2 CHRO�ICLES 22 COMME�TARYEDITED BY GLE�� PEASE

Ahaziah King of Judah

1 The people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, Jehoram’s youngest son, king in his place, since the raiders, who came with the Arabs into the camp, had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.

CLARKE, "Made Ahaziah his youngest son king - All the others had been slain by the Arabians, etc.; see the preceding chapter, 2Ch_21:17 (note).

GILL, "And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his stead,.... He being the only surviving one of the sons of Jehoram, the same with Jehoahaz, 2Ch_21:17 who was saved when the rest were taken captive and slain, by his mother Athaliah, and he made his escape, and that she also escaped is clear from 2Ch_22:10.

for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp; that is, of the Philistines, 2Ch_21:16, which band seems to be a band or company of thieves and robbers, as the Septuagint, cruel and barbarous, as the action ascribed to them shows:

for they had slain all the eldest; sons of Jehoram; the Philistines and Arabians only carried them away captives, but those slew them in cold blood:

so Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned; being declared his successor by the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

HE�RY 1-2, "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 (2Ch_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 (2Ch_22:2), which could not be, for his father, his immediate predecessor, was but forty when he died, and it is said (2Ki_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.

JAMISO�, "2Ch_22:1-9. Ahaziah’s succeeding Jehoram, reigns wickedly.

the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah ... king— or Jehoahaz (2Ch_21:17). All his older brothers having been slaughtered by the Arab marauders, the throne of Judah rightfully belonged to him as the only legitimate heir.

K&D, "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.

2Ch_22:1

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 ימליכו 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 (הראשנים, 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.

BE�SO�, "A.M. 3119. — B.C. 885.

Ahaziah’s wicked reign, 2 Chronicles 22:1-4. Being confederate with Joram, he is slain by Jehu, 2 Chronicles 22:5-9. Athaliah destroys the seed royal, and usurps the kingdom, 2 Chronicles 22:10-12.2 Chronicles 22:1. The band of men had slain all the eldest — A cruel sort of men, who came along with the Arabians, and therefore slew those whom the Arabians had spared, and only carried into captivity. Or the Philistines may be intended, who accompanied the Arabians in this expedition, (2 Chronicles 21:16,) and who lived near the kingdom of Judah, and therefore wished to destroy all the branches of the royal family, lest, if any of them survived, they should afterward gain strength, and revenge themselves upon them for plundering their country, and carrying so many of the seed royal away captive.

COFFMA�, ""Ahaziah his youngest son" (2 Chronicles 22:1). The youngest son of Jehoram is called Jehoahaz in the previous chapter (2 Chronicles 21:17); "But Jehoahaz and Azariah are equivalent names."[1] There was nothing unusual about variations in Hebrew names. "Bathsheba was also known as Bathshua; and her father was called Amiel or Eliam. Either spelling of such duplicate names gave the same meanings in Hebrew."[2]

"Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign" (2 Chronicles 22:2). Ahaziah's father was only forty-two years old when he died (2 Chronicles 21:5), so we should follow later renditions which read, "Twenty and two years" instead of "Forty and two."

"Athaliah the daughter of Omri" (2 Chronicles 22:2). She was actually the daughter of Ahab and a granddaughter of Omri; but such a loose usage of the terms son or daughter is quite common in the O.T.

ELLICOTT, "THE SHORT REIG� OF AHAZIAH (2 Chronicles 22:1-9). (Comp. 2 Kings 8:25-29.)

(1) And the inhabitants of Jerusalem.—2 Chronicles 21:11; 2 Chronicles 21:13.

Made Ahaziah . . . king.—This variation from the usual formula—“And Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead”—has been supposed to indicate that the succession was disputed, either Athaliah, the queen-mother, or Jehoiada, the high priest, opposing it. It is more likely that the difference of expression simply points to the use of a different source by the writer.

The band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp.—The Hebrew is obscure for want of further details. “The troop that came among the Arabs to the camp” appears to have been some party of half-savage warriors, who, after the Jewish camp had been stormed by the invaders and the royal princes taken prisoners, fell upon and slew their captives. (Comp. 2 Chronicles 21:17; and Judges 8:18, seq.; 1 Samuel 15:32.)

All the eldest.—Heb., the former (rîshonîm). Syriac: “For all the elder the troop had destroyed them; for the Arabs came and destroyed the camp of Israel.”

TRAPP, "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.

Ver. 1. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem.] The Sanhedrim especially there sitting.

Made Ahaziah.] Called also Azariah, [2 Chronicles 22:6] and Jehoahaz, [2 Chronicles 21:17] for he was trinomous.

Had slain all the eldest.] After that they had carried them captive. [2 Chronicles 21:17]

POOLE, "Ahaziah is made king; reigneth wickedly, 2 Chronicles 22:1-4. In his confederacy with Joram the son of Ahab he is slain by Jehu, 2 Chronicles 22:5-9. Athaliah destroyeth all the seed royal, save Joash, who was hid, and usurpeth the kingdom, 2 Chronicles 22:10-12.

Men that came with the Arabians; either,

1. A cruel sort of men who came along with the Arabians, and therefore slew those whom the Arabians had spared, and only carried into captivity. Or,

2. The Philistines, who did accompany the Arabians in this expedition, 2 Chronicles 21:16, who lived near the kingdom of Judah, and therefore thought to make as sure work as they could in destroying all the branches of the royal family, who otherwise, they expected, would recover strength, and revenge themselves upon them.

PARKER 1-3, "1. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem [comp. chap. 2 Chronicles 21:11, 2 Chronicles 21:13] 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 [some of the mixed host that came and encamped against Jerusalem with the Arabs had slain all the captive princes, otherwise the people would probably have sought to ransom the eldest, and would then have made him king (compare chap. 2 Chronicles 21:17; Judges 8:18 seq.; 1 Samuel 15:32)]. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.

2. Forty and two years [this number is impossible, since Ahaziah"s father, Jehoram,

was but forty when he died (chap. 2 Chronicles 21:5, 2 Chronicles 21:20). We (Speaker"s Commentary) must read22for42 , and thus bring the passage into agreement with 2 Kings 8:26] 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 [i.e. the grand-daughter (comp. chap. 2 Chronicles 21:6).]

3. He also walked [like his father, Hebrews , too, walked in the way of the house of Ahab. There is a reference to chap. 2 Kings 21:6, 2 Kings 21:13] in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.

GUZIK, "A. Ahaziah’s rise and fall.

1. (2 Chronicles 22:1-4) The brief and wicked reign of Ahaziah.

Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his place, for the raiders who came with the Arabians into the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, reigned. Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the granddaughter of Omri. He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother advised him to do wickedly. Therefore he did evil in the sight of the LORD, like the house of Ahab; for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction.

a. The inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his place: As will be demonstrated, the son of Jehoram named Ahaziah was an unworthy man. Yet the Chronicler explains why the inhabitants of Jerusalem made him king –because raiding Arabians had killed all the older sons.

i. “Men that came with the Arabians; either, 1. A cruel sort of men who came along with the Arabians, and therefore slew those whom the Arabians had spared, and only carried into captivity. Or, 2. The Philistines, who did accompany the Arabians in this expedition, 2 Chronicles 21:16, who lived near the kingdom of Judah, and therefore thought to make as sure work as they could in destroying all the branches of the royal family.” (Poole)

b. He reigned one year in Jerusalem: The short life and reign of Jehoram (he reigned only eight years and died at 40 years of age) should have warned Ahaziah. His brief reign (one year) shows he was even less blessed than his father Jehoram.

i. “Ahaziah succeeded his father, Jehoram, in the critical year 841 B.C. He was not to survive the momentous waves of the political events that were to inundate the ancient �ear East in that year. Indeed, in 841 B.C. Shalmaneser III of Assyria (859-824 B.C.) at last was able to break the coalition of western allies with whom he had previously fought a long series of battles (853, 848, 845).” (Patterson and Austel)

ii. Forty-two years old: This is at odds with 2 Kings 8:26 which says that Ahaziah

took the throne when 22 years old. “I am satisfied the reading in 2 Chronicles 22:2, is a mistake; and that we should read . . . twenty-two instead of forty-two year. . . . Is there a single ancient author of any kind, but particularly those who have written on matters of history and chronology, whose works have been transmitted to us free of similar errors, owing to the negligence of transcribers?” (Clarke)

iii. “The reading found in the LXX and 2 Kings 8:26 fro Ahaziah’s age of ‘twenty-two years’ is to be adopted, rather than the MT’s ‘forty-two,’ which would make him older than his father (cf. 2 Chronicles 21:20).” (Payne)

c. He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother advised him to do wickedly: Ahaziah’s mother was the wicked Athaliah, who was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel of the northern kingdom of Israel and she was given in marriage to Jehoram, the king of Judah. She brought her influence to bear upon her son and made him more of a son of Ahab and Jezebel then a son of David and his godly descendents.

i. Through her control of her son and her subsequent reign (2 Chronicles 22:10-12), “During both reigns, therefore, Ahab’s dynasty was in effective control of Judah. The unity of Judah and Israel is eloquently symbolized by the names of their kings. �o other Israelite king was called Jehoram or Ahaziah, yet both names are used of successive contemporary rulers in Judah and Israel.” (Selman)

PULPIT, "This chapter comprises the accession, brief reign, and death of Ahaziah (2 Chronicles 22:1-9) and the following murders and usurpation of Athaliah during six years (2 Chronicles 22:10-12). The parallel of the former section is to be found in 2 Kings 8:24-29; 2 Kings 9:14-16, 2 Kings 9:21-28; and of the latter, 2 Kings 11:1-3.

2 Chronicles 22:1

This verse does not so much purport to say how the inhabitants of Jerusalem proceeded to appoint Ahaziah, in default of any previous appointment on the part of his father, but merely that whereas they appointed him, the youngest son, it was because they had no choice, the elder brothers having been slain (2 Chronicles 21:17). though the deceased Jehoram possibly might not have known up to the time of his death, for certain, of their several deaths. This, if we may judge from the particular language here used, had been brought about at the bands of the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp, now first particularized. The parallel (2 Kings 8:25), wanting both of these items, states that this reign began in the twelfth year of Joram of Israel.

BI 1-9, "And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king.

Ahaziah’s wicked reign

I. Its beginning through home influence. Here all start life in right or wrong direction. Home influence affects societies, Churches, and nations.

II. Its continuance by evil counsellors (2Ch_22:4). A nation with evil legislators like a ship directed in the midst of rooks—in imminent peril.

III. Its end in judgment which it entailed. (J. Wolfendale.)

2 Ahaziah was twenty-two[a] years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.

BAR�ES, "For “42” read “22” (see the marginal reference). Ahaziah’s father, Jehoram, was but 40 when be died 2Ch_21:20.

CLARKE, "Forty and two years old was Ahaziah - See the note on 2Ki_8:26. Ahaziah might have been twenty-two years old, according to 2Ki_8:26 (note), but he could not have been forty-two, as stated here, without being two years older than his own father! See the note there. The Syriac and Arabic have twenty-two, and the Septuagint, in some copies, twenty. And it is very probable that the Hebrew text read so

originally; for when numbers were expressed by single letters, it was easy to mistake מ

mem, Forty, for כ caph, Twenty. And if this book was written by a scribe who used the ancient Hebrew letters, now called the Samaritan, the mistake was still more easy and

probable, as the difference between caph and mem is very small, and can in many

instances be discerned only by an accustomed eye.

