Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
King Amaziah avenges the death of his father Joash and defeats the Edomites in battle; but having fallen into idolatry, he is routed by Joash king of Israel, captured and plundered, and is murdered by his own people in Lachish.
Vulgate Text: 2 Paralipomenon 25:1-28
1. Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2. He did what was good in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart. 3. When he saw that the kingdom was strengthened in his hand, he killed the servants who had murdered the king his father, 4. but he did not kill their sons, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying: Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor sons for their fathers, but each shall die for his own sin. 5. Amaziah then gathered Judah and organized them by families, with tribunes and centurions throughout all Judah and Benjamin; he mustered those from twenty years old and above and found three hundred thousand young men fit for war, who could handle spear and shield. 6. He also hired from Israel one hundred thousand mighty warriors for one hundred talents of silver. 7. But a man of God came to him and said: O king, let not the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel, nor with all the sons of Ephraim; 8. but if you think that battles are won by the strength of an army, God will cause you to be overcome by the enemy; for it is God's to help and to put to flight. 9. And Amaziah said to the man of God: What then shall become of the hundred talents that I have given to the soldiers of Israel? And the man of God answered him: The Lord has the means to give you much more than this. 10. So Amaziah separated the army that had come to him from Ephraim, to return to their place; but they, greatly angered against Judah, returned to their own region. 11. Amaziah then boldly led out his people and went to the Valley of Salt and struck down ten thousand of the sons of Seir, 12. and the sons of Judah captured another ten thousand alive and brought them to the top of a certain cliff and cast them down headlong, and they were all dashed to pieces. 13. But the army that Amaziah had sent back so they would not go with him to battle spread through the cities of Judah, from Samaria to Beth-horon, and having killed three thousand, carried off a great plunder. 14. Amaziah, however, after the slaughter of the Edomites, brought back the gods of the sons of Seir and set them up as his gods, and worshiped them and burned incense to them. 15. Therefore the Lord, angered against Amaziah, sent a prophet to him, who said: Why have you worshiped gods who could not deliver their own people from your hand? 16. When the prophet was saying these things, the king answered him: Are you the king's counselor? Be silent, lest I kill you. And the prophet departed, saying: I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this evil and have not heeded my counsel. 17. Then Amaziah king of Judah, following the worst counsel, sent to Joash the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying: Come, let us face each other. 18. But he sent back messengers, saying: The thistle in Lebanon sent to the cedar of Lebanon, saying: Give your daughter to my son as wife; and behold, the beasts that were in the forest of Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle. 19. You say: I have struck Edom, and therefore your heart is lifted up in pride; sit in your house. Why do you provoke evil against yourself, that you should fall, both you and Judah with you? 20. Amaziah would not listen, because it was the Lord's will that he be delivered into the hands of the enemy because of the gods of Edom. 21. So Joash king of Israel went up, and they faced each other; Amaziah king of Judah was at Beth-shemesh of Judah. 22. Judah was defeated before Israel, and they fled to their tents. 23. Joash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and destroyed its wall from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate, four hundred cubits. 24. He also took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God and with Obed-edom, and the treasures of the royal house as well, and the hostages, and brought them back to Samaria. 25. Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel. 26. The rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 27. After the time that he turned away from the Lord, they conspired against him in Jerusalem. He fled to Lachish, but they sent after him and killed him there. 28. They brought him back on horses and buried him with his fathers in the City of David.
I have explained this chapter in 4 Kings (2 Kings), chapter 14.
Verse 6: A Hundred Thousand for a Hundred Talents
6. HE ALSO HIRED FROM ISRAEL ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MIGHTY MEN FOR ONE HUNDRED TALENTS OF SILVER. — A talent of silver contained three thousand silver shekels, that is, three thousand Brabantine florins, each of which contains four Roman Julii, or four Spanish Reales. Therefore one hundred talents of silver amount to three hundred thousand Brabantine florins, which, if distributed equally among the hundred thousand Israelites hired at this price, would give each soldier three Brabantine florins, or twelve Julii, which in that age, when money was scarce and provisions were at a low price, was an immense and highly valued sum. Therefore some without reason suppose these talents were of gold, when Scripture expressly says they were of silver.
