Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
Ch. 2Ch 22:1-4 (= 2Ki 8:25-27). The Reign of Ahaziah
1. the inhabitants of Jerusalem, etc.] This unusual formula is no doubt intended to call attention to the fact that the succession of the youngest son was unusual, possibly there was opposition to it.
with the Arabians to the camp ] Render, with the Arabians of Mzin; LXX., . Cp. 2Ch 14:15 (note on the tents of cattle).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
2Ch 22:1-9
And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king.
Ahaziahs 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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXII
Ahaziah beans to reign; and reigns wickedly under the counsels
of his bad mother, 1-4.
He is slain by Jehu, who destroys all the house of Ahab, 5-9.
Athaliah destroys all the seed royal of Judah, except Joash,
who is hidden by his nurse in the temple six years, 10-12.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXII
Verse 1. Made Ahaziah his youngest son king] All the others had been slain by the Arabians, c. see the preceding chapter, 2Ch 21:17.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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, 2Ch 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. the inhabitants of Jerusalem madeAhaziah . . . kingor Jehoahaz (2Ch21:17). All his older brothers having been slaughtered by theArab marauders, the throne of Judah rightfully belonged to him as theonly legitimate heir.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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 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 ( , 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.
2Ch 22:2 The number 42 is an orthographical error for 22 ( having been changed into ) , 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.
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.
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 ( is a contraction for , 2Ki 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. has no meaning, and is merely an error for , 2Ki 8:29, which indeed is the reading of several Codd.: to let himself be cured of his strokes (wounds). , too, is an orthographical error for : 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.
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 ( , 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. , and when he was come, he went out with Joram against Jehu (instead of , we have in 2Ki 9:21 the more distinct , towards Jehu) the son of Nimshi, whom God had anointed to extirpate the house of Ahab (2Ki 9:1-10).
2Ch 22:8 When Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab ( usually construed with , 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. , 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 , forty-two men, cannot have been actual brothers of Ahaziah, since all 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 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.
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.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Ahaziah Slain by Jehu. | B. C. 884. |
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. 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. 3 He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly. 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. 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 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. 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 Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. 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. 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.
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 (ch. xxi. 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 (v. 2), which could not be, for his father, his immediate predecessor, was but forty when he died, and it is said (2 Kings viii. 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, 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 (v. 3) and so were they, after the death of his father, v. 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 (v. 6) just at the time that Jehu was executing the judgment of God upon that idolatrous family, and so was cut off with them, v. 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. xviii. 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, 2 Kings ix. 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.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
See note on 2Ki 8:25
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES
IN discussing the First Book of Chronicles we called attention to the fact that according to Usshers chronology, the two Books, not reckoning the table of genealogy, covered a space of 468 years of history; the First Book only 41 of these, and this second, 427. As to the authorship of these Books, Ezra is commonly accepted.
The analysis of any book is largely the presentation of a personal view. One man divides this Second Book of Chronicles into two portions: The Reign of Solomon, chapters 1 to 9, and The Kings of Judah, chapters 10 to 36.
Scofield in his reference Bible, says of this Book: It falls into eighteen divisions, by reigns, from Solomon to the captivities; records the division of the kingdom of David under Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and is marked by an ever growing apostasy, broken temporarily by reformations under Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah.
It is our purpose to follow neither of these divisions, however natural they may be, but to discuss the volume under three heads: Solomon and the Temple; Rehoboam and the Division, and the History of Judah.
SOLOMON AND THE TEMPLE
The Book opens with a declaration concerning the new king, And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly (2Ch 1:1).
The history that follows gives occasion to say several things concerning this marvelous man of immortal reputation:
First, Solomons kingship enjoyed an auspicious beginning. The man who ascends the throne under the favor of the Lord necessarily begins a reign of promise. If, as in Solomons case, he sensibly recognizes his responsibility and seeks wisdom from the only sufficient source, he adds greater certainty to his success. When, in addition to this, his objectives are high and God-honoring, the glory of his kingdom advances accordingly. Certainly, Solomons preparation to build the temple was not only a noble objective, but one in line with his kingly fathers purpose and prayers, and the great Heavenly Fathers will for him.
The interesting history here of gathering materials and appointing men for this marvelous construction is made more interesting still by the kings personal supervision and spiritual interest. It takes some courage to conduct war, and we believe it takes almost more courage and even a clearer sense of God, to build sanctuaries, make their appointments according to the Divine pleasure, and call the people to worship within the spacious rooms of the same. Yet, when you have read but five chapters of this Book, you find such a work complete, and are not in the least amazed or even surprised to read, The glory of the Lord had filled the house of God (2Ch 5:14).
It is doubtful whether any company of men have done more for the establishment of spirituality in the earth and for the strengthening of the souls of their fellows, than have those who brought sanctuaries into existence and led congregations of people to a genuine worship of the most high God.
The on-going of this Book reveals Solomons conscious dependence. When the altar was erected he stood by it with outstretched hands (2Ch 6:12). That is the attitude of prayer and possibly of adoration. When his lips parted to speak, he says,
O Lord God of Israel, there is no God tike Thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto Thy servants that walk before Thee with all their hearts:
Thou which hast kept with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him; and spakest with Thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with Thine hand, as it is this day.
Now therefore, O Lord God of Israel, keep with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in My sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in My Law, as Thou hast walked before Me (2Ch 6:14-16).
Now then, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy Word be verified, which Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant David (2Ch 6:17).
Then follows an appeal that Gods eyes should be open upon their house day and night; that His ears should hearken to the prayers made in that place, and if sin were committed, that forgiveness should be granted, and if the people fail before the face of the enemy because of sin that they also should be pardoned; that if heaven be shut up on the same ground, upon repentance the dearth should end.
Then he concludes in a more personal petition to Him:
Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all Thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house:
Then hear Thou from Heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive (2Ch 6:29-30).
These are only samples of the long petition that followed the dedicatory sermon. They wind up with a sentence like this: O Lord God, turn not away the face of Thine anointed: remember the mercies of David Thy servant (2Ch 6:42). It is a model prayer; it is the petition of a sincere soul; it is the cry of one who knows that the mercy and love of God are the only grounds of hope.
The further text records Solomons fame and death. That fame was based upon Solomons wisdom, accentuated doubtless by the magnificence of the temple, but made more honorable still in the extent of his organization, the luxury of his court and the wealth of his treasury.
Evidently, among the rulers of the earth, the queen of Sheba held conspicuous place, and when the fame of Solomon reached her, she came to prove him with her questions, and impress him with her own riches and glory. The difficult questions were satisfactorily answered, the temple was adequately shown, the table of the king groaned with its good meats, the apparel of the servants was profoundly impressive, and the queen said to the king,
It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom:
Howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard.
Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, winch stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.
Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God (2Ch 9:5-8).
The compliment to the king is followed with a statement of Solomons annual income, the magnificence of his throne, the rich appointments of the palace, the extensive commercial importance of his kingdom, and the willing tributes of the earths lesser lords.
Then, as if the task of telling all was too great, we have this record,
Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the Prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?
And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.
And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead (2Ch 9:29-31).
It is a surprising end, and yet strangely true to human history. How many men spend all their days in preparing to live, and when the preparation seems almost complete, proceed to die? The last enemy is no respecter of persons. His bow is drawn against the great as well as the humble, the rich as well as the poor, the wise as well as the ignorant. Death respects neither thrones nor kings; he holds the key to the palace room, and even to the throne room. Kings may command their humbler fellows, and even counsel their equals; but where death calls, they also obey.
REHOBOAM AND THE DIVISION
The emptying of a throne is forever fraught with perils. The eternal and pertinent question is this, Who shall come after the king? The tenth chapter answered that concerning the throne of Israel. The answer was an ill omen! Rehoboams tyrannical spirit split the kingdom. When Jeroboam and all Israel came to him, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee (2Ch 10:4), they delicately referred to the increased taxation to which the luxurious court and the personal orgies of Solomon had given rise. They thought, as people commonly do, that the new rule would prove the peoples friend. Their hope was in vain.
The old men, former counselors of Solomon, advised kindness and compassion; but the young bloods, spoiled by their fellowship with royalty, counseled increased oppression; and under their influence he said,
My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions (2Ch 10:14).
It was enough. The war was on; and that war has never ended until this day, for Israel and Judah are not yet one. A man who divides brethren and sets them to battle, little understands the infinite reach of his mischief. The father of Modernism in America, when he fell asleep at a comparatively early age, little dreamed that he had set influences to work that would divide every denomination on the continent, destroy the fellowship of men who loved one another as twins are commonly supposed to love, wreck schools and churches by the thousand, and start a war that may easily exceed the famous Hundred Year War of history.
Israel and Judahblood brothersbecame the bitterest of enemies. For some reason Second Chronicles pays little attention to Israel, but proceeds to trace Judahs history to the year of Cyrus, king of Persia, or through a period of almost a half millennium. The family feud occasionally projects itself into the record, but for the most part, Israel is forgotten, and the doings of Judah are recorded in detail.
The explanation of this is found in the circumstance that Jeroboam rejected the worship of Jehovah (2Ch 11:14-15). When God is once put away, when Gods priest is disposed of, and His minister is heard no more, then degeneracy compels a declining record.
Unitarianism three quarters of a century ago denied the Lord. Its history has amounted to little; and if it were recorded, it would simply prove, as the Jeroboam movement, a breeding place of apostasy; and yet this record regards not one apostasy only, but two.
The man of many favors may forget God.
When Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the Law of the Lord, and all Israel with him (2Ch 12:1).
What a sad commentary on the uncertainty and unstability of human nature! The explanation of Rehoboams failure has fitted thousands, yea millions of cases. He did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord (2Ch 12:14). Of all disappointments, none exceed thisto begin well and end badly; to give promise and create disappointment; to be the subject of Divine favor, and become the slave of Gods adversary.
THE HISTORY OF JUDAH
Chapters 11 to 36 contain the roster of kings. The fortunes of the country answer accurately and inevitably to the characters of their rulers. On the whole, the history is a down-grade. In that respect, it runs true to form. The doctrine of evolution may find an illustration in national life if it goes from the simple to the complex, but in so far as it contends for improvement, history fails to illustrate it. Degeneracy of nations has more often taken place than has social and moral progress.
The foundations of Judah were laid under David; the kingdoms glory appeared under Solomon. From that moment until this, one word expresses Judahs coursedecline.
Africa was once an advanced nation, now a heathen one; Italy once ruled the world, now she holds an inconspicuous place; Greece once represented the climax of physical and mental accomplishment, now she boasts neither. The reasons for decline are varied, but in Judah they were one the God who had made her great was too often forgotten, too willingly offended. When the nations neglect the source of their strength, weakness naturally ensues. Judahs strength was in the Lord, and when her kings forgot Him, despised His Word, entered into unholy alliances that were followed by the people, her fame declined, and her land fainted.
The mixed social condition manifested her sinfulness. We have a phrase, Like people, like priest. We can paraphrase that, Like princes, like people. The study of these kings results in no compliment to human nature. Some of them were utterly evil; most of them were a mixture of the good and bad; two or three of them were sound. Among the utterly evil ones, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Manasseh, Amon and Jehoiakin held first place. The ones that represent a mixture of good and bad were Jeroboam, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jehoiakim; while the truly good consisted of Jotham, Hezekiah and Josiah. In all probability the reign of each of these good kings was profoundly affected and made spiritually fruitful by the ministry of Isaiah, the greatest preacher among Old Testament Prophets. It is perhaps a fact of history that no rulers have ever proven faithful to God without the stimulating and salutary influence of the Gospel ministry.
The judgments and mercies of Second Chronicles alike vindicate Jehovah. In this record wickedness does not go unpunished; and yet it is a marvelous revelation of Divine mercy.
There is never the least sign of penitence on the part of the ruler and the people without an immediate and generous response from Jehovah.
When Jehoshaphat declined in his loyalty and effected a sinful coalition with Ahab, judgment fell; but instantly upon his repentance, mercy was shown. Judgment is always and everywhere Gods strange work, the work in which He takes no pleasure. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Eze 33:11).
Mercy is His nature, His essential character, for to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy (Pro 28:13).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.] In this chapter the reign of Ahaziah (2Ch. 22:1-6); his and (2Ch. 22:7-9); and usurpation of Athaliah (2Ch. 22:10-12). Parallel in 2Ki. 8:24-29; 2Ki. 9:27; and 2Ki. 11:1-3.
2Ch. 22:1-4.Succession and beginning of A. Ah. (called Jehoahaz, 2Ch. 21:17) chosen by the people, elder brothers slain by Arabs and could not be ransomed. Forty and two, an error of transcription for 22 (2Ki. 8:26), for J., his father, not more than 40 at death (2Ch. 21:20); daughter, i.e., grand-daughter of Omri, founder of family (2Ki. 8:18-26). 2Ch. 22:3. He also as well as his father walked, &c. 2Ch. 22:4. They, Athaliah and Jehoram of Israel, her brother (cf. 2Ch. 22:1; 2Ch. 22:3; 2Ch. 22:5).
2Ch. 22:5-9.Visit of A. to Jehoram. This ver. and next have come from a source used also by writer of Kings, and are nearly identical with 2Ki. 8:28-29 [Speak. Com.]. War of two kings against Hazael, aggressive to recover Ramoth-Gil., which Ahab and Jehoshaphat had failed to do fourteen years earlier (1Ki. 22:3-36). J. wounded by Syrians withdrew from siege to Jezreel, leaving his army under Jehu within the walls of town. Ahaz. went to visit Joram, and met with death. 2Ch. 22:8. Sons, princes of royal house, on a visit met with Jehu, and 42 of them slain (2Ki. 10:14). 2Ch. 22:9. Hid, about to hide in Samaria, where friends (2Ki. 10:12-15) were, but turned aside by pursuers, brought to Jehu, was wounded mortally, fled and died at Megiddo. None left of royal house to assume rule.
2Ch. 22:10-12.Athaliahs usurpation (cf. 2Ki. 11:1-3). Seed royal, who aspired to govern. Bed-chamber, in a chamber of mattresses, a repository for beds, not a lodging chamber. Jeh., as priest, had a right to occupy buildings in outer wall, and resided in one of these apartments.
HOMILETICS
AHAZIAHS WICKED REIGN.2Ch. 22:1-9
I. Its beginning through home influence. Here all start life in right or wrong direction. Foundations then laid, habits then formed, are permanent factors in future years. To begin life without godly training and virtuous principles will ensure failure, often early and final. Home influence affects societies, churches, and nations. They that rock the cradle rule the world, said Napoleon.
II. Its continuance by evil counsellors. A. and her brother counselled A. (2Ch. 22:4). Bad training, bad advice. Formed in childhood, directed as a man, how could his reign be otherwise? In the multitude of counsellors there is safety, and the larger the number the greater the safety. To one such Pharaoh owed the security of his kingdom from desolating famine. But where no counsel is, or only evil counsel, the people must fall (Pro. 11:14). A nation with evil legislators like a ship directed in the midst of rocks in imminent peril. The counsels of the wicked are deceit.
III. Its end in judgment which it entailed. A. survived to be the ruin of her son, as she had been the bane of her husband (2Ch. 22:10). Under her influence he began a career of ungodliness and licentiousness which ended in his destruction. Certain and irretrievable ruin results from wicked counsel and wicked life. How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger.
THE POWER OF A MOTHERS INFLUENCE.2Ch. 22:3
For is a kind of explanation, the reason assigned for results which are given. For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.
I. It begins early in life. Education begins sooner than parents imagine; long enough before they are responsible; even when they begin to see, feel, and observe. Hence great importance to have first teaching of a child. Early impressions are elementary principles out of which mature life is organised. When should I begin the education of my children now four years old? asked a mother from a clergyman, who replied, Madam, if you have not begun already you have lost those four years. From the first smile that gleams upon an infants cheek your opportunity begins.
II. It moulds through life. A living power, forming character and directing conduct. The child becomes a man, the subject becomes a sovereign; influence is thus repeated and transmitted. Home the most powerful school in the world. Mothers influence for good or evil mightier than pulpits and thrones. My opinion is, said Napoleon, that the future good or bad conduct of a child depends entirely on the mother.
III. It leaves permanent impress upon life. Alexander the Great could never correct the faults of gait and manners learned in childhood from Leonidas, his master. The face, words, and example of mothers leave permanent influence. Every first thing continues for ever with the child; the first colour, the first music, the first flower, paint the foreground of life. Every new educator effects less than his predecessor; until, at last, if we regard all life as an educational institute, a circumnavigator of the world is less influenced by all the nations he has seen than by his nurse [Richter].
The fond attachment to the well-known place,
Whence first we started into lifes long race,
Retains its hold with such unfailing sway,
We feel it een in age, and at our latest day [Cowper].
THE DEATH OF AHAZIAH.2Ch. 22:6-9
I. Untimely in its method. Neither advanced in life, nor delicate in health. On a friendly visit to see a sick relative! Surely this errand of pity the occasion of gladness, not grief? Death everywhere at home and abroad, in our own families and those of friends. From the desk, the pulpit, and the throne we may be suddenly carried to the grave.
II. Brought about by companionship with evil men. Intimacy with Joram involved him in the common ruin of Ahabs house. Tell me with whom thou goest, and I will tell thee what thou art, is the Spanish proverb; rendered into English, A man is known by the company he keeps. To be seen with the frivolous is to be known as frivolous; to have friendship with the wise is to enjoy reputation for wisdom; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Heaven with a secret principle endued
Mankind to seek their own similitude.
III. Arranged by the providence of God. And the destruction of A. was of God by coming to J. (2Ch. 22:7). Remarkable that threatened vengeance was brought on house of Ahab at the very time King of Judah was visiting Joram, that he might partake of punishment as a descendant of wicked Ahab. No evidence that Jehu fixed on this time from wish to include Ahaziah in punishment; nor was he aware of his presence at Jezreel. Unexpected concurrence of circumstances. All result of immutable purpose, and accomplished by a wonderful arrangement of Providence in time and place. May escape for a time, but no concealment from divine retribution.