The reading in 2Ki_8:26 is right, and any attempt to reconcile this in Chronicles with that is equally futile and absurd. Both readings cannot be true; is that therefore likely to be genuine that makes the son two years older than the father who begat him? Apage hae nugae!

GILL, "Forty two and years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign,.... In 2Ki_8:26, he is said to be but twenty two years old at his accession to the throne, which is undoubtedly most correct; for this makes him to be two years older than his father when he died, who was thirty two when he began to reign, and reigned eight years, 2Ch_

21:20, different ways are taken to solve this difficulty; some refer this to Jehoram, that he was forty two when Ahaziah began to reign, but he was but forty when he died; others to the age of Athaliah his mother, as if he was the son of one that was forty two, when he himself was but twenty two; but no instance is given of any such way of writing, nor any just reason for it; others make these forty two years reach to the twentieth of his son Joash, his age twenty two, his reign one, Athaliah six, and Joash thirteen; but the two principal solutions which seem most to satisfy learned men are, the one, that he was twenty two when he began to reign in his father's lifetime, and forty two when he began to reign in his own right; but then he must reign twenty years with his father, whereas his father reigned but eight years: to make this clear they observe (b), as Kimchi and Abarbinel, from whom this solution is taken, that he reigned eight years very happily when his son was twenty two, and taken on the throne with him, after which he reigned twenty more ingloriously, and died, when his son was forty two; this has been greedily received by many, but without any proof: the other is, that these forty two years are not the date of the age of Ahaziah, but of the reign of the family of Omri king of Israel; so the Jewish chronology (c); but how impertinent must the use of such a date be in the account of the reign of a king of Judah? all that can be said is, his mother was of that family, which is a trifling reason for such an unusual method of reckoning: it seems best to acknowledge a mistake of the copier, which might easily be made through a similarity

of the numeral letters, מב, forty two, for כב, twenty two (d); and the rather since some

copies of the Septuagint, and the Syriac and Arabic versions, read twenty two, as in Kings; particularly the Syriac version, used in the church of Antioch from the most early times; a copy of which Bishop Usher obtained at a very great price, and in which the number is twenty two, as he assures us; and that the difficulty here is owing to the carelessness of the transcribers is owned by Glassius (e), a warm advocate for the integrity of the Hebrew text, and so by Vitringa (f): and indeed it is more to the honour of the sacred Scriptures to acknowledge here and there a mistake in the copiers, especially in the historical books, where there is sometimes a strange difference of names and numbers, than to give in to wild and distorted interpretations of them, in order to reconcile them, where there is no danger with respect to any article of faith or manners; and, as a learned man (g) has observed of the New Testament,"it is an invincible reason for the Scripture's part, that other escapes should be so purposely and infinitely let pass, and yet no saving and substantial part at all scarce moved out of its place; to say the truth, these varieties of readings, in a few by-places, do the same office to the main Scriptures, as the variation of the compass to the whole magnet of the earth, the mariner knows so much the better for these how to steer his course;''and, with respect to some various readings in the Old Testament, Dr. Owen (h) observes, God has suffered this lesser variety to fall out, in or among the copies we have, for the quickening and exercising of our diligence in our search of his word:

he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri, see 2Ki_8:26.

JAMISO�, "Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign—(Compare 2Ki_8:26). According to that passage, the commencement of his reign is dated in the twenty-second year of his age, and, according to this, in the forty-second year of the kingdom of his mother’s family [Lightfoot]. “If Ahaziah ascended the throne in the twenty-second year of his life, he must have been born in his father’s nineteenth year. Hence, it may seem strange that he had older brothers; but in the East they marry

early, and royal princes had, besides the wife of the first rank, usually concubines, as Jehoram had (2Ch_21:17); he might, therefore, in the nineteenth year of his age, very well have several sons” [Keil] (compare 2Ch_21:20; 2Ki_8:17).

Athaliah the daughter of Omri— more properly, “granddaughter.” The expression is used loosely, as the statement was made simply for the purpose of intimating that she belonged to that idolatrous race.

K&D, "2Ch_22:2

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.

BE�SO�, "2 Chronicles 22:2. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah — It is said (2 Kings 8:26) that he was but two and twenty years old when he began to reign; so that, it is probable, an error has been committed here by the copyist or transcriber. For some Greek copies have here twenty-two years old, and it is so in the Syriac and Arabic translations, and particularly in that most ancient copy of the Syriac, which was used by the church at Antioch in the primitive times, and to this day is kept in the church of Antioch, from which Archbishop Usher did, at his own great charge, get an exact copy transcribed. Athaliah the daughter of Omri — That is, of Omri’s family; or, of Ahab, Omri’s son. Grand-children are often called sons or daughters in the Scriptures.

COKE, "2 Chronicles 22:2. Forty-and-two years old was Ahaziah— Twenty-and -two years old. Houbigant; the Syriac and Arabic versions. See 2 Kings 8:26. Others say, that we should read, Ahaziah was the son of the two-and-forty years; i.e. counting from the beginning of the reign of the house of Omri, from which he descended by the mother's side.

ELLICOTT, "(2) Forty and two years old.—An error of transcription. 2 Kings 8:26, twenty and two; and so the Syriac and Arabic: the LXX. has “twenty.” Ahaziah could not have been forty when he succeeded, because his father was only forty when he died (2 Chronicles 21:20).

Athaliah the daughter of Omri—i.e., granddaughter, she being daughter of Ahab

and Jezebel. Kings adds, “king of Israel,” which the chronicler purposely omits. (Comp. Micah 6:16 : “The statutes of Omri,” “the works of the house of Ahab.”)

TRAPP, "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.

Ver. 2. Forty and two years old.] Heb., The son of two and forty years was Ahaziah when he began to reign; i.e., in the last of the two and forty years of the house of Omri, in which it fell, and Ahaziah with it. See on 2 Kings 8:26.

POOLE, "Forty and two years old was Ahaziah.

Object. He was then only twenty-two years old, as is affirmed, 2 Kings 8:26. Besides, Joram his father died in his fortieth year, as is twice noted, 2 Chronicles 21:5,20: how then can this be true?

Answ. 1. In the Hebrew it is, a son of forty-two years, &c., which is an ambiguous phrase; and though it doth for the most part, yet it doth not always, signify the age of the person, as is manifest from 1 Samuel 13:1, See Poole "1 Samuel 13:1". And therefore it is not necessary that this should note his age (as it is generally presumed to do, and that is the only ground of the difficulty); but it may note either,

1. The age of his mother Athaliah; who being so great, and infamous, and mischievous a person to the kingdom and royal family of Judah, it is not strange if her age be here described, especially seeing she herself did for a season sway this sceptre. Or rather,

2. Of the reign of that royal race and family from which by his mother he was descended, to wit, of the house of Omri, who reigned six years, 1 Kings 16:23; Ahab his son reigned twenty-two years, 1 Kings 16:29; Ahaziah his son two years, 1 Kings 22:51; Joram his son twelve years, 2 Kings 3:1; all which, put together, make up exactly these forty-two years; for Ahaziah began his reign in Joram’s twelfth year, 2 Kings 8:25. And such a kind of computation of the years, not of the king’s person, but of his reign or kingdom, we had before, 2 Chronicles 16:1, See Poole "2 Chronicles 16:1". And so we have an account of the person’s age in 2 Kings 8:26, and here of the kingdom to which he belonged.

Answ. 2. Some acknowledge an error in the transcribers of the present Hebrew copies, in which language the numeral letters for twenty-two and forty-two are so like, that they might easily be mistaken. For that it was read twenty-two here, as it is in the Book of Kings, in other Hebrew copies, they gather from hence, that it is at this day so read in divers ancient Greek copies, as also in those two ancient translations, the Syriac and the Arabic, and particularly in that famous and most ancient copy of the Syriac, which was used by the church of Antioch in the primitive times, and to this day is kept in the church of Antioch, from which that most

reverend, learned, pious, and public-spirited archbishop Usher did at his own great charge get another copy transcribed, in which he hath published to all the world that he found it here written twenty and two years old, &c. �or doth this overthrow the authority of the sacred text, as infidels would have it, partly because it is only an historical passage, of no importance to the substantial doctrines of faith and a good life; and partly because the question here is not whether this text be true, but which is the true reading of the text, whether that of the generality of present copies, or that which was used in the ancient copies, which the ancient and venerable translators above mentioned did follow; for it seems unreasonable and uncharitable to think that all of them would have conspired to have changed the text, and put in twenty and two for forty and two, if they had so read it in their Hebrew copies. �or can this open any great door to those innumerable changes which some have boldly and rashly made in the Hebrew text without any such pretence of authority, as there is for this, which as they are affirmed without reason, or authority, or necessity, so they may as easily be rejected. If all this will not satisfy our present infidels, I desire them only to consider what hath been hinted before upon such occasions, that many difficulties which did seem unanswerable, being now fully cleared by later writers, it is but reasonable to think that this may be so in after-times, either by finding of some Hebrew copies in which it may be twenty and two years, &c., or by some other way.

The daughter of Omri, i.e. of Omri’s family; or of Ahab, Omri’s son. Grandchildren are oft called sons and daughters, as Matthew 1:1, Luke 3:26.

PULPIT, "Forty and two; read, twenty and two, and see parallel, 2 Kings 8:26; and note on our 2 Chronicles 21:5. Daughter of Omri; i.e. granddaughter of Omri, as Omri was the father of Ahab.

3 He too followed the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him to act wickedly.

CLARKE, "His mother was his counsellor - Athaliah, the wicked daughter of a wicked parent, and the wicked spouse of an unprincipled king.

GILL, "He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab,.... As his father Jehoram had, 2Ch_21:6.

for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly; to commit idolatry, who was of that idolatrous house.

HE�RY 3-4, "The history of Ahaziah's reign is briefly summed up in two clauses, 2Ch_22:3, 2Ch_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 crown, notwithstanding he was the youngest of them - though the inhabitants of Jerusalem, when they had buried his father ingloriously, made him king, in hopes he would take warning by that not to tread in his steps, but would do better for himself and his kingdom - yet he was not influenced by the favours either of God or man, but walked in the way of the house of Ahab, did evil in the sight of the Lord like them (2Ch_22:3, 2Ch_22:4), that is, he worshipped, Baalim and Ashtaroth, supposing (as the learned bishop Patrick thinks) that by these demons, as mediators, they might have easier access to the supreme Numen, the God of Israel, or that these they might resort to at all times and for all matters, as being nearer at hand,and not of so high a dignity, but of a middle nature between the immortal God and mortal men - deified heroes; so they worshipped them as the church of Rome does saints and angels. That was sufficiently bad; but I wish there was no reason to suspect worse. I am apprehensive that they looked upon Jehovah, the God of their fathers, to be altogether such a one as these Baalim, and them to be as great and as good as he, nay, upon one account, more eligible inasmuch as these Baalim encouraged in their worshippers all manner of lewdness and sensuality, which the God of Israel strictly forbade.

