2 Kings 14:27

And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) Said not.—By any prophet.

Blot out the name.—The figure is taken from blotting out writing. (Comp. Numbers 5:23.) The Hebrews used inks that soon faded, and could easily be wiped off the parchment (Hence the partial obliteration of words and letters which is one of the causes of textual corruption.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:23-29 God raised up the prophet Jonah, and by him declared the purposes of his favour to Israel. It is a sign that God has not cast off his people, if he continues faithful ministers among them. Two reasons are given why God blessed them with those victories: 1. Because the distress was very great, which made them objects of his compassion. 2. Because the decree was not yet gone forth for their destruction. Many prophets there had been in Israel, but none left prophecies in writing till this age, and their prophecies are part of the Bible. Hosea began to prophesy in the reign of this Jeroboam. At the same time Amos prophesied; soon after Micah, then Isaiah, in the days of Ahaz and Hezekiah. Thus God, in the darkest and most degenerate ages of the church, raised up some to be burning and shining lights in it; to their own age, by their preaching and living, and a few by their writings, to reflect light upon us in the last times.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the Lord said not - Though the Israelites were brought thus low, yet the fiat did not as yet go forth for their destruction. God did not send a prophet to say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven; but on the contrary sent two to announce that they should be delivered from their present enemies, and obtain triumphs over them (see 2 Kings 14:25; 2 Kings 13:17-19).

That he would blot out ... - This is a Mosaic phrase, found only here and in Deuteronomy 2 Kings Deuteronomy 9:14; Deuteronomy 29:20.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2Ki 14:23-29. Jeroboam's Wicked Reign over Israel.

23. Jeroboam, the son of Joash king of Israel—This was Jeroboam II who, on regaining the lost territory, raised the kingdom to great political power (2Ki 14:25), but adhered to the favorite religious policy of the Israelitish sovereigns (2Ki 14:24). While God granted him so great a measure of national prosperity and eminence, the reason is expressly stated (2Ki 14:26, 27) to be that the purposes of the divine covenant forbade as yet the overthrow of the kingdom of the ten tribes (see 2Ki 13:23).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The Lord said not, i.e. not yet; he had not yet declared this, as afterwards he did by the succeeding prophets, though not in those words. See Hosea 1:5,6,9.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven,.... Had not as yet declared it by any of his prophets, that he would do it, as he afterwards did by Hosea, Hosea 1:4, and was fulfilled in the reign of Hoshea king of Israel, 2 Kings 17:1.

but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash; the instrument of their deliverance from the hands of their enemies, and of recovering their borders as afore time.

Geneva Study Bible

And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. And the Lord said not] i.e. As yet the doom of Israel was not fixed. There was yet a place of repentance left.

but he saved them] Jeroboam was the saviour spoken of in 2 Kings 13:5. See note there.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - And the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven. God's decision under the circumstances was not, as it well might have been, considering Israel's ill desert, to blot out forthwith the very name of Israel from the earth. On the contrary, he gave the nation a breathing-space, a gleam of light, a second summer before the winter set in - a further opportunity of repenting and turning to him with all their hearts if they would only have taken advantage of it, a chance of redeeming the past and reestablishing themselves in his favor. He might well have destroyed them at this time if he had looked only to considerations of justice, if in his wrath he had not thought upon mercy. But he saved them; i.e. he gave them the deliverance promised first by Elisha (2 Kings 13:17), and then by Jonah the son of Amittai (ver. 25) - deliverance from Syria, recovery of their borders, and triumph over their enemies. He gave them all this by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. Joash began the salvation, but it was reserved for Jeroboam to complete it. He was the true "savior" (2 Kings 13:5), the true accomplisher of the work, for which his father only paved the way. Thus one Jeroboam founded the kingdom; another refounded it, restored its ancient glories, and gave it its old dimensions. 2 Kings 14:27

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The higher ground for this strengthening of Israel in the time of Jeroboam was to be found in the compassion of God. The Lord saw the great oppression and helpless condition of Israel, and had not yet pronounced the decree of rejection. He therefore sent help through Jeroboam. מאד מרה without the article, and governed by ישׂ אני (see Ewald, 293, a.), signifies very bitter, מרה having taken the meaning of מרר. This is the explanation adopted in all the ancient versions, and also by Dietrich in Ges. Lex. וגו עצוּר ואפס, verbatim from Deuteronomy 32:36, to show that the kingdom of Israel had been brought to the utmost extremity of distress predicted there by Moses, and it was necessary that the Lord should interpose with His help, if His people were not utterly to perish. דבּר לא: He had not yet spoken, i.e., had not yet uttered the decree of rejection through the mouth of a prophet. To blot out the name under the heavens is an abbreviated expression for: among the nations who dwelt under the heavens.