2 Kings 14:7 - Exposition

He slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand. Edom had revolted from Judah and recovered complete independence in the reign of Jehoram, about fifty years previously ( 2 Kings 8:20 ). Since that time the two countries had remained at peace. Now, however, Amaziah resolved upon a great effort to resubjugate them. According to Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 9.9. § 1) and Chronicles ( 2 Chronicles 25:5 ), he levied an army of 400,000 men—300,000 Jews, and 100,000 hired Israelites—with which he marched against the three nations of the Amalekites, the Idumaeans, and the Gabalites. Rebuked by a prophet for want of faith in calling to his aid the wicked Israelites, he consented to dismiss them, and made the invasion at the head of his own troops only. These were carefully organized ( 2 Chronicles 25:5 ), and met with a great success. Ten thousand of his enemies fell in battle, and an equal number were made prisoners. These last were barbarously put to death by being precipitated from the top of a rock ( 2 Chronicles 25:12 ). "The valley of salt," the scene of the battle, is probably identified with the sunken plain, now called Es Sabkah , at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. This is "a large flat of at least six miles by ten, occasionally flooded" (Tristram), but dry in the summer.time. It is full of salt springs, and is bounded on the west and northwest by a long ridge of pure salt, known as the Khasm Usdum , so that the name "valley of salt" would be very appropriate. And took Selah by war. Selah with the article ( has-Selah ) can only be the Idumaean capital, which the Greeks called Petra ( πέτρα or ἡ πέτρα ), and which is one of the most remarkable sites in the world. In the rocky mountains which form the eastern boundary of the Arabah or sandy slope reaching from the edge of the Sabkah to the Red Sea, amid cliffs of gorgeous colors, pink and crimson and purple, and ravines as deep and narrow as that of Proffers, partly excavated in the rook, partly emplaced upon it, stood the Edomite town, difficult to approach, still more difficult to capture, more like the home of a colony of sea-gulls than that of a number of men. Petra is graphically described by Dean Stanley, and has also received notice from Robinson, Highten, and others. And called the name of it Joktheel ; i.e. "subdued by God." The name took no permanent hold. Selah is still "Sela" in Isaiah ( Isaiah 16:1 ), Obadiah ( Obadiah 1:3 ), and Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 49:16 ). It is known only as "Petra" to the Greeks and Romans. Unto this day ; i.e. to the time of the writer who composed the account of Amaziah's reign for the 'Book of the Kings,' and whoso words the author of Kings transcribes here as so often elsewhere.