God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 25:25-28 On horses
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, May 4, 2025
25 Amaziah, son of Joash, King of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, King of Israel. 26 And the rest of the deeds of Amaziah, from first to last, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel? 27 From the time that Amaziah turned away from the LORD they began to conspire against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish, and they killed him there. 28 They brought him back on horses and buried him with his fathers in the City of Judah.
The chronology of Amaziah’s life and reign are not vital to our understanding of our salvation through Jesus, but since we are given details about his reign and some of its dates, let’s take a look at those details:
821 BC – Amaziah was born when his father Joash was 21. Old Jehoiada the high priest was probably still living then.
808 BC – Birth of Azariah, one of Amaziah’s sons (2 Chronicles 26:1).
796 BC – Amaziah became king after Joash was murdered (2 Chronicles 24:26-27, 25:1).
792 BC – At about this time, Jehoash of Israel took Amaziah captive during the Battle of Beth Shemesh (2 Chronicles 25:23). The people set the 16-year-old Azariah, Amaziah’s son, on the throne. This did not happen after Amaziah died, but when he was captured. The key phrase comes in 2 Chronicles 26:1, where we are clearly told that he “was made king in place of his father,” rather than that “his son… became king after him” as is usually stated (24:27).
782 BC – Death of Jehoash of Israel. Was this the date that Amaziah was released from his captivity? This detail is not clearly explained (see 2 Chronicles 25:25).
767 BC – Death of Amaziah, after 29 years as king (2 Chronicles 25:1).
This means that Azariah, Amaziah’s son, ruled for 25 years alongside (or instead of) his father. This co-rule, and another at the other end of Azariah’s time, are important events to notice in harmonizing the confusing dates of the Hebrew kings. Another point that will interest students of the Bible far more is that the prophet Elisha died during the reign of Jehoash (early in the time of Amaziah) and that several prophets are associated with Azariah. His other name, Uzziah, is found in the chronological details of three prophets: Isaiah 1:1; Hosea 1:1 and Amos 1:1.
The end of Amaziah’s reign was met with open rebellion by the king’s people. They conspired against him because of his idolatry. They remembered how the Lord’s wrath had come down on him and upon their city because of this, and his refusal to turn back to the Lord must have seemed like madness, true insanity, to the people. He found out about the conspiracy and fled to Lachish, one of Judah’s strongest fortresses. But the garrison at Lachish was sympathetic to the young king Azariah, and a group from Jerusalem was allowed entrance into the city and killed Amaziah there.
What is the significance of Amaziah’s body being brought back “on horses”? Maybe nothing. But maybe something. The plural term is almost ominous. Was the idolatrous and wicked Amaziah hacked to pieces with swords, and the pieces strapped to the backs of multiple horses to return him to Jerusalem? A gruesome scene presents itself. Azariah the young king (not so young anymore) meets the soldiers at one of Jerusalem’s western gates, and asks, “Where is the body of my father the king?” And men leading a group of horses (four or five?) untie bundles from each of the animals, and present the bundles without unwrapping them: “These are the body of the king, O king.” I am trying to account for the preposition “upon” (‘al) and the plural “horses” (ha-sussim) as the text has it. The parallel passage, 2 Kings 14:20, has precisely the same phrase, which does not occur anywhere else in the Scriptures.
Amaziah was buried in the tombs of the kings in Jerusalem. But for the only time in Scripture, the city is called by the name, “City of Judah” instead. This unique term is found in ancient Assyrian and Babylonian sources. The parallel verse, 2 Kings 14:20, has “City of David.”
We do not know whether Amaziah repented of his idolatry in the end. It’s possible that he could have. Isolated in some tower in Lachish near the Philistine border, knowing that Jerusalem had sent soldiers for him and that the men of Lachish feared the Lord and didn’t approve of his unbelief, he could well have considered that, in these last moments of life, it was time to repent. The punishment for blaspheming the name of the Lord—a form of idolatry—was death, even death by stoning (Leviticus 24:16). The Lord said to Ezekiel about any idol worshiper, “I will cut him off from my people” (Ezekiel 14:4-8). Was there time, then, for the king to turn back to the God of Jacob, the Fear of Isaac, to be merciful to his soul even though his body was about to die? Could David’s own words have come into his mind? “Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit” (Psalm 143:7). Whether the king did or not, we pray that those of our loved ones who have wandered away from the faith would be brought back. This morning my associate, Pastor Scott Oelhafen, declared in his confirmation day sermon: “Mankind has the horrible ability to turn away from God.” Only the gospel has the power to turn them back. Pray for them, and share that gospel of forgiveness and faith. “The Lord is good, a refuge in a time of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him” (Nahum 1:7).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.