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 son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher — Jeroboam II's territorial expansion, from Lebo-hamath (לְבוֹא חֲמָת, *Lebo Chamat*, the northern border) to the Sea of the Arabah (יַם־הָעֲרָבָה, *Yam ha-Arabah*, the Dead Sea), represents Israel's maximum territorial extent since Solomon. Yet this expansion occurs "according to the word of the LORD" (דְבַר־יְהוָה, *devar YHWH*) spoken through Jonah son of Amittai — the same prophet whose book records his reluctance to preach to Nineveh, Israel's future conqueror. The divine permission for Jeroboam's expansion, granted even to one engaged in cultic sin, demonstrates that God's providence operates according to complex purposes beyond moral simplicity.

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