Verse 7: A Man of God Came
7. BUT A MAN OF GOD CAME — a prophet sent by God. The Hebrews in Seder Olam report that this prophet was Amos, who was the brother of King Amaziah and the father of the prophet Isaiah, and they prove this from Isaiah 37:2, where St. Jerome reads: "To Isaiah the son of Amos the prophet," and so it was once read; although now the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Roman editions consistently read: "To Isaiah the son of Amos, the prophet."
O KING, LET NOT THE ARMY OF ISRAEL GO WITH YOU, FOR THE LORD IS NOT WITH ISRAEL — as His enemies who worship idols, namely the golden calves. Let Christian kings and princes learn here not to seek the help of heretical princes or soldiers, of Turks, and other infidels; because if they do, they will have God as their enemy and will feel His vengeance, as Jehoshaphat felt it, whose ships God destroyed because they were joined with those of the impious Ahaziah king of Israel, chapter 20:37. Our Salianus gives the reason, at the year of the world 3208, number 6. The Lord, he says, did not want the impious and unfaithful to be joined with the faithful. And so, although He favored each separately by His marvelous providence and gave them victory, yet when they were joined together He not infrequently struck them and rendered them defeated. Jehoshaphat was with Ahab (3 Kings / 1 Kings 22) when Ahab was killed, and Jehoshaphat himself ran a great risk to his life. He was likewise with Jehoram when the army, nearly perishing of thirst, almost became the prey of the Moabites (4 Kings / 2 Kings 3). Ahaziah was with Jehoram at Ramoth-Gilead when Jehoram was grievously wounded by the Syrians, and both kings were soon afterward killed by Jehu (4 Kings / 2 Kings 8:28). Therefore He says that He will not be present with them even now when joined, indeed He threatens destruction and ruin to both; but to the separated ones He gave victory. For soon afterward Amaziah was victorious against the Edomites, Joash against Amaziah, and Jeroboam against the Syrians. In the end, God preferred, and from God's will Amaziah the king preferred, to lose one hundred talents of silver, and indeed to have Judah plundered by the dismissed Israelites, as is clear from verse 13, rather than to admit them into alliance for war.
Verse 15: Why Did You Worship Gods?
15. WHY DID YOU WORSHIP GODS? — Hear Josephus narrating the event more fully: "Wherefore he was addressed by a prophet who said he marveled that he believed in these Gods who had been unable to bring any help to their own worshipers, nor had they protected them from the might of the Hebrews, but had suffered them to be slaughtered and led captive as though it were no concern of theirs. Indeed, the gods themselves, carried off by right of war among the rest of the crowd of captives, had arrived at Jerusalem. The king, provoked to anger by these words, ordered him to be silent on this matter, threatening punishment if he continued to meddle in affairs not his own. Then the prophet said he would indeed be silent, but God would not fail to avenge such innovations."
Verse 16: You Did Not Heed My Counsel
16. YOU DID NOT HEED MY COUNSEL. — "He would have heeded his counsel," says St. Jerome in the Traditions, "if he had burned them with fire, torn his garments, sprinkled ashes on his head, and given himself entirely to penitence. For this was the counsel the prophet had given him;" but because he did not heed, therefore the prophet freely and boldly declares to him: I KNOW THAT GOD HAS DETERMINED TO DESTROY YOU — and indeed He did destroy him, as is clear from verse 27. For the author of the Books of Chronicles wrote them with this purpose: to show, from the happy end of pious kings and the unhappy end of impious ones, that the happiness of kings and kingdoms consists in true religion and the true worship of God, and their unhappiness in its neglect.