WOMEN GOOD AND BAD.2Ch. 22:10-12
What a contrast in these verses! Two females acting very different parts.
I. A bad woman engaged in wicked designs. Athaliah endeavours to destroy seed royal after death of her son. To this wickedness impelled in rage at destruction of Ahabs family, hence Davids family must share the same fate; in zeal for idolatry and worship of Baal, which she was determined to uphold amid opposition; in regard to her own defence and in ambitious desire to usurp the throne and transmit the crown to her own family. Athaliah had inherited the spirit of Jezebel, her mother. As wife of Joram and mother of Ahaziah, she had guided both the internal and the external policy of the Jewish kingdom; she had procured the establishment of the worship of Baal in Juda (2Ki. 8:18-27), and had maintained a close alliance with the sister kingdom. The revolution effected by Jehu touched her nearly. It struck away from her the entire support which she derived from the power and grandeur of her relatives and their readiness to help her at need. It isolated her religious system, severing the communication with Phnicia. Moreover, the death of Ahaziah deprived her of her legal status in Juda, which was that of Gebirah, or queen-mother, and transferred that position to the chief wife of her deceased son. Under these circumstances, which might well have daunted even a woman of more than ordinary courage, Athaliahs hereditary spirit and energy asserted itself. Instead of yielding to the storm, or merely standing on the defensive, she resolved to become the assailant, and, before any plans could be formed against her, to strike [Speak. Com.].
II. A good woman engaged in benevolent designs. The family of David not entirely destroyed. J., daughter of Joram (not of Athaliah, Josephus), wife of Jehoiada, the high priest, took Joash, her nephew, to conceal and save him (2Ch. 22:11). The lineage of David and the human descent of Messiah suspended on the life of a child one year old! This loyal act a benevolent work, the means of fulfilling prophetic words and blessing the world! Women may be devils or ministering angels. If once she falls, it is the fall of Lucifer [Colton]. But in great crises it is womans special lot to soften our misfortunes [Napoleon].
Her office there to rear, to teach,
Becoming, as is meet and fit,
A link among the days, to knit
The generations each with each [Tennyson].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
7. THE REIGN OF AHAZIAH (2Ch. 22:1-9)
TEXT
2Ch. 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. 2. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem: and his mothers name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri. 3. He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab; for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly. 4. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, as did the house of Ahab; for they were his counsellors after the death of his father, to his destruction. 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 Ramoth-gilead: and the Syrians wounded Joram. 6. And he returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which they had given him 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.
7. Now the destruction of Ahaziah was of God, in that he went unto Joram: for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Jehovah had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. 8. 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, ministering to Ahaziah, and slew them. 9. And he sought Ahaziah, and they caught him (now he was hiding in Samaria), and they brought him to Jehu, and slew him; and they buried him, for they said, He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought Jehovah with all his heart. And the house of Ahaziah had no power to hold the kingdom.
PARAPHRASE
2Ch. 22:1. Then the people of Jerusalem chose Ahaziah, his youngest son, as their new king (for the marauding bands of Arabs had killed his older sons), 2. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year, in Jerusalem. His mothers name was Athaliah, granddaughter of Omri. 3. He, too, walked in the evil ways of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him in doing wrong. 4. Yes, he was as evil as Ahab, for Ahabs family became his advisors after his fathers death, and they led him on to ruin. 5. Following their evil advice, Ahaziah made an alliance with King Jehoram of Israel (the son of Ahab), who was at war with King Hazael of Syria at Ramoth-gilead. Ahaziah led his army there to join the battle. King Jehoram of Israel was wounded. 6. and returned to Jezreel to recover. Ahaziah went to visit him,
7. but this turned out to be a fatal mistake; for God had decided to punish Ahaziah for his alliance with Jehoram. It was during this visit that Ahaziah went out with Jehoram to challenge Jehu (son of Nimshi), whom the Lord had appointed to end the dynasty of Ahab. 8. While Jehu was hunting down and killing the family and friends of Ahab, he met King Ahaziahs nephews, the princes of Judah and killed them. 9. As he and his men were searching for Ahaziah, they found him hiding in the city of Samaria, and brought him to Jehu, who killed him. Even so, Ahaziah was given a royal burial because he was the grandson of King Jehoshaphata man who enthusiastically served the Lord. None of his sons, however, except for Joash, lived to succeed him as king.
COMMENTARY
2Ch. 22:1 says that all of Jehorams sons, except Jehoahaz, had been murdered by men who were associated with a band of Arabians. If the Davidic succession was to be followed, there was no alternative to setting Jehoahaz on the throne. Jehoahaz is called by the name of Ahaziah in chapter 22. He was Athaliahs son and she ruled Judah through him. Athaliah was Ahabs daughter and her grandfather was Omri. The chronicler emphasized the fact that the moral degeneracy of the northern kingdom had spilled over into Judah. Ahaziahs relationship to Athaliah brought him and Judah into alliance with Jehoram, son of Ahab.[65] The Syrians under Hazaels kingship had fought with Jehoram and Israel at Ramoth-gilead. In this conflict Jehoram was wounded. He retreated from the battle field and remained at Jezreel while he recovered from his wound. Jezreel was about twenty miles southwest of the southern tip of the Sea of Chinnereth. Ahaziah (here called Azariah) came up from Jerusalem to visit Jehoram. This visit was another indication of the implications of Judah with the idolatrous northern kingdom. Ahaziahs death was the result of Jehovahs judgment on his wicked life. Joram is a shortened form of Jehoram. Jehovah never approved Ahaziahs friendliness with this worshipper of Baal. The record in 2Ki. 9:21 ff describes Ahaziahs ultimate tragedy. When Elijah met Jehovah at Horeb (Mount Sinai) as recorded in 1Ki. 19:15 ff, the prophet was commissioned to anoint Jehu to be king of Israel. Jehus assignment was to annihilate the houses of Omri and Ahab and to cleanse the northern kingdom of its Baalism. When Jehu had been anointed by one of the sons of the prophets at Ramoth-gilead, he hurried to Jezreel to execute judgment on Jehoram. At that time Ahaziah was visiting Jehoram. Both of the kings came out of the city to inquire about Jehus mission and both of them were killed. Ahaziah had been able to avoid Jehu briefly while hiding in Samaria. Jehu hunted him and killed him. Even though he was the son of a righteous father, Jehoshaphat, his fathers goodness could not save him. In connection with these events Jehu met brethren of Ahaziah who evidently were coming to Samaria to visit Jehoram and Jezebel (2Ki. 10:12-14). He fell upon them and slew them.
[65] Elmslie, W. A. L., The Interpreters Bible, Vol. Ill, p. 502.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXII.
THE SHORT REIGN OF AHAZIAH (2Ch. 22:1-9).
(Comp. 2Ki. 8:25-29.)
(1) And the inhabitants of Jerusalem.2Ch. 21:11; 2Ch. 21:13.
Made Ahaziah . . . king.This variation from the usual formulaAnd Ahaziah his son reigned in his steadhas 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. 2Ch. 21:17; and Jdg. 8:18, seq.; 1Sa. 15:32.)
All the eldest.Heb., the former (rshonm). Syriac: For all the elder the troop had destroyed them; for the Arabs came and destroyed the camp of Israel.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2Ch 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.
2Ch 22:2
2Ki 8:26, “Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.”
The Hebrew text of 2Ki 8:26 literally reads, “a son of twenty and two years (was) Ahaziah in his reign, and one year he reigned in Jerusalem…” ( YLT), and the Hebrew text of 2Ch 22:2 literally reads, “a son of forty and two”
Hebrew ( ) “son of twenty and two” (2 Kings 2:26)
Hebrew ( ) “son of forty and two” (2Ch 22:2)
If Jehoram, the father of Ahaziah began to reign when he was thirty-two years old, and reigned eight years (2Ki 8:17), and so died, being forty years old, then it would not be possible for his son Ahaziah to have reached the age of forty-two before his father’s early death. Thus, the age of twenty-two is more likely correct, requiring Jehoram to give birth to Ahaziah, his son, at the age of eighteen-years old.
2Ki 8:17, “Thirty and two years old was he (Jehoram) when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.”
2Ch 22:2 ( LXX) agrees with the reading in 2Ki 8:26.
“ Ochozias began to reign when he was twenty years old, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Gotholia, the daughter of Ambri.” ( Brenton)
The YLT also corrects the date in its translation of 2Ch 22:2, “A son of twenty and two years is Ahaziah in his reigning, and one year he hath reigned in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother is Athaliah daughter of Omri;”
There are several views scholars propose to explain this apparent discrepancy.
1. The Age of Jehoram – The literally meaning of “son of forty and two” could have been referring to the age of Ahaziah’s father, Jehoram. However, his father died at the age of forty, so this reasoning does not add up with the numbers stated in the text. There is not reason to follow this explanation outside of speculation.
2. The Age of Ahaziah’s Mother – Some scholars suggest that the age of forty-two was a reference to the age of his mother, since she appears to have dominated him by leading him in the way of the kings of Israel. Again, there is not reason to follow this explanation outside of speculation.
3. The Age of Omri’s Dynasty of Kings John Lightfoot suggests that the text intends to say that Ahaziah was the son of two and forty years; namely, of the house of Omri, his mother’s grandfather. Thus, this date refers to the forty-second year of the reign of his mother’s dynasty over Israel, and she is mentioned in this same verse. [45] However, if we add up the periods of Omri’s reign (8 years), of Ahab’s reign (22 years), of Ahaziah’s reign (2 years) to the twelfth year of Joram’s reign over Israel, we get 44 years and not 42.
[45] John Lightfoot, The Whole Works of the Rev. John Lightfoot, D.D., vol. 4, ed. John Rogers Pitman (London: J. F. Dove, 1822), 106, 174.
1Ki 16:23, “In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel, twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah.”
1Ki 16:29, “And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years.”
1Ki 22:51, “Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel.
Thus, there is not reason to believe this age refers to the reign of a different person or dynasty apart from speculation.
4. Copyist Error – Most scholars seem to agree that this is the error of a copier. It can be agreed that the writing of these two Hebrew numbers, ( ) twenty-two and ( ) forty-two and, are similar, although the spelling of these two numbers, ( ) twenty-two and ( ) forty-two, are not similar. The explanation that this is most likely the error of a copyist seems to be confirmed by the fact that a number of ancient manuscripts have taken the liberty to correct this spelling from forty-two to twenty-two.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Reign of Ahaziah.
v. 1. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his v. 2. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, v. 3. He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab; for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly, v. 4. Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab, v. 5. He walked also after their counsel, and went with Jehoram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, v. 6. And he returned to be healed in Jezreel, v. 7. And the destruction of Ahaziah, v. 8. And it came to pass that, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, v. 9. And he sought Ahaziah; and they caught him (for he was hid in Samaria) and brought him to Jehu. v. 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, v. 11. But Jehoshabeath v. 12. And he was with them hid in the house of God six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This chapter comprises the accession, brief reign, and death of Ahaziah (2Ch 22:1-9) and the following murders and usurpation of Athaliah during six years (2Ch 22:10-12). The parallel of the former section is to be found in 2Ki 8:24-29; 2Ki 9:14-16, 2Ki 9:21-28; and of the latter, 2Ki 11:1-3.
2Ch 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 (2Ch 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 (2Ki 8:25), wanting both of these items, states that this reign began in the twelfth year of Joram of Israel.
2Ch 22:2
Forty and two; read, twenty and two, and see parallel, 2Ki 8:26; and note on our 2Ch 21:5. Daughter of Omri; i.e. granddaughter of Omri, as Omri was the father of Ahab.
2Ch 22:3
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.”
2Ch 22:5
He went with Jehoram the son of Ahab. So the evil example of even the good lives after them. See Jehoshaphat (1Ki 22:29; 2Ch 18:8) followed by his son Jehoram first (2Ki 3:9), and now by his grandson Ahaziah. The words of this verse and the next are almost identical with the parallel (2Ki 8:28, 2Ki 8:29). Ramoth-Gilead. It will be remembered that Ahab failed when he solicited and obtained the help of Jehoshaphat (1Ki 22:3-36; 2Ch 18:3-34) in his enterprise against Ramoth-Gilead. The present attempt, however, seems to have had a different issue (2Ki 9:14, 2Ki 9:15). The Syrians; Hebrew, . The initial radical here should be , from neglect of observing which the Septuagint has translated “archers” (relate).
2Ch 22:6
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 (2Ch 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 (Ahaziah) and (Jehoahaz), the meaning of both being “held” or “upheld of the Lord.”
2Ch 22:7
He went out with Jehoram against Jehu. The “against” is the simple preposition , 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 2Ki 9:21, 2Ki 9:22, 2Ki 9:27, 2Ki 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 2Ki 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 (2Ki 9:1-7; 1Ki 19:16). Jehu the son of Nimshi. Strictly, “the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi” (2Ki 9:2).
2Ch 22:8
Executing judgment upon the house of Ahab. The description of all this is sufficiently graphically scattered along the verses of 2Ki 9:2411:20. And found the princes of Judah (see especially 2Ki 10:7, 2Ki 10:11; 2Ki 11:13-20). And the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah. This both explains and is explained by 2Ki 10:12-14. That ministered to Ahaziah. Even this enigmatical little clause receives its probable explanation from the last clause of 2Ki 10:13 in last quotation foregoing.
2Ch 22:9
And he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him brought him buried him. This verse, which at the first sight seems at variance with 2Ki 9:27, 2Ki 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 2Ki 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 lifethat 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” (2Ki 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 2Ki 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, , 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.
2Ch 22:10
But when Athaliah. For parallel to the end of the chapter, see 2Ki 11:1-3. The words, of the house of Judah, are here carefully supplied, wanting in parallel.
2Ch 22:11
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. Nor is this negatived by the fact that the name is not found (1Ch 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 (2Ki 11:21; 2Ch 24:1).
2Ch 22:12
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 (1Ki 6:5-10).
HOMILETICS
2Ch 22:1-12
A medley of the memoranda of evil-doing, its consequences, and its end.
The one surviving son of Jehoram, his youngest son, Ahaziah, is put on an unsteady, unsafe throne. Jehoram had caused all his own brethren to be slain, and now it had come to pass that all his “eldest sons had been slain by the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp” As Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and granddaughter of Omri, the evil wife of Jehoram, had not failed to make an evil husband of Jehoram, so, the evil mother, she does not fail to make an evil son of Ahaziah. She “was his counsellor to do wickedly.” And therein her whole house, “the house of Ahab,” were “after the death of his father, counsellors to his destruction.” Ahaziah repeated the error of his grandfather Jehoshaphat, in associating himself with the King of Israel, going up with him to fight against Hazael King of Syria, at Ramoth-Gilead. It leads to further complications. The King of Israel is wounded and returns to Jezreel, and because “he was sick,” Ahaziah must go thither also to “see” him. He unconsciously is courting “his destruction,” “of God” (2Ch 22:7); for once there he must support the king of his rival line against one whom “God had anointed” to the very work of “cutting off the house of Ahab.” He is not only setting himself “to help the ungodly, and to love them that hate the Lord” (2Ch 19:2), but he is setting himself in battle with one against whom the Lord has anointed his own servant (“Jehu the son of Nimshi”), that he may destroy him and his! That is, he has put himself in the position of actively and directly fighting against God. And now, by doing thus, he not only involves “the princes of Judah, and the sons of his own brethren” (because of the company in which they were found), in indiscriminate slaughter, but himself, the King of Judah, hiddenhidden in Samaria, searched for, caught, taken. He with his mother has been run to earth in a double sense, hounded to his miserable earthly end, his bones being honoured with decent burial only out of reverence for his good grandfather Jehoshaphat. The humiliating epitaph, however, on his grave was to this effect, “The house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom!” Once more the enraged mother of the son whom she more than any one else had driven into his sin and his grave, plots the slaughter of the entire royal seed of David; but in vain. A faithful promise, a sure covenant, an unalterable purpose, prevents the thing! The sister of the king just buried was married to Jehoiada the priest, and she was the appointed preserver of the royal line, in the providence of God. She saves one, an infant, her nephew, and with her husband hides him for six years where alone so many others have taken refuge, and been safely hidden till the stormy wind and tempest have been overpast”in the house of God.” The usurping and iniquitous Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, wife of Jehoram once, and once mother of Ahaziah, an orphan, a widow, and without a son, unloving and unloved, neither fearing God nor regarding man, reigns awhile, but does not rule! God rules the people, rides the storm, keeps the sleep, the infancy, the childhood, of his anointed; inspires his true priest, Jehoiada, with wisdom, patience, determination, and religious courage. The royal line of Judah is not cut off in its sixth king, and, when to the most of human knowledge it seemed so, that six years’ interval may well have served as a needed pause in the life of the kingdom and of its chief men. “The Word of the Lord” was no doubt “precious in those days,” but it was not lost, and there was a faithful priest. The silences of nations and oft of our own individual life, the silences of Scripture and of the inscrutable God himself, all have meaning, all bear the mark of design and long-suffering providence, and if improved instead of neglected, sinned against, and defied, may be rich with future blessings.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
2Ch 22:1-4
A pitiable prince; or, an unfortunate child of fortune.
The thorough pitiableness of one born to a high estate is the lesson of the text; but we must wait to learn
I. THAT MEN SUFFER AS THEY SIN. It appears that Ahaziah was the only son left to the house of Jehoram; all the eldest had been slain by the invaders (2Ch 22:1). Thus we find that the man who with shameful selfishness murdered his own brothers, had to suffer the loss, by violence, of his own sons. It was a fitting penaltyfitting that he who used the sword remorselessly should suffer from the sword; fitting that the man whose darkest crime was committed “under his own roof” should bear his penalty in his own kindred. We do not, of course, invariably find such “poetic justice” dealt in the providence of God; but we do find that men not only suffer because they sin, but they suffer as they sin. If they sin as husbands or fathers, they suffer as such; if they sin as sons, they suffer through their children; if they sin in the flesh, they suffer in the flesh; or if they sin in the spirit, they suffer in the spirit. There is a close, a plain, a righteous correspondence between guilt and penalty.
