2 Kings 15:30

Verse 30. Hoshea the son of Elah - in the twentieth year of Jotham] There are many difficulties in the chronology of this place. To reconcile the whole, Calmet says: "Hoshea conspired against Pekah, the twentieth year of the reign of this prince, which was the eighteenth after the beginning of the reign of Jotham, king of Judah. Two years after this, that is, the fourth year of Ahaz, and the twentieth of Jotham, Hoshea made himself master of a part of the kingdom, according to 2Kg 15:30. Finally, the twelfth year of Ahaz, Hoshea had peaceable possession of the whole kingdom, according to 2Kg 17:1."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2Ki 15:30 And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.

Ver. 30. In the twentieth year of Jotham,] i.e., In the fourth year of Ahaz, to whom Jotham had resigned his kingdom, reserving to himself the title only.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 15:30. Hosea made a conspiracy against Pekah, and smote him — It is probable that the people were provoked at him for leaving them exposed to a foreign enemy, while he invaded Judah; and that Hosea took advantage of their discontent and disgust to seize and slay him. Thus Pekah’s treason and violence returned upon himself at last. And reigned in his stead in the twentieth year of Jotham — The meaning is, that he began his reign in the twentieth year after the beginning of Jotham’s reign; or, which is the same thing, in the fourth year of Ahaz, son of Jotham.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy . . . and slew him--He did not, however, obtain possession of the kingdom till about nine or ten years after the perpetration of this crime [HALES].

in the twentieth year of Jotham--Jotham's reign lasted only sixteen years, but the meaning is that the reign of Hoshea began in the twentieth after the beginning of Jotham's reign. The sacred historian, having not yet introduced the name of Ahaz, reckoned the date by Jotham, whom he had already mentioned (see Ch2 27:8).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

30. Hoshea the son of Elah] Josephus (Ant. IX. 13. 1) says Hoshea was a friend of Pekah. He is mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions (Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, p. 285), and it appears from that record as if he had been set up by the Assyrian king. Perhaps Hoshea, having conspired and slain Pekah, put himself as a vassal under the protection of Assyria. The inscription speaks of the tribute which he was to pay to the Assyrians. Though the death of Pekah is here mentioned we have a further account of his attempts against Judah in the next chapter.

in the twentieth year of Jotham] As Jotham is said below in verse 33 to have reigned only sixteen years, there must be some mistake in the numbers either here or there. The occurrence of such variations makes the task of fixing the chronology very difficult, and probably no satisfactory solution will be discovered, to the several questions which arise on this subject, until more is known of the contemporary history. If ever the annals of Assyria and Egypt be brought into trustworthy order, the points of contact with Jewish affairs will help to settle some dates and to clear up what seems now irremediably obscure

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hoshea, the son of Elah - One of Pekah’s friends, according to Josephus.

The twentieth year of Jotham - According to 2Ki 15:33 and 2Ch 27:1, Jotham reigned only 16 years. See also the suggestion in the margin. Strangely enough, this first year of Hoshea is also called, not the fourth, but the twelfth of Ahaz 2Ki 17:1. The chronological confusion of the history, as it stands, is striking.

Uzziah - i. e. Azariah. See 2Ki 15:1-4.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In the twentieth year of Joatham. That is, in the twentieth year from the beginning of Joatham’s reign. The sacred writer chooses rather to follow here this date, tan to speak of the years of Achaz, who had not yet been mentioned. (Challoner) --- But Joatham reigned only 16 years, (ver. 33.) so that this was the fourth year of Achaz. (Haydock) --- Usher says that Osee did not ascend the throne till nine years after the death of Phacee, as he is asserted to have commenced his reign in the twelfth year of Achaz, chap. xvii. 1. But another difficulty arises from the mention of this 20th year, as Phacee would have reigned 22, instead of 20; (ver. 27.) for Joatham only commenced in the second year of Phacee. To reconcile these passages, we may conclude that Osee conspired against the king of Israel in the 18th year of Joatham, gained possession of part of the kingdom in the 20th of the same prince, and of the whole in the 12th of Achaz. (Calmet) --- The pretended interregnum ought to be rejected, as the murderer of the late king would not delay to ascend the throne. Houbigant adds 10 years to the reign of Phacee, as well as to that of Zacharias: the dates assigned to the kings of Israel being otherwise so much deficient, p. 113.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Smote him, and slew him; which he did more easily effect, because the people were enraged against Pekah, as the man who by his murder of king Pekahiah the son of Menahem, whom the Assyrian monarch set up and favoured, and by his unnecessary war with Ahaz, had brought the Assyrian upon them, and caused the loss of one half of that kingdom.

In the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.

Quest. How could this be, when Jotham reigned only sixteen years, below, 2Ki 15:33?

