And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his stead; for the band of men that came in the camp with the Arabians had slain all the elder ones. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Athaliah, daughter of Omri.
A king's record here holds three facts: his age, the length of his reign, and his mother's name. Each one carries weight. The age raises a well-known question about the text. The mother's name explains everything that follows.
Older English translations read "forty and two years old" here. But 2 Kings 8:26 says twenty-two. Commentators treat the higher number as a copying slip, and the reason is simple.
"Forty-two" in 2 Chronicles 22:2 is doubtless a transcriber's error. His father was only forty at his death.
A son cannot be two years older than his own father. Old copies in other languages agree. "The Syriac and Arabic copies read 22 in both passages," notes the Morrish Bible Dictionary.
So does a scribe's mistake damage the Bible? One writer answers with a distinction:
Names, numbers, and the like are especially liable to error in transcription. The way people keep or use Scripture is different in its very nature from inspiration. Only ignorance or fraud confuses the two.
Another writer notes how rare such cases are:
In some extremely rare cases an error may have occurred. In 2 Kings 8:26 Ahaziah's age is 22 years, while in 2 Chronicles 22:2 it is 42 — possibly the result of a copying error. But our faith does not depend on this detail.
The verse calls her the daughter of Omri, though she belongs to the next generation down. Her family ties run through both kingdoms at once.
His mother was Athaliah, daughter of Omri. This was a common way of speaking among the Jews. She was in fact the granddaughter of Omri, the head of this dynasty. She was the daughter of Ahab and the wife of Jehoram of Judah. So she was the sister of Jehoram of Israel.
Athaliah did not arrive in Judah by accident. Ahaziah's grandfather Jehoshaphat put her there.
Poor young Ahaziah still reaps the harvest of the unfortunate alliance of his grandfather Jehoshaphat. The evil is spreading like yeast and doing its dreadful work. His mother Athaliah, granddaughter of the wicked Omri and daughter of Ahab, was his adviser in doing evil. What might have been, if his grandfather Jehoshaphat had not allied himself with Ahab and his house, and married his son Jehoram to Athaliah!
The damage did not stop with Ahaziah:
The godly Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab was the origin of all this, for evil bears fruit that goes on reproducing itself for a long time.
Ahaziah came to the throne as the only son left alive, and he lasted a year. The record names his mother because she guided him. Another king dealt with his own mother very differently.
All Jehoram's sons had been killed except Ahaziah, the youngest, so the people made him king. He took the throne at the age of 22, and he reigned only one year. Sadly, the Lord's judgment on his father did not turn him to the Lord. Instead, he followed the ways of the house of Ahab. His mother was Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and he accepted the wicked advice of his mother. How different from Asa, who removed his mother from the place of queen mother because she had made an idol.
This has a direct message for homes today:
This should make Christian mothers realise their responsibility. It should stir them up to bring up their children in the fear of the Lord. On the other hand, it shows what happens when the head of a Christian family marries a woman of the world. The result is morally disastrous for the children born of that marriage.
- Alliance — Jehoshaphat, a godly king, married his son into Ahab's house. Commentators call that step the origin of the ruin that followed.
- Mother — that marriage made Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and granddaughter of Omri, the queen mother in Judah.
- Counsel — the record names her because she guided her son. Asa shows the other way: he removed his own mother from that place.
- One year — Ahaziah's whole reign lasted twelve months. It was the short, bitter harvest of a seed planted two generations before.
- Numbers — the "forty-two" of older versions is taken as a copying slip, since his father died at forty. How people copy Scripture is one thing; inspiration is another. Faith does not rest on a digit.
He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab; for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.
Ahaziah took the throne of Judah as the last surviving son of a wicked father. The verse names the reason his one-year reign went the way it did: the ways of Ahab reached him through his own mother. What happens when the person closest to a young king is the one steering him away from God?
Athaliah came from the royal house of Israel and married into the royal line of David. One writer follows how she survived, and finds a hint that Ahaziah's father had pulled back from Ahab's house near the end:
He was the youngest and only remaining son of Jehoram. His mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter (or granddaughter) of Omri king of Israel. He was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab. Somehow his mother escaped what happened to Jehoram's other wives, who were taken away captive when the Philistines and Arabians invaded. She "was his counselor in doing wickedly." 2 Chronicles 22:4 seems to give a slight hint that his father Jehoram repented during his last sufferings, and had pulled back a little from the house of Ahab: "for after the death of his father they were his counselors, to his undoing." His father's death removed the check, and he at once joined his mother's relatives in their sins and wars.
