Chapter 13
In the 23rd year of Joash (which is the year Joash insisted that the priests start making some repairs) Jehoahaz, son of Jehu begins to reign in Israel. He is an evil King, after the manner of Jeroboam. God is very angry with Israel over this, and sends/allows Hazael to continually raid in Israel and sort of annex territory from Israel into Syria. Hazael's son Ben-Hadad also campaigns against Israel. (So Hazael names his own son after the King he himself murdered to rise to power. Or does Ben-Hadad have some special meaning?) Jehoahaz seeks God's help and gets it. This help is in the form of a savior, but no details of this are given here. It says that the people of Israel lived as before. So somehow, the raids stopped. Even so, neither Jehoahaz nor the people stopped worshiping as Jeroboam did, and the Asherah also remain.
2023 - I note that this whole thing about God sending a savior to help Israel at this time is in parentheses. Again with the parentheses. What do they mean? Did Hebrew actually even have parentheses? How could they have been passed down orally before the Masoretic text came along? Is there an implication that this part was inserted? Are there two inserts in this chapter, one about this savior and the other about the guy coming back to life after Elisha's bones touch him? That Elisha thing is NOT in parentheses? Well...just checked the MSB, which is NASB, and there are NO parentheses at verse 5 at all. So that tells me that the ESV means something by the parens that apparently the NASB did not see the same way. How can I get to the bottom of this??? I looked at the introduction to the translation, sort of "scanned" it, and didn't see anything about parentheses. I will go back when I get time and read it closely and thoroughly. If that doesn't work, I'm going to write/email B.B. Kirkbride Bible Company and ask them if they know why they're doing this.
2023 - Here is the footnote to vs 5 from MSB speculating on who this savior might be: "The deliverer was not specifically named. This deliverer was: 1) the Assyrian king Adad-Nirari KKK whose attack on the Syrians or Arameans, enabled the Israelites to break Syria's control over Israelite territory; or 2) Elisha, who as the leader of Israel's military successes (see v 14; cf 6:13, 16-23) commissioned Joash to defeat the Syrians; or 3) Jeroboam II who was able to extend Israel's boundaries back into Syrian territory (14:25-27). In NASB, it calls this person a deliverer. In ESV it is translated Savior. The Hebrew word is transliterated yaw-shah. It is translated "save" 149 times. savior 15 times and deliverer 13 times. This looks like the word is really a verb, and is "converted" to a noun in some circumstances. ESV seems to have gone with a form of the word most often translated - save - and rendered it savior.
Because of Syrian conquest, Israel only has 10,000 foot soldiers, and a few horseman, and 10 chariots. That is their entire army, because Hazael has wiped out the rest. Jehoahaz dies, and his son Joash reigns in his place.
2021 - Here is a case of God helping Israel when He is sought by Israel's King, even though Israel really does not repent of any of the sins God is angry about. I do not understand this. But for those who think God is too severe, and blame him for what he allows to happen, there are examples like this of the extraordinary mercy that he shows to those undeserving of mercy that offset the horror allowed to happen to those who don't deserve horror. There is no constancy of justice in this world, where sin exists and sinners dispense justice. We cannot expect it, and over and over the Bible shows us that the rain falls on both the evil and the good.
Again we have the same name of a King in north and south. In Joash's 37th year (of 40, in the south), Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, takes over in the north. Wouldn't be so bad except they reign at the same time! He reigns 16 years. Not much is said about this King of Israel in 2Kings. He fought against Amaziah, King of Judah, but no details here. And then he dies, and his son Jeroboam becomes King. So...Jeroboam II maybe? I didn't realize there were two with this name.
Then we switch to Elisha, who is sick with the illness he is to die from. God doesn't just take him, he gets sick and dies. Elisha does this thing with Joash King of Israel and it is determined that Joash will win three victories over Syria. Only three. It could have been more. Then Elisha dies.
There is this little paragraph, vss 20 and 21, that says as they were burying some guy, apparently so near the grave of Elisha that Elisha's bones were exposed, and the other guy was hastily thrown in the hole because of some Moabite raiders being spotted, and when the freshly dead guy's body touched Elisha's bones, the dead guy came back to life. This seems awfully like a later inserted section...And I'm sure it's a sin to think so. MSB says it is real, and that it was a sign that the promises made through Elisha would continue even after Elisha's death, because God's power continued through that.
Jehoahaz indeed fights three battles with Syria - all with Ben-Hadad after Hazael dies - and in so doing, retakes many captured cities of Israel.