II. He was counselled by his mother and her relations to do so. She was his counsellor(2Ch_22:3) and so were they, after the death of his father, 2Ch_22:4. While his father lived he took care to keep him to idolatry; but, when he was dead, the house of Ahab feared lest his father's miserable end should deter him from it, and therefore they were very industrious to keep him closely to it, and to make him seven times more a child of hell than themselves. The counsel of the ungodly is the ruin of many young persons when they are setting out in the world. This young prince might have had better advice if he had pleased from the princes and the judges, the priests and the Levites, that had been famous in his good grandfather's time for teaching in the knowledge of God; but the house of Ahab humoured him, and he walked after their counsel, gave himself up to be led by them, and did just as they would have him. Thus do those debase and destroy themselves that forsake the divine guidance.

JAMISO�, "his mother was his counsellor ... they were his counsellors—The facile king surrendered himself wholly to the influence of his mother and her relatives. Athaliah and her son introduced a universal corruption of morals and made idolatry the religion of the court and the nation. By them he was induced not only to conform to the religion of the northern kingdom, but to join a new expedition against Ramoth-gilead (see 2Ki_9:10).

K&D, "2Ch_22:3

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.

BE�SO�, "2 Chronicles 22:3-4. He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab —Called their ways, not because they were the first inventors of them in these parts, but the chief establishers. These ways did not consist merely in the worshipping of God by an image, which was the way of Jeroboam; but in the worship of other gods besides the God of Israel, namely, Baal-gods, or Baalim. For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly — Being a crafty and an imperious woman. Those that counsel persons to do wickedly, counsel them to their destruction. It is bad enough when strangers do this, but when parents give such counsel to their own children, it is deplorable indeed! The counsel of the ungodly is the ruin of many young people of both sexes, especially if given to them when they are setting out in life. They were his counsellors after the death of his father — Who, while he lived, seduced his son by his counsel and authority, and kept him to idolatry, and so rendered other evil counsellors unnecessary.

ELLICOTT, "(3) He also.—The pronoun is emphatic: he too, like his father. Kings: “And he walked.”

Walked in the ways of the house of Ahab.—2 Chronicles 21:6; 2 Chronicles 21:13; Micah 6:16.

For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.—�ot in Kings; an explanatory remark added by the chronicler. (Comp. 2 Chronicles 20:35; 2 Chronicles 21:6.) Her influence would be used in support of the Baal worship, which was the symbol of alliance with the northern kingdom.

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

Ver. 3. For his mother was his counsellor.] Mothers have a great influence upon their children, whether for good or evil. Catherine de Medici, queen mother of France, for instance, a second Athaliah.

PARKER, "Ahaziah and Athaliah

"For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly" ( 2 Chronicles 22:3).

WHAT heart can read these words without being sad with ineffable woe! Ahaziah reigned wickedly; forty and two years old was he when he began to reign; he had a brief reign in Jerusalem, only one year long; "he also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab": why? "for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly." There

must be a mistranslation. All nature is offended by this tremendous affront. Can we not find some other word for "mother"? Any other word will do better; even "father" would not be so objectionable. The one word that cannot be tolerated here is the word that is found, namely, "mother"! We might close the Bible here, and say the book that contains this statement was never inspired. But we cannot do so. Then the word "counsellor" is so full of plan, premeditation, arrangement; the mother was a schoolmistress, with one pupil, and she suggested, invented, culminated ends, whispered, threw out hints, advised bad policies; told him when he was halting because the course was evil to "go on!" �apoleon said, "They that rock the cradle rule the world." To have a cradle rocked by such a mother as Athaliah surely were enough to be foredoomed to endless misery! How sweetly the narrative would have read had it proceeded on the lines of nature!—for his mother was his counsellor to do bravely. Surely the word "wickedly" is a misprint, traceable to some careless copyist! His mother was his counsellor to do wisely, patiently, hopefully,—these would have been womanly words, words most motherly, the very words with which we build home and church and heaven. But the word is "wickedly," and we must regard it in its literal significance. What are mothers doing now? They could be God"s foremost ministers. �o man can pray like a woman; no man has the art of eloquence as a woman has it; no one can come into life so silently, quietly, blessingly as woman—mother, sister. If women would preach surely the world would listen. They ought to preach; they know the secret of love, they have the answer to the Cross, they can solve in some degree the enigma of sacrifice. This is the very reason of the horribleness of the text. If woman had been otherwise, then the word "wickedly" would not have read with such a sense of irony and moral collision as it does in this instance. It is because woman can be so heavenly that she can be so low, and wicked, and bad; it is because she can be so like a saviour that she can be such an engine and agent of ruin.

Athaliah must have her fate, and it shall be appropriate. The Bible does not shrink from stating the whole case in its reality.

"And all the people of the land rejoiced: and the city was quiet, after that they had slain Athaliah with the sword" ( 2 Chronicles 23:21).

Blessed be God for the sword when it is wielded by the hands of justice and virtue! People will not endure beyond a given point. Every queen is the subject of her own people. The nation may have a solitary monarch, but the monarch has a multitudinous sovereign. This woman ruled amongst the people viciously, selfishly, without regard to patriotic instinct or patriotic right; and, having filled the cup of her wickedness, the people arose, and Athaliah was slain with the sword; and then all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet This is hard reading! We must read it, because we wish to know the whole contents of the Bible: otherwise we would willingly have brought all these pages together, torn them out with a violent hand, and forgotten the story. But the Bible must be revered for its fearlessless, for a frankness that keeps back nothing; it is a book that is not afraid to show human nature to itself, and that so reveals human nature to itself as to prove that it comprehends it, and cannot be deceived by the most cunning attempt at deception.

The land rejoiced when a woman was slain! What the land then must have endured whilst she lived and ruled! The joy after death is the measure of sorrow before it. "And the city was quiet" after a woman was slain! How much mischief can be wrought by one soul! "One sinner destroyeth much good." When the ruler goes wrong, the nation will either go wrong after him, or will stand up in self-defence; and under a consciousness of true dignity, and under a sense of what is due to God, will revenge the wrong, redeem and reclaim that which is past. Here again how beautifully might the text have read:—And all the people of the land rejoiced: and the city was quiet, because Athaliah was recovered, spared, continued in high office and influence. Is it possible that a time may come when people will rejoice that we are dead? Will some pulpits be more honoured by emptiness than by occupancy? Will some businesses have a chance to recover their character when the principals are dead, but not so long as those principals initiate and conduct the policy of the house? Is it possible that a throne may be a fountain of mischief? Questions such as these, penetrating, unsparing, we should thrust into ourselves, that they may work first painfully and then curatively.

Is there no explanation given of all this rejoicing over the death of Athaliah? The explanation is given in chapter 2 Chronicles 24:7—"that wicked woman." This is an alliteration which the grammarian might detest, the rhetorician avoid as a vice in eloquence, but which the moralist must look at with a sense of ineffable shame. "Wicked woman"—it is impossible! It ought to be an affront to the very genius of creation; say dark sun, say waterless sea, say flowerless summer, and the irony might be tolerated, for it might be only a discord in words: but "wicked woman" indicates a possibility that makes all hell easy of belief. This is the moral explanation of the physical disaster. Athaliah was slain with the sword—cry, Murder, then! Arrest the homicide, the regicide! But wait; you know not all; the explanatory word is found in the context—"that wicked woman."

Was there no brightness in all this history? There is indeed one quiet line. "But Jehoiada waxed old and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died. And they buried him in the city of David "—we have already seen one king buried there—"among the kings." Thus he had a double blessing of sepulture. Was it because he was royal? �o. Because he was mighty in war? �o. Because he was sagacious in policy? �o. Why, then, this double honour? Why this accumulating benediction? Hear the sweet words—"Because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and toward his house." Then lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and let the saint pass in! He seems to be a native of the skies.

PULPIT, "The mother and the house of Ahab had become a proverb and a by-word for their evil. In this and the following two verses stress is laid on the evil counsel and the sources of it that prejudiced Ahaziah to his ruin. Although the parallel wants these direct statements, perhaps it scarcely says less, when it says (verse 27), "For he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab."

SIMEO�, "THE DA�GER OF FOLLOWI�G EVIL COU�SEL

2 Chronicles 22:3-4. He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly. 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 detruction.

THOUGH Jehovah is undoubtedly the Governor of the universe, it is certain that there is a mighty being always exerting himself in opposition to him; and with such great apparent success, as to be justly designated “the god of this world.” In the contest that is maintained between them, each has, if I may so speak, his partisans and agents, who, under their respective heads, labour to execute their master’s will, and to promote the interest of him to whom they belong. Jehovah employs holy men, whose hearts he has touched with his heavenly grace; and whom he sends forth as his ambassadors, to instruct our fallen race, and to rescue them from the dominion of the great usurper. Satan, on the other hand, has his servants also, whom he employs to deceive mankind, and to rivet on them the chains with which they are already bound. In this, however, he differs from that Almighty Power against whom he is arrayed; that, whereas Jehovah delights to make use of the weakest instruments, and “by things which are not, to bring to nought things that are,” Satan is constrained to select the most powerful agents to carry on his cause; well knowing that, without them, he has no hope of effecting any thing. When, in his efforts to rob Job of his integrity, he destroyed all his children, he forbore to destroy the wife of Job, that by her means he might tempt that holy man to “curse God and die.” When he would divert the Lord Jesus Christ from his purpose to redeem the world, he employed the Apostle Peter to dissuade him from subjecting himself to the sufferings that were to come upon him. Thus he acted in reference to the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. Jehoshaphat was a pious king, and served Jehovah faithfully. But Satan wished to reduce Judah, as well as Israel, to idolatry; and, for this end, stirred up Jehoram’s wife to tempt him to it [�ote: 2 Kings 21:6.], and afterwards to give the same impious counsel to her son Ahaziah; thereby leading both of them “to their destruction.”

The history before us will naturally lead me to point out,

I. The influence of evil counsel—

Good counsel, alas! has, for the most part, but little effect. We cannot doubt but that Samuel, knowing as he did the bitter consequences which a want of parental authority had entailed on Eli, was careful to instruct his children in the ways of God, and to reprove in them the first appearances of evil. But, notwithstanding all his efforts, his sons turned aside from the paths of judgment, and rendered the very government of Jehovah himself odious in the eyes of all Israel [�ote: 1 Samuel 8:1-5.]. �or can we doubt but that Jehoshaphat, though in some respects faulty, strove to maintain the authority of Jehovah in his family. But his sons were more easily led

to imitate his errors than his piety. He himself had joined in an alliance with Ahab, and had consented to a marriage of his son with Ahab’s daughter, whose counsels weighed both with her husband and her son far more than any advice of his: yea, though God had signally interposed to thwart his efforts, when combined with those of Ahab, his son and grandson courted the same alliance, and brought on themselves, and on all connected with them, the heaviest judgments [�ote: 1 Kings 20:35-37. with 21:14, 15 and 22:4.].

But let us mark this matter more distinctly,

1. In the case before us—

[To what was it that Ahaziah’s mother tempted him? It was to idolatry. But can we conceive that the counsel of any one, however dear, should have power to draw a person to idolatry? yea, that it should prevail with a person who had been educated in the knowledge of the one true God? Hear the account given of idolaters by the Prophet Hosea: “My people ask counsel of their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them.” Can we conceive it possible that any person who had heard of all the wonders which Jehovah had wrought for his people in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and in Canaan, should ever be seduced to such infatuation as this? Of ignorant savages we may imagine any thing: but of God’s own peculiar people, and of him who was at the head of them, the grandson of the pious Jehoshaphat, we cannot believe it! or the apostate must at least have been bereft of reason. Alas! not so: the man has his mother for his counsellor; and her advice is quite sufficient to draw him from the Most High God to the worship of stocks and stones! I say again, if this fact were not attested on the authority of God himself, we could not credit it; we could not conceive it possible that evil counsel should possess such an influence as this.]

