And he went with Joram the son of Ahab to the war against Hazael the king of Syria at Ramoth-Gilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram.
Ahaziah of Judah marches out beside Israel's king, and the fighting leaves Joram wounded. The verse reads like a plain military note, but commentators see the moment when Judah's long friendship with Ahab's house comes due.
Ahaziah did not choose this war alone. His mother Athaliah came from the northern royal line, and the men around him came with her.
His mother somehow escaped what happened to Jehoram's other wives, whom the Philistines and Arabians carried away captive when they invaded. She advised him to do evil. 2 Chronicles 22:4 seems to hint that his father Jehoram repented during his last sufferings, and had broken away a little from the house of Ahab, for it says that Ahab's family became Ahaziah's counsellors after his father's death, to his ruin. His father's death removed the check on him, and he at once joined his mother's relatives in their sins and their wars.
Ramoth-gilead was not a new battlefield for Judah's royal house. His grandfather had gone there before him, in the same kind of company.
His grandfather Jehoshaphat had made an alliance with Ahab to take back Ramoth-Gilead, which had fallen under the power of the king of Syria. In the same way Ahaziah made an alliance with Jehoram of Israel, Ahab's son, to fight Hazael, the king of Syria, at Ramoth-Gilead, a city of refuge (Deut. 4:43)... This alliance with the kings of Israel was detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Jehoram of Israel met the same fate at Ramoth as Ahab, whom the Syrians had wounded in that same place earlier (1 Kings 22:34).
One writer traces the ruin that followed back to where the pattern started.
The kings of Israel set the fatal example of a course that led Judah and all Israel to ruin. The godly Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab was the origin of it all, for evil bears fruit that goes on reproducing itself for a long time.
Hazael is named as the opponent in this battle, but the commentary reads him as more than a foreign threat. Earlier in the chapter he had been put on Syria's throne under God's hand.
Still, the judgments of God are being carried out. Elisha goes to Damascus, and Hazael, the rod of Jehovah to chastise His people, is placed on the throne of Syria.
Joram of Israel, also called Jehoram, had removed Baal. In that one respect he was better than his brother. Even so, the sword fell in his reign.
His brother Jehoram was not nearly so bad, for he removed Baal. But he did not remove Jeroboam's calves. No doubt he kept them for the same political reason that made Jeroboam set them up (1 Kings 12:26-30). In his day the sword of Hazael begins (2 Kings 8:28), and the sword of Jehu fulfils the prediction.
The wound Joram receives here is what draws Ahaziah to Jezreel in the next verses, and there Jehu finds them both. Writers see a principle of God's government in that outcome — Ahaziah is not spared because of the better line he came from.
King Joram was now returning to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds the Syrians had given him, and Jehu at once offered to pay a visit to his master... At that very time, sad to say, the king of Judah was there too. Here we find a very solemn fact about God's government. If a man who ought to be on the side of righteousness turns aside into a sinful alliance with evil, he suffers according to the evil he joins, and not according to the righteousness he may once have had... A sin is a sin whoever commits it, but whose sin is the greatest? Sin in a Christian is surely worse than sin in an ordinary man who has no Christianity. Sin is always measured by the privilege of the one who commits it.
The practical warning drawn from the Ramoth-gilead alliances is blunt: shared plans mean shared consequences.
If we join with the world in its schemes, we must expect to be identified with it in its convulsions.
Such a partnership only ever ran one way.
Each time Israel gained an advantage through the friendship of the king of Judah, what did it give in exchange? The loss was always on the side of those who, in some feeble measure, still bore the testimony of the true God.
- Counsel — Ahaziah's advisers came from his mother's family, the house of Ahab. With his father gone, nothing held him back.
- Alliance — He fought at the same city as his grandfather, in the same bad company. Evil sown in one generation keeps bearing fruit in the next.
- Rod — God had set Hazael on Syria's throne to chastise His people. Ahaziah marched out against God's own rod.
- Wound — The Syrians wounded Joram where they had wounded Ahab before. That wound drew Ahaziah to Jezreel, and to Jehu's sword.
- Reckoning — God judges a man by the evil he joins, not by the righteousness of the house he came from. Join the world's schemes, and you share its collapse.
And king Joram returned to be healed in Jizreel of the wounds that the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram the son of Ahab at Jizreel, for he was sick.
Two kings meet at Jezreel: one wounded in battle, the other coming to visit him. The visit looks like ordinary kindness. The commentators read it as the moment a king of Judah walked into a judgment God had already prepared.
Ahaziah of Judah was not a neutral visitor. He had joined the same war as the wounded king he came to see — the fight at Ramoth-Gilead, the Ramah of this verse. In doing so he was repeating his grandfather's choice.
His grandfather Jehoshaphat had made an alliance with Ahab to retake Ramoth-Gilead, which had fallen under the power of the king of Syria. In the same way Ahaziah the son of Jehoram of Judah made an alliance with Jehoram of Israel, son of Ahab. Together they went to war against Hazael, the king of Syria, at Ramoth-Gilead, a city of refuge (Deut. 4:43)… This alliance with the kings of Israel was an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. Jehoram of Israel suffered the same fate at Ramoth as Ahab. The Syrians had wounded Ahab earlier at that same place (1 Kings 22:34). He retired to Jezreel to be healed of his wounds. It was there that his ally Ahaziah, king of Judah, came to him to express his sympathy.
The Syrians who struck Joram fought for a king God Himself had put on the throne. The wound in this verse comes from a hand already appointed for the work.
Still, God's judgments are being carried out. Elisha goes to Damascus, and Hazael, the rod of Jehovah to discipline His people, is placed on the throne of Syria.
Scripture pauses here to record Judah's involvement, and Darby reads that as deliberate.
The Spirit of God takes notice of the consequences of Judah's alliance with Israel; but with this exception, Judah for the time is out of sight.
On the surface this is one ruler calling on a wounded ally. One writer reads it inside a longer story of warnings Israel ignored.
All these signs of patience and grace, these loud calls to repentance, met with no response from Israel, and God prepares His instruments of vengeance. Hazael, now the king of Syria, begins to carry out the sentence of God. The king of Israel is wounded in battle, and the king of Judah visits him. What is this but the professing world going to comfort the profane world? Judgment does not delay, and the next instrument of God is anointed. Jehu is called to the throne, and draws the sword of God.
Ahaziah did not invent this closeness with Ahab's house. He inherited it. The commentators trace it back to a king they call pious.
The pious Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab was the origin of all this, for evil bears fruit which continues long to reproduce itself. Alas, alas! What is man when he turns aside from Jehovah's ways? He leaves the narrow, straight path of God's word and will. He leaves the path of faith — the true path of an obedient spirit.
Kelly weighs what a good man's bad example does to those around him.
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 harm that cannot be rooted out.
Ahaziah made the trip to Jezreel himself. Scripture's own comment turns that friendly visit into the cause of his death.
Ahaziah's association and close friendship with the king of Israel proved his undoing. He visited the wounded king of Israel just as 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."
Leslie Grant notes the same turn in a single sentence: the warmth of the friendship, then the interruption.
Ahaziah was so friendly with him that he went down to visit him. But Chapter 9 shows us that God was intervening with some serious results for these two kings.
- Root. A good king's alliance with Ahab began it; evil, as Darby puts it, "bears fruit which continues long to reproduce itself."
- Fruit. The grandson inherits the friendship. Kelly warns that a good man's bad example hardens those who are not good.
- Battlefield. Hazael's men wound Joram at the very place Ahab was wounded. Hazael is the rod Jehovah had set on Syria's throne.
- Sickbed. The visit looks like courtesy. One writer calls it the professing world going to comfort the profane world.
- Reckoning. The writers point to Scripture's own verdict on the trip: Ahaziah's ruin came from God through his going to Joram. The friendship, not the battle, cost him his life.