Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 14:23–end
Here is an account of the reign of Jeroboam the second. I doubt it is an indication of the affection and adherence of the house of Jehu to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that they called an heir-apparent to the crown by his name, thinking that an honourable name which in the book of God is infamous and stigmatized as much as any.
I. His reign was long, the longest of all the reigns of the kings of Israel: He reigned forty-one years; yet his contemporary Azariah, the king of Judah, reigned longer, even fifty-two years. This Jeroboam reigned just as long as Asa had done (Kg1 15:10), yet one did that which was good and the other that which was evil. We cannot mea…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Kings 14:23
JEROBOAM'S WICKED REIGN OVER ISRAEL. (Kg2 14:23-29)
Jeroboam, the son of Joash king of Israel--This was Jeroboam II who, on regaining the lost territory, raised the kingdom to great political power (Kg2 14:25), but adhered to the favorite religious policy of the Israelitish sovereigns (Kg2 14:24). While God granted him so great a measure of national prosperity and eminence, the reason is expressly stated (Kg2 14:26-27) to be that the purposes of the divine covenant forbade as yet the overthrow of the kingdom of the ten tribes (see Kg2 13:23).
Next: 2 Kings Chapter 15
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 14:28
How he warred, and - recovered Damascus - We learn from Ch1 18:3-11, that David had conquered all Syria, and put garrisons in Damascus and other places, and laid all the Syrians under tribute; but this yoke they had not only shaken off, but they had conquered a considerable portion of the Israelitish territory, and added it to Syria. These latter Jeroboam now recovered; and thus the places which anciently belonged to Judah by David's conquests, and were repossessed by Syria, he now conquered, and added to Israel.
John Gill on 2 Kings 14:28
Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred,.... His valiant acts and warlike exploits:
and how he recovered Damascus and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel; which cities, in the times of David and Solomon, were tributary to Judah, but afterwards fell into the hands of the Syrians, from whom Jeroboam recovered them, and annexed them to the kingdom of Israel; or, as Kimchi, though Jeroboam was king of Israel, yet, having taken them, he restored them to the king of Judah, to whom they belonged:
are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? where all events of any moment were registered.
