Lives of Scripture

During the reign of King Ahaz, Judah suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of Israel's King Pekah, who killed 120,000 Judean soldiers in a single day and carried off 200,000 women and children as captives to Samaria, intending to enslave them (2 Chronicles 28:5-8). Before the army could bring the captives into the city, a prophet named Oded confronted them: God had already judged Judah through this defeat, Oded said, but enslaving fellow Israelites would add new guilt of their own (28:9-11). Azariah, son of Johanan, was one of four chiefs of the tribe of Ephraim -- with Berechiah, Jehizkiah, and Amasa -- who rose up in support of Oded's warning and confronted the returning army directly: "You must not bring the captives in here, for you are proposing to bring upon us guilt against the LORD, adding to our sins and our guilt" (28:13). The armed men listened and handed the captives and plunder over to the officials and assembly. Azariah and the other named men then acted themselves: they clothed the naked captives from the plunder, gave them sandals, fed and gave them drink, anointed the weak with oil, set the feeble on donkeys, and personally escorted them home to Jericho before returning to Samaria (28:14-15). In a chapter otherwise dominated by Ahaz's unfaithfulness and national disaster, Azariah's stand for mercy -- backed by concrete action, not just words -- stands out as a rare bright moment.