2 Kings 14:25

“He restored the coast of Israel, etc.] The cities upon it, which had been taken away from them by their enemies: from the entering of Hamath; which was the northern border of the land of Canaan, the entrance into it from Syria, (see <043408>Numbers 34:8), unto the sea of the plain: of Jordan, called sometimes the salt sea and the Dead Sea; the lake Asphaltites, as Josephus f157, where formerly stood Sodom and Gomorrah: according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah the son of Amittai; the same with him whose prophecy among the small prophets bears this name; and though his prophecy concerning Jeroboam’s success and victories is not there, nor…”

“He restored the coast of Israel - Jeroboam, in the course of his long reign, recovered the old boundaries of the holy land to the north, the east, and the southeast. The “entering in of Hamath” is spoken of as the northern boundary; the “sea of the plain,” or the Dead Sea, is the southern boundary (see the marginal references): here Israel adjoined on Moab. The entire tract east of Jordan had been lost to Israel in the reign of Jehu and that of Jehoahaz 2 Kings 10:33; 2Ki 13:3, 2 Kings 13:25. All this was now recovered: and not only so, but Moab was reduced Amos 6:14, and the Syrians were in their turn forced to submit to the Jews 2 Kings 14:28. The northern conquests were perhaps little…”

“The sea - Unto the dead sea, once a goodly plain, Gen 13:10, which was their southern border. 4 Kings (2 Kings) 14:26”

“14:25 Israel and Judah apparently lived in harmony at this time so that both kingdoms prospered and recovered nearly all the territory that Solomon had held (see 2 Chr 26:6-15). • Lebo-hamath, known from Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions, lay some forty-five miles north of Damascus in the Beqa‘ Valley. The extent of Jeroboam’s conquests testifies to the northern kingdom’s military power. Israel’s victories against the Arameans were possible because Aram had been weakened by earlier conquests of Adad-nirari III of Assyria. • Jonah is the famous prophet who pronounced the doom of Nineveh but was disappointed when God spared its repentant people (Jon 3:3–4:3).”

“from the entering: Num 13:21, Num 34:7, Num 34:8; Eze 47:16-18; Amo 6:14 unto the sea: Gen 14:3; Deu 3:17 Jonah: Jon 1:1; Mat 12:39, Mat 12:40, Mat 16:4, Jonas Gathhepher: Jos 19:13, Gittah-hepher 4 Kings (2 Kings) 14:26”

“He brought back (השׁיב), i.e., restored, the boundary of Israel from towards Hamath in the north, to the point to which the kingdom extended in the time of Solomon ( Kg1 8:65), to the sea of the Arabah (the present Ghor), i.e., to the Dead Sea (compare Deu 3:17, and Deu 4:49, from which this designation of the southern border of the kingdom of the ten tribes arose), "according to the word of the Lord, which He had spoken through the prophet Jonah," who had probably used this designation of the southern boundary, which was borrowed from the Pentateuch, in the announcement which he made. The extent of the kingdom of Israel in the reign of Jeroboam is defined in the same manner in Amo 6:14, but…”