II. THAT PARENTAGE GOES A VERY LONG WAY TO ACCOUNT FOR HUMAN CHARACTER AND FOR THE CAREERS OF MEN. Ahaziah was the grandson on his mother’s side, of Ahab and of Jezebel. What may he not have inherited from them? He was the son of Athaliah. And, apart from the consideration of heredity, what evil did he not drink in from the counsels of that wicked woman? She was “his counsellor to do wickedly” (2Ch 22:3).
1. We may well bless God for all the good we and others have derived from godly parents, especially from a holy mother, from the “counsels” received at “the mother’s knee.” The blessing thus conferred upon the world is quite inestimable.
2. Those who are parents may well realize the sacred burden of responsibility which rests upon them; for it rests with them, very largely indeed, to determine what their sons and daughters shall hewhether a blessing or a bane to the world.
3. We do well to try and elevate those who are, or will be, the mothers of the future. There is no worthier Christian enterprise than the Zenana Mission, in which the aim is to reach and to raise the women who will be “the counsellors” of the men and women of the next generation.
4. Evil counsel may extenuate, but it will not excuse, our individual folly and wrong-doing. Not even a mother may lead us into paths of sin.
III. THAT FAVORABLE CIRCUMSTANCES WILL NOT GUARANTEE ANY MAN‘S WELL– BEING.
1. Who so fortunate in Judah as Ahaziah? Heir to the throne, and succeeding at an early age (see 2Ki 8:26 with 2Ki 8:17 of that chapter); married while he was young; with little children soon about him; with every prospect of power, wealth, domestic affection, royal estate, for many years.
2. And who more pitiable than this young prince? Educated and trained in the belief of error, in the practice of folly, with a mother whose whole influence was against moral worth, seeking and forming a dangerous alliance, cut off after a very brief reign (2Ch 22:2), leaving a reputation of ill odour behind him. It is certain that no man can count on a future of prosperity and joy simply because the circumstantial outlook is favourable. The child of fortune, like Ahaziah, proves to be one of the most unfortunate of men. Whom all his young contemporaries were disposed to envy, we who look back unite to pity with a most genuine and deep compassion. Who, let us ask, is the man to be envied, or rather to be congratulated? Surely it is he who is born of Christian parents, who has about him in childhood and in youth “counsellors” who will know what is true, and do what is really kind and wise; it is he whom his human father trains in the way of righteousness, and whom his heavenly Father disciplines, according to his Divine wisdom, building him up in purity, in integrity, in strength, in love.C.
2Ch 22:4
The counsel that destroys, and that which saves.
“His counsellors to his destruction.” The counsel we receive has much to do with the character we form and the life we live; much, therefore, with the destiny we are weaving.
I. THE URGENT NEED FOR COUNSEL IN A CRITICAL PERIOD OF OUR LIFE. In our earliest years the river of our life flows between high and narrow banks. We are well fenced in, and must move according to our surroundings. But later on the banks are lower, the restrictions are weaker, and we may overflow, may cut a new channel for ourselves. At first we are under commandment from hour to hour; we do that which is prescribed for us; we shun that which is interdicted. Then comes a time when we disengage ourselves from this position; it has become bondage; we demand to enter upon the rights of maturity, to form our own judgment, to act according to our own choice. It is at this point, when the father’s authority is no longer paramount, that we need to act under counsel. We urgently need the help of those who will advise, though they do not assume to direct us. We want the guidance of those who will say to us, not, You shall, but, You should. We require the advantage of the experience of men who have gone through the ways that now lie before us; of men whose wisdom will equip us for the new duties that have to be discharged, for the new burdens that have to be borne, for the new dangers and difficulties that have to be faced and fought, for the new teen, rations that have to be met and mastered. But there are two kinds of counsel, and everything depends on which we shall adopt.
II. THE COUNSEL THAT DESTROYS; Viz. the counsel that kills all that is best in our nature, and brings us down to spiritual if not, indeed, to material ruin.
1. The counsel of a degrading selfishness, which speaks on this wise: “Take care of number one; ‘ “Every man for himself,” etc.; that would impress the opening mind of young manhood with the miserable falsehood that, so long as we can secure what we crave for ourselves, it is of little consequence what becomes of our neighbours or of our fellow-men.
2. The counsel of shameful indulgence, which speaks in this strain: “Youth comes but once in a lifetime;” “A short life and a merry one;” counsel that would recommend the young to consume all that is pure and sound in their nature in the fires of unholy passion, to drown all that is worthiest, all sense of what is becoming, and all self-respect, in the turgid waters of unrestrained or ill-restrained indulgence.
3. The counsel of financial exaggeration, which says, “Get money by all means, honestly if possible, but get money;” this is counsel which would “sacrifice life for the sake of the means of living,” which would lead to the loss of that which is most sacred and precious for the sake of that which, at best, can only supply the outward conditions of well-being. It makes mere pecuniary possession the goal of human lifea very common but an utter and pitiable mistake.
4. The counsel of a shallow materialism; that which lays great stress on temporal success and on human favour, and makes little or nothing of spiritual worth and the favour of God. Such counsels as these are truly destructive; they kill faith, love, purity, hope, spiritualityeverything, indeed, which makes our manhood, which constitutes our true heritage. Under such counsellors we may gain the world, but we lose our soul; they are “counsellors to our destruction.”
III. THE COUNSEL WHICH SAVES. There is One of whom, many centuries before he came, it was said, “His name shall be called Counsellor;” of whom, when he was with us, it was said, “Whence hath this Man this wisdom?” who came to be to us “the Wisdom of God” (1Co 1:24). If we will learn of him, we shall know what is the truth indeed respecting human life, worldly wealth, the honour which comes from man and that which is of God, what constitutes eternal life below, and what it is that leads on to the heavenly life beyond the grave (see Mat 6:19, Mat 6:20, Mat 6:33; Mat 10:37-39; Luk 4:4; Luk 12:15; Joh 5:44; Joh 14:23; Joh 17:24).C.
2Ch 22:5-12
Our friends and their fate, etc
These verses offer us a cluster of truths which we may gather.
I. THAT OUR FATE IS COMMONLY BOUND UP WITH THAT OF OUR FRIENDS. Ahaziah “went with Jehoram the son of Ahab” (2Ch 22:5); and, allying himself with him in war, he visited him as a friend when he was at his home at Jezreel. But this friendship with God’s enemies led him to his destruction; his coming to Jehoram was “of God” (2Ch 22:7); it was the way taken by Divine Providence to bring upon him the penalty of his guilt. For he perished with his friend on the same day and at the same hand (2Ch 22:8, 2Ch 22:9). When we are determining upon our alliances and our friendships, it is well not only to consider the station, the income, the reputation in society, of those who invite us to their confidence, but also to inquire concerning their probable whither-ward. In what direction are they moving? Toward what goal are their faces turned? What will their end be? Are they on an upward or on a downward course? For nothing is more likely than that we shall share their fate, that we shall become what they are becoming.
II. THAT THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD MAN GOES FAR BEYOND HIS OWN GENERATION. “They buried him, Because (they said) he is the son of Jehoshaphat,” etc. (2Ch 22:9). He was Jehoshaphat’s grandson; but though they had to go back two generations, the memory and the moral impression of the good king had not fadedat any rate, had not been effaced. “The memory of the just” abides; it is fragrant after many years have gone; and the influence of the holy lasts when the memory has disappeared. Knowledge in the memory, peace in the mind, soundness in the soul, beauty and usefulness in the life,these are the fruits of the good man’s life, though they are not traced to his hand and not referred to his working; they are influences which spread and widen as the years go on.
III. THAT IF WE PLACE OURSELVES UNDER THE DOMINION OF EVIL, WE DO NOT KNOW TO WHAT DEPTH WE MAY DESCEND. We have here a woman, who was brought up in a civilized court, and who had the opportunity of acquainting herself with the Law of the Lord, causing all her own grandsons to be murdered, in order that she might have the helm of the state in her own hands! To what a bottomless depth of moral degradation can a woman sink, when she gives herself up to the power of evil! And we do not, any of us, know the lengths of wrong-doing, the depths of iniquity, to which we may go, if we once yield to that strong temptationimpurity, avarice, indulgence in strong drink, the intoxication of applause, or whatever it may bewhich is assailing and even threatening us. Shun the first step in an evil course, for the slope becomes steeper as we go further, and it leads down to a deep and dark gulf of shame and ruin.
IV. THAT WOMANLY KINDNESS HAS A LARGE CONTRIBUTION TO BRING TO THE CAUSE AND KINGDOM OF GOD. It was a very great service, fruitful of large results, which Jehoshabeath now rendered (2Ch 22:11). It was a very valuable service that womanly kindness and fidelity rendered to our Lord when he lived and when he died for us. The Apostle Paul had to thank womanly kindness for succour in the course of his career. Pity, with the hand of help it stretches forth, is a handmaid of piety, a valued servant in the king’s household.
V. THAT IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD WE MAY FIND A HIDING–PLACE FOR OURSELVES. (2Ch 22:12.) His aunt hid the infant Joash in the house of God (2Ch 22:12). Many times, in many lands, has the house of God been a sanctuary, a place where men have taken refuge and have hidden themselves from the wrath of the pursuer. But there is a better way in which God’s house may be to us a sanctuary. We may go there to hide ourselves in him whose house it is. We may go there with our troubled or our sin-burdened heart, and we may hide in him who is the God of all grace and consolation, in him who is abundant in mercy and truth (see Psa 27:4, Psa 27:5). When we cherish a living faith in God our Saviour and our Friend, we “hide ourselves under the shadow of his wings” (Psa 17:8).C.
HOMILIES BY T. WHITELAW
2Ch 22:1-12
A chapter of tragedies.
I. THE SLAUGHTER OF JEHORAM‘S SONS. (2Ch 22:1.) An illustration of three things.
1. The perils attending high station. Jehoram’s sons were among the captives taken by the Philistines and Arabians (2Ch 21:17). Had they been common soldiers, their lives might have been spared; being princes of the blood, they were put to death. A man’s social elevation attracts towards him the arrows of hate, envy, malice, and other secret foes; an obscure position tends to protect him. Therefore let none murmur that the Arbiter of destinies has not made them kings or great ones; neither let any rejoice that their places on earth are not low.
2. The mischances accompanying war. It was probably their duty to take the field against the combined hordes of the Philistines and Arabians; nevertheless, they who go to war even for defence, and much more for aggression, must not be surprised if they are killed. In the case of Jehoram’s sons, the camp of Judah had been surprised by a reconnoitring party who had come with the Arabians (Keil), or by “a hand of wild men who served in the army of the Arabians, possibly against the will of the leaders” (Bertheau); and Jehoram’s sons, having first been carried off as prisoners, were afterwards put to death. In ancient timed, when prisoners became troublesome or proved dangerous, this was the customary way in which they were disposed of.
3. The retributions wrought by Providence. Even if Jehoram’s sons were not as wicked as himself, it was a signal illustration of the lex talionis, a conspicuous demonstration of the truth that with what measure one metes it shall be measured to him again (Mat 7:2). Jehoram had assassinated all his brothers on ascending the throne; before he descended from it, Jehovah suffered him to see all his sons (except the youngest) cut off by invading marauders. “Are not my ways equal? saith the Lord” (Eze 18:29).
II. THE EXTERMINATION OF AHAB‘S HOUSE. (2Ch 22:7.) Incidentally referred to by the Chronicler, it is more fully detailed in 2Ki 9:1-37 and 2Ki 10:1-36; and may here be briefly narrated.
1. The thing determined by God.
(1) When? As far back as the time of Elijah, in the days of Ahab himself (1Ki 19:16, 1Ki 19:17). Divine foreordination interferes not with the freedom of human action. If the destruction of Ahab’s house was carried out in fulfilment of a previously formed Divine decree, it was, nevertheless, effected by a political revolution.
(2) Why? On account of the incurable apostasy, outrageous irreligion, and flagrant blood-guiltiness of Ahab and his successors on the throne of Israel. Besides being an idolater of the most debasing type, Ahab had been a murderer of extreme ferocity, and his successors had walked in his ways. There was, therefore, no remedy remaining but onecomplete extirpation. Under the Divine government, redemption or destruction are the two alternatives that stand before all evil-doers (Isa 1:19, Isa 1:20). Souls that cannot be recovered must be cut off (Psa 37:9). When the prediluvian world had sunk below the line of possible restoration, it was submerged beneath the waters of a flood (Gen 6:7). When Sodom and Gomorrah had become too filthy to be renovated, they were burnt up from off the face of the earth (Gen 18:21; Gen 19:24, Gen 19:25; 2Pe 2:6; Jud 1:7).
2. The instrument selected by God.
(1) His name. Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. This first revealed to Elijah at Horeb (1Ki 19:16). In the Assyrian inscriptions Jehu is twice mentioned, and each time as “Jehu the son of Omri,” the foreign scribe being unacquainted with his history as recorded in Scripture, and regarding him as a prince of the dynasty of Omri. An obelisk of black marble, five feet in height, found at Nimroud, and now in the British Museum, represents the tribute brought to Shal-maneser II. by vassal princes, among whom appear “Yahua, son. of Khumri,” giving “silver, gold, bowls of gold, vessels of gold, goblets of gold, pitchers of gold, lead, sceptres for the king’s hand, and staves” (‘Records,’ etc; 5:41); while a fragment from the annals of Shalmaneser III. contains a similar statement, that in the eighteenth year of his reign, after conquering Hazael of Damascus, he received the tribute of the Tyrian, the Sidonian, and of “Yahua the son of Khumri”.
(2) His station. Originally an officer, probably the ablest general, and therefore field-marshal of Jehoram’s army (2Ki 9:5). God culls his instruments from all ranks and occupations. Those who have served him most efficiently in the Christian Church have not unfrequently been drawn from the army. The profession of a soldier need not hinder one from being a servant of God.
(3) His character. Energetic, active, decisive, ambitious, unscrupulous, bloodthirsty, cruel, and fanatical, “the worst type of a son of Jacob, the ‘supplanter,’ as he is called, without the noble and princely qualities of Israel, the most unlovely and the most coldly commended of all the heroes of his country”. God’s selection of a man to be his instrument does not imply a commendation of his characterwitness Pharaoh, Saul, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod.
(4) His designation. To be king over Israel This first communicated at Horeh to Elijah, who received at the same time a commission to see Jehu’s anointing to the throne carried outa commission afterwards executed by Elisha (2Ki 8:29; 2Ki 9:6).
(5) His usurpation. In this he was assisted by his brother-officers (2Ki 9:13). Though designated and anointed by Elisha to the throne of Israel, more than likely, as in the case of Jeroboam (1Ki 11:31), the project of dethroning Jehoram had already floated before his mind.
(6) His commission. To execute Divine vengeance on the house of Ahab by extirpating it, root and branch, from the land. Rough work, it needed a rough instrument.
3. The work carried through by God. By means of his instrument. The Chronicler recognizes (2Ki 10:7, 2Ki 10:8) that Jehu was God’s sword. How far Jehu himself was under the dominion of this thought may be hazardous to affirm. But, in any case, he lost no time in discharging the bloody business entrusted to his hand. With a swiftness and relentless severity that suggested leonine ferocity as much as religious zeal, he posted to Jezreel and began the work of butchery. First he drove an arrow through the heart of Jehoram (2Ki 9:24); next procured the death of Jezebel by commanding two of her servants, his minions, to throw her from the palace window (2Ki 9:33); and finally caused the seventy sons of Ahab in Samaria to be beheaded (2Ki 10:7).
III. THE MURDER OF THE PRINCES OF JUDAH. (2Ki 10:8.)
1. Who these were.
(1) Sons of the brethren of Ahaziah. Not the brethren of Ahaziah (2Ki 10:13), since these had all been slain by the Arabian marauders (2Ch 21:17), but the children of these brothers, and therefore Ahaziah’s nephews. That they were forty-two in number cannot be pronounced impossible, since it is not known how many elder brothers Ahaziah had.
(2) Princes of Judah, who were doubtless remoter branches of the royal house, and held important offices in the court. Possibly these should be included in the number forty-two mentioned above.
2. When they were killed.
(1) When Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab (2Ki 10:8). Though not responsible for being connected with the house of Ahab, that they were so proved the cause of their destruction. Their sad fate was an illustration of two truthsthat the innocent often suffer with and for the guilty (Job 9:23), and that no one can predict how far the disastrous consequences of one false step may reach. Had Jehoram not married Athaliah, these princes had not fallen victims to Jehu’s sword.
(2) When Jehu was on the way from Jezreel, where he had perpetrated three murders, to Samaria, where he had committed one massacre by deputy, and whither he was going to add another (2Ki 10:25). Having fallen in with the princes of Judah, Jehu ordered his attendants to take them alive. Their resistance, it is supposed, led to their immediate slaughter. One massacre more was nothing to Jehu. Besides, the destruction of forty-two princes, mostly boys, was a trifle to that he was contemplatingthe wholesale sacrifice of Baal’s worshippers in the house of Baal.
(3) When Ahaziah’s nephews were on the way to Jezreel to pay a visit to the court at Jezreel, “to salute the children of the queen and the children of the king” (2Ki 10:13). One never knows where he may be overtaken by death; hence the necessity of being always ready.