Ahaziah did not start this link with Ahab. It began with his grandfather Jehoshaphat, a good king who tied his family to Ahab's by marriage:
Poor young Ahaziah still reaps the harvest of the unfortunate alliance of his grandfather Jehoshaphat. The bad influence keeps spreading and doing its dreadful work. His mother Athaliah, granddaughter of the wicked Omri and daughter of Ahab, was his counselor in doing wickedly. So he did evil in the sight of the LORD, like the house of Ahab. After the death of his father they were his counselors, and they led him to his destruction. What might have been, if his grandfather Jehoshaphat had never allied with Ahab's house and married his son Jehoram to Athaliah!
A godly man's wrong step does not stay with him. It lands hardest on people who had no desire to follow God anyway:
His mother was that infamous Athaliah, the daughter of Omri. … The first evil, begun by a godly king, continues. The way his son lives is far from godly, for the bad example of a good man has immense influence, especially with those who are not good. It hardens them, and so works deep mischief that cannot be rooted out. "The destruction of Ahaziah was of God," as we are told, "by his going to Joram: for when he came, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu." And so he came under the same judgment.
Ahaziah was not the only king of Judah with an idolatrous mother. An earlier king faced the same problem and dealt with it, which makes Ahaziah's choice to listen all the more his own:
Sadly, the Lord's judgment on his father did not move him to turn to the Lord. Instead he followed the ways of the house of Ahab. His mother was Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and he accepted the wicked advice of his mother (v. 3). How different to Asa, who removed his mother from the place of queen mother because she had made an idol, an image of Asherah (2 Chronicles 15:16). Anyone who deliberately ignores the Lord leaves the door open for every kind of evil to lead him.
Once her son was dead, Athaliah turned on her own descendants. One writer names what drove her:
Athaliah, in her anger, now starts on a most cruel plan — the destruction of the royal family — for she worshipped idols, and she hated the word and the purpose of God. She had all the power, and she had no conscience. Hatred and bitterness against the true God and the house of David filled her heart, though she was herself a mother of that house. What will hatred of God not do in overturning every natural affection?
- Sown — Jehoshaphat, a godly king, tied his family to Ahab's by marriage. Ahaziah reaped the harvest.
- Spread — a good man's bad example carries immense weight. It hardens most the people who never wanted to follow God.
- Counselled — Athaliah came from Ahab and Jezebel, and Ahaziah accepted her wicked advice.
- Refused — Asa removed his mother from her position over an idol she had made. Ahaziah could have acted too. He chose not to.
- Destroyed — his father's death removed the check. His counsellors led him to ruin, and his mother then turned on the royal line she belonged to.
And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah like the house of Ahab; for they were his counsellors after the death of his father, to his destruction.
Ahaziah became king of Judah, and his reign ended in violence. This verse gives the reason in two strokes: the pattern he copied, and the people he listened to.
Ahaziah did not invent his evil; he copied it. One writer traces the first evil in this family back to a good king.
The first evil begun by a pious king continues. The practice of his son is far from pious, for the bad example of a good man has immense influence, especially with those who are not good. It hardens them, and therefore works deep and lasting mischief.
The verse dates the bad counsel: it began "after the death of his father." One writer takes that as a hint that Jehoram himself had started to pull away from Ahab's family before he died.
His mother somehow escaped the fate of the rest of Jehoram's wives, and "was his counsellor to do wickedly." 2 Chronicles 22:4 seems to give a slight hint that his father Jehoram repented during his last illness, and had broken away a little from the house of Ahab. It says "they were his (Ahaziah's) counsellors after the death of his father, to his destruction." His father's death removed the check. He at once joined his mother's relatives in their sins and their wars.
Another king of Judah had faced the same pressure from a mother and answered it differently.
His mother was Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and he accepted the wicked advice of his mother (v. 3). How different from Asa! He removed his mother from her place as queen mother, because she had made an idol, an image of Asherah (2 Chron. 15:16). One who deliberately ignores the Lord leaves himself open to being led into every form of evil.
Ahaziah's advisers were in his house because his grandfather Jehoshaphat, a good king, had married his son to Ahab's daughter. Writers trace the whole disaster back to that one decision.