2. In our own case—

[It is well known how generally the rising generation are counselled by their friends and relatives to follow the world rather than God, and to attend to the concerns of time rather those of eternity. I speak not here respecting any particular doctrines of religion which may be supposed to have an injurious effect, and therefore to be an object of jealousy: but I speak of all serious religion, irrespective of any peculiar doctrine: I speak of the fear of God; of a holy anxiety about the soul; about a diligent preparation for death and judgment. Of these things, speculatively considered, every one professes to approve: yet no sooner does any person begin to experience them in his soul, than his own dearest friends, his mother, his wife, his sister, his “friend that is as his own soul,” will begin to caution him against being “righteous over-much,” or, in other words, against being righteous at all. If the person reply, ‘But I have a soul; and it will be called into judgment, and be doomed either to heaven or hell, according to the state in which it is found: and should I not prepare for that great account?’ the answer will be, ‘�o; you have no need to fear: only do as others around you, and you have nothing to be afraid of: God will never enter into judgment with persons who live as you have done.’ Thus all the most blessed counsels of Jehovah are set at nought — — — [�ote: Isaiah 55:1-3.

Revelation 3:18. These should be cited, with a short comment.] and poor fallible men will set their word agamst the word of Jehovah, and will assure those of ultimate impunity, whom God, in the most solemn manner, dooms to everlasting perdition.

But can it be supposed that any one will follow such counsel, and be led by it to prefer the body to the soul, the creature to the Creator, time to eternity, and hell to heaven? It cannot surely be, that any one in his senses can be so influenced, either by friends or enemies. Methinks, the answer that would instantly be given to all such counsellors would be, “Whether it be right to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.” But there are few, very few, in whom this fortitude is found. And if a person can only say, My father or “my mother so counselled me,” he will cease to think that he “does wickedly,” or that he has reason to fear the displeasure of his God.]

But let me faithfully warn you of,

II. The danger of following it—

This unhappy king was soon made to feel the bitter consequences of his folly: for God “fixed his eyes upon him for evil,” and in one short year brought him down “to his destruction.” His end, in this view, is worthy of notice. He went with Jehoram, the son of Ahab, to fight against Hazael, king of Syria. Being wounded in the battle, he went to Jezreel, to be healed of his wounds. Whilst he was there, on a visit to Jehoram, king of Israel, he went forth with Jehoram to inquire into the reason of the apparently hostile approach of Jehu: and finding Jehu too powerful for him, and his friend the king of Israel slain by him, he fled to Samaria, and hid himself there: but, being found, he was taken, and brought to Jehu, and put to death. And all this was ordered of the Lord, as we are expressly told: “The destruction of Ahaziah was of God, by coming to Joram. [�ote: ver. 5–9.]” In like manner will every one find, that in “contemning God’s counsel,” he only ensures his own destruction [�ote: Psalms 107:11.].

In two ways will a compliance with evil counsel operate to a man’s destruction:

1. By the habits which it will induce—

[A person, in yielding to evil counsel, thinks perhaps, that he will only follow it on a particular occasion, or to a given extent. But who shall say where a man on a precipitous descent shall stop? Perhaps the advice given was only to avoid singularity; and, for this end, to avoid the ministry of those who might awaken his conscience, or the society of those who might lead him to God. By following this advice, he is kept from attaining a principle of true piety, which alone can preserve him from any evil. He loves not the word of God; and therefore he employs his leisure in some foolish vanity: he has no pleasure in communion with God; and therefore he associates with those who are like-minded with himself: he affects not heaven; and therefore is satisfied with the things of time and sense.

It may be, that he is never particularly tempted to the commission of any flagrant evil; and therefore he goes on respectably in the eyes of the world; but without any real delight in God, or any serious preparation for eternity: but if he be tried by any violent temptation, he is carried away, like the dust before the wind, and falls a prey to his great enemy. Behold the gambler, the adulterer, the duellist! each, in his calling, was deemed a man of worth, till, by his want of principle, he was betrayed into the evils by which he fell. But had he, in the first instance, listened, not to the counsels of ungodly men, but to the voice of God in his word, he had escaped the snares which were laid for his feet, and avoided the destruction that has come upon his soul. �or is it into occasional sin only that men are drawn by a want of religious principle, but frequently into a contempt for all religion; as the Psalmist intimates, when, in a triple climax, he describes a man, first “walking (transiently) in the counsel of the ungodly (who have no vital piety); then standing in the way of sinners; and, at last, sitting in the seat of the scornful [�ote: Psalms 1:1.].”]

2. By the judgments which it will entail—

[Men may promise us impunity in the ways of sin: but it shall be found, at last, “whose words shall stand, theirs or God’s [�ote: Jeremiah 44:28.].” God has said, “Evil shall hunt the wicked man, to overthrow him [�ote: Psalms 140:11.].” The hunted deer thinks himself at a distance from any enemy, and that he has no ground for fear: but his step has left a scent behind him; and that, once found, is traced with fatal precision, till he is overtaken, and destroyed. So the judgments of God, at whatever distance they may be thought to be, follow the sinner, till at last “his sin finds him out [�ote: �umbers 32:23.],” and brings down the wrath of an offended God upon him. In vain may he “make a covenant with death and hell: his covenant with death shall be disannulled; and his agreement with hell shall not stand: when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, he shall be trodden down by it [�ote: Isaiah 28:18.]:” yea, “though hand join in hand,” and there be a confederacy of the whole universe for his protection, “he shall not be unpunished [�ote: Proverbs 11:21.].” “Let no man deceive himself: God is not mocked; nor will be: for whatsoever any man soweth, that shall he also reap: he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption: and he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting [�ote: Galatians 6:7-8.].”]

Address,

1. Those who are exerting their influence against the Lord—

[Who has not, at one time or other, been guilty of this sin? Who has not either derided serious piety himself, or forborne to vindicate it when derided by others, and thus sanctioned, by silence at least, the counsel of the ungodly? We may think lightly of this evil: but the rebuke given to Peter, when, from a love to his Master, he would have dissuaded him from suffering, shews clearly enough the light in which our conduct has been viewed by Almighty God. In every such act we have taken part with the devil, and done his work: and we may well expect to hear from him

that indignant reproof, “Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” Consider, then, I pray you, Brethren, what you are doing, when you “counsel any one to do wickedly,” or to refrain from obeying any command of God: you “cast a stumbling-block before your brother, and destroy a soul for whom Christ died [�ote: Romans 14:15.],” You also bring the deepest guilt upon your own soul; and will have the blood of those, whom you have ruined, required at your hands. Reflect a moment on the state to which both you and those who have followed your advice will soon be reduced. It is said that the wicked will be “bound in bundles, and cast into the fire [�ote: Matthew 13:30.].” By this I understand, that they who have encouraged each other in sin will be so brought into contact with each other in the eternal world, as to increase each other’s torment to all eternity by their mutual recriminations. The mother will then execrate the folly that her son committed in listening; to her counsels, in opposition to the word of God; whilst the son will cast the most bitter reflections on her, for so abusing her influence to the ruin of his soul. Let these considerations be laid to heart by those who imagine that they are only exercising love: for verily it is such a love as Satan himself approves; and such a love as all, who either exercise it or obey it, will bitterly bewail.]

2. Those who yield to influence so exerted—

[Do not imagine, that, in guarding you against a compliance with the counsels of a wife, a mother, a sister, a friend, I would willingly interrupt the harmony of the domestic circle, and still less that I would lessen in your eyes the obligations of parental authority. �o: in every thing that is not contrary to God’s commands, parental authority ought to be regarded with the deepest veneration, and obeyed with the greatest readiness. To honour our parents is “the first command with promise:” and the blessing of God will always come on those who duly respect it. But there is an authority paramount to that of any creature; and our blessed Lord has expressly told us that no creature under heaven must be put in competition with him: “He that loveth father or mother, or son or daughter, more than me, is not worthy of me [�ote: Matthew 10:37.].” It will be no excuse that you have yielded either to the endearments or authority of love, if, in so doing, you have violated any command of God, or withheld from him any service which you might have rendered. Let it be granted, that, in withstanding the solicitations of your friends, you grieve and offend them: is it not better than to grieve and offend your God? Or, if by means of it you suffer the loss of an earthly inheritance, is not that a better alternative than to lose your own soul? for, “what shall a man take in exchange for his soul?” Learn, then, Beloved, to regard, in the first place, the commands of God. Learn to seek, above all things, his favour; for “in his favour is life;” and “his loving-kindness is better than life itself.” If the advice given you be good, you will do well to follow it, as Timothy did that of his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice [�ote: 2 Timothy 1:5.]:” but if it be evil, “We ought to obey God rather than men [�ote: Acts 5:29.],” must be the principle to which you must inviolably adhere.]

4 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for after his father’s death they became his advisers, to his undoing.

GILL, "Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab,.... See 2Ki_8:27.

for they were his counsellors, after the death of his father, to his destruction; both of soul and body; for they gave him bad advice, both in religious and civil things; these were some of the family or court of the king of Israel, that his mother sent for after his father's death to be of his council.

K&D, "2Ch_22:4-6

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 (הר�ים is a contraction for 2 ,האר�יםKi_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. ה��ים has no �י

meaning, and is merely an error for ה��ים 2Ki_8:29, which indeed is the reading of ,מן

several Codd.: to let himself be cured of his strokes (wounds). ועזריהו, too, is an

orthographical error for ועחזיהו: 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.

COFFMA�, ""Joram king of Israel ... Jehoram king of Israel" (2 Chronicles 22:5,6). This is another example of alternate names for the same person.

This paragraph reveals that the king of Judah was at that time totally dominated by his mother's family, namely, the house of Ahab; and by Ahaziah's leaving his capital city to visit his sick relative in Jezreel, it gave Jehu the opportunity to exterminate both royal houses, both that of Jehoram king of Israel and that of Ahaziah king of Judah.

The first nine verses here are parallel with 2 Kings 8:24b-29, and 9:21,27-28). See our comments under those verses.

ELLICOTT, "(4) Wherefore.—And he did the evil. So 2 Kings 8:27.

For they were his counsellors.—Or, became.

To his destruction.—Literally, to destruction to him, the same peculiar expression being used which occurred in 2 Chronicles 20:23. This last half of the verse is evidently the chronicler’s own free expansion or interpretation of the words of Kings, “for he was son-in-law of the house of Ahab.”

TRAPP, "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.

Ver. 4. Wherefore he did evil.] See 2 Kings 8:27, where he is said to be the son-in-law to the house of Ahab. So that what by his mother’s command, and what by his wife’s importunity, he was utterly marred.

PARKER 4-6, 4. Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab: for they were his counsellors [the influence of his mother Athaliah and her brother, Jehoram of Israel, seems to be especially intended (see 2 Chronicles 22:1, 2 Chronicles 22:3, 2 Chronicles 22:5)] after the death of his father to his destruction.

5. He walked also after [in] their counsel [he became a close partner in the politics of his ally, and joined in his expedition against the Syrians], and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead: and the Syrians smote Joram.

