Jeroboam II Reigns in Israel

Jeroboam son of Jehoash begins a long reign in Samaria, and the chapter judges him as evil in the usual pattern of the northern kings. He does not depart from Jeroboam son of Nebat’s sins.

I²³n the fifteenth year of the reign of Amaziah son of Joash over Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria forty-one years. ²⁴And he did evil in the sight of the LORD and did not turn away from all the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

Jeroboam restores Israel’s boundary as the LORD had spoken through Jonah, because the LORD sees Israel’s bitter affliction and their lack of help. He saves them through Jeroboam without changing the king’s moral evaluation.

²⁵This Jeroboam restored the boundary of Israel from Lebo-hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word that the LORD, the God of Israel, had spoken through His servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher. ²⁶For the LORD saw that the affliction of the Israelites, both slave and free, was very bitter. There was no one to help Israel, ²⁷and since the LORD had said that He would not blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.

The rest of Jeroboam’s accomplishments, wars, and recoveries are left to the chronicles, and his death is recorded. Zechariah succeeds him.

²⁸As for the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, along with all his accomplishments and might, and how he waged war and recovered both Damascus and Hamath for Israel from Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ²⁹And Jeroboam rested with his fathers, the kings of Israel. And his son Zechariah reigned in his place.