The Fallible Study Bible

The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

2 Kings14:17–20

The Death of Amaziah

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

2 Kings 14:17–20 — The Death of Amaziah. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

17

Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’ă·maṣ·yā·hū ḇen- yō·w·’āš me·leḵ yə·hū·ḏāh way·ḥî ḥă·mêš ‘eś·rêh šā·nāh ’a·ḥă·rê mō·wṯ yə·hō·w·’āš ben- yə·hō·w·’ā·ḥāz me·leḵ yiś·rā·’êl

Word by word16 · parsed
אֲמַצְיָ֤הוּ’ă·maṣ·yā·hūAmaziahH558
√ ʼĂmatsyâh — Amatsjah, the name of four IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
ʼĂmatsyâh: Amaziah, a personal name (H558) The subject of the whole unit, named four times in these four verses and never once given a verb of ruling. Strong's identifies the form only as a personal name borne by four Israelites; the brief supplies no etymology, so none is claimed here.
בֶן־ḇen-sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
bên: son (H1121) Construct, binding king to father; the formula that carries the dynasty.
יוֹאָשׁ֙yō·w·’āšof JoashH3101
√ Yôwʼâsh — Joash, the name of six IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
מֶ֣לֶךְme·leḵkingH4428
√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct
melek: king (H4428) Construct state, "king-of," a title held only in relation to a people.
יְהוּדָ֔הyə·hū·ḏāhof JudahH3063
√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
וַיְחִ֨יway·ḥîlivedH2421
√ châyâh — to live, whether literally or figurativelyConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
châyâh: to live (Qal consecutive imperfect) The narrative verb of simple survival. Kings in this book are normally measured by mâlak (he reigned); here Amaziah is measured by breathing. Cambridge: this is not the usual way a king's continuance is described, and may mean he was kept in subjection after Beth-shemesh and never came back into the full enjoyment of his power. K&D reads the same fifteen years as mercy, a stay of execution granted to a proud man whose conqueror died first. Both readings agree the verb is deliberately not the verb of reigning.
חֲמֵ֥שׁḥă·mêšfor fifteenH2568
√ châmêsh — fiveNumberfeminine singular construct
עֶשְׂרֵ֖ה‘eś·rêh. . .H6240
√ ʻâsâr — ten (only in combination), iNumberfeminine singular
שָׁנָֽה׃šā·nāhyearsH8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular
shâneh: a year, as a revolution of time (H8141) Singular after the numeral, per Hebrew idiom. Gill notes the arithmetic: fifteen years after Jehoash plus fourteen contemporary with him equals the twenty-nine of 2 Kings 14:2, and records that the Vulgate reads "twenty five years" instead.
אַֽחֲרֵ֣י’a·ḥă·rêafterH310
√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partPreposition
מ֔וֹתmō·wṯthe deathH4194
√ mâveth — death (natural or violent)Nounmasculine singular construct
mâveth: death, natural or violent (H4194) The word stands at the structural center of the unit: Jehoash's death opens it (v. 17) and Amaziah's violent death closes it (vv. 19 to 20). The lexicon's own range, "natural or violent," spans exactly the two deaths this passage reports, and the king who outlives the first dies the second.
יְהוֹאָ֥שׁyə·hō·w·’āšof JehoashH3060
√ Yᵉhôwʼâsh — Jehoash, the name of two Israelite kingsNounpropermasculine singular
בֶּן־ben-sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
יְהֽוֹאָחָ֖זyə·hō·w·’ā·ḥāzof JehoahazH3059
√ Yᵉhôwʼâchâz — Jehoachaz, the name of three IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
מֶ֣לֶךְme·leḵkingH4428
√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct
יִשְׂרָאֵ֑לyiś·rā·’êlof IsraelH3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
Yisrâʼêl: Israel, the symbolic name of Jacob (H3478) The northern kingdom, here as the power whose king had broken Jerusalem's wall and taken Judah's hostages (2 Kings 14:13 to 14).
18