The kings of Israel had been the fatal examples of a course which had led Judah and all Israel to their ruin (see 2 Kings 16:3). The pious Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab was the origin of all this, for evil bears fruit which continues long to reproduce itself.
The same point is put in terms of sowing and reaping, with a direct word to parents:
Jehoshaphat had joined affinity with Ahab (18:1), and married his son Jehoram to Athaliah. "What a man sows that will he reap." His unholy alliance began to bear fruit. And how often have Christian parents seen their children depart from God and follow altogether the wicked ways of the world, because they themselves had set the example.
Repenting of a sin is not the same as judging what led to it. One writer reads Jehoshaphat that way, and draws a wider lesson:
It is evident that although Jehoshaphat had repented of his former evil, and been restored, he had not thoroughly judged himself before God for the unholy alliance. Like many more in this day, the king found it hard to grasp that association with evil defiles. Whatever man may think, God has made it crystal clear in both the Old and New Testaments that He views very seriously the association of His saints with the ungodly of this world.
The verse ends with the result: "to his undoing" — rendered "to his destruction" in older translations. One writer sets Ahaziah's end beside his father's.
How marked the judgment of God upon these two kings! The former (Jehoram) dying of a dreadful disease, the latter slain by the sword, a poor runaway fugitive. But it was the vengeance of God (2 Chron. 22:7).
Ahaziah's death left David's royal line hanging on one hidden baby.
The line from David to Messiah is at this time thinned to a mere feeble thread. The promised glory seemed to hang upon the fragile life and safe hiding of an infant. Yet the promise of God is as sure and His counsels as firm while the infant Joash is in hiding. Joash's unnaturally wicked grandmother, a mere tool in the hands of a greater enemy, would seek his life. The purpose of God was as sure, and His decree as unchangeable, as when Solomon was in all his glory.
- Counsel — Ahaziah's ruin came from who he listened to. His mother and Ahab's family filled the space his father's death left empty.
- Copy — He did not invent his evil; he imitated it. One writer notes that a good man's bad example hardens those who were never good.
- Cause — Jehoshaphat, a godly king, married his son into Ahab's house. What he sowed there was still bearing fruit in his grandson.
- Cost — The counsel did what the verse says it would do: it undid him. He died by the sword, a runaway fugitive, under the judgment of God.
- Covenant — A greater enemy came within one infant of ending David's line, and failed. The line hung on a thread, and God's promise held it.
He walked also after their counsel, and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, to the war against Hazael the king of Syria at Ramoth-Gilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram.
One decision sums up Ahaziah's one-year reign: he took his direction from the family of Ahab and marched out to war beside Ahab's son. The verse reads like a military note. Commentators see in it the harvest of a marriage arranged two generations earlier. They ask what happens when a godly family ties itself to people who do not fear God.
The chapter has already named his advisers: his mother Athaliah and the house of Ahab. One writer shows how they took full control once his father died.
2 Chronicles 22:4 seems to hint that his father Jehoram repented during his last sufferings, and had partly broken away from the house of Ahab. That verse says the house of Ahab became his counsellors after his father's death, and led him to his ruin. His father's death removed the check on him. At once he joined his mother's relatives in their sins and their wars. This friendship cost him his life.
Ramoth-gilead was not new ground. One writer sets the grandson's choice beside his grandfather's.
So Ahaziah accepted advice from the house of Ahab. He joined Jehoram the son of Ahab in war against Hazael king of Syria. His grandfather had made the mistake of joining Ahab in battle, and God rebuked him sharply for it. Yet Ahaziah was so friendly with Joram king of Israel that he went to visit him after Joram was wounded in battle.
Another writer names what the alliance was in God's eyes, and what it cost the young king.
This alliance with the kings of Israel was an abomination in the eyes of the Lord... after opposing Hazael, God's rod against Israel, Ahaziah lays himself open to the blows of Jehu, the second of God's rods against his ally. These judgments on Israel neither move him nor hold him back in his path, and now they will reach his own person!
Jehoshaphat was a godly king who made one bad friendship. His grandson copied the friendship without any of the godliness.
"He even followed their counsel and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to make war." That is, the first evil begun by a godly king carries on. His son's practice is far from godly. The bad example of a good man has immense influence, above all with those who are not good. It hardens them, and so does deep damage that cannot be rooted out.
Ahaziah did not start the trouble; he inherited it. One commentator shows him still paying a bill his grandfather ran up.
