2 Chronicles 22: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Ahaziah becomes king of Judah after raiders kill his older brothers, and he rules one year, following the advice of his mother Athaliah and the house of Ahab. He joins Joram king of Israel in war against Hazael of Syria, and later visits the wounded Joram in Jezreel; Jehu kills the officials of Judah and Ahaziah's nephews, and Ahaziah is caught hiding in Samaria and put to death. When Athaliah learns her son is dead, she kills the rest of the royal family of Judah, but Ahaziah's sister Jehoshabeath hides the infant Joash. He stays hidden in the house of God for six years while Athaliah rules.

Claim by Claim

1. 22:1
   • The inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, Jehoram's youngest son, king in his father's place.
   • A raiding band that had come with the Arabians to the camp had killed all the older sons.
   • Ahaziah son of Jehoram reigned as king of Judah.
2. 22:2
   • Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he began to reign.
   • Ahaziah reigned one year in Jerusalem.
   • His mother's name was Athaliah, daughter of Omri.
3. 22:3
   • Ahaziah also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab.
   • His mother was his counselor to act wickedly.
4. 22:4
   • He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as the house of Ahab did.
   • The house of Ahab were his counselors after his father's death.
   • Their counsel led to his destruction.
5. 22:5
   • He walked according to their counsel.
   • He went with Jehoram son of Ahab, king of Israel, to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead.
   • The Arameans wounded Joram.
6. 22:6
   • Joram returned to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds inflicted on him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Aram.
   • Azariah son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to Jezreel to see Jehoram son of Ahab.
   • He went down because Jehoram was sick.
7. 22:7
   • Ahaziah's destruction was from God, through his coming to Joram.
   • When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu son of Nimshi.
   • The LORD had anointed Jehu to cut off the house of Ahab.
8. 22:8
   • While Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he found the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers, who served Ahaziah.
   • Jehu killed them.
9. 22:9
   • Jehu sought Ahaziah.
   • They caught Ahaziah while he was hiding in Samaria.
   • They brought him to Jehu.
   • They put him to death.
   • They buried him.
   • They said he was the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart.
   • The house of Ahaziah had no power to retain the kingdom.
10. 22:10
    • Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead.
    • She arose and destroyed all the royal offspring of the house of Judah.
11. 22:11
    • Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash son of Ahaziah.
    • She stole him from among the king's sons who were being killed.
    • She put him and his nurse in a bedchamber.
    • Jehoshabeath was the daughter of King Jehoram.
    • Jehoshabeath was the wife of Jehoiada the priest.
    • Jehoshabeath was the sister of Ahaziah.
    • She hid Joash from Athaliah.
    • Athaliah did not kill him.
12. 22:12
    • Joash was with them, hidden in the house of God, for six years.
    • Athaliah reigned over the land.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

22:1

The 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.

22:2

Two 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.

22:3

Ahab 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.

22:4

"Evil in the sight of the LORD" is the standard verdict formula these books apply to each king, and in practice it usually means allowing or promoting the worship of gods other than the LORD. It is the writer's judgment on the reign as a whole rather than a description of one particular act.

22:5

Two 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.

22:6

Ramah 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.

22:7

To 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.

22:8

The "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.

22:9

Samaria 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.

22:10

Killing 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.

22:11

Jehoshabeath 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.

22:12

"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.