As for the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·ye·ṯer diḇ·rê ’ă·maṣ·yā·hū hă·lō- hêm kə·ṯū·ḇîm ‘al- sê·p̄er diḇ·rê hay·yā·mîm lə·mal·ḵê yə·hū·ḏāh

Word by word12 · parsed
וְיֶ֖תֶרwə·ye·ṯerAs for the restH3499
√ yether — properly, an overhanging, iConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
yether: an overhanging, a remainder (H3499) The formula word of the book of Kings. Whatever the narrator judged not worth telling is consigned to it, and here that surplus is large: Pulpit lists the Edomite war, the idolatry, and the prophet's rebuke of 2 Chronicles 25, all of which this account passes over in silence. The reader is told the file exists and is not shown it.
דִּבְרֵ֣יdiḇ·rêof the actsH1697
√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct
dâbâr: a word (H1697) "Words of Amaziah" means his doings; the noun holds speech and deed together, which is why the same word titles the annal in the second half of the verse.
אֲמַצְיָ֑הוּ’ă·maṣ·yā·hūof AmaziahH558
√ ʼĂmatsyâh — Amatsjah, the name of four IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
הֲלֹא־hă·lō-are they notH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
lôʼ: not (H3808) With the interrogative hă prefixed, a question expecting yes: "are they not?"
הֵ֣םhêm. . .H1992
√ hêm — they (only used when emphatic)Pronounthird person masculine plural
hêm: they, only used when emphatic (H1992) The independent pronoun is not required by the syntax; Strong's notes it appears only for emphasis. It presses the point: those things, they are on record, whether or not this book repeats them.
כְּתוּבִ֗יםkə·ṯū·ḇîmwrittenH3789
√ kâthab — to grave, by implication, to write (describe, inscribe, prescribe, subscribe)VerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine plural
kâthab: to grave, hence to write (H3789) Qal passive participle. The root's first sense is incising, and the state it names is permanent. Applied to a king whose remaining acts are being withheld, the participle says the omission is editorial, not an absence of evidence.
עַל־‘al-inH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
סֵ֛פֶרsê·p̄erthe BookH5612
√ çêpher — properly, writing (the art or a document)Nounmasculine singular construct
çêpher: writing, a document (H5612) A scroll of royal annals. Gill: not the canonical book of Chronicles, but the annals of each reign kept by the king's appointed historian. This distinction matters for how the unit's silences are read: the narrator had more, and chose.
דִּבְרֵ֥יdiḇ·rêof the ChroniclesH1697
√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct
הַיָּמִ֖יםhay·yā·mîm. . .H3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)ArticleNounmasculine plural
yôwm: a day (H3117) Plural with the article, "the days"; the second half of the annal's title.
לְמַלְכֵ֥יlə·mal·ḵêof the KingsH4428
√ melek — a kingPreposition-lNounmasculine plural construct
יְהוּדָֽה׃yə·hū·ḏāhof JudahH3063
√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
19

And conspirators plotted against Amaziah in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But men were sent after him to Lachish, and they killed him there.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

qe·šer way·yiq·šə·rū ‘ā·lāw bî·rū·šā·lim way·yā·nās lā·ḵî·šāh way·yiš·lə·ḥū ’a·ḥă·rāw lā·ḵî·šāh way·mi·ṯu·hū šām

