2 Kings 14:21-29
"21 And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. 22 He built Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king slept with his fathers.
23 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, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. 26 For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. 27 But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah in Israel, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 29 And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, the kings of Israel, and Zechariah his son reigned in his place."
Brief mention is made in 21 and 22 of the beginning of the reign of Azariah of Judah, who is better known as Uzziah. Then the historian turns once more to the northern kingdom, where Jeroboam II began to reign. This was one of the most significant reigns in the north, for a number of reasons. It was an evil reign (24), but the remarkable thing is that during his time, the fortunes of Israel began to turn, and her borders extended further than had been known since the days of David and Solomon. A state of material prosperity verging on luxury be- guiled the people into a false security, and this had its own significance in relation to the prophetic activity which reached its height during and immediately following Jeroboam's time. It comes almost as a surprise to realise that the brief compass of these verses embraces the ministries of Amos, Jonah and Hosea, with the mighty Isaiah in the south, but we should seek to 'fit in' these prophetic books into the historical sequence, in order to have as full a picture as possible of the moral and spiritual catastrophe that was soon to fall upon God's people. To see the gathering momentum of evil in these reigns is to understand something of the urgency of the prophets' warnings of impending doom. It is impressive to realise that when evil was at its height, and material prosperity side by side with moral corruption was driving Israel to her doom, God was most urgent in His pleadings with His people to turn to Him and be healed. Even to the end, God is not willing that any should perish!