Jeroboam II

Jeroboam II, son of Jehoash (Joash) of Israel and great-grandson of Jehu, reigned forty-one years from Samaria — the longest tenure of any northern king. 2 Kings 14:25 says he 'restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.' This places him at the high-water mark of the northern kingdom's territorial extent — recovering most of what Hazael of Aram had taken from Jehu and his sons. The book grants him the LORD's pity over Israel's affliction (14:26-27), yet records the standard verdict: 'he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat' (14:24). The contemporary prophets Amos and Hosea give the underside of this prosperity: judicial corruption, oppression of the poor, lavish ivory beds in Samaria, and ritual zeal at Bethel and Gilgal divorced from righteousness (Amos 2:6-8; 5:11; 6:4; Hosea 4). Amos was expelled from Bethel by the royal priest Amaziah for predicting that 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land' (Amos 7:11) — fulfilled, though slowly: Jeroboam died in peace, but his son Zechariah was murdered after six months, ending the dynasty of Jehu and beginning the thirty-year slide to the fall of Samaria.