3. Where they were killed. At the pit or cistern of the shearing-house, or “house of gathering” (2Ki 10:13); at “the shepherds’ house of meeting” (Chaldee Version, Thenius, Bahr)a house which served the shepherds of the region round about for assembling; or at the house where the shepherds tied up their sheep for shearing (Keil). “In a well close by, as at Cawnpore, they were all slaughtered’ (Stanley).
4. By whom they were killed. Jehu, whose motive may have been either
(1) because he regarded their death as embraced within the scope of his commission, or
(2) because he feared the exaction by some of them of bleed-vengeance, or
(3) because he wished to render impossible any future attempt at the subversion of his authority.
IV. THE ASSASSINATION OF AHAZIAH. (2Ki 10:9.)
1. After a brief reign. Ahaziah succeeded to his father’s throne in his forty-second year, or in his twenty-second (2Ki 8:26)a discrepancy removed, by supposing the forty-two to. indicate the age of the kingdom of his mother s family (Lightfoot), but best explained by conceding that an error has crept into the text (Keil, Bertheau, Bahr). After enjoying regal power for one year, he fell a victim to the sword of Jehua startling reminder cf the uncertainty of life and the vanity of human greatness.
2. By the hand of Providence. “The destruction of Ahaziah was of God” (2Ki 10:7); not merely as all things are under the Divine control, but in the special sense that the incidents which led to Ahaziah’s destruction were of God’s permitting, if not ordering.
(1) God allowed Jehoram to go to war, as his father had done, with the Syrian king, now not Benhadad II; but Hazael the usurper (2Ki 10:6), who is mentioned along with Jehu in the Assyrian inscriptions, and with whom Shalmaneser II; in the eighteenth year of his reign, fought at Damascus, capturing his camp with 1221 chariots and 470 war-carriages.
(2) Ahaziah of Judah he permitted to go to Ramoth-Gilead with his uncle.
(3) In the war Jehovah ordered it that Jehoram should be wounded and return to Jezreel to be healed, and that Ahaziah should afterwards also leave Ramoth and go to the Israslitish capital to inquire for his mother’s brother.
(4) Hence it came to pass that he was found in Jehoram’s company when Jehu came to Jezreel on his murderous errand (2Ki 9:21).
(5) Had this train of circumstances not preceded, Ahaziah’s death might not have followed, at least at the time when and the place where it did.
3. As a just retribution for his wickedness. For Ahaziah a tremendous misfortune, for which he was in no way responsible, that he had Jehoram and Athalish for his parents. If any man might be said to have “a double dose of original sin,” or inherited corruption, he had. If he may be pronounced happy who has the piety of generations at his back and within his veins, propelling him forward in the ways of virtue and religion, on the other hand he should be deemed an object of pity who is not only held back from the paths of godliness, but urged into the broad roads of sin and vice by secret forces of heredity that have been gathering momentum through a long succession of wicked ancestors. Disadvantageously placed as Ahaziah was, he was under no compulsion to yield to the evil influences by which he was surrounded. That he did not resist them, but abandoned himself to them without let or hindrance, was his sin.
(1) He “walked in the ways of the house of Ahab,” and “did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab.” He copied their idolatries and their immoralities.
(2) He took as his example the house of Ahab, and especially his mother, Athaliah, whom the Chronicler, with reference to her wicked propensities, fitly designates “the daughter of Omri.”
4. In spite of strenuous efforts to escape. The accounts given of these efforts to escape are considerably divergent. According to the Chronicler, when Ahaziah saw Jehorem sink down in his chariot after being struck with Jehu’s arrow, he fled by the way of the garden house, but was followed by Jehu, and, like his uncle, wounded with an arrow at the going up to Gur, which is by Ibleam, whence he fled to Megiddo, and died there (2Ki 9:27). According to 2 Kings, Ahaziah had hid himself in Samaria, and, being found there, was slain by Jehu’s servants. The accounts are pronounced irreconcilable, that of Kings being the older and more authentic (Bahr, Bertheau); but the explanations ordinarily proffered (Lightfoot, Keil) are deserving of considerationthat Ahaziah, on first escaping, fled to Samaria, and was afterwards found there by Jehu’s servants, who brought him to Jehu, at whose command he was shot while in his chariot at Gur, beside Ibleam, and that, once more escaping, though this time mortally wounded, he reached Megiddo, and perished them. On the sites here mentioned, consult the Exposition.
V. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SEED ROYAL OF THE HOUSE OF JUDAH. (Verse 10.)
1. victims of this massacre. All the seed royal, i.e. all the direct descendants of the kingly house, all who might in any measure or degree aspire to the throne. As Ahaziah’s elder brothers had been captured and slain by the Arabs (2Ch 21:17), and as their sons, Ahaziah’s nephews, had been (in part at least) put to death by Jehu (2Ch 22:8), it is possible that the actual victims were not numerous.
2. The perpetrator of this massacre. Athaliah, the queen-mother, who thereby proved herself a true daughter of Jezebel. Instead of grieving at the tidings of her son’s death, and taking measures to shield his young children, her grandsons, from the sword of Jehu, she herself compassed their destruction. Thereby she showed herself a most unnatural mother, an inhuman monstera woman, like Lady Macbeth, “from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty” (‘Macbeth,’ act 1. sc. 5).
3. The motive of this massacre. Probably mingled fear and ambition. Apprehensive of her own safety when she saw that Jehu had slain her son, she may have judged that the speediest and surest way to establish her security was to cut off every possible rival from her side, and seize the throne of Judah for herself. It was the usual mode of procedure amongst Oriental sovereigns, on ascending the throne, to put to death all possible claimants of the crown. It is not difficult to see who was Jehoram’s teacher (2Ch 21:4).
4. The extent of this massacre. All the seed royal, with one exception, Joash, Ahaziah’s son, who was rescued by his aunt, Jehoshabeath, his father’s daughter but not his mother’sshe was obviously the daughter of one of Jehoram’s secondary wivesand the wife of Jehoiada the priest (see next homily).
LESSONS.
1. The vicissitudes of human life (verse 1).
2. The vanity of earthly glory (verse 2).
3. The danger of evil counsel (verse 3).
4. The self-destructive character of sin (verse 4).
5. The madness of walking with wicked men (verse 5).
6. The propriety of sympathizing with the ungodly in their afflictions (verse 6).
7. The tiger-like ferocity of some monsters in sin (verses 7-10).
8. The mystery of Providence in suffering such monsters to live.W.
2Ch 22:11, 2Ch 22:12
The rescue of Joash.
I. THE DANGER FROM WHICH HE WAS DELIVERED.
1. An early death. He was an infant at the breast, since he had a wet-nurse: “not above a year old” (Josephus). More than one-half of the human race die in infancy. Scripture examples of the deaths of children: the firstborn of Pharaoh (Exo 12:29, Exo 12:30); the child of David (2Sa 12:14-23), of Jeroboam (1Ki 14:13), of the widow of Zarephath (1Ki 17:17), of the Shunammite (2Ki 4:19, 2Ki 4:20). Many exposed to the danger of dying in infancy who nevertheless escape, like Moses (Exo 2:3), the child of the harlot (1Ki 3:25), Jesus (Mat 2:8), the centurion’s son (Joh 4:49).
2. A violent death. He was in danger of being cut off by the sword. To die a natural death in infancy is sad enough; to be cut off by a supernatural stroke like the Egyptian children, or the Bethlehem innocents, or by an accidental stroke like the Shunammite’s boy, much more by a violent stroke like Samaria’s children (Hos 10:14), excites the imagination as a hard fate indeed.
3. An unnatural death. He was in danger of being killed by his own grandmother. Only one fate could have been worseto have been slain by his own mother, like the son of the woman in Samaria (2Ki 6:29); or by his own father, like the King of Moab’s eldest son (2Ki 3:27).
II. THE PERSON BY WHOM HE WAS DELIVERED.
1. A kinswoman. Jehoshabeath, or Jehosheba, “Jehovah is the oath,” was the aunt of Joash, the sister of his father (see preceding homily).
2. A good woman. A plausible inference from the fact that she was married to Jehoiada the high priest. “Even princesses did not then scorn the bed of those that served at God’s altar ‘ (Hall). Most likely she and her husband disapproved of the state religion and state policy of the day, inspired and controlled as these were by Athaliah.
3. A brave woman. Scarcely without peril to herself could she have carried out her humane design of rescuing her infant nephew.
4. A clever woman. Without immense tact she could never have evaded the vigilant eyes of Athaliah. Of the substitution of some other child in Joash’s room (Hall) Scripture is silent.
III. THE MODE IN WHICH HE WAS DELIVERED.
1. By secret concealment in the palace. Along with his nurse he was hid in a bedchamber, or chamber for the beds; neither the dormitory of the priests and Levites in the temple-courts (Vatablus), nor the sleeping-apartments of the royal princes in the palace (Clericus), but a room in the latter, where, according to Eastern custom, the beds, i.e. mattresses and coverlets, were kept (Keil). In this recess, usually uninhabited, a temporary refuge was obtained from Athaliah’s rage.
2. By private upbringing in the temple. Not in the holy of holies (Targum), to which Athaliah had no access, but in one of the buildings on the outer wall, in which the high priest resided with his wife. Fetched at the first convenient opportunity from their dangerous proximity to Athaliah in the palace, the young child and his nurse were for six years lodged in the priest’s house. Here his training must have been both carefully and successfully attended to, as his after-career showed (Pro 22:6). From the priest’s lips he would receive instruction in the Law of God (Mal 2:7); from his aunt, learn to love and practise the religion of his great and good ancestors, Jehoshaphat and Asa.
Learn:
1. The ease with which God can defeat the projects of the wicked.
2. The tender care God takes of children, especially of such as belong to the covenant.
3. The blessing of possessing pious parents and kinsmen.
4. The value of early instruction in the doctrines and duties of religion.
5. The safety of those whom God keeps.
6. The advantage of spending one’s early years in the house of God.W.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
e. Joram: The Letter of the Prophet Elijah.Ch. 21
2Ch 21:1.And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Joram his son reigned in his stead.
2And he had brethren, sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah and Jehiel, and Zechariah and Azariah, and Michael and Shephatiah: all these were sons of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. 3And their father gave them many gifts of silver and of gold and of precious things, with fenced cities in Judah; but 4the kingdom gave he to Joram, because he was the first-born. And Joram went up to the kingdom of his father, and strengthened himself, and slew all his brethren with the sword, and also some of the princes of Israel.
5Joram was thirty and two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 6And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab did; for he had a daughter of Ahab to wife: and he 7did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord. And the Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that He had made with David, and as He had promised to give a light to him and his sons for ever.8In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made themselves 9a king. And Joram went over with his princes, and all the chariots with him; and he rose up by night, and smote Edom, who compassed him, 10and the captains of the chariots. And Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Libnah revolted at that time from under his 11hand, because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. He also made high places in the mountains1 of Judah, and he debauched the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and perverted Judah.
12And there came to him a writing from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah. 13And didst walk in the way of the kings of Israel, and didst debauch Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem after the whoredom of the house of Ahab; and hast also slain thy brethren, the house of thy father, who were better 14than thou. Behold, the Lord will bring a great plague on thy people, and thy sons, and thy wives, and all thy goods. 15And thou shalt be in great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out from the sickness in a year and a day.
16And the Lord stirred up against Joram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs, that were near the Ethiopians. 17And they came up into Judah, and brake into it, and took away all the substance that was found in the kings house, and his sons, and his wives; and not a son was left him but Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. 18And after all this the Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease. 19And it came to pass after many days, namely, about the time of the end of two years, his bowels fell out with his sickness, and he died with sore pains; and his people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers. 20Thirty and two years old was he when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem; and he departed without regret;2 and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.
f. Ahaziah.2Ch 22:1-9
2Ch 22:1.And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his stead; for the troop that came with the Arabs to the camp had slain all the eldest: and Ahaziah son of Joram king of Judah became king. 2Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he became king;3 and he reigned one year in Jerusalem: and his mothers name was Athaliah, daughter of Omri. 3He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab; for his mother 4was his counsellor to do wickedly. And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, like the house of Ahab; for they were his counsellors after the death of his 5father, to his destruction. He also walked in their counsel, and went with Joram son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead: and the Syrians smote Joram. 6And he returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds4 which they had given him at Ramah, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria: and Ahaziah5 son of Joram king of Judah 7went down to see Joram son of Ahab at Jezreel; for he was sick. And the downfall of Ahaziah was from God, in coming to Joram; and when he came, he went out with Joram against Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. 8And it came to pass, when Jehu executed judgment upon the house of Ahab, he found also the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren6 of Ahaziah, that ministered to Ahaziah, and slew them. 9And he sought Ahaziah; and they caught him when he was hiding in Samaria, and brought him to Jehu, and slew him, and buried him; for they said, He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart: and the house of Ahaziah had none to retain strength for the kingdom.
g. Athaliahs Reign and FallCh 22:1023:20
10And Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, and she 11arose and destroyed7 all the seed of the kingdom of the house of Judah. And Jehoshabath daughter of the king took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the kings sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bed – chamber: and Jehoshabath, daughter of King Joram, wife of Jehoiada the priest,for she was Ahaziahs sister,hid him from the sight of Athaliah: and she slew him not. 12And he was with them in the house of God hidden six years; and Athaliah reigned over the land.
2Ch 23:1.And in the seventh year Jehoiada was encouraged, and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah son of Jeroham, and Ishmael son of Johanan, and Azariah son of Oded, and Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri, into covenant with him. 2And they went about in Judah, and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the chiefs of the fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. 3And all the congregation made a covenant in the house of God with the king; and he said unto them, Behold, the kings son shall reign, as the Lord hath spoken of the sons of David. 4This is the thing that ye shall do: a third of you, who enter on the sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be porters at the thresholds. 5And a third shall be at the kings house; and a third at the gate Jesod; and all the 6people shall be in the courts of the house of the Lord. And none shall enter the house of the Lord, but the priests, and they that minister of the Levites; they may go in, for they are holy; and all the people shall keep the ward of the Lord. 7And the Levites shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand: and whosoever goeth into the house shall be put to death; and ye shall be with the king, when he goeth in and when he cometh 8out. And the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and took every one his men that went in on the sabbath with those that came out on the sabbath: for Jehoiada the priest had not dismissed 9the courses. And Jehoiada the priest gave to the captains of hundreds spears and shields and arms, that had been King Davids, which were in the house of God. 10And he set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right to the left side of the house, by the altar and by the 11house, round about the king. And they brought out the kings son, and gave unto him the crown and the testimony, and made him king: and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, Long live the king.
12And Athaliah heard the cry of the people running and praising the king, and she came to the people to the house of the Lord. 13And she looked, and, behold, the king stood at his place in the entrance, and the princes and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land were glad, and blew on the trumpets; and the singers with instruments of song, and the leaders of praise: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Conspiracy, 14conspiracy! And Jehoiada the priest brought out8 the captains of hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Bring her out from within the ranges, and whoso followeth her shall be slain with the sword: for the priest 15had said, Slay her not in the house of the Lord. And they gave her space, and she went to the entrance of the horse gate9 by the kings house, and they slew her there.
16And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, and between all the 17people, and between the king, that they should be the Lords people. And all the people went to the house of Baal, and pulled it down, and brake its altars and its images; and Matthan the priest of Baal they slew before the 18altars. And Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the Lord by the hand of the priests, the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of the Lord, to offer the burnt-offerings of the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses, with gladness and with song, in the manner of David. 19And he set the porters at the gates of the house of the Lord, that the unclean might not enter. 20And he took the captains of hundreds, and the nobles, and the rulers of the people, and all people of the land, and brought down the king from the house of the Lord: and they went through the high gate into the kings house, and set the king on the royal throne. 21And all the people of the land were glad; and the city was quiet, and they had put Athaliah to death by the sword.
EXEGETICAL
Irrespective of the letter of the prophet Elijah (and its accompanying notices concerning the punishment of Joram therein predicted, 21:1219), we are here presented with parallel texts to the accounts of the book of Kings, but certainly parallels to which the special Levitical standpoint of the narrator has often, especially in the description of the fall of Athaliah by the conspiracy conducted by the high priest Jehoiada, imparted a characteristic colouring, involving many deviations from the older text.
1. Joram: a. His Beginnings, and his Misgovernment: 2Ch 21:1-11.And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers. This report of Jehoshaphats death and burial is carried, according to the usual division of chapters, to the history of Joram, because the first deed of Joram, the general murder of his kindred, is closely connected with the decease of his father, and serves to soil with blood the solemn rites of his funeral (his being buried with his fathers), a mode of division corresponding well with the pragmatical turn of the Chronist.
2Ch 21:2-4. Jorams Sixfold Fratricide.Azariah and Jehiel, etc. It is against the identity, asserted by Jewish expositors, of Jehiel with the Hiel mentioned in 1Ki 16:34, that the latter, who is called a Bethelite (an inhabitant of Bethel), was neither a kings son nor a member of the southern kingdom.All these were sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. On the designation of the southern kingdom by the name of Israel, comp. 12:1, 6, also 2Ch 21:4; 2Ch 28:19; 2Ch 28:27, etc.
2Ch 21:3. And their father gave them many gifts. Comp. what Rehoboam did to his sons, 11:22 f.
2Ch 21:4. And Joram went up; comp. Exo 1:8, and on the following phrase, strengthened himself, 2Ch 1:1. That the chief motive for the murder of his brothers was their non-concurrence with Jorams and his mothers idolatry, is clear from 2Ch 21:13, where they are said to be better than he: this must have applied also to the princes of Israel who fell with them as victims in the massacre. Moreover, oriental rulers are wont still in modern times to inaugurate the beginning of their reign with such general murder of their kindred; and Abimelech had already acted the tyrant by the practice of a similar but still more wicked slaughter, Jdg 9:5. 2Ch 21:5-11 agree in all essentials with 2Ki 8:17-22.
