Jehoahaz
(whom the Lord sustains). The son and successor of jehu, reigned 17 years, B.C. 856-840, over Israel in Samaria. His inglorious history is given in ( 2 Kings 13:1-9 ) Throughout his reign, ver. ( 2 Kings 13:22 ) he was kept in subjection by Hazael king of Damascus. Jehoahaz maintained the idolatry of Jeroboam; but in the extremity of his humiliation he besought Jehovah, and Jehovah gave Israel a deliverer—probably either Jehoash, vs. ( 2 Kings 13:23 ) and 2Kin 13:25 Or Jeroboam II., ( 2 Kings 14:24 , 25 ) Jehoahaz, otherwise called Shallum, son of Josiah, whom he succeeded as king of Judah. He was chosen by the people in preference to his elder (comp. ( 2 Kings 23:31 ) and 2Kin 23:36 ) brother, B.C. 610, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. Pharaoh-necho sent to Jerusalem to depose him and to fetch him to Riblah. There he was cast into chains, and from thence he was taken into Egypt, where he died. The name given, ( 2 Chronicles 21:17 ) to Ahaziah, the youngest son of Jehoram king of Judah.
Jeroboam
(whose people are many). The first king of the divided kingdom of Israel, B.C. 975-954, was the son of an Ephraimite of the name of Nebat. He was raised by Solomon to the rank of superintendent over the taxes and labors exacted from the tribe of Ephraim. ( 1 Kings 11:28 ) he made the most of his position, and at last was perceived by Solomon to be aiming at the monarchy. He was leaving Jerusalem, when he was met by Ahijah the prophet, who gave him the assurance that, on condition of obedience to his laws, God would establish for him a kingdom and dynasty equal to that of David. ( 1 Kings 11:29-40 ) The attempts of Solomon to cut short Jeroboam’s designs occasioned his flight into Egypt. There he remained until Solomon’s death. After a year’s longer stay in Egypt, during which Jeroboam married Ano, the elder sister of the Egyptian queen Tahpenes, he returned to Shechem, where took place the conference with Rehoboam [ Rehoboam ], and the final revolt which ended in the elevation of Jeroboam to the throne of the northern kingdom. Now occurred the fatal error of his policy. Fearing that the yearly pilgrimages to Jerusalem would undo all the work which he effected, he took the bold step of rending the religious unity of the nation, which was as yet unimpaired, asunder. He caused two golden figures of Mnevis, the sacred calf, to be made and set up at the two extremities of his kingdom, one at Dan and the other at Bethel. It was while dedicating the altar at Bethel that a prophet from Judah suddenly appeared, who denounced the altar, and foretold its desecration by Josiah, and violent overthrow. The king, stretching out his hand to arrest the prophet, felt it withered and paralyzed, and only at the prophet’s prayer saw it restored, and acknowledged his divine mission. Jeroboam was at constant war with the house of Judah, but the only act distinctly recorded is a battle with Abijah, son of Rehoboam, in which he was defeated. The calamity was severely felt; he never recovered the blow, and soon after died, in the 22d year of his reign, ( 2 Chronicles 13:20 ) and was buried in his ancestral sepulchre. ( 1 Kings 14:20 ) Jeroboam II., the son of Joash, the fourth of the dynasty of Jehu. (B.C. 825-784.) The most prosperous of the kings of Israel. He repelled the Syrian invaders, took their capital city Damascus, ( 2 Kings 14:28 ) and recovered the whole of the ancient dominion from Hamah to the Dead Sea. ch ( 2 Kings 14:25 ) Ammon and Moab were reconquered, and the transjordanic tribes were restored to their territory, ( 2 Kings 13:5 ; 1 Chronicles 5:17-22 ) but it was merely an outward restoration.
Jonah
(dove), the fifth of the minor prophets, was the son of Amittai, and a native of Gath-hepher. ( 2 Kings 14:25 ) He flourished in or before the reign of Jeroboam II., about B.C. 820. Having already, as it seems, prophesied to Israel, he was sent to Nineveh. The time was one of political revival in Israel; but ere long the Assyrians were to be employed by God as a scourge upon them. The prophet shrank from a commission which he felt sure would result, ( Jonah 4:2 ) in the sparing of a hostile city. He attempted therefore to escape to Tarshish. The providence of God, however, watched over him, first in a storm, and then in his being swallowed by a large fish (a sea monster, probably the white shark) for the space of three days and three nights. [On this subject see article Whale ] After his deliverance, Jonah executed his commission; and the king, “believing him to be a minister form the supreme deity of the nation,” and having heard of his miraculous deliverance, ordered a general fast, and averted the threatened judgment. But the prophet, not from personal but national feelings, grudged the mercy shown to a heathen nation. He was therefore taught by the significant lesson of the “gourd,” whose growth and decay brought the truth at once home to him, that he was sent to testify by deed, as other prophets would afterward testify by word, the capacity of Gentiles for salvation, and the design of God to make them partakers of it. This was “the sign of the prophet Jonas.” ( Luke 11:29 , 30 ) But the resurrection of Christ itself was also shadowed forth in the history of the prophet. ( Matthew 12:39 , 41 ; 16:4 ) The mission of Jonah was highly symbolical. The facts contained a concealed prophecy. The old tradition made the burial-place of Jonah to be Gath-hepher; the modern tradition places it at Nebi-Yunus, opposite Mosul.