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.

5 He also followed their counsel when he went with Joram[b] son of Ahab king of Israel to wage war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram;

GILL, "He walked also after their counsel,.... Did as they advised him, as in matters of religion, so in political things, of which there is an instance in this and the next verse; of which see Gill on 2Ki_8:28, 2Ki_8:29.

JAMISO�, "went ... to war against Hazael, king of Syria— It may be mentioned as a very minute and therefore important confirmation of this part of the sacred history that the names of Jehu and Hazael, his contemporary, have both been found on Assyrian sculptures; and there is also a notice of Ithbaal, king of Sidon, who was the father of Jezebel.

BE�SO�, "2 Chronicles 22:5. He went with Jehoram to war against Hazael —Following the evil example of Jehoshaphat herein; though he would not follow him in what was good. But of this and the following verses, see notes on 2 Kings 8:28-29; 2 Kings 9:21; 2 Kings 9:27.

ELLICOTT, "(5) He walked also after (in) their counsel.—An allusion to Psalms 1:1. He became a close partner in the politics of his ally, and joined in his expedition against the Syrians. The words are not in Kings.

And went with Jehoram.—2 Kings 8:28, “Joram.”

King of Israel.—Added by chronicler.

Against.—Kings, “with.”

Hazael king of Syria.—See �ote on 2 Kings 8:8, seq.; 13:3.

The Syrians.—Heb., hârammîm, instead of ‘Arammîm’ (Kings). So Vulg. and Targum. The Syriac, as usual, confuses Aram with Edom. The LXX. renders “the archers,” as if the word were the participle of râmâh, “to shoot.” Perhaps the chronicler intended ha-rômîm, “the archers.” (Comp. 1 Samuel 31:3; Jeremiah 4:29.)

TRAPP, "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.

Ver. 5. And went with Jehoram.] See 2 Kings 8:28. He went to fetch his death.

POOLE, "Went with Jehoram to war against Hazael; following the evil example of Jehoshaphat therein, 2Ch 18, though he would not follow him in what was good. But of this and the following verses, see 2 Kings 8:28,29 9:21,27.

GUZIK, "2. (2 Chronicles 22:5-9) Ahaziah falls in judgment along with Ahab’s house by Jehu in Israel.

He also followed their advice, and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth Gilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram. Then he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which he had received at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Azariah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick. His going to Joram was God’s occasion for Ahaziah’s downfall; for when he arrived, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of �imshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. And it happened, when Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s brothers who served Ahaziah, that he killed them. Then he searched for Ahaziah; and they caught him (he was hiding in Samaria), and brought him to Jehu. When they had killed him, they buried him, “because,” they said, “he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart.” So the house of Ahaziah had no one to assume power over the kingdom.

a. Went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria: Ahaziah’s close association with the wicked house of Ahab developed into a war alliance with Israel against Syria. His connection with his mother’s family (she was a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, 2 Kings 8:18) was so strong and sympathetic that he paid a visit to the injured and sick King of Israel (Jehoram).

b. Then he searched for Ahaziah; and they caught him: Jehu was one of the more interesting men of the Old Testament. God raised him up to bring judgment against the dynasty of Omri that ruled the northern kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 9:1-26). In the course of fulfilling that divine commission, he also came against Ahaziah, king of

Judah.

i. Jehu had no direct command or commission from God to bring judgment upon the King of Judah, but he did anyway. Consciously or unconsciously, he was guided by God and he killed Ahaziah.

ii. And the sons of Ahaziah’s bothers: “The Hebrew calls them ‘sons of the brothers of Ahaziah’, but, since his actual brothers were dead (2 Chronicles 21:17; 2Ch_22:1) and their sons were probably no more than children, they are best regarded as ‘kinsmen.’” (Selman)

c. When they had killed him: Ahaziah was happy to associate himself with the northern Kingdom of Israel and their wicked kings. Therefore he died in the same judgment that came upon the King of Israel through Jehu.

i. Ahaziah was also a blood relative of Ahab (Ahab was his grandfather), therefore making him liable under the judgment that came upon Ahab and his descendants. “By failing to separate himself from Jehoram, he made himself liable to suffer the same punishment that God had previously announced against Ahab’s house which he had chosen Hazael and Jehu to carry out.” (Selman)

ii. 2 Kings 9:1-26 also records the reign of Ahaziah and his inglorious end at the hands of Jehu. The reconciliation of the details of the death of Ahaziah between 2 Chronicles 22 and 2 Kings 9 is complicated, but definitely possible. Adam Clarke –among other commentators – carefully works out the details.

iii. “The final movements of Ahaziah are difficult to trace but may perhaps be reconstructed as follows: he fled south from Jezreel so as to hide in Samaria. He was brought to Jehu, who fatally wounded him near Ibleam (between Jezreel and Samaria); he fled by chariot northwest to Megiddo, where he died (2 Kings 9:27); and his body was carried by Ahaziah’s servants to Jerusalem (2 Kings 9:28), where they buried him.” (Payne)

d. They buried him: When Ahaziah was killed in battle, they gave him a dignified burial – not for his own sake, but only because his ancestor Jehoshaphat was a godly man.

PULPIT, "He … went with Jehoram the son of Ahab. So the evil example of even the good lives after them. See Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:29; 2 Chronicles 18:8) followed by his son Jehoram first (2 Kings 3:9), and now by his grandson Ahaziah. The words of this verse and the next are almost identical with the parallel (2 Kings 8:28, 2 Kings 8:29). Ramoth-Gilead. It will be remembered that Ahab failed when he solicited and obtained the help of Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:3-36; 2 Chronicles 18:3-34) in his enterprise against Ramoth-Gilead. The present attempt, however, seems to have had a different issue (2 Kings 9:14, 2 Kings 9:15). The Syrians; Hebrew, הרמים . The initial radical here should be א, from neglect of observing

which the Septuagint has translated "archers" (relate).

6 so he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds they had inflicted on him at Ramoth[c] in his battle with Hazael king of Aram.

Then Ahaziah[d] son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab because he had been wounded.

HE�RY 6-9, "III. He was counselled by them to his destruction. So it proved. Those that counsel us to do wickedly counsel us to our destruction; while they fawn, and flatter, and pretend friendship, they are really our worst enemies. Those that debauch young men destroy them. It was bad enough that they exposed him to the sword of the Syrians, drawing him in to join with Joram king of Israel in an expedition to Ramoth-Gilead, where Joram was wounded, an expedition that was not for his honour. Those that give us bad counsel in the affairs of religion, if regarded by us, may justly be made of God our counsellors to do foolishly in our own affairs. But that was not all: by engaging him in an intimacy with Joram king of Israel, they involved him in the common ruin of the house of Ahab. He came on a visit to Joram (2Ch_22:6) just at the time that Jehu was executing the judgment of God upon that idolatrous family, and so was cut off with them, 2Ch_22:7-9. Here, 1. See and dread the mischief of bad company - of joining in with sinners. If not the infection, yet let the destruction be feared. Come out from Babylon, that falling house, Rev_18:4. 2. See and acknowledge the justice of God. His providence brought Ahaziah, just at this fatal juncture, to see Joram, that he might fall with him and be taken as in a snare. This we had an account of before, 2Ki_9:27, 2Ki_9:28. It is here added that he was decently buried (not as Jehoram, whose dead body was cast into Naboth's vineyard, 2Ki_9:26), and the reason given is because he was the son (that is, the grandson) of good Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with his heart. Thus is he remembered with honour long after his death, and some respect shown even to his degenerate unworthy seed for his sake. The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot.

JAMISO�, "Azariah went down— that is, from Ramoth-gilead, to visit the king of

Israel, who was lying ill of his wounds at Jezreel, and who had fled there on the alarm of Jehu’s rebellion.

ELLICOTT, "(6) And he—i.e., Joram, 1 Kings 8:29, and LXX.

Because of the wounds.—Omit “because.” So

Kings, and LXX. ( ἀπὸ τῶν πληγῶν), Syriac, Arabic, and Targum, as well as some Hebrew MSS. The Hebrew text has “because the wounds,” which makes no sense. The word rendered “wounds” (makhim) only occurs besides in 2 Kings 8:29; 2 Kings 9:15. (Ki, “because,” has originated out of min, “from.”)

Azariah.—A mistake for “Ahaziah.” So Kings, LXX., Vulg., Syriac, Arabic, and some Hebrew MSS.

Went down.—Whether from Ramah or Jerusalem is not clear. (See 2 Kings 9:14.)

Jehoram.—Kings, Joram; and so the versions.

TRAPP, "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.

Ver. 6. And he returned to be healed.] See 2 Kings 9:15.

And Azariah.] See on 2 Chronicles 22:1.

PULPIT, "Both places (this and the parallel) tell first that Ahaziah went with Joram against Hazael; then that Joram, being smitten, returned for healing to Jezreel; next that Ahaziah, out of compassion in some sort, went down to see Joram in Jezreel; and lastly, it is here signalized that in that very deed of his, Providence brought it about that Jehu lighted upon the track of him (2 Chronicles 22:7-9), and he met his end. This feature of the history the writer of Chronicles wishes to exhibit, as usual. Ramah; i.q. Ramoth-Gilead. Jezreel. This was a town in the Plain of Jezreel (Esdraelon), belonging to the tribe of Issachar. For Azariah read Ahaziah; compare the meaning of both being "held" or ,(Jehoahaz) יהואחז and (Ahaziah) אחזיהו"upheld of the Lord."

7 Through Ahaziah’s visit to Joram, God brought about Ahaziah’s downfall. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of �imshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab.

BAR�ES, "The destruction of Ahaziah was of God - i. e. his untimely end was a judgment upon him for his idolatry.

GILL, "And the destruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram,.... Of his appointing; it was according to his purpose and decree, and was brought about by his overruling Providence, ordering the occasion and manner of it very justly for his sins:

for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi; see 2Ki_9:21,

whom the Lord had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab; raised up to be king of Israel for that purpose, 2Ki_9:6, the Targum is,"whom Elijah anointed by the command of the Word of the Lord;''but it was not Elijah, but a prophet by the order of Elisha, that anointed him, 2Ki_9:1, and this being done by direction of the Lord, is ascribed to him.

K&D, "2Ch_22:7-9

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.

2Ch_22:7

“And of God was (came) the destruction (בוסה!, 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 and when he was come, he ,ובבאו

went out with Joram against Jehu (instead of אל־יהוא, we have in 2Ki_9:21 the more

distinct יהוא towards Jehu) the son of Nimshi, whom God had anointed to ,לקראת

extirpate the house of Ahab (2Ki_9:1-10).

BE�SO�, "2 Chronicles 22:7-8. The destruction of Ahaziah was of God — By his providence so disposing occasions, and Ahaziah’s inclinations, that he should come, at that particular time, to receive his deserved judgment. See on 2 Kings 10:12-14.

COFFMA�, ""The destruction of Ahaziah was of God" (2 Chronicles 22:7). This means that it was due to God's providential arrangements that Ahaziah was found in close companionship with Ahab at the very moment when God's appointed exterminator of the house of Ahab appeared and included Ahaziah in the slaughter, quite properly enough; because by Jehoshaphat's foolish marriage of Ahaziah to Athaliah, Ahab's daughter, he had made his son Ahaziah definitely a part of `the house of Ahab.'

