smote... he became the king and he smote the cities of Tiphsah, and all of the area around it, Tirzah, and he smote it and he ripped up all the pregnant women.
In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah the king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel, he reigned for ten years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. And during his reign, Pul the king of Assyria came against the land: and he bought him off with a thousand talents of silver, which he exacted from all of the wealthy people in the land (2 Kings 15:17-20).
And his death is recorded in verse twenty-one.
And his acts the rest of them are in the chronicles of the kings of Israel. And in the fiftieth year of Azariah the king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel, and he reigned for only two years. And did evil in the sight of the LORD. And Pekah who was the son of the captain, conspired against him, and killed him in Samaria (2 Kings 15:21; 2 Kings 15:23-25).
So Pekahiah was killed by Pekah. And that's why getting into these kings can sometimes get confusing because of the various names, and sometimes they have two names.
Pekah reigned over Israel beginning in the fifty-second year of the last year of king Uzziah, and he reigned for twenty years. He did evil in the sight of the LORD. [And during his reign,] Tiglathpileser the king of Assyria, took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and all of the Galilee and the area of the tribe of Naphtali (2 Kings 15:27-29).
So all of the area around the sea of Galilee and upper Galilee, and he carried captives to Syria. So the southern, or the northern kingdom is falling now more and more to Assyria.
Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah, smote him, and killed him, and he reigned in his stead, and in the twentieth year of Jotham who was the son of Uzziah, he began to reign (2 Kings 15:30).
And now we go back to Judah, the son of Uzziah, Jotham.
In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel Jotham began to reign in Judah. He [reigned he] was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, he reigned for sixteen years. His mother's name was Jerusha. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD: according to all that his father Uzziah had done. Except he did not remove the high places (2 Kings 15:32-35):
And his acts are told in Second Chronicles, and we'll learn more about him later. "