2Ch 21:6. For he had a daughter of Ahab to wife. This quite definite statement excludes the hypothesis of Hitzig, based upon 2Ki 8:26 and 2Ch 22:2, that Athaliah was rather the sister of Ahab. She is there called Omris daughter, because the spirit of Omri, the founder of the dynasty, displayed itself most characteristically and powerfully in this his grand-daughter. Grandsons and grand-daughters are not seldom called children of their grandfather, especially if he was celebrated and influential; comp. for example, 11:20, Maachah the daughter (grand-daughter) of Absalom.
2Ch 21:7. And the Lord would not destroy the house of David. Somewhat different, but coinciding in sense with the present passage, is 2Ki 8:19 (see Bhr). In particular, To give him a light for his sons (or in his sons) stands there, for which here: to give a light to him and his sons. The of our author, inserted before , appears, moreover, to be neither superfluous nor. unsuitable, if it be taken explicatively = and certainly (so correctly Keil, against Berth.).
2Ch 21:8. In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, changed the condition of vassalage to Judah, in which it was held from David to Jehoshaphat (comp. 1Ki 22:48 and above on 2Ch 20:35), into that of a fully independent state.
2Ch 21:9. And Joram went over with his princes. is possibly corrupted from , to Seir (as should be read 2Ki 8:21, instead of ). At the end of the verse are wanting the words there forming the close: and the people fled to their tents, from which it is evident that the battle was not particularly fortunate for the Jewish king, but simply consisted in cutting his way through the surrounding force.
2Ch 21:10. Unto this day, that is, merely unto the time of the older narrator, used as a source by the Chronist (comp. Introd. 5, II. p. 19). But this is to be regarded as a writer belonging to the period immediately before the captivity; and therefore it is to be presumed that the re-conquest of the Edomites by Amaziah, 25:14 f., was only transient.Then Libnah revolted at that time, probably the present Tell es Safieh (not far from Eleutheropolis, Robinson, Pal. ii. 622). The neighbouring Philistines took an essential part in rending it from Joram, in which they were aided also by the Phnicians (according to Hitzig, Gesch. p. 201); comp. Joel 4:4 f.; Amo 1:9.Because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers,a pragmatic reflection of the Chronist, which is wanting in 2 Kings.
2Ch 21:11. He also made high places, which Asa and Jehoshaphat had removed, 14:2 ff., 17:6. The following phrase: debauched, is to be understood of the spiritual whoredom of the worship of Baal; comp. 2Ch 21:13. On , and perverted, comp. Deu 13:6; Deu 13:11; Deu 13:14, and Pro 7:21.
2. b. The Letter of the Prophet Elijah, and the Fulfilment of its Evil Forebodings: 2Ch 21:12-19.And there came to him a writing from Elijah the prophet, saying (or containing, ). is not properly a letter, but a writing, a threatening prophecy in a written form; whether written or at least dictated by Elijah is, from the indefiniteness of the phrase , doubtful; a merely indirect origin from Elijah is obviously reconcilable with this phrase; and as, according to 2Ki 2:1 ff; 2Ki 3:11, Elijah appears to have been no longer in the land of the living in the reign of Joram (for the inquiry of Jehoshaphat after a prophet during the campaign against Mesha, 2Ki 3:11, is answered by pointing, not to Elijah, but only to Elisha, who poured water on the hands of Elijah), it is most natural to suppose the oracle to have been spoken by Elijah against Joram, or rather against Athaliah and her idolatrous house, but first noted down and reduced to its present form by a scholar of Elijah. Comp. Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 2.
2Ch 21:13. After the whoredom of the house of Ahab; comp. on 2Ch 21:11.And hast also slain thy brethren; comp. on 2Ch 21:4. Even this reference to the murderous deed practised on his not idolatrously disposed brothers, may Elijah have uttered by virtue of his divinely-illuminated prophetic sagacity, at a time when Joram was not yet king, in connection with the other thoughts of the present prediction.
2Ch 21:14. Behold, the Lord will bring a great plague, the devastating invasion of the Philistines and the Arabs, 2Ch 21:16 f.
2Ch 21:15. Until thy bowels fall out from the sickness in a year and a day, literally, days upon days, that is, during many days; comp. , Isa 29:1 and Psa 61:7; Jdg 17:10. The present determination of time is popular and proverbial, but indefinite. he duration of the malady is given more exactly, 2Ch 21:19, in the account of the fulfilment of the oracle.
2Ch 21:16. And the Lord stirred up, in conformity with the prediction communicated. On , comp. 1Ch 5:26. The Arabs that were near the Ethiopians are naturally tribes of Southern Arabia (as the Sabans, Job 1:15; see on this passage). We know nothing of the causes which lay at the ground of the combination of these tribes with the Philistines to lay waste Judea. Moreover, the Arabs mentioned 22:1 are the same as those here designated.
2Ch 21:17. And brake into it, literally, cleft it, forced their way into it; comp. 32:1; 2Sa 23:16; 2Ki 25:4.And took away all the substance that was found in the kings house. According to this, Jerusalem must have been conquered by these plundering hordes; yet may also be rendered belonging to the kings house (royal domains), as certainly signifies something else than , namely, possessed by (comp. Deu 21:17; Jos 17:16), and, besides, the absence of any mention of plundering the temple or its treasures must seem trange, if Jerusalem had been actually taken. We learn, moreover, from the later reference to the occurrence here mentioned, 22:1, that only the royal camp was surprised and plundered, not the royal palace in Jerusalem. Comp. Kuhlmey, Alttestamentl. Studien (Zeitschrift fr luth. Theologie und Kirche, 1844, iii. 82 ff.), as well as Keil on this passage.And not a son was left him but Jehoahaz. Not merely capture, but also slaughter, of all the older sons is recorded 22:1. The only remaining one is here called Jehoahaz, but there Ahaziah, a name perhaps assumed on ascending the throne; see on this passage.
2Ch 21:18. Smote him (, corresponding to the , 2Ch 21:14) in his bowels with an incurable, disease, literally, a disease with no healing; comp. 20:21, 25, 36:16.
2Ch 21:19. And it came to pass after many days, literally, to days from days, for which is usual the briefer from days (), Jdg 11:4; Jdg 14:8. The next words: namely, about the time of the end of two years, fix more exactly this somewhat indefinite date. stands here, as in 2Ch 21:15, in the sense of year; the indefinite phrase, denoting properly, times, periods, receives through the context the same meaning as the Chald. , often in Daniel; for example, Dan 4:13; Dan 4:20; Dan 4:22; Dan 7:25; comp. also Vulg. and Syr., which render it directly: years. Unnecessary and yielding too harsh a sense is Keils proposal, to take the words by themselves, and render: about the time of the end (of his life), about two days (before death).His bowels fell out with his sickness. , during his painful malady (see the close: and he died with sore pains). The disease consisted probably in a very violent dysentery or chronic diarrha, whereby the nerve-cuticle of the whole great gut was inflamed, and parts of the mucous tunicle occasionally came off in the form of gut or pipe (resembling a falling out of the bowels); comp. Trusen, Sitten, Gebruche und Krankheiten der alten Hebrer, p. 212, and Friedreich, Zur Bibel, p. 270 (where also other literature).And his people made no burning for him, gave him not the honour of a magnificent funeral; comp. 16:14. The same is indicated by that which is related in the following verse, that he departed without regret, (sine desiderio, a nemine desideratus), and that he was not buried in the sepulchres of the kings; comp. 24:25, 26:23. On Luthers and the Vulgates conception of , see Crit. Note.
3. Ahaziahs Reign: 2Ch 22:1-9; comp. 2Ki 8:26-29, and with regard to the downfall of Ahaziah, 9, 10, a copious narrative of the revolution effected by Jehu, of which only a brief abstract (2Ch 22:6-9) is given here, omitting all that refers to the extirpation of the lsraelitish branch of the house of Ahab.And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king, the same who was called, 21:17, Jehoahaz (in the Sept. cod. Al. even as here: ). That he was made king by the inhabitants of Jerusalem, indicates that the succession to the throne was disputed, and therefore that a party (the Levites and priests under Jehoiada) was opposed to him, but without prevailing at first against the adherents of Athaliah.Had slain all the eldest. Comp. the remarks on 21:17; for this refers to no other fact than that there described.
2Ch 22:2. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah; obviously an erroneous statement, apparently arising from the exchange of the numeral letters and ; twenty-two must certainly be read for forty-two, for Joram was thirty-two years old when he ascended the throne, and reigned in all only eight years: he could not have a son forty-two years old: indeed, as the youngest son of Joram, Ahaziah could not well be over twenty-two years of age, as his father must have begotten him in his eighteenth year, and his elder brothers at a still earlier age, against which assumption no serious objection arises, as it was the well-known custom of the East to marry in early youth, and as a kings son, he will have had no small number of concubines. Only we need not fix the number of his elder brothers at forty-two, to which 2Ki 10:13 rightly understood does not bind us; see on 2Ch 22:8. For the last words: Athaliah daughter of Omri, comp. on 21:6.
2Ch 22:3. For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly, in her devotion to the idolatry of the house of Ahab; comp. 20:35, 21:6 ff.
2Ch 22:4. Like the house of Ahab; for they, the members of this house. At the close: to his destruction, as in 20:23.
2Ch 22:5. Walked in their counsel, and went with Joram, Psa 1:1; these words are wanting in 2Ki 8:28. On Hazael, Benhadads former general, and then successor, see Bhr on 2Ki 8:8 ff.And the Syrians smote Joram; , contracted for , 2Ki 8:28 (as , Ecc 4:14, from ; comp. also Eze 20:30).
2Ch 22:6. And he returned to be healed of the wounds. So it is to be read instead of: for the wounds, which is unmeaning, and only to be cured by explanatory additions; see Crit. Note.And Ahaziah . . . (see Crit. Note) went down to see Joram in Jezreel. This going down was probably from Ramoth, not from Jerusalem; comp. 2Ki 9:14 f. (from which, however, nothing very certain on this point is to be inferred).
2Ch 22:7. And the downfall of Ahaziah was from God; the down-treading (, occurring only here; comp. , Isa 22:5). Instead of against Jehu, the text has properly: to Jehu (), 2Ki 9:21, more definitely to meet Jehu (); and for son of Nimshi, Jehu is there (2Ki 9:2) more precisely called son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. With the history of Jehus call and anointment by Elijah and Elisha (1Ki 19:16; 2Ki 9:2 ff.) our author here proves himself to be acquainted, but does not enter into particulars, because the fate of the Jewish royal house was his immediate concern.
2Ch 22:8. When Jehu executed judgment; , execute judgment,otherwise with (Eze 17:20; Eze 38:22) or with (Jer 25:31), here with ; comp. Joel 4:2.Sons of the brethren of Ahaziah. As the brethren of Ahaziah named in 2Ki 10:12 ff. from their great number (42) could only be his brethren in the wider sense (kinsmen, cousins), so the Sept. is wrong in making brethren out of these brethrens sons; and it is not less wrong in Bertheau to affirm two different traditions concerning the fact, according to one of which the Jewish princes put to death between Jezreel and Samaria, at Jehus command, were brothers; according to the other, brothers sons of Ahaziah; see, on the contrary, Mov. p. 258, Ew. in Der Isr. Gesch.; also Bhr, and especially Keil, who sees no difficulty in the partly very youthful age (between five and eight or nine years) of these princes.That ministered to Ahaziah, were invested with offices in his court, the youngest as pages, as, for example, Daniel and his friends in the court of the Babylonish king, Dan 1:4 ff.
2Ch 22:6. And he sought Ahaziah. The fuller accounts of the death of Ahaziah in 2Ki 9:27-28 deviate in several respects, in which Ahaziah is mortally wounded, not in Samaria, but in fleeing from Jezreel to Megiddo, and dies at Megiddo. See Bhr on the passage, who rightly rejects Keils attempt to make up the difference of the two accounts as too artificial.And the house of Ahaziah had none to retain strength for the kingdom , as in 13:20: to be fit for the kingdom. On the whole sentence, comp. Dan 9:26 ( ).
4. Athaliahs Reign of Six Years; Deliverance of Joash: 2Ch 22:10-12; comp. 2Ki 11:1-3.And Athaliah . . . destroyed all the seed. On the emendation necessary here, according to 2 Kings, see Crit. Note. The seed of the kingdom of the house of Judah (the royal seed) embraces naturally the cousins and other remote kinsmen of Ahaziah, the male descendants of Jehoshaphat yet surviving after the catastrophes already mentioned (21:17, 22:8).
2Ch 22:11. Jehoshabath daughter of the king; in 2 Kings with name slightly changed: Jehosheba; according to the close of our verse, a sister of Ahaziah, a daughter of Joram, perhaps, by another wife than Athaliah. That Jehoiada the husband of Jehoshabath was perhaps only a priest, not the high priest, see on 23:8.That were slain, or that should have been slain ().
2Ch 22:12. And he was with them in the house of God hidden. Thither was he brought from his first hiding-place, the bed-chamber of the royal palace, as soon as the first favourable opportunity presented itself. With them, with Jehoshabath, her priestly spouse and his nurse (2Ch 22:11). For is, moreover, in 2Ki 11:3, the simpler , with her. Comp. for the rest, Bhr on the parallel passage.
5. Athaliahs Fall through the Revolution effected by Jehoiada: 2 Chronicles 23.According to the parallel in 2Ki 11:4-20, Jehoiada employed in his enterprise the royal runners or guards, according to our passage, the Levites and priests, without, however, excluding the former (for in 2Ch 23:1, five captains of hundreds, that is, of the life-guards, are expressly named), or betraying any design to transform the narrative of the author of Kings into his Levitical sense in an unhistorical way. He stands much more (as is immediately evident from 2Ch 23:1) on independent older reports, which he takes in the main from the same sources from which 2Ki 11:4-20 is derived; only that he finds these sources richer, and by the addition of still other reports, produces a more complete account of the fact, filling up the parallel in various ways, and even deviating from it in some respects. Here and there his statements are less clear than those of the older texts, and show plainly enough the peculiar colouring of his Levitical standpoint, but without warranting the charge of biassed invention, which de Wette, Thenius, Bertheau, Hitzig (p. 204 ff.), and nearly Movers (p. 307 ff.), here bring against the Chronist. Comp. Bhr on Kings, p. 343, and Keil, pp. 305310; also Neteler, p. 236 ff.In the seventh year Jehoiada . . . took the captains of hundreds, the centurions of the royal life-guards, as appears from 2Ki 11:4 ff. Five of these captains are then named, a guarantee of the well-grounded accuracy of the present narrative. Before the first three of these names stands the introductory (as 17:7; 1Ch 5:26), and before the last two .
2Ch 23:2. And they went about in Judah, , as 17:9; comp. Son 3:3; on the following , tribechiefs, heads of families, for , comp. 1Ch 8:6.
2Ch 23:3. And all the congregation made a covenant. means, not the whole Israelitish community (Berth.), but according to the context, the congregation of Levites and heads of families appointed by Jehoiada at Jerusalem in the temple. What is related of the covenant made with the king, the young Joash, is merely completive of the report in 2Ki 11:4, not contradictory (against Berth., etc., comp. Bahr on this passage).As the Lord hath spoken of the sons of David, in the oracle of Nathan, 2 Samuel 7. (comp. 21:7).
2Ch 23:4. A third of you (properly, the third part of you, 2Ch 27:1) who enter on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites. According to this, the first of the three posts is to be occupied by persons who enter on the Sabbath ( ), who are expressly described as belonging to the priests and Levites. In 2Ki 11:5 also the first third is so designated, which seems to indicate that there also priests and Levites are regarded as standing under the command of the five captains of hundreds; comp. moreover, the corresponding coming out on the Sabbath, 2Ch 23:7; 2Ch 23:9. Keil justly observes (Apol. Vers. p. 362 ff., and Comm. p. 309 f.), that the priests and Levites in courses performed the temple service from one Sabbath to another is known from Luk 1:5; comp. with 1 Chronicles 24; whereas nothing is said of such an arrangement on the part of the prtorians, so that by the phrases: entering on the Sabbath (resuming service), and coming out on the Sabbath (retiring from it), we must understand the Levites. If the prtorians (life-guards) were thus intended in 2 Kings 11 this should have been clearly affirmed. From the words spoken of the centurions of the life-guards: the third part of you, this no more follows than from the fact that in 2Ki 11:11 the appointed posts are called , the runners, guards. If we assume that for this extraordinary occasion the Levitical attendants were placed under the command of some centurions of the royal guards who were in concert with the high priest, the designation of the men whom they commanded as , guards, is fully explained, after these men (on account of the priestly and Levitical elements assigned to them) were described as those entering and coming out on the Sabbath. Accordingly, if 2 Kings and Chronicles agree in this, that they presuppose the troops employed by Jehoiada to be composed of Levites, life-guards, and other Jews, they do not essentially differ with regard to the localities which the three divisions of the troops had to occupy. For, according to 2Ki 11:5-6, the first third was to take the watch of the kings house, the second that at the gate of Sur, the third that at the gate behind the runners; besides, those coming out on the Sabbath were to occupy the temple in two divisions, and so protect the young king (2Ch 23:7-8). According to our verses, on the contrary, the first third was to be porters at the thresholds, and so (1Ch 9:19; 1Ch 9:22) guard the entrance to the temple, the second, was to stand (2Ch 23:5) in the house of the king, the third at the gate Jesod, while all the people were to fill the court of the house of God. Two of these statements appear quite reconcilable; for the occupying of the kings house is by both texts assigned to a third, and the gate Jesod (foundation-gate) should be the same as the gate (the latter is probably miswritten for the former, or it denotes a gate of retreat, a side gate [?]; comp. Bhr). But with regard to the third, an incurable contradiction appears to exist between the two texts; the gate behind the runners must apparently, according to 2Ki 11:19, be sought not in the temple but in the royal palace, whereas our author assigns to the corresponding division its post, not here, at one of the palace gates, but at the thresholds of the temple gate. The only possible arrangement would be that proposed as a hint by Keil, that the runners gate was placed where the passage, mentioned 1Ki 10:5, 2Ki 16:18, from the palace to the temple was situated, and therefore the division in question was conceived to be guarding at the same time the palace and the temple. It is easier to reconcile that which is said in both passages concerning the employment of the rest of the armed men (in our text, 2Ch 23:5 : all the people) to occupy the temple (or in particular its court). Yet here also in the two reporters somewhat diverse conceptions of the event seem to have existed, and in such a way that the author of 2 Kings conceived and represented the whole as a military, the Chronist as a Levitical, measure. Comp. especially in this respect, 2Ch 23:6-8.
