2 Chronicles 22

The people living in Jerusalem made Ahaziah, the youngest son of Jehoram, king in his place. They did this because the raiders who had come into the camp with the Arabs had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah.

1And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his stead: for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the eldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.

NoteThe raid is described in the previous chapter: bands of Philistines and Arabs broke into the royal camp and carried off the king's possessions, wives and sons, leaving only the youngest. "The camp" is the royal household's encampment, not an army camp.

2Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for one year. His mother's name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.

2Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.

NoteTwo difficulties sit in this verse. The Hebrew number here is forty-two, but 2 Kings 8:26 reads twenty-two; since Ahaziah's father Jehoram died at forty (2 Chronicles 21:20), forty-two would make the son older than the father, and the figure is widely taken as a copying slip. The rendering keeps the number the Hebrew actually has. Second, the Hebrew calls Athaliah the "daughter" of Omri; in Hebrew that word covers any female descendant, and elsewhere she is the daughter of Ahab, who was Omri's son.

3He too lived the way the family of Ahab lived, because his mother advised him to do wrong.

3He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.

NoteAhab was king of the northern kingdom of Israel a generation earlier, and "the house of Ahab" means his dynasty and the way it governed and worshiped, above all the state backing it gave to the god Baal under Ahab's wife Jezebel. Athaliah came from that family, so Judah's royal house was now tied to Israel's by marriage.

4So he did what the LORD said was evil, just as Ahab's family had done. After his father died, they were the ones who advised him, and their advice ruined him.

4Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab: for they were his counsellors after the death of his father to his destruction.

5He followed their advice and went with Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel, to fight Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead. The Syrians wounded Joram.

5He walked also after their counsel, and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramothgilead: and the Syrians smote Joram.

NoteTwo kings in this chapter carry the same name. Jehoram of Judah was Ahaziah's father; Joram of Israel was Ahab's son. Joram and Jehoram are simply the short and long forms of one Hebrew name, and the King James text switches between them, which is why the same man can appear under both spellings. Syria here is Aram, the kingdom centered on Damascus, north-east of Israel. Ramoth-gilead was a fortified town east of the Jordan on the border between the two kingdoms, and it changed hands repeatedly.

6So Joram went back to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he had been given at Ramah when he fought Hazael king of Syria. Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab, because Joram was hurt.

6And he returned to be healed in Jezreel because of the wounds which were given him at Ramah, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria. And Azariah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab at Jezreel, because he was sick.

NoteRamah is a shortened form of Ramoth-gilead, the same place named in the previous verse. Jezreel was a second royal residence of the kings of Israel, in the valley of the same name, about twenty miles north of Samaria. The King James text here reads "Azariah" where the name should be Ahaziah, a variation found in some Hebrew copies.

7Ahaziah's ruin came from God through this visit to Joram. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, the man the LORD had chosen and anointed to wipe out the family of Ahab.

7And the destruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram: for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.

NoteTo anoint was to pour olive oil on a person's head, the standard public act by which a king or priest was marked out for office; it made the appointment official rather than merely intended. Jehu, an army commander, was anointed king of Israel by a prophet sent from Elisha, with instructions to end Ahab's dynasty.

8While Jehu was carrying out that judgment on the family of Ahab, he found the officials of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers, who served Ahaziah, and he killed them.

8And it came to pass, that, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, that ministered to Ahaziah, he slew them.

NoteThe "officials of Judah" are the King James "princes": senior members of the royal administration, not necessarily sons of the king. Ahaziah's own brothers had already been killed in the raid of chapter 21, so it is their sons, his nephews, who were with him.

9Then Jehu looked for Ahaziah. Ahaziah was hiding in Samaria, and Jehu's men caught him and brought him to Jehu, and they killed him. They buried him, because they said, "He is the grandson of Jehoshaphat, who looked to the LORD with all his heart." So no one in Ahaziah's family was strong enough to hold on to the kingdom.

9And he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him, (for he was hid in Samaria,) and brought him to Jehu: and when they had slain him, they buried him: Because, said they, he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart. So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.

NoteSamaria was the capital city of the northern kingdom, and its name was also used for the surrounding territory. 2 Kings 9 tells the story differently, with Ahaziah fleeing and dying near Megiddo; the two accounts have never been fully reconciled. The burial matters because being left unburied was a public disgrace: he was given a proper grave out of regard for his great-grandfather Jehoshaphat, not for himself. Hebrew "son of" often means simply descendant.

10When Athaliah, Ahaziah's mother, saw that her son was dead, she rose up and destroyed the whole royal family of Judah.

10But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah.

NoteKilling every possible claimant was the standard way a usurper secured a throne against later challenge. Athaliah was killing her own grandchildren; with Ahaziah dead she had no royal standing of her own except through them.

11But Jehoshabeath, the king's daughter, took Joash son of Ahaziah and slipped him away from among the king's sons who were being killed. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Jehoshabeath, daughter of King Jehoram and wife of Jehoiada the priest, was Ahaziah's sister, and she hid Joash from Athaliah so Athaliah could not kill him.

11But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not.

NoteJehoshabeath is called Jehosheba in 2 Kings 11. Being married to Jehoiada, a priest, gave her access to the temple precincts, where priestly families had living quarters, which is why a hidden child could be kept there for years.

12Joash stayed hidden with them in the house of God for six years, while Athaliah ruled the land.

12And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land.

Note"The house of God" is the temple in Jerusalem, a walled complex with courts and side rooms, not a single building. Athaliah's six years are the only period in which a woman ruled Judah.