"The house of Ahaziah had no power to hold the kingdom" (2 Chronicles 22:9). This was the power vacuum that enabled the evil Athaliah to seize the throne and to proceed with her intention of destroying the last vestiges of the house of David, a purpose which, in the providence of God, was thwarted.

ELLICOTT, "(7) And the destruction of Ahaziah was of God.—Literally, And from God came the downtreading of Ahaziah, so that he went to Joram. The coin cidence of the visit with Jehu’s rebellion revealed the working of Divine providence. It thus came to pass that the three chief representatives of the house of Ahab—Joram, Jezebel, and Ahaziah—were involved in one catastrophe of ruin; Athaliah, however, escaped for the time. “Downtreading” (tebûsah) occurs here only. (Comp. mebûsah, Isaiah 22:5.)

For.—And.

With Jehoram.—So 2 Kings 9:21.

Against Jehu.—Rather, unto Jehu. Kings, l.c., “to meet Jehu.”

The son of �imshi—i.e., grandson. Jehu was son of Jehoshaphat, son of �imshi (2 Kings 9:2).

Whom the Lord had anointed.—Comp. 1 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 9:1-10.

TRAPP, "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 �imshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.

Ver. 7. And the destruction.] Heb., The treading down, sc., with the feet of Jehu.

By coming to Joram.] See 2 Kings 9:21, &c.

POOLE, "The destruction of Ahaziah was of God; by his providence so disposing occasions and Ahaziah’s inclinations, that he should come at that season to receive his deserved judgment.

PARKER 7-8, "7. And the destruction [down-treading] of Ahaziah was of God [lit. And from God came the down-treading of Ahaziah, so that he went to Joram] by coming to Joram: for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against [rather, unto] Jehu the son of �imshi [i.e. grandson. Jehu was son of Jehoshaphat, son of �imshi ( 2 Kings 9:2)], whom the Lord had anointed [comp. 1 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 9:1-10] to cut off the house of Ahab.

8. And it came to pass, that, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab [the Hebrew phrase strictly means "to plead with," or "argue a case with" (comp. 1 Samuel 12:7)], and found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah [comp. 2 Kings 10:12-14, where the details are given], that ministered [were in attendance on] to Ahaziah, he slew them.

PULPIT, "He went out with Jehoram against Jehu. The "against" is the simple preposition אל, and need intend nothing more than "to meet" Jehu; not to meet him hostilely. What the manner of the meeting was, however, we know from 2 Kings 9:21, 2 Kings 9:22, 2 Kings 9:27, 2 Kings 9:28 . The history of this and following two verses is here given very briefly; much must be filled in to give its full explanation, as in 2 Kings 9:11-29. Whom the Lord had anointed to out off the house of Ahab; i.e. had raised him to the throne, possessed of the characteristic qualities which he had for this purpose (2 Kings 9:1-7; 1 Kings 19:16). Jehu the son of �imshi. Strictly, "the son of Jehoshaphat the son of �imshi" (2 Kings 9:2).

8 While Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he found the officials of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s relatives, who had been attending Ahaziah, and he killed them.

GILL, "And it came to pass, that when Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab,.... On Joram, his son, and seventy more sons, his kinsfolks, courtiers, and priests:

and found the princes of Judah, and or even the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah; whose number was forty two:

that ministered to Ahaziah; had offices in his court, or in obedience to his will, went to visit the children of the king and queen of Israel:

and he slew them; Jehu did; of the occasion, time, and place of his meeting with them, and slaying them, see 2Ki_10:12.

K&D, "2Ch_22:8

When Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab (ט)נש usually construed

with את, to be at law with any one, to administer justice; cf. Isa_46:13, Eze_38:22), he

found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brothers of Ahaziah, serving Ahaziah,

and slew them. משרתים, i.e., in the train of King Ahaziah as his servants. As to when and where Jehu met the brothers' sons of Ahaziah and slew them, we have no further statement, as the author of the Chronicle mentions that fact only as a proof of the divinely directed extirpation of all the members of the idolatrous royal house. In 2Ki_10:12-14 we read that Jehu, after he had extirpated the whole Israelite royal house -Joram and Jezebel, and the seventy sons of Ahab - went to Samaria, there to eradicate the Baal-worship, and upon his way thither met the brothers of Ahaziah the king of Judah, and caused them to be taken alive, and then slain, to the number of forty-two.

These עחזיהו forty-two men, cannot have been actual brothers of Ahaziah, since all ,אחי

Ahaziah's brethren had, according to 2Ch_22:1 and 2Ch_21:17, been slain in the reign of Joram, in the invasion of the Philistines and Arabians. They must be brothers only in the wider sense, i.e., cousins and nephews of Ahaziah, as Movers (S. 258) and Ewald recognise, along with the older commentators. The Chronicle, therefore, is quite correct in saying, “sons of the brethren of Ahaziah,” and along with these princes of Judah, who, according to the context, can only be princes who held offices at court, especially such as were entrusted with the education and guardianship of the royal princes. Perhaps these are included in the number forty-two (Kings). But even if this be not the case, we need

not suppose that there were forty-two brothers' sons, or nephews of Ahaziah, since חים+includes cousins also, and in the text of the Chronicle no number is stated, although forty-two nephews would not be an unheard-of number; and we do not know how many elder brothers Ahaziah had. Certainly the nephews or brothers' sons of Ahaziah cannot have been very old, since Ahaziah's father Joram died at the age of forty, and Ahaziah, who became king in his twenty-second year, reigned only one year. But from the early development of posterity in southern lands, and the polygamy practised by the royal princes, Joram might easily have had in his fortieth year a considerable number of grandsons from five to eight years old, and boys of from six to nine years might quite well make a journey with their tutors to Jezreel to visit their relations. In this way the

divergent statements as to the slaughter of the brothers and brothers' sons of Ahaziah, contained in 2 Kings 9 and in our 2Ch_22:8, may be reconciled, without our being compelled, as Berth. thinks we are, to suppose that there were two different traditions on this subject.

ELLICOTT, "(8) When Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab.—The Hebrew phrase strictly means to plead with, or argue a cause with. (Comp. 1 Samuel 12:7.) When God is said to plead with men, the notion of judicial punishment is often involved, as in Joel 3:2; Isaiah 66:16; and such is the meaning here. Jehu was an instrument of Divine vengeance, even when fulfilling the projects of his own ambition, as were the savage Assyrian conquerors (Isaiah 10:5-7).

And found.—Rather, he found.

The sons of the brethren of Ahaziah.—Comp. 2 Kings 10:12-14, where the details are given. The persons whom Jehu slew are there called Ahaziah’s “brethren”—i.e., kinsmen (a common use; so LXX. here), and are said to have been forty-two in number. The Hebrew term is wide enough to include cousins and grandsons as well as nephews of the king. The “princes of Judah” who accompanied them would naturally be members of the court in charge of them, and are perhaps to be included in the total of forty-two persons. Thenius, indeed, in his note on 2 Kings 10:13, alleges that we must understand the real brothers of Ahaziah, whom the chronicler gets rid of (!) on an earlier occasion (i.e., 2 Chronicles 21:17; 2 Chronicles 22:1), because he required a Divine judgment in the lifetime of Jehoram. buch arbitrary criticism hardly deserves refutation; we may, however, remark that Thenius relies on the untenable assumption that Jehoram could not have begotten any children before Ahaziah, whom he begot in his eighteenth or nineteenth year.

That ministered to Ahaziah.—In attendance on Ahaziah—i.e., attached to the retinue of Ahaziah as pages, &c.

He slew them.—And slew them.

TRAPP, "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.

Ver. 8. When Jehu was executing.] 2 Kings 9:22, &c.

And the sons of the brethren.] 2 Kings 10:13-14.

POOLE, "The sons of the brethren of Ahaziah; either properly so called; or the sons of his cousins or near kinsmen, who are oft called

brethren; for his brethren were slain, 2 Chronicles 22:8.

That ministered to Ahaziah; that came thither to wait upon their king Ahaziah, as is here implied, and withal to visit Joram and his children, as is noted, 2 Kings 10:13.

PULPIT, "Executing judgment upon the house of Ahab. The description of all this is sufficiently graphically scattered along the verses of 2Ki 9:24—11:20. And found the princes of Judah (see especially 2 Kings 10:7, 2 Kings 10:11; 2 Kings 11:13-20). And the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah. This both explains and is explained by 2 Kings 10:12-14. That ministered to Ahaziah. Even this enigmatical little clause receives its probable explanation from the last clause of 2 Kings 10:13 in last quotation foregoing.

9 He then went in search of Ahaziah, and his men captured him while he was hiding in Samaria. He was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, “He was a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart.” So there was no one in the house of Ahaziah powerful enough to retain the kingdom.

BAR�ES, "Compare the marginal reference. Ahaziah after remaining a while at Megiddo, removed to Samaria, where his wounds could be better cared for and concealment might be easier; Jehu’s emissaries discovered him there; they took him to Jehu, who happened at the time to be at Megiddo; and then and there Jehu put him to death. The narrative here is therefore supplementary to that of 2 Kings, and finds its proper place between the clause,” He fled to Megiddo,” and the words “and died there.”

And when they had slain him, they buried him - Jehu’s emissaries killed him but allowed his servants to bury him (see 2Ki_9:28).

No power ... - As Ahaziah was but twenty-three at his death (2Ch_22:2 note), he had no grown-up son to take the crown.

CLARKE, "He sought Ahaziah - See a different account 2Ki_9:27 (note), and the note there, where the accounts are reconciled.

GILL 9-12, "And he sought Ahaziah,.... Who fled on Joram's being wounded by Jehu:

and they caught him; the soldiers of Jehu, who were sent after him, and bid to smite him:

for he was hid in Samaria; either in some part of the kingdom of Samaria, or in the city itself, whither he fled:

and brought him to Jehu: who was at Jezreel; see Gill on 2Ki_9:27,

and when they had slain him they buried him; not at Jezreel, but delivered him to his servants to carry him to Jerusalem, and there bury him in the sepulchres of his fathers, 2Ki_9:28,

because, said they, he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart; a grandson of his, and therefore out of respect to the memory of his name, these being religious men, ordered his burial there:

so the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom; his brethren and their sons being slain, and his own children being young fell into the hands of Athaliah, who murdered them all, but one, hid by his aunt, and so got the government into her own hands, as may be observed in the following verses, 2Ch_22:10.

JAMISO�, "he sought Ahaziah, and they caught him (for he was hid in Samaria)— (compare 2Ki_9:27-29). The two accounts are easily reconciled. “Ahaziah fled first to the garden house and escaped to Samaria; but was here, where he had hid himself, taken by Jehu’s men who pursued him, brought to Jehu, who was still near or in Jezreel, and at his command slain at the hill Gur, beside Ibleam, in his chariot; that is, mortally wounded with an arrow, so that he, again fleeing, expired at Megiddo” [Keil]. Jehu left the corpse at the disposal of the king of Judah’s attendants, who conveyed it to Jerusalem, and out of respect to his grandfather Jehoshaphat’s memory, gave him an honorable interment in the tombs of the kings.

So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom— His children were too young to assume the reins of government, and all the other royal princes had been massacred by Jehu (2Ch_22:8).

