Two Chronicles Twenty Two

by Dr. Henry M. Morris

(taken from the Defender's Study Bible)

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2 Chronicles 22:1 And 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.

2 Chronicles 22:2 Forty 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.

Forty and two. The parallel passage (2 Kings 8:26) says that Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king. Since his father Jehoram was only forty years old at his death (2 Chronicles 21:5), it is probable that the forty-two years given in this verse represents a copyist error in later transmission. Several writers have proposed ad hoc solutions to this discrepancy (e.g., the 42 years refers to his mother's age at Ahaziah's birth), but these all are less reasonable ways of dealing with Scripture than to allow a very understandable scribal error in copying.

Ahaziah. Ahaziah is evidently the same as Jehoahaz (2 Chronicles 21:17), all of whose older brothers had been slain by the invading Philistines and Arabians, before their father Jehoram died “of sore diseases” (2 Chronicles 21:19).

daughter of Omri. Athaliah was actually the immediate daughter of Ahab (2 Chronicles 21:6), who was the son of Omri.

2 Chronicles 22:3 He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.

his counseller. If anything, Athaliah was worse than her mother Jezebel, not only bringing the corrupt Baalite religion into Judah, and probably inciting her husband to slay his brothers, then counseling her son “to do wickedly,” but also slaying all her own grandsons and any others who might have a claim in the throne which she coveted (2 Chronicles 22:10).

2 Chronicles 22:4 Wherefore 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.

2 Chronicles 22:5 He 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.

2 Chronicles 22:6 And 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.

2 Chronicles 22:7 And 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.

2 Chronicles 22:8 And 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.

2 Chronicles 22:9 And 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.

2 Chronicles 22:10 But 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.

But when Athaliah. The material in 2 Chronicles 22:10-23:21 is substantially the same as 2 Kings 11:1-20. See the footnotes for the latter section.

2 Chronicles 22:11 But 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.

2 Chronicles 22:12 And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land.