2Ch 23:6 And all the people shall keep the ward of the Lord, behave in a legal manner, and beware of entering the inner temple chambers, the proper sanctuary. For the phrase, comp. 13:11.
2Ch 23:7. And the Levites shall surround the king, not form a dense and close circle around him, but occupy all the entrances to the temple around the chamber of the king.
2Ch 23:8. And the Levites and all Judah. For this 2 Kings has: and the captains of hundreds. But this is not a real contradiction; in 2 Kings the commanders are named, in our passage the commanded, as the executors of Jehoiadas directions.All that Jehoiada the priest commanded. Neither here nor 22:11, nor generally in the accounts of the Chronist, does Jehoiada bear the title of high priest; but even in the book of Kings he is not so called, but either simply Jehoiada, without addition, or Jehoiada the priest (2Ki 11:15; 2Ki 12:3; 2Ki 12:8; 2Ki 12:10); that he is identical with the named 2Ki 12:11 is as improbable as that in the parallel 2Ch 24:6; 2Ch 24:11 (see on the passage) the designation refers to him as high priest. Contrary, therefore, to the usual view, which makes Jehoiada high priest, Neteler appears justly to assume that he was the leading chief of the priesthood (), but not the high priest proper, but that one of his sons was invested with this dignity; with which assumption the absence of Jehoiadas name in the list of the high priests, 1 Chron. 5:30 ff., admirably agrees. That the Azariah named 1 Chron. 5:36, the son of Johanan, who ministered as priest in the house built by Solomon, was the son of our Jehoiada, and thus the high priest acting in his time and under his paternal guidance (2Ki 12:11), is a wholly arbitrary conjecture of this learned man, which fails on this account, that, 1 Chron. 5:37, an Amariah is named as son of this Azariah, who can scarcely be different from the high priest Amariah named, 2Ch 19:11, as the contemporary of Jehoshaphat.For Jehoiada the priest had not dismissed the courses. , the priestly divisions for performing the temple service according to the order made by David, 1 Chronicles 24-26. The dismissal () of these divisions as well as their summoning was the business of the high priest, 1Ch 24:6; 1Ch 24:19; but Jehoiada may have acted for his son (possibly a minor), just as if he had been high priest himself; comp. as a New Testament parallel, the relation of Annas to his son-in-law Caiaphas, Luk 3:2; Joh 18:12 ff.
2Ch 23:9. And Jehoiada the priest gave spears, and shields, and arms., here probably in the more general sense of weapons, arms, as in Son 4:4, where, likewise, precedes; yet it might also signify targets (along with shields of another kind); comp. 2Ki 11:10 and 2Sa 8:7; Eze 27:11 On the captured arms deposited by David as a dedicated gift in the house of God, comp. 1Ch 18:7 ff. and 2Ch 9:24; 2Ch 12:10.
2Ch 23:10. Every man with his weapon in his hand. , properly, his missile; comp. 32:5; Job 33:18. The setting round about the king is to be understood as the surrounding (2Ch 23:7).
2Ch 23:11. And they brought out the kings son. This account of the crowning of Joash agrees in substance with 2Ki 11:12, only that the clapping of the hands as the outward expression of the peoples joy is here omitted as unessential.
2Ch 23:12 ff. Athaliahs Execution, the Renewal of the Covenant, and the Solemn Procession of the King to his Palace,all this related essentially as in 2Ki 11:13-20.
2Ch 23:13. And the singers with instruments of song. This more copious description, corresponding with the favourite manner of the Chronist, of the musical demonstrations of the joyful multitude (comp. 1Ch 15:16; 1Ch 16:42) is wanting in 2 Kings.
2Ch 23:14. Brought out; comp. the Crit. Note.
2Ch 23:15. And she went to the entrance of the horse gate. For this is in 2 Kings: And she went the way in which the horses entered the kings house. The redundant of our passage, beside , which the old versions do not express, came into the text perhaps by an unsuitable reference to Neh 3:28. The horse gate there mentioned, which was a city gate, is not to he thought of here, although Josephus here confuses them.
2Ch 23:16. And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and between all the people. Instead of between himself () stands in 2 Kings: between Jehovah, an unimportant difference, for the priest causing the covenant to be made represented Jehovah. That he was the high priest in particular follows no more from this than from 2Ch 23:8; comp. on 24:11.
2Ch 23:17. And all the people went to the house of Baal. On the conjectural site of this temple of Baal, comp. Bhr on 2Ki 11:18.
2Ch 23:18-19 form an enlargement peculiar to our author of the brief statement in 2 Kings: And the priest appointed officers (offices) over the house of the Lord, wherein, again, the singers and the porters are specially mentioned.Whom David had distributed, had determined to minister before God in certain regularly succeeding divisions; comp. 1Ch 23:6, and for the following, Ezr 3:2; Ezr 3:10.And he set the porters at the gates, properly, over the gates; comp. 1Ch 9:23.That the unclean might not enter, literally, one unclean in respect of anything; comp. Lev 5:2-3; Isa 35:8.
2Ch 23:20. And he took the captains of hundreds, and the nobles (, Jer 14:3, Psa 16:3), and the rulers of the people (literally, those ruling among the people; comp. Isa 28:14). Instead of this, in 2 Kings: the captains of hundreds, and the life-guards, and the runners. In the following part also, our author with singular constancy avoids the mention of the runners; for instead of: and came by the way of the gate of the runners to the kings house (2Ki 11:19), he puts: and went through the high gate, etc. This high gate appears from 27:3 (comp. also 2Ki 15:35) to have been a gate in the temple, not, as probably the runners gate, in the kings house; but as it might have been situated over against the royal palace (perhaps over the bridge leading from Moriah to Zion), its name involves neither a topographical impossibility nor a contradiction of 2 Kings (comp. Keil on 2 Kings, p. 271).
evangelical and ethical reflections and apologetic remarks, on Ch. 2123
1. The bad seed sown by Jehoshaphat through the unfortunate affinity with the house of Ahab springs up only too soon, and bears corrupt fruit to the royal house and people of Judah. With the malignity of a fury or a demon, Athaliah the daughter of Jezebel proceeds, during the two reigns of her husband Joram and her son Ahaziah that were guided by her, and during the six years of her sole sovereignty, to gloat over the blood of every, member of the unfortunate house of David from which the least resistance to her idolatrous course might be apprehended. The all too close connection, no longer, as with Solomon and Hiram, amounting to mere friendship, with the Tyrian princely family, into which Judah, also following the bad example of the house of Omri, had thoughtlessly entered, fearfully avenges itself. The worst Sultanism is transplanted thence into the royal castle on Zion.10 And as the severe punishment inflicted by Jehu on the house of Omri took place in Jezreel, and swept away at the same time the Jewish king Ahaziah and his male kinsmen in the northern kingdom (884 according to the usual reckoning, 880 according to Hitzig; according to Schrader and Neteler, certainly after 850, as follows from the synchronism of the Assyrian history; see under), the cruel scourge is not yet taken from Judahs back, but continues to lacerate it full six years more. And to all this is added for this kingdom the humiliating and disgraceful circumstance that it is a woman, and even a foreign woman, who usurps the sole sovereignty, and maintains it for those years by the forcible setting aside of the male heir of the house of David. So much the more beneficent appears the manner in which the reform, rendered necessary by this temporary degeneracy of the Jewish royal house and state, was finally executed. No blood-dripping Jehu, spreading terror and amazement around, no tempestuous desolating form of the fanatical zealots in Roman or Herodian times, proves necessary to effect the return from the worship of Baal to that of Jehovah, and the restoration of the theocratic character of the community. The mild, not terrible, but venerable form of a pious priest, closely related by family ties to the royal house of David, accomplishes almost without blood the necessary revolution. The single sacrifice that is needed for this end is the tyrannical and idolatrous stranger who has been the origin of the evil that has broken over the land for the last twenty years. With the slaying, or rather execution, for nothing is said of wild revenge or tumultuary massacre, of her and her Baal-priest Matthan, the judgment on the disturbers of the theocratic order seems to be executed, and peace restored. That our author, by his peculiar mode of elevating the Levitical and priestly element into the factors of the revolution, places in a peculiarly clear light this eminently peaceful course of the same; that he, in harmony, again, with his often otherwise manifested historical tendency, represents the whole in some measure as a revolution carried on with music and song, as a transference, accomplished with ringing notes and flying banners, of the whole people into the camp of the legitimate party (comp. 2Ch 23:13; 2Ch 23:18),this lends to his representation a peculiar charm, in contrast with the more concise and jejune description, only relating that which is of political or military importance, in the book of Kings. In this narrative, also, the circumstance that the whole people of Judah and Benjamin rises up as one man to shake off the long enough borne and already sufficiently hated foreign yoke by one powerful movement of its neck, stands forth conspicuous in the light of day. It is shown more clearly than in the parallel account of the older history, how slightly the foreign and idolatrous lust had struck its roots into the consciousness and life of the people, and with what comparative rapidity and ease it could be set aside again. A conjecture, to which we must have come on receiving exclusively the narrative of the book of Kings, that a prominent part in the revolution effected by Jehoiada must have been due to the numerically strong Levitical element in the population of the Jewish state,this conjecture is strikingly confirmed by the Chronists narrative, with its emphatic marking of the priestly and Levitical character of the catastrophe, and its almost unseemly depreciation of the share of the runners in it (comp. especially on 2Ch 23:20 f.), without being under the necessity of charging the narrator with any bias in moulding the narrative after his Levitical standpoint. For it would be strange if an event such as this shrewd and bold political stroke of the priest Jehoiada were conducted in so exclusively political and military a way, and with so little participation of the clergy, as appears in 2 Kings.
2. In an apologetic respect, with regard to the account of the fall of Athaliah by means of Jehoiada, we have to refer partly to what has been just observed, and partly to the detail of the exposition. On the contrary, the ill-foreboding writing of Elijah to Joram (2Ch 21:12-15) needs a more special elucidation in the evangelical and apologetic interest. This remarkable document, the only definite proof of the acquaintance of our author with the existence of the greatest and most powerful prophet of the time of the divided kingdom, presents to the expositor the not unimportant chronological difficulty, that, if actually composed by Elijah, and addressed to Joram as already reigning king of Judah, it necessitates the assumption of an extension of the activity of Elijah far into the twelve years of the reign of the Israelitish Joram (896884 in the usual reckoning, 857846 in that of Schrader and Neteler), whereas, according to 2 Kings 2, the taking up of the prophet into heaven seems to have occurred at the latest in the beginning of this reign, thus all events under Jehoshaphat ( 890 or 889 in the usual chronology, 850 or 849 in the modern Assyriologic chronology). Various ways have been taken of removing this difficulty. Older Jewish and Roman Catholic expositors (of the latter, for example, Estius, Malvenda, Tirinus, Calmet), and some evangelical moderns (especially Menken, and Dchsel in his Bibelw.), make Elijah write after his ascent into paradise, and send it by an angel to Elisha, or a still surviving disciple of the prophet, to forward to Joram. This overstrained supra-naturalistic solution of the problem is equally void of exegetical warrant11 with the superficial purely natural assumption, that the writer of the letter was not Elijah the Tishbite, but another prophet of the same name (Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. on Luk 1:17, or with the no less arbitrary and text-defying attempt to change the name Elijah (2Ch 21:12) into that of Elisha (Cleric, Saurin, disc. tom. ii. p. 344) Joram (890 or 889884), that he might thus have directed the writing shortly before his departure to the latter king as his contemporary (Seb. Schmid, Lightf. Op. t. i. p. 85; Usher, Mai, Burmann, etc., and recently Keil, p. 298, at least tentatively), could only be maintained with difficulty, and only by the assumption of an inaccurate statement on the part of the author of the book of Kings, as the position of that which is related, 2Ki 2:1 ff., of the ascension of Elijah is such that it appears to have happened either under the reign of Ahaziah of Israel, the predecessor of Joram, or immediately after his death (896, or eventually 857). There remains after all this only the twofold possibility, that either1. Elijah wrote the letter some time before his ascension, and left it behind him to one of his disciples, with the charge to hand it to the later King Joram of Judah (Starke, Buddeus, Rambach, etc., and recently Keil, as well as Hengstenberg, Gesch. ii. 2, 243), or that, 2. Elijah merely made over by word of mouth the contents of the letter some time before his ascension to one of his disciples, perhaps to Elisha, with the charge to make it known to Joram by a writing composed in his name (Witsius, Grtler, Hackspan, Not. philol. on 2 Chronicles 21; S. Schmid, De literis Eli ad Joramum, Argentor. 1717; Wilisch, etc.). The latter assumption, or that of an only ideal authorship of Elijah in relation to the writing, a composition of it (Luk 1:17), but certainly on the ground of an actual prediction of Elijah, has most in its favour. It avoids the inherently improbable supposition, that Elijah wrote with his own hand a letter, which he knew could only be delivered in the course of at least five or six years after his ascension to God (for the writing appears directed to the king, not to the crown prince). On the other hand, it is reconcilable with the indefinite designation of the writing as coming from Elijah (see on 2Ch 21:12), and excludes the suspicion of pseudepigraphic fiction after the manner of so many apocryphal writings of later times, bearing the names of celebrated sages or men of God.12 It recognises the genuine prophetic content and character of the writing; for it discerns actual prediction, true action of prophetic foresight in it, without overlooking the difference between the author of this prophetic kernel, and the later composer or redactor. Comp. on the possibility or even probability of a divine disclosure being made to Elijah of the future destiny of Joram, the husband of the daughter of Jezebel, as well as of a charge to Elisha to announce afterwards the contents of such a revelation to Joram, on the one hand, Hengstenberg as quoted: Elijah had (1 Kings 19) foreseen the elevation of Jehu to the throne of Israel, and the extirpation of the family of Ahab by him; also the accession of Hazael, and the heavy misfortune brought by him on the kingdom of Israel. If the future was in this respect disclosed to him, the greatest of all the prophets of the Old Testament, why might not this also have been revealed to him, that Joram, who had already before his decease connected himself with the abominable Athaliah, will, by his grievous sins, bring upon himself the judgment of the Lord? on the other hand, Keil, p. 299: To whom God revealed the elevation of Jehu to the throne of Israel, the accession of Hazael, etc., events which took place after the death of Joram of Judah, to whom God already, under Ahab, committed the anointing of Jehu to be king of Israel (1Ki 19:16), which, fourteen years after the death of Ahab, Elisha performed by a scholar of the prophets (2Ki 9:1 ff.)to him the Lord might also in the second year of Ahaziah of Israel, when he announced to this king his death, about seven years before Jehoshaphats death, reveal the wickedness of his successor Joram, and commit the announcement of the divine punishment. But if Elijah made over the anointing as well of Hazael as of Jehu to his servant Elisha, why might he not also have entrusted to him the handing of the written prediction of woe to Joram? We find this statement so far completely suitable and convincing, but cannot agree with the two learned men from whom it proceeds in this, that they hold Elijah to be the writer (composer) of the letter in its extant form. We find it much more satisfactory for the establishment of the essential authenticity of the document, if the mediate origin of it from Elijah (the powerful prophet of deed, who was no man of the pen, and of whose action as a writer nothing is said) is maintained. With this also agree the generally acknowledged contents and tone of the writing, quite irrespective of the personal position of the prophet, which, however, is not on this .account to be held (with Berth, and other recent critics) to be an idealizing composition of a later historian; for in that case it would be different only in degree (as a pseudepigraphon within the canon) from the products of the post-canonical literature, above which it seems exalted by its genuine prophetic contents.
Footnotes:
[1]For , on the mountains, the Sept. and Vulg. read , in the cities.
[2] the Sept. translates ; but the Vulg: non recte (ambulavitque non recte). So Luther: and walked as was not right.
[3]Instead of forty-two, not only the parallel 2Ki 8:26, but also the Syr. and Arab. versions (as well as some later mss. and the Ald. edit. of the Sept.), give twenty-two years; but the Vulg., as the Masoretic text and Sept. (Al and vat.): .
[4]For is to be read, with various better MSS., also with the Sept. and 2Ki 8:29 : , Peculiar is the decision of Neteler (p 325): is to be retained and rendered by puncture (puncture of the wounds).
[5]This is certainly to be read instead of , which seems to be simply an error of the pen.
[6]Instead of sons of the brethren, , the Sept., in accordance with 2Ki 10:12 : . But see the Exeg. Expl.
[7] is without doubt, according to 2Ki 9:1, to be changed into . (Sept.: ; Vulg: interfecit.)
[8] is possibly a mistake for (2Ki 11:15), which latter the Syr. and Arab. also read in our passage.
[9] , besides being superfluous after , is wanting as well in 2Ki 11:6 as in all old versions of our passage, and should be erased.
[10]Compare the remark of J. H. Michaelis: Tyrian, Israelitish, Jewish history here coincide. Tyre brought by marriage her then prevalent spirit and misfortune into the Israelitish history. Contemporary with Joram is Pygmalion king of Tyre, who murdered the husband of his sister Dido merely to possess himself of his treasure. Joram likewise after Jehoshaphats death (2 Chronicles 21) murdered all his brothers, as it appears, for no other cause (?) but to possess himself of the treasures which their father had bequeathed to them (?), etc. This latter assumption, though one-sided and exegetically unfounded (comp. on 21:4), is yet on the whole very striking.
