2 Kings 14:7 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

He slew of Edom That is, of the Edomites, or the children of Seir, as they are called 2 Chronicles 25:1. The Edomites, after having been subject to Judah from the time of David, who subdued them, revolted in the days of Jehoram, (2 Kings 8:10,) and now Amaziah endeavoured to reduce them: and having, at the command of God, abandoned the help of the Israelites, although he had purchased it with a large sum, (2 Chronicles 25:7-10,) he and the men of Judah gained a great victory over them, and made the following slaughter. In the valley of Salt Which was in the land of Edom. And took Selah Or, the rock, as the word signifies. This city, called by other authors Petra, which also means a rock, was the metropolis of all that part of Arabia, termed from hence Arabia Petræa, or Arabia the rocky. And called the name of it Joktheel Which word signifies, the obedience of God; so he named it, either, because, having taken it, he established in it, as some think, the laws and statutes of Moses; or rather, because he considered it as given him by God, as a reward of his obedience to God's message by the prophet, requiring him to dismiss all the forces which he had hired of the Israelites.