Here are three kings brought to their graves in these few verses: - 1. Joash king of Israel, Kg2 14:15, Kg2 14:16. We attended his funeral once before, Kg2 13:12, Kg2 13:13. But, because the historian had occasion to give a further account of his life and actions, he again mentions his death and burial. 2. Amaziah king of Judah. Fifteen years he survived his conqueror the king of Israel, Kg2 14:17. A man may live a great while after he has been shamed, may be thoroughly mortified (as Amaziah no doubt was) and yet not dead. His acts are said to be found written in his annals (Kg2 14:18), but not his might; for his cruelty when he was a conqueror over the Edomites, and his insolence when he challenged the king of Israel, showed him void of true courage. He was slain by his own subjects, who hated him for his maladministration (Kg2 14:19) and made Jerusalem too hot for him, the ignominious breach made in their walls being occasioned by his folly and presumption. He fled to Lachish. How long he continued concealed or sheltered there we are not told, but, at last, he was there murdered, Kg2 14:19. No further did the rage of the rebels extend, for they brought him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him there among his ancestors. 3. Azariah succeeded Amaziah, but not till twelve years after his father's death, for Amaziah died in the fifteenth year of Jeroboam (as appears by comparing Kg2 14:23 with Kg2 14:2), but Azariah did not begin his reign till the twenty-seventh of Jeroboam (ch. 15:1), for he was but four years old at the death of his father, so that, for twelve years, till he came to be sixteen, the government was in the hands of protectors. He reigned very long (ch. 15:2) and yet the account of his reign is here industriously huddled up, and broken off abruptly (v. 22): He built Elath (which had belonged to the Edomites, but, it is probable, was recovered by his father, v. 7), after that the king slept with his fathers, as if that had been all he did that was worth mentioning, or rather it is meant of king Amaziah: he built it soon after Amaziah died.

They made a conspiracy against him - His defeat by Jehoash, and the consequent pillaging of the temple, and emptying the royal exchequer, and the dismantling of Jerusalem, had made him exceedingly unpopular; so that probably the whole of the last fifteen years of his life were a series of troubles and distresses.

In the fifteenth year of Amaziah, the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria,.... So that he reigned fourteen or fifteen years contemporary with him; for Amaziah reigned twenty nine years:

and reigned forty and one years; Josephus says (i) forty, giving only the round number.

(i) Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 9.) c. 10. sect. 1.

HE IS SLAIN BY A CONSPIRACY. (Kg2 14:17-20)

they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem--Amaziah's apostasy (Ch2 25:27) was followed by a general maladministration, especially the disastrous issue of the war with Israel. The ruinous condition of Jerusalem, the plunder of the temple, and the loss of their children who were taken as hostages [Kg2 14:13-14], lost him the respect and attachment not of the grandees only, but of his subjects generally, who were in rebellion. The king fled in terror to Lachish, a frontier town of the Philistines, where, however, he was traced and murdered. His friends had his corpse brought without any pomp or ceremony, in a chariot to Jerusalem, where he was interred among his royal ancestors.