II Chronicles 22:1

Ahaziah's reign of a year, and his death. - The account of Ahaziah in Kg2 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 (Ch2 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. Ch2 22:1 Instead of the short stereotyped notice, "and Ahaziah his son was king in his stead," with which Kg2 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 Ch2 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 Ch2 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 (acco…

We have here an account of the reign of Ahaziah, a short reign (of one year only), yet long enough, unless it had been better. He was called Jeho-ahaz (Ch2 21:17); here he is called Ahaz-iah, which is the same name and of the same signification, only the words of which it is compounded are transposed. He is here said to be forty-two years old when he began to reign (Ch2 22:2), which could not be, for his father, his immediate predecessor, was but forty when he died, and it is said (Kg2 8:26) that he was twenty-two years old when he began to reign. Some make this forty-two to be the age of his mother Athaliah, for in the original it is, he was the son of forty-two years, that is, the son of a mother that was of that age; and justly is her age put for his, in reproach to him, because she managed him, and did what she would - she, in effect, reigned, and he had little more than the title of king. Many good expositors are ready to allow that this, with some few more such difficulties, arise from the mistake of some transcriber, who put forty-two for twenty-two, and the copies by which the error should have been corrected might be lost. Many ancient translations read it here twenty-two. Few books are now printed without some errata, yet the authors do not therefore disown them, nor are the errors of the press imputed to the author, but the candid reader amends them by the sense, or by comparing them with some other part of the work, as we may easily do this. The history of Ahaziah's reign is briefly summed up in two clauses, Ch2 22:3, Ch2 22:4. His mother and her relations were his counselors to do wickedly, and it was to his destruction. I. He did wickedly. Though by a special providence of God he was preserved alive, when all his brethren were slain, and reserved for the c…