Word by word11 · parsed
קֶ֛שֶׁרqe·šerAnd conspiratorsH7195
√ qesher — an (unlawful) allianceNounmasculine singular
qesher: an unlawful alliance (H7195) A rare noun, standing in only thirteen verses in the whole Hebrew Bible, and the book of Kings spends several of them on this one dynasty: Joash the father is killed by a qesher (2 Kings 12:20), Amaziah the son by a qesher here, and the northern house falls to the same word repeatedly (2 Kings 15:15, 15:30). Its rarity is what makes the verbal link to 2 Chronicles 25:27 a real one rather than a coincidence of common words.
וַיִּקְשְׁר֨וּway·yiq·šə·rūplottedH7194
√ qâshar — to tie, physically (gird, confine, compact) or mentally (in love, league)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
qâshar: to tie, gird, confine, league (H7194) Qal consecutive imperfect, plural, with the cognate noun as its object. The root's innocent senses include tying in love and in league (as Jonathan's soul was knit to David's); here the same tying is turned against the anointed head of the house of David by the house's own subjects. Cambridge holds the disaffection had been forming since Amaziah brought the gods of Seir home; K&D insists a conspiracy cannot have simmered fifteen years and reads the Chronicler's note as origin of discontent rather than date of plot.
עָלָ֥יו‘ā·lāwagainst [Amaziah]H5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPrepositionthird person masculine singular
ʻal: upon, over, against, with a downward aspect (H5921) With the suffix, "against him." Strong's notes that in this adversative sense the preposition keeps its downward force: the knot is tied over him.
בִּירוּשָׁלִַ֖םbî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389
√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
Yᵉrûwshâlaim: Jerusalem (H3389) The conspiracy is formed in the covenant city itself, which is why Ellicott infers either a popular rising or a military revolt rather than a private grudge.
וַיָּ֣נָסway·yā·nāsand he fledH5127
√ nûwç — to flit, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
nûwç: to flit, to flee (H5127) The king of Judah abandons Jerusalem. Cambridge suggests Lachish was chosen because from there he could more easily get away to Edom, the very nation whose gods he had brought home (2 Chronicles 25:14); if so, the last recorded movement of his reign is toward the place his apostasy came from.
לָכִ֑ישָׁהlā·ḵî·šāhto LachishH3923
√ Lâkîysh — Lakish, a place in PalestineNounproperfeminine singularthird person feminine singular
Lâkîysh: Lachish, a place in Judah (H3923) A fortress of the Judaean lowland, fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:9), later besieged by Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:14). Ellicott and Cambridge both note that a flight to a fortress, and a sending of armed men after him, reads as a military matter rather than an assassination.
וַיִּשְׁלְח֤וּway·yiš·lə·ḥūBut men were sentH7971
√ shâlach — to send away, for, or out (in a great variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
shâlach: to send away, for, or out (H7971) No object is expressed in the Hebrew; the reader is left to supply who was sent, and the commentators divide (Poole and Benson: soldiers in open force, not secret murderers; Gill, citing Josephus: privately).
אַֽחֲרָיו֙’a·ḥă·rāwafter himH310
√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partPrepositionthird person masculine singular
לָכִ֔ישָׁהlā·ḵî·šāhto LachishH3923
√ Lâkîysh — Lakish, a place in PalestineNounproperfeminine singularthird person feminine singular
וַיְמִתֻ֖הוּway·mi·ṯu·hūand they killed himH4191
√ mûwth — to die (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine pluralthird person masculine singular
mûwth: to die, literally or figuratively (Hifil) The causative of the root that gave mâveth in v. 17. Amaziah's fifteen borrowed years, which began at a death he did not cause, end at a death he could not prevent, and the grammar marks the difference exactly: there a noun over another man, here a causative verb with a suffix pointing at him.
שָֽׁם׃šāmthereH8033
√ shâm — there (transferring to time) thenAdverb
shâm: there (H8033) The bare adverb closes the sentence. Pulpit: so the Chronicler and Josephus report, but details are wanting.
20

They carried him back on horses and buried him in Jerusalem with his fathers in the City of David.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yiś·’ū ’ō·ṯōw ‘al- has·sū·sîm way·yiq·qā·ḇêr bî·rū·šā·lim ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw bə·‘îr dā·wiḏ