[11]And theological warrant; for as A. Calov. aptly says: Non triumphantium in clis est erudire out ad pnitentiam revocare mortales in terra. Habent Mosen et prophetas; si illos non audiant, neque si quis ex mortuis resurrexerit, nedum si quis ex clis literas perscripserit, credent (Luk 14:31) Likewise J. J. Rambach on our passage, who declares it inconceivable: Deum in gratiam impii regis ejusmodi quid fecisse, cujus nullum aliud exemplum extat immo quod nec necessarium erat. quum plures ali essent rationes, quibus Deus volutatem suam ei manifestare poterat (Luk 14:27; Luk 14:29). Comp. also the remarks of Keil, p. 298, against Menken.
[12]The Apocrypha of Jewish-Hellenistic literature bearing the name of Elijah belong to a pretty late period, as the Apocalypsis Eli, from which, according to Origen and the Church-fathers, the quotation in 1Co 2:9 is to be taken; comp. Fabr. Cod pseudepigr. V T. vol. i. p. 1072. Concerning the Elias of the Jewish-Christian fables or legends, comp. the reports of Epiphanius. Dorotheus of Tyre, Isidore of Seville, and in the Talmud. There are still Mahommedan or Christian (at least half-Christian) nations in the East, for example in the Caucasus, who worship in Elias (on account of 1Ki 17:1 f.) a kind of run-god or Jupiter pluvius (see Ausland, 1872, No. 29. p. 679). What a contrast between this Elijah of the fable and that of Old Testament history, as well, according to 1 and 2 Kings, as our documents preserved in Chronicles!
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
Ahaziah’s history openeth at this Chapter. He succeedeth to the throne – makes a wicked reign, and is slain by Jehu. Athaliah destroyeth all the royal seed, except Joash.
2Ch 22:1
We have the parallel history to what is here recorded in the 2d of Kings 11 So that for brevity’s sake I refer the Reader to that part of the sacred writings. The great point to be attended to in this historical relation, and for which, no doubt, the Holy Ghost hath caused a duplicate of this history to be preserved was, that the church might see how the promised seed, in leading to Christ, hath been preserved. Ahaziah and Joash shall be kept safe amidst all danger, because the grand event of redemption is the great point all along referred to. Destroy it not, there is a blessing in it. Isa 65:8 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ch 22
1. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem [comp. chap. 2Ch 21:11 , 2Ch 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. 2Ch 21:17 ; Jdg 8:18 seq .; 1Sa 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. 2Ch 21:5 , 2Ch 21:20 ). We ( Speaker’s Commentary ) must read 22 for 42, and thus bring the passage into agreement with 2Ki 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. 2Ch 21:6 ).]
3. He also walked [like his father, he, too, walked in the way of the house of Ahab. There is a reference to chap. 2Ki 21:6 , 2Ki 21:13 ] in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.
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 2Ch 22:1 , 2Ch 22:3 , 2Ch 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.
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 Nimshi [ i.e. grandson. Jehu was son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi ( 2Ki 9:2 )], whom the Lord had anointed [comp. 1Ki 19:16 ; 2Ki 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. 1Sa 12:7 )], and found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah [comp. 2Ki 10:12-14 , where the details are given], that ministered [were in attendance on] to Ahaziah, he slew them.
Ahaziah and Athaliah
“For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly” ( 2Ch 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!” Napoleon 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. No 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” ( 2Ch 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 2Ch 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? No. Because he was mighty in war? No. Because he was sagacious in policy? No. 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.
“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)].” ( 2Ch 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 re-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 re-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 man, “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 man, 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 act, 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!
Prayer
Almighty God, we cannot understand this life of. ours: things are not what they seem to be: we cannot see enough of it to judge according to wise judgment. Yet we would live one day at a time; we would live by faith and not by sight; we would trust in the living God, who would have all men to be saved. Prevent us in thy great mercy from trying to know thee, and understand thee, and explain thee to ourselves or to others; it is enough to feel thee, to know thee in the heart, to know that our love is going out after thee in great pure flames of desire. Thus would we live the upward life, thus would we fix our eyes upon heaven, and evermore rise from earth and time and sense and all imprisonment into the glorious liberty of fellowship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; then shall we know more of thy government by knowing less of its framework; we shall know that God is love: that what we know not now we shall know hereafter, that by-and-by all pain and discipline and sorrow and loss shall be made clear to us, and we shall say at the cross of Christ, The Lord hath ruled well his household, yea, the Lord hath done all things well, glory eternal be to his name. We thank thee for all love which men have towards one another, for all philanthropy and neighbourliness and charity; we bless thee for every solicitude that makes our heart ache with the beginning of truest joy; when we see the distress and wickedness and need of our fellow-men may we always consider our own condition wisely, and let the eagle that has built his nest in the highest rock remember how the wind can tear it, and the lightning can burn it: thus may we know that we have nothing that we have not received, and that whatever height is possible to us is as nothing compared with the infinite height of heaven. Keep us humble, true, sincere, lowly, sympathetic: thus may we live the Christ-life; thus may we represent the cross. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XII
THE REIGNS OF AHAZIAH (OF JUDAH),
JEHORAM (OF ISRAEL) AND THE RISE OF THE HOUSE OF NIMSHI
2Ki 8:25-10:17
In the scriptures cited for this chapter there are some apparent discrepancies which first claim our attention. 2Ki 8:25 says, “In the twelfth year of Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign,” while 2Ki 9:29 says, “And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah.” There are two possible solutions of this difficulty: (1) it may be accounted for by their method of reckoning in which they counted the king’s “first year” twice; first, from the accession to the end of the civil year and second, from the accession to the same day of the next year; (2) he may have begun to reign with his father as viceroy in the eleventh year and as full king in the twelfth year. Either of these explanations relieves us from the difficulty of an apparent discrepancy.
A second apparent discrepancy occurs in 2Ki 8:26 and 2Ch 22:2 . The Kings passage says that Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, while the Chronicles passage says that he was forty-two. The latter statement is impossible because his father was only forty years old when he died. So the only explanation of this difference in statement is that it must be an error of the copyist. Twenty-two is more advanced than we would ordinarily expect but it is probable in view of the early marriages in the Orient and also that each prince had, besides his wife, several concubines. That Jehoram had several appears from 2Ch 21:17 .
The character of Ahaziah is set forth in the record with the author’s accustomed clearness showing some of the antecedent forces that operated in his life. The first thing mentioned is the fact that his mother’s name was Athaliah, the daughter (granddaughter) of Omri, who is here mentioned because of his prominence. She was a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, passing on to this king the full benefit of the law of heredity. So we are not surprised that the record says that he walked in the ways of the house of Ahab. The Kings account says, “for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab,” i.e., he was related to the house of Ahab by marriage. An added reason for this course of Ahaziah is given by the Chronicles account: “for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly . . . for they [the house of Ahab] were his counsellors after the death of his father, to his destruction.” Our sympathy goes out to Ahaziah in view of these conditions. How could he, in view of these hereditary traits and special maternal instruction) have done otherwise than to walk in the “ways of the house of Ahab”? Only by the grace of God which is able to overcome all the forces of the past, whether they be hereditary or environmental.
On Elisha’s interview with Hazael we need to note: (1) this visit of the prophet to Damascus was perhaps for protection, but it is not definitely known as to why he went there; (2) that Elisha, whatever his reason for going, did not hide himself but was recognized upon his arrival; (3) that in his answer to Hazael he sarcastically told him to tell his master just what Hazael wanted to tell him and then gave him the true revelation of the case; (4) that Hazael did not tell his master all that Elisha said and thus falsified to him, but it was not the fault of the prophet; (5) that Elisha here showed his great heart of sympathy for his people in their sufferings, and (6) that God revealed the future of Benhadad, Hazael and Israel to Elisha, a clear proof of predictive prophecy.
The next topic for our discussion is the aid rendered Jehoram by Ahaziah in the defense of Ramothgilead; then follows the other events leading up to the anointing of Jehu as king over Israel. In the defense of Ramothgilead Ahaziah and Jehoram co-operate, uniting their forces against Hazael, king of Syria. Here Jehoram was wounded. Then the two kings withdrew Ahaziah to Jerusalem and Jehoram to Jezreel to be nursed. Soon after this Ahaziah visited Jehoram there and Just at this time Elisha appears upon the scene and commissions a son of the prophets to anoint Jehu. Thus the events pass in rapid succession leading to the destruction of the house of Ahab. We should note in this connection the striking fact that Jehu was not in the regular line of succession and was one of the two kings of Israel selected by Jehovah.
The circumstances and events of his anointing are graphically told by the author of Kings. The prophet who had been commissioned by Elisha went to Ramothgilead, found the captains sitting, called out Jehu, anointed him, gave him his commission, outlined his work and fled. According to this prophecy Jehu was to avenge the blood of the prophets against the house of Ahab by destroying every man child, as in the case of Jehoram and Baasha, and the dogs were to eat Jezebel in Jezreel. Immediately Jehu returned to the servants, his fellow captains, and made known unto them the prophet’s message and they arose at once and proclaimed him king. This involved the duty of preaching righteousness and executing God’s orders as sheriff, a very great responsibility and no small task. Later we see that Jehu was equal to the task thrust upon him, and God is abundantly vindicated in making this selection.
The chief characteristic of Jehu’s work is, that it is iconoclastic. He was an image smasher, a great revolutionist. Was he pious? Not very pious, i.e. in the sense of reverencing the traditions of the past. He was, perhaps, filial toward his parents; we don’t know, but he had full regard for his mission under God. If he was not pious he was religious in that he executed the program that God handed to him through the prophet. To be sure he was not a “sissy” but was a kind of “dare-devil” in spirit, a stern, John the Baptist sort of fellow. Such are the characteristics of the men who have led great revolutionary movements.
The first act of his reign was the slaying of Jehoram which is vividly presented in 2Ki 9:14-26 . The salient points in this story are: (1) Jehu’s journey to Jezreel and his approach recognized by the watchman in the tower; (2) Jehoram’s messengers to Jehu and his disposition of them; (3) Jehoram and Ahaziah’s advance to meet Jehu, Jehoram’s greeting and Jehu’s reply; (4) Jehu’s execution of Jehoram and Ahaziah’s escape, and (5) the disposition of the body of Jehoram and the fulfilment of prophecy. The second act of his reign was the slaying of Ahaziah. After the death of Jehoram Jehu pursued Ahaziah who had fled by the way of the “garden house” or perhaps a better translation would be, “Beth-Gan,” a town at the foot of the hills bounding the plain of Esdraelon, south of Jezreel, and on the road to Samaria. It is somewhat difficult, but not impossible, to harmonize the Kings account with the Chronicles account of this episode. Omitting the italics in 2Ki 9:27 and inserting 2Ch 22:9 a just after “and he fled to Megiddo,” we may conceive of this transaction as follows: Jehu ordered Ahaziah to be smitten at the ascent of Gur, but he fled to Megiddo where he was wounded, then carried to Samaria and concealed but was discovered by the emissaries of Jehu who carried him to Megiddo where Jehu was at this time; then and there Jehu put him to death. Such is a possible combination of the two accounts and removes the difficulty so far as a contradiction is concerned. 2Ch 22:7 explains Ahaziah’s death as the direct cause of his alliance with Jehoram and his untimely death was a judgment upon him for his idolatry. Murphy (Handbook on Chronicles) explains his hiding in Samaria thus, “And he was about to hide in Samaria,” but he was turned aside by his pursuers, was wounded and went to Megiddo where he died. There is one fault with this explanation: it does not provide for the expression, “they caught him and carried him to Jehu,” etc. So withal the method of combining, as given above, is more satisfactory.
Here may be raised the question of the morality of the action of Jehu in killing Jehoram and Ahaziah. The answer is simple and easy. It was clearly God’s execution, and was therefore nothing more than the stroke of the law. The Jehovah religion was very much endangered by the house of Ahab and these kings, one of Israel and the other of Judah, were branches of that house. If Jehu sinned, it was in the method or spirit in which he did the work, rather than in the taking of the life of these men. That was clearly his commission from Jehovah. He did not sin in this transaction any more than a sheriff does who executes a criminal under the penalty of the law. God had rendered the verdict and appointed Jehu the executioner. But if he used unnecessary cruelty in this execution, or did it in the spirit of vengeance, then we would admit that he sinned, because God has said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay” and no man, mob, or court of men has the right to execute a criminal in the spirit of vengeance. The cruel fate of Jezebel is horrifying and bloodcurdling. Her cunning attempt to thwart her predicted fate is repulsing and disgusting. Upon learning of Jehu’s approach, Cleopatra-like, she painted her eyes, attired her head, and from a window saluted her executioner with, “Is it peace?” From Jehu came the prompt and decisive response, “Who is on my side? Throw her down,” and down she came with a crash, spattering her blood upon the wall and upon the horses. Then Jehu drove right over her body trampling her underfoot. She was so mangled that the dogs found her body an easy prey and when they went to take her up to bury her there was nothing left except the skull, the palms of her hands and her feet. What a horrible picture, but it was the just recompense for sin. She was the greatest enemy of the Jehovah religion after the days of Pharaoh, and God made Pharaoh an example to the world; so did he make Jezebel, and in Revelation we find her followers given space to repent and then sternly threatened with eternal destruction. All this was according to the prophecy of Elijah, 1Ki 21:17 ff. How definitely and surely God forecasts the fate of the wicked. We should not be deceived. “God is not mocked, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” When one walks the streets of a modern city and beholds the painted faces of our own American women, he is constrained to ask, “Have all our women become Jezebels, and what will the harvest of this generation be?”
Jehu did not stop with the execution of Jehoram, Ahaziah and Jezebel but pursued his destructive work in the judgment on the house of Ahab. The record says that Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria, meaning descendants, sons and grandsons, whom Jehu ordered the elders or rulers of Jezreel to slay. He first challenged them to select one for a king and “put up” their fight, but they declared their allegiance to Jehu. Then he wrote them to execute these sons at once and bring him their heads. This they did, upon which Jehu justified his course by citing a prophecy (1Ki 21:17 ff), and then extended his destructive course so as to include the rest of Ahab’s house at Jezreel: his great men, his familiar friends and his priests. What a sweep of destruction in human life! But he did not stop there. The princes of Judah were a menace to his reign and therefore he must dispose of them. This he did in wholesale massacre at the shearing house of the shepherds. These princes royal of Judah were on their way to see their relatives at Samaria when they met Jehu who took them in charge at once and put them to death. Pursuing his course, Jehu met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him, and after an exchange of greetings he found in this man a suitable companion and associate in his “zeal for the Lord,” as Jehu called it.
With Jehonadab originated the Rechabites, taking the name from Rechab, Jehonadab’s father. They were descended from a family of the Kenites and were a very sturdy people, with some remarkable characteristics. They drank no wine, built no permanent dwelling houses, planted no vineyards, sowed no seed, but lived in tents and followed the most simple habits of life. In Jeremiah’s day they were still holding to the tenets of Jehonadab in teaching and practice and because of their faithfulness in obeying the commandments of Jehonadab, Jehovah promised that Jehonadab should never want a man to stand before him. This promise is being fulfilled to this day. In the vicinity of Medina are to be found today the descendants of the Rechabites with the same characteristics and habits. This is a remarkable fulfilment of promise, but it is just what may come to any people who will keep the commands of Jehovah. He will not suffer his faithfulness to fail, and consistent with his holy nature, “He never denies himself, but he abideth faithful.”
Jehonadab’s character is not hard to determine in the light of his affiliations. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed. Jehu was a “dare-devil” sort of character, and he found his match in Jehonadab. They were partners and coworkers from this time on and the work of Jehu was the work of Jehonadab.
Jehu’s last act of establishing himself on the throne of Israel is recorded in 2Ki 10:17 , and refers, perhaps, to the destruction of the female descendants of Ahab. Thus was finally completed the political revolution which transferred the throne from the house of Omri to that of Nimshi, the fifth of the royal families of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. How do you harmonize the apparent discrepancies in 2Ki 8:25 and 2Ki 9:29 ; 2Ki 8:26 and 2Ch 22:2 ?
2. What was the character of Ahaziah and what were the examples of a mother’s influence here?
3. Describe the interview of Elisha with Hazael and explain the difficulty of this passage.
4. What were the events which led to the anointing of Jehu as king over Israel? . .
5. What striking fact with reference to Jehu’s anointing?
6. Recite the circumstances and events of his anointing.
7. According to this prophecy what was Jehu to do and what was to be the fate of Jezebel?
8. How was he made king and what involved in his call to be king?
9. What were the chief characteristics of his work, was he pious, what is the meaning of piety and what kind of character necessary to a resolution.
10. What was the first act of his reign and how was this accomplished?
11. What was the second act of his reign and how was this accomplished?
12. How does Chronicles explain Ahaziah’s death?
13. What question of ethics relative to Jehu’s slaying Jehoram and Ahaziah and what the explanation?
14. What was Jezebel’s fate and what prophecy was fulfilled in her death?
15. What was the judgment on the house of Ahab?
16. What prophecy was fulfilled in the judgment on the house of Ahab?
17. What was the judgment on the princes Royal of Judah?
18. Whom did Jehu attach to his support, and what is the origin of the Rechabites and what were their practices?
19. What was the character and work of Jehonadab?
20. What was Jehu’s last act in establishing himself on the throne of Israel?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
2Ch 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.
Had slain all the eldest.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2 Chronicles Chapter 22
“And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his stead” (2Ch 22 ). And “he reigned, . . . he also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab.” His mother was that infamous Athaliah, the daughter of Omri. “His mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.” “He walked also after their counsel, and went with Jehoram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel to war.” 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 therefore works deep and ineradicable mischief. “The destruction of Ahaziah was of God,” as we are told, “by coming to Joram: for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu.” And thus he came under the same judgment.
