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2 Kings 13:10-13
A new reign begins with timing details and evaluation, then the narrator points to other sources and reports succession.
Meaning in context
A new reign begins with timing details and evaluation, then the narrator points to other sources and reports succession.
Section 4 of 7
Jehoash Reigns and the Record Moves On
A new reign begins with timing details and evaluation, then the narrator points to other sources and reports succession.
Movement
From divided kingdom to exile
Artifact
Kingdom collapse and exile
Biblical Timeline
Kingdom
2 Kings context: 1000 BC - 586 BC
Biblical Timeline
Kingdom
2 Kings context
Kingdom / 1000 BC - 586 BC
2 Kings context is set in the kingdom period, where Israel's monarchy from David and Solomon to exile.
Scripture Text
Thesis
A new reign begins with timing details and evaluation, then the narrator points to other sources and reports succession.
Verse by Verse
Accession, dating, and length of reign Jehoash son of Jehoahaz begins to reign over Israel in Samaria. The writer dates this to the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah and states that Jehoash reigns sixteen years.
The narrator’s evaluation Jehoash is described as doing what is evil in Yahweh’s sight. The specific form of this evil is that he does not turn away from “the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat,” and instead continues in the same path.
Pointer to other records and a named conflict The narrator notes that the rest of Jehoash’s acts, including his “might,” and especially his fighting against Amaziah king of Judah, are recorded elsewhere in the “book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.”
Literary Context
These verses function as a brief “reign notice” that transitions from Jehoahaz (ended in the prior verse) to Jehoash of Israel, setting up the longer episode that follows about Jehoash’s interaction with Elisha and coming conflicts. The narrator uses a consistent pattern seen throughout Kings: start-date and length of reign, a moral evaluation, a pointer to other sources for additional deeds, then death and succession. This keeps the storyline moving while also reminding readers how the book measures each reign against a repeated standard.
Historical Context
Jehoash rules the northern kingdom (Israel) from Samaria while the southern kingdom (Judah) has its own king also named Joash, which the text uses for dating. Israel and Judah sometimes cooperate and sometimes clash; this passage hints at a later conflict with Amaziah of Judah. The region sits under growing pressure from large empires to the northeast, while local powers like Aram (Syria) remain active neighbors. Royal annals and court records were a normal way kingdoms preserved military and political achievements.
Theological Significance
These verses work like an official transition note: they identify Jehoash (also called Joash) as Israel’s new king, locate his start date by referencing Judah’s king, and give the length of his reign in Samaria (sixteen years). That is an explicit historical claim in the narrative.
Questions
Keep Studying
Death, burial, and succession Jehoash dies (“slept with his fathers”), is buried in Samaria among Israel’s kings, and Jeroboam takes his throne, marking the next transition in Israel’s royal line.
The narrator also gives an explicit moral evaluation: Jehoash “did what was evil” in Yahweh’s sight, specifically by continuing “the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat” and not turning away from them. The text frames this as a deliberate continuation (“he walked in them”), not a temporary slip.
The passage also explicitly points beyond itself: Jehoash’s other deeds, his “might,” and a conflict with Amaziah of Judah are said to be written in “the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.” Finally, the text records his death, burial in Samaria with other Israelite kings, and the succession of Jeroboam to the throne.
Some disagreement shows up around what kind of source “the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel” was.
There is also a smaller question about how to understand the narrator’s standard phrase “slept with his fathers.”
The passage names a source that readers no longer possess, so people infer what it was like based on how ancient kingdoms kept records and how Kings repeatedly references such sources elsewhere. Likewise, the “slept with his fathers” wording is a repeated formula in Kings, so interpreters decide whether to treat it as purely conventional or as hinting at additional beliefs not spelled out here.
It reinforces how Kings measures northern kings: continued alignment with Jeroboam’s religious-political program counts as “evil” in Yahweh’s sight (explicit claim). It also keeps the story moving by linking reigns, dates, and successions, and by signaling upcoming narrative material (the conflict with Amaziah, and what follows with Elisha). Inference: the writer is selective—giving a theological evaluation and basic chronology, while leaving many “statecraft” details to other records (compare 2 Kings 13:12).
israel (yiś·rā·’êl)