Word by word10 · parsed
וַיִּשְׂא֥וּway·yiś·’ūThey carried him backH5375
√ nâsâʼ — to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative, absolute and relativeConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
nâsâʼ: to lift, in a great variety of applications (H5375) A verb of honor as often as of burden; it lifts faces, banners, and guilt. Here it is the first gesture of respect the narrative records toward Amaziah, and it is paid to him dead. Barnes reads the whole verse as that combination: animosity to the living prince, care for his remains.
אֹת֖וֹ’ō·ṯōwH853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object markerthird person masculine singular
עַל־‘al-onH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
ʻal: upon (H5921) Simple locative, "upon the horses."
הַסּוּסִ֑יםhas·sū·sîmhorsesH5483
√ çûwç — a horse (as leaping)ArticleNounmasculine plural
çûwç: a horse, as leaping (H5483) The article makes them a known team, presumably the royal one in which he fled (Pulpit, Ellicott). Gill preserves a rabbinic tradition, transmitted through Jerome, that the horses were a judgment matching his worship of the gods of Edom; it is a tradition about the text, not a claim of the text.
וַיִּקָּבֵ֧רway·yiq·qā·ḇêrand buried himH6912
√ qâbar — to interConjunctive wawVerbNifalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
qâbar: to inter (Nifal) Passive. In Kings the phrase "buried with his fathers in the city of David" is the seal of a legitimate reign, and it is granted here to a king his own people executed. Ellicott draws the inference: the orderly proceeding, the royal sepulchre, and the immediate elevation of Azariah show a political act, not private blood revenge. The state killed him and the state buried him.
בִּירוּשָׁלִַ֛םbî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389
√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
עִם־‘im-withH5973
√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition
ʻim: with (H5973) Accompaniment; the preposition of the dynastic formula.
אֲבֹתָ֖יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāwhis fathersH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular
ʼâb: father, literal and immediate or figurative and remote (H1) Plural with suffix. The word's reach is the point: Amaziah is gathered not to Joash his murdered father only but to the whole line, so that the rupture in the succession is closed in the same sentence that reports it.
בְּעִ֥ירbə·‘îrin the CityH5892
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct
דָּוִֽד׃dā·wiḏof DavidH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular
Dâvid: David, the youngest son of Jesse (H1732) The unit's last word. Four verses have named Amaziah four times, Joash, Jehoash, Jehoahaz, Judah and Israel, and they end on the one name that guarantees the line will continue past the man who has just been buried in it.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The years that were only survival — 14:17

The unit opens on a verb the book of Kings almost never uses to measure a king: וַיְחִ֨י (châyâh, H2421), he lived. Not he reigned. Cambridge fastens on exactly this, noting that this is not the usual way a king's continuance is described, and suggesting Amaziah was held in subjection while Jehoash lived and never afterward came back into the full enjoyment of his power. K&D reads the same fifteen years in the opposite direction, as a manifestation of grace: God would not destroy Amaziah notwithstanding his pride, but delivered him through the death of his victor. The two readings are not reconcilable, and the Hebrew supports both equally, because the Hebrew says only that he went on breathing. Around that verb the chronology is contested in the brief's own sources: Ellicott shows the data self-consistent (accession in the second year of Jehoash, twenty-nine years of reign), Pulpit answers that a fourth-year accession yields thirteen years, and Gill records that the Vulgate reads twenty five. Barnes, meanwhile, complains that the notice of Jehoash's death in vv. 15 to 16 is out of place and interrupts the history of Amaziah's reign; K&D replies that the compiler took the notice over from the annals of Israel as he found it, and points to the spelling as evidence, the older Yᵉhôwʼâsh (H3060) here against the later Yôwʼâsh (H3101) in 13:12 to 13. That spelling difference is visible in this unit's own interlinear: index 2 of v. 17 is yō·w·’āš, index 11 is yə·hō·w·’āš, two forms of one name in a single verse.

ii. The overhang: what the annals kept and this book withheld — 14:18

וְיֶ֖תֶר (yether, H3499) is glossed by Strong's as properly an overhanging, the part that spills past the edge, and in this verse the overhang is enormous. Pulpit itemizes it from the Chronicler: the war with Edom (2 Chronicles 25:5 to 13), the idolatry (25:14), and the prophet's rebuke (25:15 to 16). None of it is here. Gill guards the reference carefully, insisting the סֵ֛פֶר (çêpher, H5612) named is not the canonical book of Chronicles but the annals of each reign, written by the king's historian appointed for that purpose. So the verse performs a double act: it certifies that a full record exists, written (kâthab, H3789, in the passive participle, a standing state, the root meaning first to grave) and still consultable, and it declines to show it. ⚙ The effect on the reader is deliberate. Everything that would explain why Judah killed its king is filed one shelf away, and the narrator hands us instead the bare fact of the knot, the flight, and the grave.