K&D, "2Ch_22:9

And he (Jehu) sought Ahaziah, and they (Jehu's body-guard or his warriors) caught him while he was hiding in Samaria, and brought him to Jehu, and slew him. Then they (his servants, 2Ki_9:27) buried him, for they said: He is a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought Jahve with all his heart. We find more exact information as to Ahaziah's death in 2Ki_9:27., according to which Ahaziah, overtaken by Jehu near Jibleam in his flight

before him, and smitten, i.e., wounded, fled to Megiddo, and there died, and was brought by his servants to Jerusalem, and buried with his fathers in the city of David. For the reconciliation of these statements, see on 2Ki_9:27. The circumstance that in our account first the slaughter of the brothers' sons, then that of Ahaziah is mentioned, while according to 2 Kings 9 and 10 the slaughter of Ahaziah would seem to have preceded, does not make any essential difference; for the short account in the Chronicle is not arranged chronologically, but according to the subject, and the death of Ahaziah is mentioned last only in order that it might be connected with the further events which occurred in Judah. The last clause of 2Ch_22:9, “and there was not to the house of Ahab one who would have possessed power for the kingdom,” i.e., there was no successor on the throne to whom the government might straightway be transferred, forms a transition to the succeeding account of Athaliah's usurpation.

BE�SO�, "2 Chronicles 22:9. They sought Ahaziah — Who, though wounded, had made his escape. They caught him, for he was hid in Samaria — He fled first to Megiddo, but not thinking himself safe there, he fled to Samaria, where he was taken, and sent thence, by Jehu’s order, to Megiddo, where he received the sentence of death. See note on 2 Kings 9:27.

COKE, "2 Chronicles 22:9. And he sought Ahaziah, &c.— And when he pursued Ahaziah himself, they found him as he lay hid at Samaria. See 2 Kings 9:27. Houbigant.

REFLECTIO�S.—1st, Ahaziah, called Jehoahaz, the name being the same in signification, who alone had escaped the massacre of the Arabians, succeeded his father. The account that we have of him is bad, very bad. He was influenced by the worst of counsellors, an idolatrous mother, and his wicked relations of the house of Ahab; the consequence of which was, that, instead of taking warning by his father's miserable end, he continued, after his death, in the same evil ways, and followed the abominations of the house of Ahab, to the destruction both of body and soul. Forgetting the danger that Jehoshaphat had run in a former expedition against Ramoth-gilead, he consents to join with the king of Israel, in attacking it; where Joram being wounded, and returning to be cured at Jezreel, thither Ahaziah, appointed to destruction, went to visit him, and met his death with Joram from the sword of Jehu. Yet, from regard to his grandfather, they shewed his corpse respect, and gave leave for his honourable interment in the sepulchre of his fathers. See 2 Kings 9:28. �ote; (1.) The most unhappy situation for a young man is, to be under the influence of wicked advisers. (2.) The companion of wicked men justly perishes with them.

2nd, �ever was the promise made to David, to human view, more in danger of failing. The monster Athaliah, to usurp the throne, destroys all her grand-children, and the whole seed-royal of Judah: one babe only of a year old, as a brand from the burning, is snatched from the massacre by the care of his aunt, the wife of Jehoiada. �ote; Vain is every attempt of earth or hell to defeat the word of truth; one jot or

tittle of it shall never fail.

ELLICOTT, "(9) And he sought Ahaziah.—In 2 Kings 9:27-28 we find a different tradition concerning the death of Ahaziah. That passage, literally rendered, runs as follows: “And Ahaziah king of Judah had seen it (i.e., the death of Jehoram, 2 Kings 9:24), and he fled by the way of the garden palace, and Jehu pursued after him, and said, Him, too, smite (shoot) ye him in the chariot!—on the ascent of Gûr, beside Ibleam; and he fled to Megiddo, and died there.” (Perhaps and they smote him has fallen out before the words on the ascent of Gûr.) “And his servants brought him in the chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own grave, with his fathers, in the city of David.” Such divergences are valuable, because they help to establish the independence of the two accounts.

For he was hid.—�ow he was hiding.

And when they had slain him.—And they put him to death, and buried him; for they said, &c.

He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord.—A didactic remark in the usual manner of the chronicler.

So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.—Literally, And the house of Ahaziah had none to retain strength for kingship (= capable of assuming the sovereignty). Another sentence marked throughout by the chronicler’s own style. (Comp. 2 Chronicles 13:20, “retained strength.”) It forms the transition to the account of Athaliah’s usurpation of the throne.

TRAPP, "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.

Ver. 9. And he sought Ahaziah.] 2 Kings 9:27.

Because, said they, he is the son of Jehoshaphat:] Holiness hath its honour in the worst hearts. Here also Ahaziah receiveth courtesy from Jehoshaphat’s dust.

So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.] Either by reason of their tender age, or for want of partakers, or by reason of Athaliah’s might.

POOLE, "He sought Ahaziah; who, though wounded, had made an escape, 2 Kings 9:27.

He was hid in Samaria; either,

1. In the kingdom of Samaria, to wit, in Megiddo; or,

2. In the city of Samaria: and so he fled first to Megiddo; and not thinking himself safe there, he fled to Samaria; where he was taken, and sent thence by Jehu’s order to Megiddo, where he received the sentence of death. See more of this matter upon 2 Kings 9:27.

They buried him; they gave his servants leave to carry him away to Jerusalem, and bury him there, 2 Kings 9:28. Both God and men are ofttimes said to do what they and others do by their permission, when they could hinder them.

The house of Ahaziah, i.e. his posterity, because they were young and feeble, being ground between two millstones, the great and growing power of Jehu, and the craft and tyranny of Athaliah.

PARKER, ""And he [Jehu] sought Ahaziah: and they caught him (for he was hid [now he was hiding] 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 [lit. And the house of Ahaziah had none to retain strength for kingship (= capable of assuming sovereignty)]." ( 2 Chronicles 22:9)

"Because." Who can tell to what he is indebted for his advantages? Who knows how the past helps the present? Who can altogether analyse and Revelation -combine the chemistry of life? We may not exclude the action of sentiment from the processes of life. The world would be poorer could all its tears be forgotten; the flower looks the lovelier for the dew which besprinkles it. So with life; soldiers become greater men than ever when they begin to sigh because of some thought of other days and brighter times and cherished memories. Men can hardly prepare themselves against the invasion of that gracious assailant, Memory. How the old village starts up again, and the church spire, and the little schoolhouse, and home where childhood spent its sunny lot; and what monitions, and tender words, and sacred charges to be men in life"s continual fray; and the book that was given, and the prayer that was offered, and the touch that amounted to lay ordination: how all these spectral lines combine, reappear, and Revelation -combine, and shape themselves into church, and temple, and altar, and house, a singular form indicative of the mystery of life"s processes. Think of a man owing a grave to his father"s memory! Think of people putting themselves to the trouble of digging a grave in which to bury a hated corpse because the father was a religious Prayer of Manasseh , "who sought the Lord with all his heart." Who knows what blessings he is receiving to-day because of something that happened half a century ago? Yet men say, What has the future done for us? The future is doing everything for us. Posterity is our unconscious benefactor. Or, What has the past done for us? It has made the present. The present is not an empty

vessel, it is a full goblet: the past furnished your library, made your house possible, gave you peace, bought your liberty with the gold of blood, made it possible for you to sit still and sneer at heroic history. Who has not received attention in some form or other because of what the father was, or the mother? We have been invited to hospitality because our father was kind to the poor; prodigals have been able to borrow money on the strength of what the father was in the town to which the intended victim belonged. Such is the action of life. What is the great lesson to us? It is to make friends of seven, yea, and to include an eighth in our benefactions, for we cannot tell what shall be on the earth. You are giving now your time, strength, money, influence to good causes: fifty years after some grandchild of yours may be blessed because of what you are doing this day. You take notice of some poor child in the day-school, you tell him that one day he will be a Prayer of Manasseh , you give him some little coin, valueless to you, but the seed of a fortune to him; he will never forget the kind word, the generous Acts , the pleasant look, and mayhap when he has grown to be a giant he may help some descendant of yours across a thoroughfare, or through a forest, or over a difficult pass in life. Lay up for yourselves riches where moth and dust doth not corrupt, where thieves cannot break through and steal. Be good, generous, true, sympathetic, and your grandchildren may come in for your blessing. But if you are rough, cynical, heartless, a perfect genius in sneering criticism, God pity you and yours!

PULPIT, "And he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him … brought him … buried him. This verse, which at the first sight seems at variance with 2 Kings 9:27, 2 Kings 9:28, is perhaps a simply surprising instance of undesigned corroboration of history by the treatment of different historians. The verse, e.g; corrects the italics of 2 Kings 9:27; expunging them throws their proper force into the words, "at the going up to Gur," showing that Jehu reckoned on that steep kill to enable his pursuing warriors to overtake Ahaziah; makes a sufficiently possible harmony, to say the least, in respect of the remaining incidents narrated of his life—that he made for the time a successful flight to Megiddo, afterwards sought to hide in deeper retirement in Samaria, was thence brought to Jehu at Megiddo, there eventually slain before his eyes, and by his own servants, who must be supposed to have had some attachment to him, but probably with the sanction of Jehu himself, conveyed "in a chariot to Jerusalem" for sepulture "in the sepulchre of his fathers in the city of David" (2 Kings 9:28). The fact that he received decent burial being due to the God-fearing character of his grandfather, and that this should find its record on the page of the book that will last while the world lasts, that very page already two thousand five hundred years old, is a most touching consideration. Megiddo was on the Esdraelon or Jezreel plain, that stretched between the hills of Galilee and those of Mount Ephraim or Samaria. Had no power to keep still the kingdom. The undoubted meaning of this clause is that there was no one of the house of Ahaziah who could succeed him. The Hebrew text does not say, "no one left," etc. But the allusion can scarcely be to anything but the fact that transpires in our 2 Kings 9:11 (where only Joash is mentioned as a son, and with him a nurse), viz. that his only surviving son was an infant, The king's sons (presumably sons of Ahaziah and grandsons of her own) were among the "seed royal," whom the wicked Athaliah had "destroyed."

Gesenius says that the words that wrap in them the slight ambiguity, עצר כח, are a phrase peculiar to the later Hebrew, and he instances nine examples, all of which come from Daniel or Chronicles, the virtue of the phrase amounting to the ports ease of the Latin. Translate, And there was no one of the house of Ahaziah able for the kingdom, the exacter conditions of the case not being recorded.

Athaliah and Joash10 When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah.

CLARKE, "All the seed royal of the house of Judah - Nothing but the miraculous intervention of the Divine providence could have saved the line of David at this time, and preserved the prophecy relative to the Messiah. The whole truth of that prophecy, and the salvation of the world, appeared to be now suspended on the brittle thread of the life of an infant of a year old, (see 2Ch_24:1), to destroy whom was the interest of the reigning power! But God can save by few as well as by many. He had purposed, and vain were the counter-exertions of earth and hell.

HE�RY 10-12, "We have here what we had before, 2Ki_11:1, etc. 1. A wicked woman endeavouring to destroy the house of David, that she might set up a throne for herself upon the ruins of it. Athaliah barbarously cut off all the seed-royal (2Ch_22:10), perhaps intending to transmit the crown of Judah after herself to some of her own relations, that though her family was cut off in Israel by Jehu it might be planted in Judah. 2. A good woman effectually preserving it from being wholly extirpated. One of the late king's sons, a child of a year old, was rescued from among the dead, and saved alive by the care of Jehoiada's wife (2Ch_22:11, 2Ch_22:12), that a lamp might be ordained for God's anointed; for no word of God shall fall to the ground.