Poor, young Ahaziah still reaps the harvest of the unfortunate alliance of his grandfather Jehoshaphat. The evil keeps spreading like yeast. His mother Athaliah, granddaughter of the wicked Omri and daughter of Ahab, was his counsellor to do wickedly... What might have been if his grandfather Jehoshaphat had never tied himself by marriage to Ahab and his house, and had never married his son Jehoram to Athaliah!
The damage reached past one lost battle and one short reign. One writer follows the cost down three more generations, and back onto Jehoshaphat himself.
Turn to the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel. There you will find that these three kings — Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah — are blotted out of "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." They are not counted at all in our Saviour's genealogy... The shame of it, the tragedy, the eternal loss, to this great and good man; and all for the sake of being friends with the world... David brought blessings on his family for four generations: Jehoshaphat brought a curse.
One writer presses the point onto our own dealings with the world.
The world will never give anything to a child of God without making large demands in return. Jehoshaphat had let Ahab kill sheep and oxen for him, so he would have found it hard to refuse Ahab's wish about Ramoth-gilead. The safest way therefore is to be no debtor to the world. Jehoshaphat should have had nothing whatever to do with Ahab; he should have kept himself pure... If we join with the world in its schemes, we must expect to be identified with it in its convulsions.
- Counsel. Ahaziah's ruin came from his advisers. Once his father died, nothing held him back, and he joined his mother's relatives in their sins and their wars.
- Repetition. Ramoth-gilead was the very venture God had rebuked his grandfather for. An ignored warning becomes a road walked twice.
- Example. A good man's one compromise carries immense weight with those who are not good; it hardens them, and the mischief is hard to undo.
- Harvest. Ahaziah reaped a crop he had not planted: a marriage alliance made two generations earlier was still bearing fruit in him.
- Identification. Join the world in its plans and you share its collapse. Three of Jehoshaphat's descendants are missing from the Saviour's genealogy.
And he returned to be healed in Jizreel because of the wounds that 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 Jizreel; for he was sick.
Ahaziah's trip to Jezreel looks like an ordinary family visit. A king calls on a wounded relative. Yet Chronicles treats that short journey as the turning point of his whole reign. Why should a courtesy call be fatal, and what had already happened long before Ahaziah set out?
Ahaziah inherited this friendship with the northern kingdom. His grandfather Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, had tied his family to Ahab, king of Israel, and the tie held for generations.
Jehoshaphat's connection with Ahab was not to his honour, and how disastrous it was for his son, who married Ahab's daughter! This was doubtless the result of the friendship between the two kings.
That marriage brought Ahab's daughter Athaliah into the royal line of Judah. The cost fell on Jehoshaphat's descendants.
It was sad that the Lord rebuked Jehoshaphat for his ties with the ungodly. The results for his heirs were far more serious.
Ahaziah acted on counsel. His mother and Ahab's household became his counsellors once his father was dead. One writer sees a hint in the text that the father's death removed a restraint.
2 Chronicles 22:4 seems to hint that his father Jehoram repented during his last sufferings, and had partly broken away from the house of Ahab. It says of the house of Ahab that "after the death of his father they were his counselors, to his undoing." His father's death removed the check, and he at once joined his mother's relatives in their sins and their warfare.
An earlier king of Judah faced the same pull from his mother and acted in the opposite way.
His mother was Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and he accepted the wicked advice of his mother. How different from Asa, who removed his mother from the place of queen mother because she had made an idol... Anyone who chooses to ignore the Lord leaves himself open to be led into every kind of evil.
The verse moves from a battlefield wound to a sickbed visit. One writer traces both back to the alliance behind them.
This alliance with the kings of Israel was detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Jehoram of Israel suffered the same fate at Ramoth as Ahab, who had been wounded by the Syrians at the same place years before. He went back to Jezreel to be healed of his wounds. It was there that his ally Ahaziah, king of Judah, came to show his sympathy. By the world's standards this was an act of simple courtesy. But Ahaziah had fought against Hazael, God's rod against Israel, and now he puts himself under the blows of Jehu, the second of God's rods against his ally.
Some older translations call the king "Azariah" in this one verse. The ESV and the rest of the chapter call him Ahaziah, and a third name for him appears earlier in Chronicles.
He is called AZARIAH in 2 Chronicles 22:6, and JEHOAHAZ in 2 Chronicles 21:17. "In proper names," says Fürst, "those with related meanings were often interchanged."