iii. They tied a tie: the knot, the flight, the hearse — 14:19-14:20

The sentence is a figura etymologica: וַיִּקְשְׁר֨וּ ... קֶ֛שֶׁר, they tied a tying (qâshar, H7194, with qesher, H7195, "an unlawful alliance"). Ellicott presses the grammar into history: because no individual conspirators are named, the death looks like general disaffection rather than a plot, and the sending of armed men after a king into a fortress points to a military outbreak. Cambridge agrees that everything points to a desire on the part of the people of Judah to put down Amaziah at the first possible opportunity, and traces the hostility back to the gods of Seir. K&D resists dating the plot that early, since a conspiracy cannot have run fifteen years, and takes the Chronicler's note (2 Chronicles 25:27) as naming the source of the discontent rather than the date of the plot. JFB lists the grievances: the ruinous condition of Jerusalem, the plundered temple, the hostage children. Poole and Benson argue only over the instrument, secret murderers or bands of soldiers, and both come down on open force. Then the tone changes inside a single verse. וַיִּשְׂא֥וּ (nâsâʼ, H5375), they lifted him; K&D supplies the hearse to which the king's horses had been harnessed; Poole and Cambridge read a chariot in the plural "horses"; Barnes names the pattern as relentless animosity to the living prince joined to the deepest respect for his remains (his closing racial generalization is period judgment, not data). Ellicott draws the political conclusion from the same evidence: an orderly proceeding, a royal sepulchre, an immediate successor, therefore not private blood revenge. And the Hebrew quietly drops the killers as subject at the grave, turning to the Nifal וַיִּקָּבֵ֧ר: he was buried. The unit that began at one king's death ends with the other king in the city of David, among his fathers, the dynastic formula intact over a body the dynasty's own subjects made.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Read as one movement, these four verses are about a throne that outlives the man on it. Amaziah is given fifteen years and no verb of reigning; the record of what he did with them is certified as written and then withheld; his own people tie the knot on him in the covenant city; and the last thing the text does is bury him with his fathers in the city of David. Scripture does not tell us here whether the fifteen years were mercy (K&D) or humiliation (Cambridge), and the honest reading holds both open. What the text does say, by its grammar, is that the initiative passes out of Amaziah's hands entirely: he lives after a death he did not cause, he is caused to die by a Hifil whose subject is never named, and he is buried by a Nifal with no subject at all. Everything done in this unit is done to him. Yet the covenant with David does not wobble. The men who executed the king walked the body back and laid it in the royal tomb and set his son on the throne, and the effect of the whole passage is that the line is not in the keeping of the men who hold it. ⚙ This is a fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text.

The line is not in the keeping of the men who hold it. (This line is the tool's own fallible summary, not a verse of Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The knot tied twice: the Chronicler's account of the same conspiracy verbal / quotation: confirmed

2 Chronicles 25:27 narrates this same event and reaches for the same rare noun, קֶ֛שֶׁר (qesher, H7195), alongside the name ʼĂmatsyâh (H558). The Chronicler adds the motive this book omits: from the time Amaziah turned away from following the LORD, they conspired against him. K&D takes that clause as naming the origin of the discontent rather than dating the plot, since a conspiracy cannot plausibly have run fifteen years; Cambridge takes it more nearly at face value and dates the hostility to the bringing home of the gods of Seir. The verbal link is real and the two accounts are parallel narrative; neither is quoting the other.

2 Chronicles 25:27

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H7195 qesher (rare, in 13 vv) and H558 ʼĂmatsyâh (in 39 vv). The rarity of qesher across two accounts of one event makes this a genuine verbal link, though it is a synoptic parallel rather than a citation.

