Bible Commentaries

The story of the reign of Amaziah opens with a remarkable statement which gives us the key to all that follows. "He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart." The general aim of the man was right, but execution was spoiled by imperfection. Nothing is wholly satisfactory to God save the perfect heart, because nothing else can possibly produce the best in man. Amaziah's punishment of his father's murders was tempered with justice. The imperfection of his heart appeared in his alliance with Israel; and then again his right desire in the readiness with which he obeyed the voice of the prophet and broke the alliance even at cost to himself.

Returning from his conquest over the Edomites, he brought back with him the gods of his defeated foes. Again the prophet visited him, and the unutterable folly of such action is declared in the question, "Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which have not delivered their own people out of thine hand?" Punishment for this followed in the defeat of Judah by Israel.

The root idea of the Hebrew word translated "perfect" is being whole, complete. Imperfection of heart consists in incomplete surrender. Some chamber of the temple is retained for selfish purposes. What it was in the case of Amaziah we are not told, but the fact remains, that notwithstanding the general direction of his life, either through personal indulgence, or ambition, or carelessness, the whole heart was not set on doing the will of God. One room possessed by the foe inside the fortress is ever the gravest peril. Sooner or later, almost inevitably, the man in that room opens the door for foes without. Thus it was in the case of Amaziah, and thus it is in the case of all who are not wholly devoted.