23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, reigned hath Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel in Samaria—forty and one years, 24 and he doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, he hath not turned aside from all the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat that he caused Israel to sin. 25 He hath brought back the border of Israel, from the entering in of Hamath unto the sea of the desert, according to the word of Jehovah, God of Israel, that He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah son of Amittai the prophet, who 'is' of Gath-Hepher, 26 for Jehovah hath seen the affliction of Israel—very bitter, and there is none restrained, and there is none left, and there is no helper to Israel; 27 and Jehovah hath not spoken to blot out the name of Israel from under the heavens, and saveth them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Joash. 28 And the rest of the matters of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might with which he fought, and with which he brought back Damascus, and Hamath of Judah, into Israel, are they not written on the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel? 29 And Jeroboam lieth with his fathers, with the kings of Israel, and reign doth Zechariah his son in his stead.
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.