Father and son, both untied from the throne by the same word verbal / quotation: confirmed

Joash of Judah, Amaziah's father, dies in 2 Kings 12:20 by a qesher formed by his own servants; Amaziah dies here the same way. The Verifier records both the noun H7195 and the verb qâshar H7194 shared between the two verses, along with the name Yôwʼâsh (H3101). The northern kingdom carries the same vocabulary to its end (2 Kings 15:15, 15:30). K&D states the connection plainly for this pair: Amaziah, like his father Joash, did not die a natural death. ⚙ The repetition is a structural verdict on the period: in both kingdoms the throne has become something subjects untie.

2 Kings 12:20 · 2 Kings 15:30

basis: Verifier: 2 Kings 12:20 shares H7195 qesher (in 13 vv), H7194 qâshar (in 44 vv) and H3101 Yôwʼâsh (in 41 vv); 2 Kings 15:30 shares H7195 and H7194. Rare lexeme H7195 carries the link; no quotation is claimed.

"Are they not written": the closing formula of the book of Kings structural / thematic: confirmed

v. 18 is a standing form, not a sentence composed for Amaziah. The Verifier finds the same three-word skeleton, yether (H3499) plus çêpher (H5612) plus kâthab (H3789), in 1 Kings 16:20 (Zimri of Israel), 2 Kings 15:15 (Shallum of Israel) and 2 Kings 14:15 three verses earlier (Jehoash of Israel). Gill's caution applies to every instance: the book named is a royal annal kept by an appointed historian, not the canonical Chronicles. ⚙ Note which kings the parallels are: Zimri and Shallum, two assassins who themselves died by conspiracy. The formula levels them all into the same archive.

2 Kings 14:15 · 1 Kings 16:20 · 2 Kings 15:15

basis: Verifier: shared H3499 yether (in 95 vv), H5612 çêpher (in 174 vv), H3789 kâthab (in 212 vv). All three are common lexemes, so the link is the fixed formula itself, a shared pattern, not a rare verbal echo or a quotation.

Lachish, the fortress that received a fleeing king flagged: verify source

Four of this unit's commentators send the reader to the rest of Lachish's record: Cambridge to Joshua 10:6 and to Rehoboam's fortification in 2 Chronicles 11:9, Poole to Joshua 10:31 and 15:39 and 2 Kings 19:8, Ellicott and Pulpit to Sennacherib's siege in 2 Kings 18:14. Amaziah flees to the strongest place in the Judaean lowland and is killed in it. ⚙ The place that could hold off Joshua and detain Sennacherib could not keep a king alive against his own people.

2 Chronicles 11:9 · 2 Kings 18:14

basis: No Verifier-computed lexeme basis exists for these pairs in this unit's candidate list; the connection is the place name Lâkîysh (H3923) as supplied by Cambridge, Poole, Ellicott and Pulpit. Treat the link as commentator-asserted and check the shared lexeme independently before relying on it.

The book that is not shown, and the books that are opened structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The narrator of Kings ends nearly every reign by pointing away from his own page to a written record he will not reproduce: the acts are graved (kâthab, H3789) and standing, whether or not the reader ever sees them. Malachi 3:16 records a scroll of remembrance written before the LORD, and Revelation 20:12 has books opened at the end. The motif is the same: the full account of a life exists in writing and is not presently in the reader's hand. This is a thematic correspondence only. Revelation is Greek and Kings is Hebrew, so no shared Strong's number can exist between them, and nothing in the brief or in either text claims a citation.

Malachi 3:16 · Revelation 20:12

basis: Cross-Testament: Greek to Hebrew, so a shared-Strong's verbal basis is impossible by definition and none is claimed. The recorded basis is the shared motif of an authoritative written record of deeds standing outside the narrative, anchored in this unit by H5612 çêpher and H3789 kâthab at 14:18.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The city of David keeps its kings ancient/widely-held

The last words of the unit are בְּעִ֥יר דָּוִֽד, in the city of David (H5892 with H1732). The man carried into that tomb was executed by his own nation, yet the dynastic formula closes over him unbroken and his son takes the throne. ⚙ That is the whole point of 2 Samuel 7:16, where the house and the kingdom are made sure forever and chastening is promised without withdrawal of steadfast love; the covenant absorbs the failure of its holders rather than being cancelled by them. Gabriel's announcement at Luke 1:32 to 33 claims the throne of this same father David for a reign with no closing formula, no annal of remaining acts, no conspiracy. The reading of the Davidic covenant as surviving the sins of individual Davidic kings and terminating in Christ is the ancient and widely held one; its application to this particular burial notice is ⚙ our own.