The next verse gives the verdict on the trip.
Ahaziah's close friendship with the king of Israel proved his undoing. He visited the wounded king just as Jehu, at God's command, carried out His vengeance on the idol-worshipping and wicked house of Ahab... The divine commentary on this is, "But it was ordained by God that the downfall of Ahaziah should come about through his going to visit Joram" (verse 7).
One writer looks behind these alliances and sees an enemy at work.
The idol worship, the rebellions, and the alliances with Gentile nations or with an Israel that had abandoned God are all so many attacks by Satan against Christ. His hatred is aimed more at the COMING KING than at the people of the kingdom.
- Inherited. Jehoshaphat's friendship with Ahab produced a marriage. That marriage produced Ahaziah. The tie outlived the man who made it.
- Advised. Ahab's household became Ahaziah's counsellors after his father died. The check on him was gone.
- Innocent-looking. Visiting a wounded ally looks like plain courtesy. It was also the step that put him under the sword God had raised up.
- Named. Older translations call him Azariah here and Jehoahaz in 21:17 — one man, one ruin, under three related names.
- Fatal. The verse that follows calls his downfall God's own doing, arranged through this very visit.
But his coming to Joram was from God the complete ruin of Ahaziah. And when he had come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Jehovah had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.
Ahaziah reigned one year. It ended not with a battle he chose, but with a visit he made — a courtesy call on his wounded relative Joram, king of Israel. Chronicles explains what was really happening behind that visit.
The text itself explains why Ahaziah died.
Ahaziah's association and close friendship with the king of Israel proved his undoing. He visited the wounded king of Israel when Jehu, at God's bidding, carried out His vengeance on the idolatrous and wicked house of Ahab. Jehu killed the king in Samaria, along with the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers. The divine commentary on this is, "And the destruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram" (verse 7).
(The quote uses an older translation. Its "was of God" is what the ESV calls "ordained by God.")
Ahaziah had already gone to war alongside Joram. What changed was not his habit but the hour.
So Ahaziah accepted advice from the house of Ahab. He joined Jehoram the son of Ahab to fight against Hazael king of Syria. His grandfather had wrongly joined Ahab in going to battle, and God rebuked him severely for it. But Ahaziah was so friendly with Joram king of Israel that he went to visit him after Joram was wounded in battle (v. 6). But the time had come when God had sent Jehu the son of Nimshi to cut off the house of Ahab.
The grandfather named there is Jehoshaphat. He served God, yet tied his family to Ahab's.
That is, the first evil begun by a pious king continues. The practice of his son is far from pious, for the bad example of a good man has immense influence, especially with those who are not good. It hardens them, and so works deep mischief that can never be rooted out... And so he came under the same judgment.
One writer applies this to marriage in particular, and to how far a single choice travels.
In Jehoram we get another instance of the evils of a worldly match (2 Chron. 21:6). The unbeliever often leads the Christian astray. We cannot remember a single case where, in such a marriage, the Christian brought the unbeliever right. In this case the evil is worse still, for not only is the husband led wrong, but the child also is led astray (22:3) by the evil counsels of his mother. This is often the case, especially when the mother is the unbeliever. And so the result of one false step may descend to generations.
The LORD anointed Jehu against Ahab's house, not against Judah's king. Ahaziah died anyway, because of the company he had joined.
Disaster after disaster falls on Judah as a result of this connection with the house of Ahab. To connect oneself with what claims to be of God, according to His religion, but is not so, is intolerable to God. The only son left to Jehoram is killed by Jehu, as sharing in the wickedness of Ahab's family.
God ordered the outcome, but the men caught up in it still answer for their own hearts. Jehu is the clearest case.
God, in His righteous judgment, used Jehu to deal with the wicked house of Ahab. But He was not unaware of the mixed motives that drove Jehu. In carrying out the vengeance of the Lord, Jehu was only indulging his own cruel heart for his own ends. If God has to deal in judgment, it is His strange work. If Jehu undertakes to deal with evil, it is to him a congenial task.
Behind the sword lay a longer campaign — against the royal line itself.
Satan was always plotting against the house of David. By the enemy's sword or by treachery from within, he seemed to have almost destroyed it. By this time he knew that the One who would crush his head would come from that family. If he could destroy it, all Israel would be his prey... How marked the judgment of God on these two kings! The first, Jehoram, dying of a dreadful disease, buried without honour; the second killed by the sword, a poor runaway fugitive. But it was the vengeance of God (2 Chron. 22:7).