Answ. The meaning is, that he began his reign in the twentieth year after the beginning of Jotham’s reign; or, which is the same thing, in the fourth year of Ahaz, son of Jotham, as appears from 2Ki 16:2. But the sacred writer, having not yet made mention of Ahaz, thought it more proper to number Hoshea’s years by Jotham, of whom he had spoken, than by Ahaz. Besides, as Jotham did reign divers years in his father’s life, so might Ahaz in Jotham’s life, and Jotham might for divers reasons (which it is needless here to inquire) resign up the administration of the kingdom wholly into Ahaz’s hands some years before his death, and therefore might be said to reign but sixteen years, though he lived longer.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

30. Twentieth year of Jotham — That is, as Usher explains, the twentieth year after Jotham had begun to reign; which was, however, the fourth year of Ahaz, for Jotham reigned only sixteen years. The historian dates from the year of Jotham, because his son Ahaz has not yet been named in his records. But Bahr regards these words as a “false and late addition.” His argument, however, is inconclusive.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. By a mutilated notice in the records of Tiglath-pileser, it appears that the revolution here related was the result of another invasion of the Israelite territory by that monarch. "The land of Beth-Croft," he says, "the tribe... the goods of its people and their furniture I sent to Assyria. Pekah their king I caused to be put to death? and Hoshea I appointed to the kingdom ever them; their tribute I received, and their treasures? to Assyria I sent" ("Eponym Canon," pp. 123, 124, lines 1519). It is probably this invasion of which the writer of Chronicles speaks (1Ch_5:26) as resulting in the deportation of the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. In the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah. This date stands in contradiction with ver. 33, where Jotham"s entire reign is reckoned at sixteen years, and apparently must be a corrupt reading.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Twentieth year - The meaning is, that he began his reign in the twentieth year after the beginning of Jotham's reign; or, which is the same thing, in the fourth year of Ahaz, son of Jotham.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Pekah met with his death in a conspiracy organized by Hosea the son of Elah, who made himself king "in the twentieth year of Jotham." There is something very strange in this chronological datum, as Jotham only reigned sixteen years (Kg2 15:33), and Ahaz began to reign in the seventeenth year of Pekah (Kg2 16:1); so that Pekah's death would fall in the fourth year of Ahaz. The reason for this striking statement can only be found, as Usher has shown (Chronol. sacr. p. 80), in the fact that nothing has yet been said about Jotham's successor Ahaz, because the reign of Jotham himself is not mentioned till Kg2 15:32.

(Note: Other attempts to solve this difficulty are either arbitrary and precarious, e.g., the conjectures of the earlier chronologists quoted by Winer (R. W. s. v. Jotham), or forced, like the notion of Vaihinger in Herzog's Cycl. (art. Jotham), that the words בן־עזיה ליותם are to be eliminated as an interpolation, in which case the datum "in the twentieth year" becomes perfectly enigmatical; and again the assertion of Hitzig (Comm. z. Jesaj. pp. 72, 73), that instead of in the twentieth year of Jotham, we should read "in the twentieth year of Ahaz the son of Jotham," which could only be consistently carried out by altering the text of not less than seven passages (viz., Kg2 15:33; Kg2 16:1, and Kg2 16:2, Kg2 16:17; Ch2 27:1 and Ch2 27:8, and Ch2 28:1); and lastly, the assumption of Thenius, that the words from בשׁנת to עזיה have crept into the text through a double mistake of the copyist and an arbitrary alteration of what had been thus falsely written, which is much too complicated to appear at all credible, even if the reasons which are supposed to render it probable had been more forcible and correct than they really are. For the first reason, viz., that the statement in what year of the contemporaneous ruler a king came to the throne is always first given when the history of this king commences, is disproved by Kg2 1:17; the second, that the name of the king by the year of whose reign the accession of another is defined is invariably introduced with the epithet king of Judah or king of Israel, is shown by Kg2 12:2 and Kg2 16:1 to be not in accordance with fact; and the third, that this very king is never described by the introduction of his father's name, as he is here, except where the intention is to prevent misunderstanding, as in Kg2 14:1, Kg2 14:23, or in the case of usurpers without ancestors (Kg2 15:32, Kg2 16:1 and Kg2 16:15), is also incorrect in its first portion, for in the case of Amaziah in Kg2 14:23 there was no misunderstanding to prevent, and even in the case of Joash in Kg2 14:1 the epithet king of Israel would have been quite sufficient to guard against any misunderstanding.)

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

In the twentieth year of Yosam. He should have said, “in the fourth year of Achaz,” because Yosam's entire reign lasted [only] sixteen years, but since Achaz was wicked, Scripture prefers to count [the years with reference] to Yosam who was in the grave, rather than to Achaz, who was alive. Thus it is [stated] in Seder Olam.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.