2 Samuel 7:16 · Luke 1:32-33

A king his own people put outside, and brought back novel

⚙ Set beside the Gospels, the shape of vv. 19 to 20 is arresting and should be handled carefully. A king of Judah is conspired against in Jerusalem by his own subjects, put to death outside the city, and then treated with honor in burial by the very people who killed him. John 1:11 says of Christ that He came to His own and His own did not receive Him; Hebrews 13:12 says He suffered outside the gate. But the differences are the substance. Amaziah fled and was caught; Christ set His face to go up. Amaziah's death ends his story and the Chronicler assigns it to his apostasy; Christ's death is the act by which He saves. None of the eleven commentators in this unit's sources draws this comparison, and the text makes no typological claim for Amaziah. It is offered as contrast and foil, and marked novel.

John 1:11 · Hebrews 13:12

The death of one king as the deliverance of another novel

K&D reads v. 17 as mercy: Amaziah is delivered from further injury at Jehoash's hands through the death of his victor. ⚙ The structure, one man's life extended by another man's death, is the shape the gospel fills with content, where the death of the appointed one is the whole ground of the life the other receives (Romans 5:10, where we were reconciled through the death of His Son). The difference is decisive and must be stated: Jehoash's death was not given for Amaziah, it merely happened to him, and the years it bought were spent badly and ended in a knot tied in Jerusalem. The parallel is formal, and the substance runs the other way. Marked novel; K&D supplies only the reading of v. 17 as grace, not this comparison.

Romans 5:10

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers, as supplied in the brief. One mechanical caution: in 14:17 and 14:19 the interlinear word list is ordered to follow the English, not the Masoretic sequence. The accents preserved in the forms show it, יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל at index 15 carries the atnach and שָׁנָֽה׃ at index 8 carries the verse-final sof pasuq, so the Hebrew clause closes on "fifteen year," not on "Israel." The literal renderings above restore the Hebrew order; the note indices still follow the brief's numbering.

Chronology is genuinely disputed inside the sources. Ellicott derives fifteen years from an accession in the second year of Jehoash plus a twenty-nine year reign and calls the data self-consistent; Pulpit holds that a fourth-year accession yields thirteen; Gill records a Vulgate reading of twenty five years. We have not adjudicated among them.

Arrangement: Barnes judges 2 Kings 14:15 to 16 displaced from 13:12 to 13; K&D explains the repetition from the compiler's use of the annals of Israel and cites the older spelling Yᵉhôwʼâsh (H3060) here against Yôwʼâsh (H3101) there. Both forms appear inside 14:17 itself. This is a text-critical and source-critical argument, not a settled fact.

Motive for the conspiracy is not stated in this book. 2 Chronicles 25:27 supplies one; Cambridge, Pulpit, JFB, K&D and Ellicott disagree over whether it dates the plot, and Pulpit offers a different account entirely (dissatisfaction with Amaziah's military inaction while Jeroboam II expanded the north). Their reconstructions are inference.

Two source cautions. Gill's note on the horses reports a rabbinic tradition transmitted by Jerome, not the text's own reasoning. Barnes's remark about "an Oriental people" and JFB's placing of Lachish among the Philistines are nineteenth century judgments retained verbatim for honesty; the lexicon (H3923) and the other commentators put Lachish in Judah. Josephus (Ant. 9.9.3) is cited by Gill and Pulpit for a private killing; Pulpit adds that details are wanting.

Geneva has no substantive gloss on any verse of this unit beyond the verse text and a short note on Lachish at v. 19; it is therefore not quoted. Poole has no entry at all on vv. 17 and 18.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)