- Alliance. A godly king tied his family to Ahab's house. A good man's bad example does deep and lasting damage to those who are not good.
- Counsel. One worldly marriage reached the grandson through his mother's advice. One false step can "descend to generations."
- Visit. What looked like kindness to a sick relative was the appointed road. The hour had come for Jehu to cut off Ahab's house.
- Verdict. Jehu was not sent against Judah's king. Ahaziah still fell with the family he had joined, judged as sharing their wickedness.
- Vengeance. Chronicles calls the whole thing God's doing. Yet the man God used, Jehu, still answers for the cruel heart he indulged in doing it.
And it came to pass when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, that he found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, that attended upon Ahaziah, and he slew them.
Judah's king went north to visit his wounded relative in Israel, and he arrived just as Jehu was wiping out Ahab's family. This verse counts the cost of that visit: Judah's officials and royal cousins, killed in a slaughter aimed at someone else — God's judgment, or Jehu's excess?
Jehu's campaign was not a random coup. Jehu himself pointed back to a word God had spoken through Elijah.
Jehu goes out to defend the bloody deed. He tells the people, "Know then that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the LORD, which the LORD spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the LORD has done what he said by his servant Elijah." So God accomplished His word to the full.
The men killed here were not from Israel. They were Judah's officials and the nephews of Judah's king. Where they were heading gave them away.
Then forty-two princes and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers (2 Chron. 22:8) were killed. They were on the way to Jezreel. That showed their guilty connection with the wickedness of Jezebel.
Their family tree decided how Jehu treated them.
They were not the direct descendants of Ahab. But Ahaziah was the grandson of Ahab, so Jehu counted all of these men as identified with Ahab's sin. He ordered all forty-two of them to be taken and killed.
None of this started with Ahaziah. It started a generation earlier, in his grandfather's family.
Poor young Ahaziah is still reaping the harvest of his grandfather Jehoshaphat's unhappy alliance. The evil is spreading like yeast and doing its dreadful work. His mother Athaliah was the granddaughter of the wicked Omri and the daughter of Ahab, and she advised him to do evil... Think what might have been! If only his grandfather Jehoshaphat had not tied himself to Ahab's house, and had not married his son Jehoram to Athaliah.
Commentators differ on how far Jehu's commission reached. One of them draws a firm line at Judah's princes.
It was no part of the LORD's commission to Jehu to kill these, or any of the descendants of king Jehoshaphat. God had not required this of him. By this unwarranted slaughter of Ahaziah's brothers he all but wiped out the house of David. He left the rule of the kingdom to the infamous Athaliah... As for the butchered princes, they reaped the sad results of their closeness to that family. God had doomed it to destruction for turning away from Him and for its wickedness. Let Christians take warning. God's call to His own is urgent and plain: "Go out from their midst, and be separate" (2 Cor. 6:17).
God can use a man's sword without approving his heart. Jehu's story shows both at once.
God's judgment is righteous. He used Jehu to deal with the wicked house of Ahab. But He was not unmindful of the mixed motives that drove Jehu. In carrying out the vengeance of the Lord, Jehu was simply indulging his own cruel heart for his own ends. If God has to deal in judgment, it is His strange work. If Jehu undertakes to deal with evil, it is a task he enjoys. So God uses Jehu to carry out judgment on Jezreel. Yet He also says through the prophet Hosea, "I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel" (Hosea 1:4).
The chapter reads like the end of David's family, yet it is not. God's care runs underneath the wreckage.
Disaster after disaster falls upon Judah because of this connection with the house of Ahab. God cannot bear it when a person ties himself to something that claims to be of God and to belong to His religion, but is not. Jehu kills the only son left to Jehoram, as one who shared in the sin of Ahab's family. Athaliah, who belonged to this family, takes the throne. She destroys all the royal offspring except one child, whom God in His grace took care of. He would not have the lamp of David put out at Jerusalem, although He disciplined David's family.
- Alliance — Ahaziah's grandfather tied his family to Ahab's by marriage. His grandson was still reaping that harvest.
- Affiliation — Where Jehu found Judah's princes condemned them: on the road to Jezreel, tied to a doomed family.
