2 Kings 12:17, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to 2 Kings 10-13, part of the connected continuing record of the kings of Israel and Judah. It follows the hiding and proclaiming of Joash as the true king of Judah and the slaying of Athaliah, and belongs to the beginning of the reign of Joash in Judah under the good priest Jehoiada, before Joash's death. Within the larger history of 2 Kings 7-23 covering nearly 300 years, it stands in the succession from Joram of Israel through Jehu, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea to the end of Israel by Shalmaneser and Sargon with captivity and scattering, and in Judah the reigns of Ahaziah, Athaliah, Joash, Amaziah, Azariah or Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and Jehoahaz. It stands within the ministry of Elisha and the prophets Hosea, Jonah, Amos, Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Nahum. The verse is to be read with John 1:29-51.

Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it, and then set his face to go up to Jerusalem, threatening the city. In submission to Hazael, Joash of Judah sent him the dedicated treasures and gold from the temple and the king's house in an attempt to avert the Syrian threat to Jerusalem, and Hazael withdrew from Jerusalem. Despite having repaired the temple, Jehoash's surrender of its treasures shows religious decline, with the temple's treasures taken as part of that decline.

The history illustrates that righteous faithful rule brought prosperity, while turning from God to idolatry brought calamity upon rulers and people. That prosperity followed faithfulness and that calamity followed apostasy is the moral of the long succession of kings and prophets in which the verse stands. The history shows the pattern in which Judah at times had good kings, while the kings of Israel were invariably weak or altogether bad.