2 Kings 13:5 - Exposition

And the Lord gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians. A "savior'" means a deliverer from the hand of the Syrians (comp. 3:9 , 3:15 ; Nehemiah 9:27 , where in the Hebrew the word used is the same). The special "deliverer" was probably in the mind of the writer, Jeroboam II ; by whom he says, in 2 Kings 14:27 , that God "saved" Israel; but Joash, who began the deliverance ( 2 Kings 14:25 ), may also be glanced at, And the children of Israel dwelt in their tents. Here, as so often elsewhere ( 1 Kings 8:66 ; 1 Kings 12:16 ; 2 Kings 14:12 ; Zechariah 12:7 ), the word "tents" is a mere archaism for "abodes, houses." Israel had dwelt in tents until the going down into Egypt, and again from the time of quitting Egypt to the entrance into Canaan; and thus the word ohel had acquired a secondary meaning of "abode," "dwelling-place." In the time which followed on the deliverance from the Syrian yoke, the Israelites of the ten tribes were no longer engaged in marches and countermarches, in battles, skirmishes, or sieges, but quietly abode in their several houses. As beforetime ; i.e. as in the peaceful time before the attacks of Hazael began.