- Identification — They were not Ahab's descendants, yet Jehu counted them with Ahab's sin. God treats such ties as sharing in the evil.
- Instrument — Jehu carried out God's word and still overstepped it. God used his sword, then judged his house.
- Preservation — Though David's line was cut down to one hidden child, God would not let the lamp of David go out.
And he sought Ahaziah; and they caught him (for he had hid himself in Samaria), and brought him to Jehu, and slew him; and they buried him, for they said, He is a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought Jehovah with all his heart. And in the house of Ahaziah there was no one who was able to [hold] the kingdom.
Ahaziah's short reign ends here, cut off while Jehu was wiping out the family of Ahab. Two questions follow: how does this account fit the shorter one in 2 Kings, and why did a king under judgment still get an honourable burial?
Ahaziah had married into Ahab's family, and Jehu was destroying that family. Commentators trace his fall back to that tie.
Disaster upon disaster falls upon Judah because of this connection with the house of Ahab. God cannot bear it when someone joins himself to what claims to be of God, following His religion, but is not. Jehu kills the only son left to Jehoram, as one who shared in the wickedness of Ahab's family.
Another writer turns his death into a warning for God's people.
Jehu had no commission to kill the king of Judah. But they found him among those marked out for destruction, so he shared their fate. In that system of wickedness the spiritual Jezebel teaches and seduces His servants. So God calls to His own, "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues" (Revelation 18:4).
The account here says he was hiding in Samaria; 2 Kings 9 has him struck down in his chariot and dying at Megiddo. Read together, they give one order of events.
Compare 2 Kings 9:27-29 with 2 Chronicles 22:7-9. Before he was struck down near Megiddo, Ahaziah had fled to Samaria for refuge. He was still in hiding there when his brothers came to visit the sons of the king. Only after his brothers were wiped out did they bring Ahaziah to Jehu. There at the ascent of Gur he suffered "from God" this "complete ruin". He then fled to Megiddo to die there, and they carried him to Jerusalem and buried him.
Another writer admits the exact order is uncertain, yet finds no clash between the two accounts:
But the story is not clear. Perhaps this order is more consistent: they found him in Samaria and brought him to Jehu. He escaped from there and fled. They then killed him in his chariot, he died at Megiddo, and they took him to Jerusalem and buried him… So far this makes the account plain: there is no contradiction at all.
Jehoshaphat was Ahaziah's grandfather, not his father. The looser use of "son" here is normal in the Bible's family records.
Such omissions are found in the genealogies of the Old Testament. In 2 Chronicles 22:9 Ahaziah is called the son of Jehoshaphat, though he was his grandson. Compare the generations in 1 Chronicles 6:3-15 with Ezra 7:1-5, and you will find seven names missing in the second list.
The killers themselves gave the reason for the burial: the dead man's grandfather had sought the Lord. The contrast with the other end of that family is stark.
They killed him, but they buried him because he was the grandson of Jehoshaphat. His mother-in-law Jezebel had no burial, because the dogs ate her body — all but her skull, her feet and the palms of her hands (2 Kings 9:35).
The chapter closes on a royal house that cannot hold the kingdom together.
"And the house of Ahaziah had no one able to rule the kingdom." With these cheerless words the record of Ahaziah's reign closes. He was the seventh from Solomon, and the first king of Judah to die a violent death. His name is the first of the royal line left out of the genealogy in Matthew 1… He died at the early age of twenty-three.
One writer shows what came next, and what God still guarded:
Athaliah, who belonged to Ahab's family, takes the throne. She destroys the whole royal family, except one child whom God in His grace took care of. He would not let David's lamp in Jerusalem go out, even though He disciplined David's family.
- Friendship — Ahaziah fell through his family's tie to Ahab, not through a foreign war. God cannot bear it when His people join what claims His name but is not His.
- Judgment — Jehu had no orders to kill Judah's king. Ahaziah died because he stood among those marked for destruction. So God calls His people to come out.
- Records — Samaria, Gur and Megiddo belong to one chain of events. Commentators hold the order with care, yet they find no contradiction between the two accounts.
- Mercy — He got a grave only for his grandfather's sake, because Jehoshaphat sought the Lord. Jezebel got no grave at all; the dogs ate her body.
- Collapse — What faith does not pass on, power cannot hold. His house had no one left to rule, and his name is the first dropped from the royal line in Matthew 1. Yet God kept one child alive, so David's lamp did not go out.