The kings of Israel and Judah

King Jehoash of Israel

The kingdom of Israel (the north) · Reigned sixteen years (2 Kings 13:10) · Also called Joash · Evil before God · 2 Kings 13:10 to 25; 14:8 to 16

Jehoash, also called Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, reigned sixteen years and did evil, holding to the sins of Jeroboam. Yet he is remembered for a moving scene at the deathbed of the prophet Elisha, where he wept and was given a prophecy of three victories over Syria, and for recovering the cities his father had lost. He also defeated Amaziah of Judah in battle and plundered Jerusalem. He is not the same man as Joash king of Judah.

Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.2 Kings 13:14 (KJV)

Evil, like the kings before him

Jehoash did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, but walked therein. Like his father and the kings before him, he kept the golden-calf worship of the north, and Scripture gives him the standard verdict of the evil kings of Israel.

And yet his reign holds moments of genuine feeling and of God's persistent mercy toward a people who did not deserve it.

The arrows of deliverance and the death of Elisha

When the prophet Elisha lay dying, Jehoash came down to him and wept over his face and cried, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof, honoring the prophet even as he clung to his idols. Elisha told him to shoot an arrow eastward, the arrow of the LORD's deliverance from Syria, and then to strike the ground with the arrows. Jehoash struck three times and stopped, and the prophet was angry, saying that he should have struck five or six times and utterly destroyed Syria, but now would defeat it only three times.

So it came to pass: after Elisha's death Jehoash defeated the Syrians three times and recovered the cities of Israel that had been lost. God's compassion held: the LORD was gracious unto them, and had respect unto them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not yet destroy them nor cast them from his presence.

War with Judah

When Amaziah of Judah, proud after defeating Edom, challenged Jehoash to battle, Jehoash warned him with the parable of a thistle that presumed to match a cedar, and told him to stay home. Amaziah would not listen, and Jehoash defeated Judah at Beth-shemesh, captured Amaziah, broke down a long stretch of the wall of Jerusalem, and took the treasures of the temple and palace and hostages back to Samaria.

It was a humbling of the southern kingdom by the northern, and a further sign of the disorder of the age, brother kingdom against brother kingdom.

The biblical verdict and where it points

Jehoash is judged evil, and yet his story, like his father's, is threaded with God's mercy: victories granted, cities recovered, a people spared for the sake of the covenant with the patriarchs. His tears over Elisha show a man who honored the prophet of God while never fully turning to God himself.

The half-hearted striking of the arrows is a quiet parable: Jehoash received exactly as much deliverance as his faith reached out to take. It invites every reader not to stop short with God, but to seek him fully. And the covenant-keeping mercy that spared Israel points to the God who, for the sake of his promises, would at last send the true Deliverer to win not three victories but the final one over sin and death.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Related: Jehoahaz of Israel · Jeroboam II · Amaziah · All the kings of Israel and Judah