2 Kings 13:3 - Exposition

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. We know so much less of the nature of the calf-worship and of the rites which accompanied it, that we cannot to the same extent justify the Divine severity in connection with it as in connection with the Baal and Astarte cult. Still, we must remember the coarse, lewd dancing which accompanied the first calf-worship ( Exodus 32:19 ), for which death was not thought too heavy a penalty ( Exodus 32:27 ), and the almost universal combination of unchastity with idolatrous ceremonies, which raises a suspicion that those who frequented the shrines at Dan and Bethel were not wholly innocent of impurity. And he delivered them into the hand of Hazel King of Syria. The national sins of Israel were mostly punished in this way, by the sword of some foreign foe. Hazael had been already made an instrument for the chastisement of Jehu ( 2 Kings 10:32 , 2 Kings 10:33 ). Now he was to chastise Jehoahaz still more severely. And into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, all their days ; literally, all the days . Not certainly all the days of the two kings Hazael and Benhadad, for Benhadad was entirely worsted in his war with Joash ( 2 Kings 13:24 , 2 Kings 13:25 ), but either all the days of Jehoahaz, or all the days that God had appointed for the duration of the calamity. It is perhaps against the former interpretation that Hazael appears to have outlived Jehoahaz ( 2 Kings 13:22-24 ); but Ben-hadad may have warred against him as his father's general ( 2 Kings 13:25 ) during his father's lifetime.