Jeroboam II

Jeroboam II (ירבעם השני) was the son and successor of Jehoash, and the fourteenth king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, over which he ruled for forty-one years (2 Kings 14:23).

His reign was contemporary with those of Amaziah (2 Kings 14:23) and Uzziah (15:1), kings of Judah. He was victorious over the Syrians (13:4; 14:26, 27), and extended Israel to its former limits, from "the entering of Hamath to the sea of the plain" (14:25; Amos 6:14).

William F. Albright has dated his reign to 786 B.C.E.-746 B.C.E., while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 782 B.C.E.-753 B.C.E.

While his reign was the most prosperous that Israel had yet known, his contemporaries—such as the prophets Hosea (Hosea 1:1), Joel (Amos 1:1, 2), Amos (1:1), and Jonah (2 Kings 14:25)—declared that iniquity widely prevailed in the land (Amos 2:6-8; 4:1; 6:6; Hos. 4:12-14), by following the example of the first Jeroboam in promoting the worship of the golden calves (2 Kings 14:24). His name occurs in the Old Testament only in 2 Kings 13:13; 14:16, 23, 27, 28, 29; 15:1, 8; 1 Chronicles 5:17; Hosea 1:1; and Amos 1:1; 7:9, 10, 11. In all other passages it is Jeroboam I, the son of Nebat that is meant.

Character

A man of great energy, Jeroboam turned succeeded in developing the northern Kingdom of Israel to perhaps its greatest extent. The Syrian kingdom of Damascus, since the very first days of the independent northern kingdom esablished by Jeroboam's namesake, Jeroboam I, had been a thorn in the flesh of the northern kings. Damascus had been weakened when it was attacked by Assur-dan III, King of Assyria (773), and Assyria itself was on the decline. This enabled Jeroboam to carry out to extend the boundaries of his kingdom in accordance with claims never totally relinquished. Jeroboam II may have had to pay tribute to Assyria for its acquiescence in his military expeditions and conquests, among which, may have included the cities of Lodebar and Karnaim, alluded to in Amos 6:13.

Some of the prophets saw in these successes signs of messianic import as is evidenced from the oracle of Jonah's retained by the compilers of the Books of Kings. The triumphs of the king, however, had engendered a haughty spirit of boastful overconfidence at home (Amos 6:13). Oppression and exploitation of the poor by the mighty, luxury in palaces of unheard-of splendor, and a craving for amusement were some of the internal fruits of these external triumphs. The unauthorized altars to Yahweh at Dan and Bethel, at Gilgal and Beersheba, arose the indignation of prophets such as Amos and Hosea; and the foreign cults (Amos 5) contributed still further to the corruption of the nation. These prophets correctly predicted that Assyria would soon recover its prestige, and then would come the day of reckoning.

In 1910, G. A. Reisner found sixty-three inscribed potsherds while excavating the royal palace at Samaria, which were later dated to the reign of Jeroboam II and mention regnal years extending from the ninth to the 17th of his reign. These ostraca, while unremarkable in themselves, contain valuable information about the script, language, religion and administrative system of the period.

He is remembered as having waged war and won back for Israel Damascus and Hamath (II Kings xiv. 26-28). In II Chron. v. (vi.) 17 he is credited with having classified by genealogies the inhabitants of the recovered (transjordanic) territory.

Critical view

The Book of Kings is ambivalent in its attitude toward Jeroboam II. Like all of the northern kings, it denounces him for "doing evil" by supporting the national shrines at Bethel and Dan, which completed with the Temple of Jerusalem, which the authors of Kings promoted as the only authorized place of Yahweh worship. Yet, Kings begrudgingly retains a contrary assessment him as well:

He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher. The Lord had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering; there was no one to help them. And since the Lord had not said he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.(2 Kings 14:25-27)

Contrary to the usual method of the Books of Kings, in which prophetic experiences and predictions are elaborately introduced, the actual words of Jonah ben Amittai are not given. The boundaries mentioned correspond with the ideal limits given in Amos 5:14.

Jonah seems to have recognized Jeroboam as the "savior" and "helper" of Israel, two titles with messianic implications. Some critics see the denunciation of the corruption of his regime by Amos and Hosea as the expression of profound disappointment born of expectations that his military and economic successes would be accompanied by religious reforms in which the worship of foreign deities would be forbidden and steps would be taken to do away with corruption among the priest of Yahweh as well. These prophets, however, do not seem to go as far as the Books of Kings, insisting not that alternative altars to that of Jerusalem be destroyed, only that they be more sincerely devoted to true religion, in which ethics play just as an essential part as ceremony.

House of Jehoshaphat
Preceded by: Jehoash	King of Israel Albright: 786 B.C.E. – 746 B.C.E. Thiele: 782 B.C.E. – 753 B.C.E. Galil: 790 B.C.E. – 750 B.C.E.	Succeeded by: Zachariah

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