2Ch 22 | KD | STEP | Instead of the short stereotyped notice, "and Ahaziah his son was king in his stead," with which concludes the history of Joram, the Chronicle gives more exact information as to Ahaziah's accession: "The inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son (who is called in Jehoahaz), king in his stead; for all the elder (sons), the band which had come among the Arabs to the camp had slain." In ימליכוּ we have a hint that Ahaziah's succession was disputed or doubtful; for where the son follows the father on the throne without opposition, it is simply said in the Chronicle also, "and his son was king in his stead." But the only person who could contest the throne with Ahaziah, since all the other sons of Joram who would have had claims upon it were not then alive, was his mother Athaliah, who usurped the throne after his death. All the elder sons (הראשׁנים, the earlier born) were slain by the troop which had come among (with) the Arabians (see .) into the camp, - not of the Philistines (Cler.), but of the men of Judah; that is, they were slain by a reconnoitring party, which, in the invasion of Judah by the Philistines and Arabs, surprised the camp of the men of Judah, and slew the elder sons of Joram, who had marched to the war. Probably they did not cut them down on the spot, but (according to ) took them prisoners and slew them afterwards.

2 Chronicles 22

Ahaziah's reign of a year, and his death. - The account of Ahaziah in 2Ki 8:26-29 agrees with our narrative, except that there the reflections of the chronicler on the spirit of his government are wanting; but, on the contrary, the account of his death is very brief in the Chronicle (2Ch 22:6-9), while in 2 Kings 9 and 10 the extirpation of the Ahabic house by Jehu, in the course of which Ahaziah was slain with his relatives, is narrated at length.

Instead of the short stereotyped notice, "and Ahaziah his son was king in his stead," with which 2Ki 8:24 concludes the history of Joram, the Chronicle gives more exact information as to Ahaziah's accession: "The inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son (who is called in 2Ch 21:17 Jehoahaz), king in his stead; for all the elder (sons), the band which had come among the Arabs to the camp had slain." In ימליכוּ we have a hint that Ahaziah's succession was disputed or doubtful; for where the son follows the father on the throne without opposition, it is simply said in the Chronicle also, "and his son was king in his stead." But the only person who could contest the throne with Ahaziah, since all the other sons of Joram who would have had claims upon it were not then alive, was his mother Athaliah, who usurped the throne after his death. All the elder sons (הראשׁנים, the earlier born) were slain by the troop which had come among (with) the Arabians (see 2Ch 21:16.) into the camp, - not of the Philistines (Cler.), but of the men of Judah; that is, they were slain by a reconnoitring party, which, in the invasion of Judah by the Philistines and Arabs, surprised the camp of the men of Judah, and slew the elder sons of Joram, who had marched to the war. Probably they did not cut them down on the spot, but (according to 2Ch 21:17) took them prisoners and slew them afterwards.

The number 42 is an orthographical error for 22 (ב having been changed into)מ, 2Ki 8:26. As Joram was thirty-two years of age at his accession, and reigned eight years (2Ch 21:20 and 2Ch 21:5), at his death his youngest son could not be older than twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, and even then Joram must have begotten him in his eighteenth or nineteenth year. It is quite consistent with this that Joram had yet older sons; for in the East marriages are entered upon at a very early age, and the royal princes were wont to have several wives, or, besides their proper wives, concubines also. Certainly, had Ahaziah had forty-two older brothers, as Berth. and other critics conclude from 2Ki 10:13., then he could not possibly have been begotten, or been born, in his father's eighteenth year. But that idea rests merely upon an erroneous interpretation of the passage quoted; see on 2Ch 22:8. Ahaziah's mother Athaliah is called the daughter, i.e., granddaughter, of Omri, as in 2Ki 8:26, because he was the founder of the idolatrous dynasty of the kingdom of the ten tribes.

He also (like his father Joram, 2Ch 21:6) walked in the ways of the house of Ahab. This statement is accounted for by the clause: for his mother (a daughter of Ahab and the godless Jezebel) was his counsellor to do evil, i.e., led him to give himself up to the idolatry of the house of Ahab.

The further remark also, "he did that which was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab," is similarly explained; for they (the members of the house of Ahab related to him through his mother) were counsellors to him after the death of his father to his destruction, cf. 2Ch 20:23; while in 2Ki 8:27, the relationship alone is spoken of as the reason of his evil-doing. How far this counsel led to his destruction is narrated in 2Ch 22:5 and onwards, and the narrative is introduced by the words, "He walked also in their counsel;" whence it is clear beyond all doubt, that Ahaziah entered along with Joram, Ahab's son, upon the war which was to bring about the destruction of Ahab's house, and to cost him his life, on the advice of Ahab's relations. There is no doubt that Joram, Ahab's son, had called upon Ahaziah to take part in the war against the Syrians at Ramoth Gilead (see on 2Ch 18:28), and that Athaliah with her party supported his proposal, so that Ahaziah complied. In the war the Aramaeans (Syrians) smote Joram; i.e., according to 2Ch 22:6, they wounded him (הרמּים is a contraction for הארמּים, 2Ki 8:28). In consequence of this Joram returned to Jezreel, the summer residence of the Ahabic royal house (1Ki 18:45), the present Zerin; see on Jos 19:18. המּכּים כּי has no meaning, and is merely an error for המּכּים מן, 2Ki 8:29, which indeed is the reading of several Codd.: to let himself be cured of his strokes (wounds). ועזריהוּ, too, is an orthographical error for ועחזיהוּ: and Ahaziah went down to visit the wounded Joram, his brother-in-law. Whether he went from Jerusalem or from the loftily-situated Ramah cannot be with certainty determined, for we have no special account of the course of the war, and from 2Ki 9:14. we only learn that the Israelite army remained in Ramoth after the return of the wounded Joram. It is therefore probable that Ahaziah went direct from Ramoth to visit Joram, but it is not ascertained; for there is nothing opposed to the supposition that, after Joram had been wounded in the battle, and while the Israelite host remained to hold the city against the Syrian king Hazael, Ahaziah had returned to his capital, and thence went after some time to visit the wounded Joram in Jezreel.

Without touching upon the conspiracy against Joram, narrated in 2 Kings 9, at the head of which was Jehu, the captain of the host, whom God caused to be anointed king over Israel by a scholar of the prophets deputed by Elisha, and whom he called upon to extirpate the idolatrous family of Ahab, since it did not belong to the plan of the Chronicle to narrate the history of Israel, our historian only briefly records the slaughter of Ahaziah and his brother's sons by Jehu as being the result of a divine dispensation.

"And of God was (came) the destruction (תּבוּסה, a being trodden down, a formation which occurs here only) of Ahaziah, that he went to Joram;" i.e., under divine leading had Ahaziah come to Joram, there to find his death. וגו וּבבאו, and when he was come, he went out with Joram against Jehu (instead of אל־יהוּא, we have in 2Ki 9:21 the more distinct יהוּא לקראת, towards Jehu) the son of Nimshi, whom God had anointed to extirpate the house of Ahab (2Ki 9:1-10).

The six years' tyranny of Athaliah. - In regard to her, all that is stated is, that after Ahaziah's death she ascended the throne, and caused all the royal seed of the house of Judah, i.e., all the male members of the royal house, to be murdered. From this slaughter only Joash the son of Ahaziah, an infant a year old, was rescued, together with his nurse, by the princess Jehoshabeath, who was married to the high priest Jehoiada. He was hidden for six years, and during that time Athaliah reigned. The same narrative, for the most part in the same words, is found in 2Ki 11:1-3, and has been already commented upon there.