23 In the fifteenth e year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah , Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel became king in Samaria , and reigned forty-one e years . 24 He did evil in the sight of the Lord ; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat , which he made Israel sin . 25 He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah , according to the word of the Lord , the God of Israel , which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai , the prophet , who was of Gath-hepher . 26 For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel , which was very bitter ; for there was neither bond nor free , nor was there any helper for Israel . 27 The Lord did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven , but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash . 28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did and his might , how he fought and how he recovered for Israel , Damascus and Hamath , which had belonged to Judah , are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles e of the Kings of Israel ? 29 And Jeroboam slept with his fathers , even with the kings of Israel , and Zechariah his son became king in his place .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Kings 14:23-29
Commentary on 2 Kings 14:23-29
(Read 2 Kings 14:23-29)
God raised up the prophet Jonah, and by him declared the purposes of his favour to Israel. It is a sign that God has not cast off his people, if he continues faithful ministers among them. Two reasons are given why God blessed them with those victories: 1. Because the distress was very great, which made them objects of his compassion. 2. Because the decree was not yet gone forth for their destruction. Many prophets there had been in Israel, but none left prophecies in writing till this age, and their prophecies are part of the Bible. Hosea began to prophesy in the reign of this Jeroboam. At the same time Amos prophesied; soon after Micah, then Isaiah, in the days of Ahaz and Hezekiah. Thus God, in the darkest and most degenerate ages of the church, raised up some to be burning and shining lights in it; to their own age, by their preaching and living, and a few by their writings, to reflect light upon us in the last times.