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2 Kings 14:7
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Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
am 3177, bc 827
slew: 2 Kings 8:20-22, 2 Chronicles 25:11, 2 Chronicles 25:12
the valley of salt: Some suppose that the Valley of Salt was south of the Dead, or Salt Sea, towards the land of Edom; and others suppose it to be the Valley of Salt, about three or four miles south-east of Palmyra, which now supplies, in a great measure, the surrounding country with salt. 2 Samuel 8:13, 1 Chronicles 18:12, Psalms 60:1, *title
Selah: or, the rock, Selah is generally supposed to be the same as Petra, which in Greek signifies a rock, the celebrated capital of Arabia Petrea. Strabo places it three or four days' journey from Jericho, and five days' journey from the forest of palm trees on the Red Sea. Pliny places it 600 miles from Gaza, and 125 from the Persian Gulf; but Cellarius and Reland very justly consider that the numbers have been changed, and that we ought to read 125 miles from Gaza, and 600 from the Persian Gulf. Eusebius places Beerothbenejaakan 30 miles west from Petra, and Elath ten miles east; and Burckhardt discovered the ruins of this ancient city in a valley called Wady Mousa.
Joktheel: Joshua 15:38
Reciprocal: Genesis 27:40 - serve Isaiah 16:1 - from Obadiah 1:3 - thou
Cross-References
It happened in the days of Amrafel, king of Shin`ar, Aryokh, king of Ellasar, Kedorla`omer, king of `Elam, and Tid`al, king of Goyim,
And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations;
And it happened that in the days of Amraphel, the king of Shinar, Arioch, the king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer, the king of Elam, and Tidal, the king of Goiim,
Now Amraphel was king of Babylonia, Arioch was king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer was king of Elam, and Tidal was king of Goiim.
At that time Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations
In the days of the [Eastern] kings Amraphel of Shinar, Arioch of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer of Elam, and Tidal of Goiim,
And it came about in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim,
And in the dayes of Amraphel King of Shinar, Arioch King of Ellasar, Chedor-laomer King of Elam, and Tidal king of the nations:
And it happened in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim,
About this time, King Amraphel of Babylonia, King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of Goiim
Gill's Notes on the Bible
He slew of Edom in the valley of Salt ten thousand,.... Of which valley, :-, the Edomites having revolted from Judah in the days of Joram, 2 Kings 8:20. Amaziah undertook to reduce them with an army of 300,000 choice men; and, besides these, hired also of Israel 100,000 valiant men, for one hundred talents of silver; but at the instance of a prophet of the Lord he dismissed the latter, and went against Edom only with his men, and slew of the Edomites 10,000, besides other 10,000 he took alive, and cast headlong from a rock, which came into his hands, see 2 Chronicles 25:5,
and took Selah by war; which signifies a rock, the same with Petra, the metropolis of Arabia Petraea, the country of the Edomites. The city itself was not a rock, nor built on one, but was situated in a plain, surrounded with rocks and mountains, as Strabo z and Pliny a relate, from whence it seems to have its name; and by the Syrians called Recem, where Rocan a king of Midian reigned b, called in the Greek version of Numbers 31:8, Recon; though Vitringa c is of opinion, that not Petra, the metropolis of Edom, is meant, but Maalehakrabbim, Joshua 15:3, which lay on the south border of Judea, near the salt sea:
and called the name of it Joktheel; which signifies "the obedience of God"; in memory of his obedience to the prophet of the Lord, in consequence of which he obtained this victory: and the name continued unto this day: the time of the writing this book.
z Geograph. l. 16. p. 536. a Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. b Hieron. de loc. Heb. fol. 93. M. & 94. A. Vid. Joseph. Antiqu. l. 4. c. 7. sect. 1. c Comment. in Jesaiam, c. 16. 1.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Amaziahâs Idumaean war is treated at length by the writer of Chronicles (marginal reference).
The âValley of Saltâ is usually identified with the broad open plain called the Sabkah, at the southern end of the Dead Sea - the continuation of the Ghor or Jordan gorge. At the north-western corner of this plain stands a mountain of rock-salt, and the tract between this mountain and the sea is a salt-marsh. Salt springs also abound in the plain itself, so that the name would be fully accounted for. It is doubted, however, whether the original of the word âvalley,â commonly used of clefts and ravines, can be applied to such a sunk plain as the Sabkah; and it is certainly most unlikely that 10,000 prisoners would have been conveyed upward of eighty miles (the distance of the Sabkah from Petra), through a rough and difficult country, only in order to be massacred. On the whole, it is perhaps most probable that the âValley of Saltâ yet remains to be discovered, and that its true position was near Selah or Petra (see Judges 1:36 note). Amaziah gave to Petra the name Joktheel, âsubdued by God,â in a religious spirit as an acknowledgment of the divine aid by which his victory was gained. The name failed to take permanent hold on the place, because the Edomites, on not long afterward recovering their city, restored the old appellation (2 Chronicles 28:17; compare Isaiah 16:1, and Amos 1:11).
Unto this day - The writer of Kings evidently gives the exact words of his document, composed not later than the reign of Ahaz, before whose death the Edomites had recovered Petra.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 2 Kings 14:7. He slew of Edom to the valley of salt — This war is more circumstantially related in 2 Chronicles 25:5, c. The Idumeans had arisen in the reign of Joram king of Judah, and shaken off the yoke of the house of David. Amaziah determined to reduce them to obedience he therefore levied an army of three hundred thousand men in his own kingdom, and hired a hundred thousand Israelites, at the price of one hundred talents. When he was about to depart at the head of this numerous army, a prophet came to him and ordered him to dismiss the Israelitish army, for God was not with them: and on the king of Judah expressing regret for the loss of his hundred talents, he was answered, that the Lord could give him much more than that. He obeyed, sent back the Israelites, and at the head of his own men attacked the Edomites in the valley of salt, slew ten thousand on the spot, and took ten thousand prisoners, all of whom he precipitated from the rock, or Selah, which was afterwards called Joktheel, a place or city supposed to be the same with Petra, which gave name to Arabia Petraea, where there must have been a great precipice, from which the place took its name of Selah or Petra.
