1Then 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. 2Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri. 3He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was counseling him to do wickedly. 4Therefore he did evil in the eyes of Jehovah, like the house of Ahab; for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction. 5He also followed their counsel, and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth Gilead; and the Syrians struck Joram. 6And he returned to Jezreel to heal from the wounds with which he was struck 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. 7Now Ahaziah's destruction, when he went to Joram, was from God; for when he came, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Jehovah had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. 8And it happened, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers who served Ahaziah, that he killed them. 9He also sought 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 Jehovah with all his heart. So the house of Ahaziah had no one to retain power over the kingdom. 10Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and commanded to destroy all the royal seed of the house of Judah. 11But 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 killed, 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. 12And he was hiding with them in the house of God for six years, while Athaliah reigned over the land.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 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 (
2Chr 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 (
2Chr 22:2), which could not be, for his father, his immediate predecessor, was but forty when he died, and it is said (
2Kgs 8:26) that he was twenty-two years old when
he began to reign. Some make this forty-two to be the age of his mother Athaliah, for in the original it is,
he was the son of forty-two years, that is, the son of a mother that was of that age; and justly is her age put for his, in reproach to him, because she managed him, and did what she would - she, in effect, reigned, and he had little more than the title of king. Many good expositors are ready to allow that this, with some few more such difficulties, arise from the mistake of some transcriber, who put forty-two for twenty-two, and the copies by which the error should have been corrected might be lost. Many ancient translations read it here twenty-two. Few books are now printed without some
errata, yet the authors do not therefore disown them, nor are the errors of the press imputed to the author, but the candid reader amends them by the sense, or by comparing them with some other part of the work, as we may easily do this.
The history of Ahaziah's reign is briefly summed up in two clauses,
2Chr 22:3,
2Chr 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 (
2Chr 22:3,
2Chr 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 (
2Chr 22:3) and so were
they, after the death of his father, 2Chr 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.
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 (
2Chr 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, (2Chr: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,
Revel 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,
2Kgs 9:27,
2Kgs 9:28. It is here added that he was decently buried (not as Jehoram, whose dead body was cast into Naboth's vineyard,
2Kgs 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. 10 We have here what we had before,
2Kgs 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 (
2Chr 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 (
2Chr 22:11,
2Chr 22:12), that a
lamp might be ordained for God's anointed; for no word of God shall fall to the ground.