JAMISO�, "2Ch_22:10-12. Athaliah, destroying the seed royal save Joash, usurps the kingdom.

Athaliah ... arose and destroyed all the seed royal— (See on 2Ki_11:1-3). Maddened by the massacre of the royal family of Ahab, she resolved that the royal house of David should have the same fate. Knowing the commission which Jehu had received to extirpate the whole of Ahab’s posterity, she expected that he would extend his sword

to her. Anticipating his movements, she resolved, as her only defense and security, to usurp the throne and destroy “the seed royal,” both because they were hostile to the Phoenician worship of Baal, which she was determined to uphold, and because, if one of the young princes became king, his mother would supersede Athaliah in the dignity of queen mother.

K&D 10-12, "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.

BE�SO�, "2 Chronicles 22:10. But when Athaliah, &c. — This and 2 Chronicles 22:11-12, are explained 2 Kings 11:1-3.

COFFMA�, "Our comments on the narration in these three verses are found in the parallel account in 2 Kings 11:1-3.

ELLICOTT, "ATHALIAH SEIZES THE GOVER�ME�T (2 Chronicles 22:10-12). (Comp. 2 Kings 11:1-3.)

(10) But when Athaliah.—See 2 Kings 11:1, with which this verse nearly coincides.

Destroyed.—So Kings and some Hebrew MSS., and all the versions. Hebrew text, she spake, a mistake of some scribe.

All the seed royal.—Even after the massacres described in 2 Chronicles 22:1; 2 Chronicles 22:8, there would doubtless be left a number of persons more or less nearly connected with the royal family, besides the immediate offspring of Ahaziah, who are, in the first instance, intended by this phrase.

TRAPP, "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.

Ver. 10. But when Athaliah.] See 2 Kings 11:1.

Destroyed all the seed royal.] Such another wicked woman was the mother of King Edward, called the martyr, whom she basely butchered; and because his brother Ethelred, who succeeded him, being but ten years of age, mourned for him, his mother was so enraged thereat, that taking wax candles which were readiest at

hand, therewith she scorched him so sore, that he could never after endure wax candles to be burnt before him. (a)

GUZIK, "B. The reign of Queen Athaliah.

1. (2 Chronicles 22:10) The evil Queen Athaliah reigns over Judah.

�ow when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs of the house of Judah.

a. When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead: She used the occasion of her son’s death to take power for herself, and she reigned over the land for six years (2 Kings 11:1-3).

i. We remember that Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and was given to Jehoram, King of Judah as a bride. She was a bad influence on both her husband (Jehoram of Judah) and her son (King Ahaziah of Judah).

b. And destroyed all the royal heirs: Athaliah was from the family of Ahab, and Jehu had completely destroyed all of Ahab’s descendants in Israel. �ow, after Jehu’s coup, Athaliah tried to save something for Ahab’s family by trying to eliminate the house of David in Judah.

i. “However, no evil anger is sufficient to frustrate divine purpose, and against the wickedness of one woman God set the compassion of another.” (Morgan)

ii. Years before, the King of Judah – Jehoshaphat – married his son to this daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, hoping to make an alliance with those wicked and apostate leaders. “And this was the fruit of Jehoshaphat’s marrying his son to a daughter of that idolatrous and wicked house of Ahab, even the extirpation of all his posterity but one.” (Poole)

iii. “�o character in history, sacred or secular, stands out blacker or more hideous than this daughter-in-law of the godly Jehoshaphat.” (Knapp)

PULPIT, "But when Athaliah. For parallel to the end of the chapter, see 2 Kings 11:1-3. The words, of the house of Judah, are here carefully supplied, wanting in parallel.

11 But Jehosheba,[e] the daughter of King

Jehoram, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Because Jehosheba,[f] the daughter of King Jehoram and wife of the priest Jehoiada, was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid the child from Athaliah so she could not kill him.

ELLICOTT, "(11) Jehoshabeath.—Kings, “Jehosheba.” (Comp. “Elisheba,” Exodus 6:23; and ἐλισάβετ (LXX.), Luke 1:7.)

The daughter of the king.—Kings adds “Joram,” and “sister of Ahaziah.”

That were slain.—That were to be put to death.

In a bedchamber.—Literally, in the chamber of beds, i.e., where the bedding was kept. (See �ote on 2 Kings 11:2.)

The wife of Jehoiada the priest.—So Josephus. Thenius questions the fact, on the supposed grounds—(1) that the high priest did not live in the Temple; but the passage he alleges (�ehemiah 3:20-21) does not prove this for Jehoiada; and (2) that the chronicler contradicts himself in asserting that the priest’s wife also lived within the sacred precinct; but again his reference (2 Chronicles 8:11) is irrelevant. Ewald calls the statement in question “genuinely historical;” and there is not the smallest reason to doubt it.

TRAPP, "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.

Ver. 11, 12. {See Trapp on "2 Kings 11:2"} {See Trapp on "2 Kings 11:3"} {See Trapp on "2 Kings 11:4"}

GUZIK, "2. (2 Chronicles 22:11-12) God uses Jehoshabeath to preserve the royal line of David.

But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were being murdered, and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. 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 did not kill him. And he was hidden with them in the house of God for six years, while Athaliah reigned over the land.

a. But Jehoshabeath: This little-known woman (known as Jehosheba in 2 Kings 11:2) had an important place in God’s plan of the ages. Through her courage and ingenuity, she preserved the royal line of David through which the Messiah would come. Evil people like Athaliah will begin their work, but God can always raise up a Jehoshabeath.

i. “This incident is really a tale of two women.” (Selman)

ii. “Thus evil always breaks down. It is extremely clever, it calculates on all the changes, and seems to leave no unguarded place; but with unvarying regularity it fails somewhere to cover up its tracks, or to insure its victory.” (Morgan)

iii. She was the sister of Ahaziah: “It is not likely that Jehosheba was the daughter of Athaliah; she was a sister, we find, to Ahaziah the son of Athaliah, but probably by a different mother.” (Clarke)

b. He was hidden with her in the house of God for six years: Though Ahaziah was a bad king who made evil alliances, he was still a descendant of David and the successor of his royal line. For the sake of David, God remembered His promise and spared this one young survivor to the massacre of Athaliah. The line of David was almost extinguished and continued only in the presence of a small boy named Joash, but God preserved that flickering flame.

i. “Josephus (Antiquities 9.7.1) says that the bedroom where the child and his nurse hid was room where spare furniture and mattresses were stored.” (Wiseman)

ii. Like the boy Samuel, Joash grew up in the temple. Like Samuel, he probably found little ways to help the priests, whatever could be done without attracting too much attention.

iii. “�othing but the miraculous intervention of the divine providence could have saved the line of David at this time, and preserved the prophecy relative to the Messiah. The whole truth of that prophecy, and the salvation of the world, appeared to be now suspended on the brittle thread of the life of an infant of a year old, (see 2 Chronicles 24:1,) to destroy whom was the interest of the reigning power! But God can save by few as well as by many. He had purposed, and vain were the counter-

exertions of earth and hell.” (Clarke)

iv. “There are hours in human history when it seems as though evil were almost all powerful. It entrenches itself in great strength; it builds up great ramparts; it inaugurates policies of the utmost craft and cleverness. It seems to be able to bind together a kingdom which is invincible. All this is false seeming. There is no finality, no security, in the apparent might of iniquity.” (Morgan)

PULPIT, "After of the king, the parallel conveniently certifies the name, Joram, and adds, "sister of Ahaziah" (very possibly half-sister, though), and afterwards particularizes the hiding, as from Athaliah, as in the latter part of this verse. We are here told, what is not mentioned in the parallel, that Jehosheba was "wife of Jehoiada the priest," probably the high priest. �or is this negatived by the fact that the name is not found (1 Chronicles 6:1-81.) in the line from Aaron to Jozadak; for this is only the line of Jozadak's ancestors, all of whom were not high priests. Joash is to be heard of again (2 Kings 11:21; 2 Chronicles 24:1).

12 He remained hidden with them at the temple of God for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

CLARKE, "Hid in the house of God - “In the house of the sanctuary of God.” -

Targum. Or, as he says on 2Ch_22:11, בקודש.קודשיא bekudash.kudeshaiya “in the holy of holies.” To this place Athaliah had no access, therefore Joash lay concealed, he and his affectionate aunt-nurse. - See on 2Ki_11:1 (note).

JAMISO�, "he was with them hid in the house of God— Certain persons connected with the priesthood had a right to occupy the buildings in the outer wall, and all within the outer wall was often called the temple. Jehoiada and his family resided in one of these apartments.

ELLICOTT, "(12) With them.—With Jehoiada and his wife. Kings, “with her;” LXX., “with him;” Syriac and Arabic, “with her.” (See �ote on 2 Kings 11:3.)

PULPIT, "With them hid in the house of God six years. During this time evidently Athaliah reigned. There were in the "house of God" chambers sacred to the use of either priests or temple officials (1 Kings 6:5-10).

BI, "And Athaliah reigned over the land.

The evil effects of royal marriages

A distinguished authority on European history is fond of pointing to the evil effects of royal marriages as one of the chief drawbacks to the monarchical system of government. A crown may at any time devolve upon a woman, and by her marriage with a powerful reigning prince her country may virtually be subjected to a foreign yoke. If it happens that the new sovereign professes a different religion from that of his wife’s subjects, the evils arising from the marriage are seriously aggravated. Some such fate befell the Netherlands as the result of the marriage of Mary of Burgundy with the Emperor Maximilian, and England was only saved from the danger of transference to Catholic dominion by the caution and patriotism of Queen Elizabeth. Athaliah’s usurpation was a bold attempt to reverse the usual process and transfer the husband’s dominions to the authority of faith of the wife’s family. It is probable that Athaliah’s permanent success would have led to the absorption of Judah in the northern kingdom. Our own history furnishes numerous illustrations of the evil influences that come in the train of foreign queens. Edward II suffered grievously at the hands of his French queen; Henry VI.’s wife, Margaret of Anjou, contributed considerably to the prolonged bitterness of the struggle between York and Lancaster; and to Henry VIII’s marriage with Catherine of Aragon the country owed the miseries and persecutions inflicted by Mary Tudor. But no foreign queen of England has had the opportunities for mischief that were enjoyed and fully utilised by Athaliah. The peace and honour and prosperity of godly families in all ranks of life have been disturbed, and often destroyed, by the marriage of one of their members with a woman of alien spirit mad temperament. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.).

Footnotes:

2 Chronicles 22:2 Some Septuagint manuscripts and Syriac (see also 2 Kings 8:26); Hebrew forty-two2 Chronicles 22:5 Hebrew Jehoram, a variant of Joram; also in verses 6 and 72 Chronicles 22:6 Hebrew Ramah, a variant of Ramoth2 Chronicles 22:6 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac (see also 2 Kings 8:29); most Hebrew manuscripts Azariah2 Chronicles 22:11 Hebrew Jehoshabeath, a variant of Jehosheba2 Chronicles 22:11 Hebrew Jehoshabeath, a variant of Jehosheba