The brief account of Hazael's campaign against Jerusalem is completed by 2 Chronicles 24:23-24. Hazael had gone down along the coast after defeating Israel (see 2 Kings 13:3), for the purpose of making war upon Judah also, and had taken Gath, which Rehoboam had fortified (2 Chronicles 11:8). He then set his face, i.e., determined, to advance to Jerusalem; and Joash took the temple treasures, etc. According to the Chronicles, he sent an army against Judah and Jerusalem, which destroyed all the princes of the nation and sent much booty to the king to Damascus, as the small army of the Syrians had smitten the very large army of Judah. To protect Jerusalem, after this defeat, from being taken by the Syrians, Joash sent all the treasures of the temple and palace to Hazael, and so purchased the withdrawal of the Syrians. In this way the two brief accounts of the war may be both reconciled and explained; whereas the opinion, still repeated by Thenius, that the two passages treat of different wars, has no tenable ground to rest upon. The Philistian city of Gath (see the Comm. on Joshua 13:3) appears to have belonged at that time to the kingdom of Judah, so that the Gathites were not among the Philistines who made an incursion into Judah in the reign of Joram along with the Arabian tribes of the south (2 Chronicles 21:16). And it is impossible to determine when Gath was wrested from the Syrians again; probably in the time of Joash the son of Jehoahaz of Israel, as he recovered from the Syrians all the cities which they had taken from the Israelites under Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:25), and even smote Amaziah the king of Judaea at Bethshemesh and took him prisoner (2 Kings 14:13; 2 Chronicles 25:21.). "All the consecrated things, which Jehoshaphat, Joram, and Ahaziah had consecrated, and his own consecrated things," i.e., what he (Joash) himself had consecrated. The existence of such temple treasures is not at variance either with the previous account of the repairing of the temple, for Joash would not use the consecrated offerings for the restoration of the temple, as the current revenue of the temple was sufficient for the purpose, or with 2 Chronicles 24:7, where it is stated that Athaliah and her sons had applied all the יהוה בּית קרשׁי to the Baals (see at 2 Kings 12:5); for even if we are to understand by the sons of Athaliah not bastard sons (Ewald, Gesch. iii. p. 582), but the brethren of Joram whom the Philistines and Arabians had carried off, Ahaziah and Joram, although they both of them served Baal, may, from political considerations, have now and then made consecrated gifts to the temple, if only in a passing fit of religious fear.

2 Kings 13:3 Parallel Commentaries

and he delivered

Leviticus 26:17 And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you...

Deuteronomy 4:24-27 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God...

Deuteronomy 28:25 The LORD shall cause you to be smitten before your enemies: you shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them...

Judges 2:14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them...

Judges 3:8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia...

Judges 10:7-14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines...

Isaiah 10:5,6 O Assyrian, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation...

Hebrews 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Hazael

2 Kings 13:22 But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.

2 Kings 8:12,13 And Hazael said, Why weeps my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel...

2 Kings 12:17 Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

1 Kings 19:17 And it shall come to pass, that him that escapes the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay...

Ben-hadad

2 Kings 13:24,25 So Hazael king of Syria died; and Benhadad his son reigned in his stead...

all their days Rather `all his days;' for Joash son of Jehoahaz delivered Israel from Ben-hadad

2 Kings 13:22-25 But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz...