2 Chronicles 22

2Ch 22:1-9.

AHAZIAH

SUCCEEDING

JEHORAM,

REIGNS

WICKEDLY.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3, 4. 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).

5. 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.

6. 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.

9. 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).

2Ch 22:10-12.

ATHALIAH,

DESTROYING THE

SEED

ROYAL

SAVE

JOASH,

USURPS THE

KINGDOM.

10. 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 Phœnician 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.

12. 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.