Athaliah, in resentment, now enters upon a most cruel project – the destruction of the royal seed – for she was an idolatress, and she hated the word and the purpose of God. Who but she could have done it so well; for she had all power, apparently, and she had no conscience. Nay, further, hatred and bitterness filled her heart against the true God and the house of David, although she was herself a mother of that house; but still, what will not hatred of God do in reversing all the affections of nature?
So Athaliah, when she saw that her son was dead, “arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah.” But God watched her and led Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, to take Joash, a child, from among the king’s sons that were slain, and secretly bring him up. “And he was with them hid in the house of God six years,” just as the Lord Jesus is now taken away from the midst of the wicked people who slew Him. For it was not merely a murderous intent as against Joash; but the Lord, as we know, was crucified by the hands of lawless men, and now He is hid in the house of God; but He will as surely come forth from that hiding place as Joash did.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Chapter 22
Now the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son ( 2Ch 22:1 )
Who is also called Jehoahaz. Ahaziah or Jehoahaz are one and the same. They made him the
king in his stead: for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all of the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned. And he was forty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri. He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab ( 2Ch 22:1-3 ):
Now something is wrong here. I’m going to have to go home and figure this out. Ahaziah, forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign. I have to look that up, because his dad was only forty years old when he died. So something’s wrong with the things here. Perhaps the copyist error. I’ll have to look that up in my commentaries.
His mother’s name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri. Or granddaughter of Omri. They don’t have words granddaughter. Omri was the father of Ahab. And he also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab.
for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly. Wherefore 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. And he walked in their counsel, and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab the king of Israel to war against Hazael the king of Syria at Ramothgilead: and the Syrians smote Joram ( 2Ch 22:3-5 ).
He also continued the same friendship with the kings of the north and he went up. And he, too, was invited to come into the battle with Jehoram against Syria. Or Jehoram rather went to battle against Syria. Jehoram was injured and was recovering from his wounds that he had received in the battle when Ahaziah went up to visit him and to comfort him. This is the time when Jehu rebelled against the reign of Jehoram, came to him and killed him. And they also found Ahaziah there and Jehu killed him also. And so they brought his body back. And they buried him there. So rather than bringing it back for burial in Jerusalem.
Now when her son was killed, Athaliah then took over the reigning of Judah, and in taking over the reign, immediately she killed all of the other sons in order that there would be no other heir apparent to the throne, except that one of the nurses grabbed one of the little sons and she hid him so that he was not slain. He was just a baby at the time that he was hidden away. And they took him to the priest Jehoiada and they raised him there in the temple.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
2Ch 22:1-3
2Ch 22:1-3
THE BRIEF EVIL REIGN OF AHAZIAH
AHAZIAH (842 B.C.)
AHAZIAH MADE KING OF JUDAH
“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. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri. He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab; for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly.”
“Ahaziah his youngest son” (2Ch 22:1). The youngest son of Jehoram is called Jehoahaz in the previous chapter (2Ch 21:17); “But Jehoahaz and Azariah are equivalent names.” 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.”
“Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign” (2Ch 22:2). Ahaziah’s father was only forty-two years old when he died (2Ch 21:5), so we should follow later renditions which read, “Twenty and two years” instead of “Forty and two.”
“Athaliah the daughter of Omri” (2Ch 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.
E.M. Zerr:
2Ch 22:1. The dividing of the Bible into chapters sometimes interrupts a thought. This verse is a continuation of the close of the preceding chapter. His youngest son, then, means the youngest of Jehoram. The explanation is given, also, of why the youngest son was made king; it was because the others had been slain. It should be further observed that had the oldest son been living to occupy the throne, the words made king would not have been used. The simple statement would have been given that he reigned, without the explanation preceding it as to why it was so.
2Ch 22:2. The account here gives 42 years as the age of Ahaziah when he began to reign, whereas it is 22 according to 2Ki 8:26. The scribes were not inspired men, and their work was to copy the manuscript of the inspired original. A worn or faded copy could easily be misread, especially in the matter of numbers which was expressed by letters. This does not affect the authenticity of their work, for Jesus never called them in question on that point, even while making other serious charges. Had they been inaccurate in the important features of their work as transcribers, we are sure that the Lord would have mentioned it, for that would have been more serious than any of the other evils of which he accused them. Athaliah is called the daughter of Omri; that is from a word with a wide extent of meaning. Strictly speaking, she was the granddaughter of Omri, in the same sense in which Belshazzar is called the son of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 5:22), when he was his grandson. Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab who was the son of Omri. The wickedness of Ahab was commonly known, and by jumping back a generation to the grandmother, who also was a wicked person, the character of Ahaziah’s mother can be understood.
2Ch 22:3. This verifies the remarks on the preceding verse. Since Ahaziah’s mother was the daughter of Ahab, her counsel for the son was tinctured with the evil principles of that man, who also was influenced by his wicked wife Jezebel.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Jehoram was immediately succeeded by Ahaziah, his youngest son, His reign was brief, lasting only one year, and was influenced for evil by Athaliah, his mother. The story of his death is a solemn warning. It occurred directly through his friendship for the evil house of Ahab. Jehu, acting as the instrument of God’s judgment on that house, found princes of Judah, and among them the king, and slew them all.
Then followed dark and terrible days in which the dead king’s mother, Athaliah, reigned over the land. Her first act was a revelation of her character. It was the destruction of all the seed royal of the house of Judah. However, no evil anger is sufficient to frustrate divine purpose, and against the wickedness of one woman God set the compassion of another. Jehoshabeath rescued Joash, and for six years with patient persistence nursed him under the shelter of the Temple.
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. Sooner or later, irrevocably, inevitably, the trenches are broken through, the ramparts are flung down, the policies fail, and the kingdom which seemed so secure is dashed to pieces like a potter’s vessel by the strength of God, which is ever the strength of righteousness and goodness. Neither powerful autocrat nor mighty confederacy of statesmen can establish a kingdom or an empire by fraud, by violence, by corruption. Other than truth and justice and purity, the things of goodness, which are the things of God, nothing will hold a kingdom or an empire or a commonwealth together in strength.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 22 Ahaziah and Athaliah
1. Ahaziah and his evil reign (2Ch 22:1-4)
2. His alliance with Ahabs son (2Ch 22:5)
3. At Jezreel (2Ch 22:6-7)
4. Jehus judgment and Ahaziahs end (2Ch 22:8-9)
5. Athaliah (2Ch 22:10-12)
When the Philistines and Arabians invaded Judah they carried away the treasures of Jehoram, and slew his sons. Only Jehoahaz the youngest son was left (2Ch 21:17). He is also known as Ahaziah and Azariah. These names in Hebrew have the same meaning upheld by Jehovah. Poor, young Ahaziah still reaps the harvest of the unfortunate alliance of his grandfather Jehoshaphat. The leaven is doing its dreadful work. His mother Athaliah, granddaughter of the wicked Omri and daughter of Ahab, was his counsellor to do wickedly. He therefore 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. What might have been if his grandfather Jehoshaphat had not made affinity with Ahab and his house and marrying his son Jehoram to Athaliah! Ahaziahs end, after he went with his uncle Jehoram, the son of Ahab, and the circumstances connected with it we have already annotated in Second Kings. Athaliahs awful crime in slaying the seed royal and the miraculous preservation of Joash, the reader will also find explained in 2 Kings.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Ahaziah
where he is called Jehoahaz. 2Ch 21:17.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the inhabitants: 2Ch 23:3, 2Ch 26:1, 2Ch 33:25, 2Ch 36:1
Ahaziah: 2Ch 22:6, Azariah, 2Ch 21:17, Jehoahaz, 2Ki 8:24-29, 1Ch 3:11
slain: 2Ch 21:16, 2Ch 21:17
Reciprocal: 2Ki 8:18 – the daughter 2Ki 9:29 – in the eleventh 2Ki 10:13 – the brethren 2Ki 21:24 – made Josiah 2Ch 22:9 – the house 2Ch 24:7 – the sons of Athaliah 2Ch 25:23 – Jehoahaz
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A.M. 3119. B.C. 885.
Ahaziahs wicked reign, 2Ch 22:1-4. Being confederate with Joram, he is slain by Jehu, 2Ch 22:5-9. Athaliah destroys the seed royal, and usurps the kingdom, 2Ch 22:10-12.
2Ch 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, (2Ch 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.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ch 22:2. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah. Forty two is here mis- written for twenty two, as is evident from 2Ki 8:26. So are most of the ancient versions. His father Jehoram died in his forty first year, and Ahaziah was his youngest son; so he could not be more than twenty two. The Vatican and the Alexandrine copies of the Septuagint read twenty. He reigned one year in Jerusalem, says Dr. Lightfoot, being made viceroy when his father went to Ramoth-Gilead. In all, he reigned twelve years as regent, and eleven years as king. This is apparently true, how much soever it may embarrass chronology.Athaliah, the daughter of Omri. She was daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and granddaughter of Omri. 2Ki 8:18. It was the frequent way of the Hebrews to call themselves after the first father of their house.
2Ch 22:8. Jehufound the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah. Ahaziah had no brothers; therefore these were his relations. The princes of Judah were very forward in favouring idolatry, and they received their reward, with these degenerate branches of Davids house. God also was preparing the same vengeance for the idolatrous rulers which remained.
2Ch 22:9. Ahaziahwas hid in Samaria. He fled to Megiddo, a city of Samaria, and expired of his wound. 2Ki 9:27. To that chapter the reader is referred for Reflections on this part of sacred history.
2Ch 22:12. Joash was hid in the house of God, because God would not wholly take away his love to Davids house.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ch 22:1-9. The Reign of Ahaziah.Taken, in part, from 2Ki 8:24-29, the notes on which see.
2Ch 22:2. forty and two: this should be twenty and two (see 1Ki 8:26).
2Ch 22:7-9. The contradiction between this account and that of 2Ki 9:27 ff. is sufficiently striking to suggest that the Chronicler utilised an entirely different source; it is not improbable that more than one account of the occurrence existed, and that the Chronicler, for some reason of his own, followed the one different from that in 2 K. There would have been no sufficient reason for the Chronicler to have altered the account in 2 K., which is the only alternative to that of postulating a different source.
2Ch 22:10-12. The Reign of Athaliah (see notes on 2Ki 11:1-3).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
AHAZIAH’S REIGN
(vv.1-9)
Since all Jehoram’s sons had been killed except Ahaziah, the youngest, he was made king by the people. Taking the throne at the age of 22 (not 42), he reigned only one year. Sadly, the Lord’s judgment on his father did not affect him to turn to the Lord, but 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 (2Ch 15:16). One who deliberately ignores the Lord leaves himself open to being led into every form of evil.
Ahaziah therefore accepted advice from the house of Ahab and joined himself to Jehoram the son of Ahab to fight against Hazael king of Syria. His grandfather had mistakenly united with Ahab in going to battle and was seriously reproved by God for doing so, but Ahaziah was so friendly with Joram king of Israel that after Joram was wounded in battle, Ahaziah went to visit him (v.6). But the time had come when God had sent Jehu the son of Nimshi to cut off the house of Ahab, and Ahaziah compromised his own safety by his friendship with Joram. Jehu came to Samaria and killed all the relatives of Ahab he found there, including Joram king of Israel. Of course Jehu knew that Ahaziah was the husband of Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter, and that he had come to Samaria. Ahaziah hid in the city, but Jehu’s men found him and brought him to Jehu (v.9). They killed him, but because he was the grandson of Jehoshaphat they buried him. His mother-in-law, Jezebel, was not buried because the dogs ate her body except for her skull, her feet and the palms of her hands (2Ki 9:35).
Since Ahaziah was only 23 years old at this time, his sons were young children, so that there was no one of his descendants capable of taking the throne.
ATHALIAH’S USURPATION OF POWER
(vv.10-12)
The callous wickedness of Athaliah rose to a terrible height at this time. She killed her grandsons so that she could have free rein to take the kingdom of Judah. Ahaziah, being the son of Jehoram who was the son of Jehoshaphat, was of the royal line, but his mother, Athaliah, was not. She was a usurper with no royal rights whatever. But God was not defeated by her wickedness. He preserved one descendant of Ahaziah by means of Jehoshabeath, a daughter of King Jehoram who hid the youngest son when Athaliah murdered the rest (v.11). It was Satan who moved Athaliah in her attempt to completely destroy the seed royal. Many such attempts were made through history, but God is above all the hateful plans of men and of Satan. Joash was only one year old when he was hidden, and since Jehoshabeath was the wife of the priest Jehoiada, they were able to hide Joash in the temple for six years. All this time Athaliah had her way in ruling over Judah.
Certainly God did not recognise her as Queen. In fact, in the genealogy of the kings in Matthew, not only is Athaliah totally ignored, but also her son Ahaziah, her grandson Joash and his son Amaziah are dropped out of the genealogy. (Mat 1:8). Thus God showed His disapproval of the sinful union of Jehoram with Athaliah which affected all their descendants to the third generation. This is just one of various occasions when the Lord saw fit to make omissions that are significant in His sacred Word. For His wisdom is marvellously great, whether in His inclusions or His omissions..
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
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 {a} Arabians to the camp had slain all the eldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.
(a) Meaning the Philistines.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
F. Ahaziah ch. 22
The house of Ahab also strongly influenced Ahaziah (2Ch 22:3). His mother was Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Because of his apostasy, Jehu executed Ahaziah, along with his uncle Joram, the king of Israel. Ahaziah had no descendant who could succeed him on the throne when he died (2Ch 22:9). His mother killed all his sons except one, whom the high priest and his wife hid away when he was only an infant (2Ch 22:10-11).
"The fact that royal infants may regularly have been put into the care of wet nurses or foster mothers becomes the key to Jehosheba’s frustrating Athaliah’s plans; the suckling child was overlooked and could have escaped detection as he grew by mingling with other priests’ children or perhaps as a temple devotee like the young Samuel." [Note: Dillard, 2 Chronicles, pp. 179-80.]
The place where they hid him was evidently a bedding storeroom. [Note: Payne, p. 510.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
JEHORAM, AHAZIAH, AND ATHALIAH: THE CONSEQUENCES OF A FOREIGN MARRIAGE
2Ch 21:1-20; 2Ch 22:1-12; 2Ch 23:1-21
THE accession of Jehoram is one of the instances in which a wicked son succeeded to a conspicuously pious father, but in this case there is no difficulty in explaining the phenomenon: the depraved character and evil deeds of Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah are at once accounted for when we remember that they were respectively the son-in-law, grandson, and daughter of Ahab, and possibly of Jezebel. If, however, Jezebel were really the mother of Athaliah, it is difficult to believe that the chronicler understood or at any rate realized the fact. In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah the chronicler lays great stress upon the iniquity and inexpediency of marriage with strange wives, and he has been careful to insert a note into the history of Jehoshaphat to call attention to the fact that the king of Judah had joined affinity with Ahab. If he had understood that this implied joining affinity with a Phoenician devotee of Baal, this significant fact would not have been passed over in silence. Moreover, the names Athaliah and Ahaziah are both compounded with the sacred name Jehovah. A Phoenician Baal-worshipper may very well have been sufficiently eclectic to make such use of the name sacred to the family into which she married, but on the whole those names rather tell against the descent of their owners from Jezebel and her Zidonian ancestors.
We have seen that, after giving the concluding formula for the reign of Jehoshaphat, the chronicler adds a postscript narrating an incident discreditable to the king. Similarly he prefaces the introductory formula for the reign of Jehoram by inserting a cruel deed of the new king. Before telling us Jehorams age at his accession and the length of his reign, the chronicler relates the steps taken by Jehoram to secure himself upon his throne. Jehoshaphat, like Rehoboam, had disposed of his numerous sons in the fenced cities of Judah, and had sought to make them quiet and contented by providing largely for their material welfare: “Their father gave them great gifts: silver, gold, and precious things, with fenced cities in Judah.” The sanguine judgment of paternal affection might expect that these gifts would make his younger sons loyal and devoted subjects of their elder brother; but Jehoram, not without reason, feared that treasure and cities might supply the means for a revolt, or that Judah might be split up into a number of small principalities. Accordingly when he had strengthened himself he slew all his brethren with the sword, and with them those princes of Israel whom he suspected of attachment to his other victims. He was following the precedent set by Solomon when he ordered the execution of Adonijah; and, indeed, the slaughter by a new sovereign of all those near relations who might possibly dispute his claim to the throne has usually been considered in the East to be a painful but necessary and perfectly justifiable act, being, in fact, regarded in much the same light as the drowning of superfluous kittens in domestic circles. Probably this episode is placed before the introductory formula for the reign because until these possible rivals were removed Jehorams tenure of the throne was altogether unsafe.
For the next few verses {2Ch 21:5-10; Cf. 2Ki 8:17-22} the narrative follows the book of Kings with scarcely any alteration, and states the evil character of the new reign, accounting for Jehorams depravity by his marriage with a daughter of Ahab. The successful revolt of Edom from Judah is next given, and the chronicler adds a note of his own to the effect that Jehoram experienced these reverses because he had forsaken Jehovah, the God of his fathers.
Then the chronicler proceeds to describe further sins and misfortunes of Jehoram. He mentions definitely, what is doubtless implied by the book of Kings, that Jehoram made high places in the cities of Judah and seduced the people into taking part in a corrupt worship. The Divine condemnation of the kings wrong-doing came from an unexpected quarter and in an unusual fashion. The other prophetic messages specially recorded by the chronicler were uttered by prophets of Judah, some apparently receiving their inspiration for one particular occasion. The prophet who rebuked Jehoram was no less distinguished a personage than the great Israelite Elijah, who, according to the book of Kings, had long since been translated to heaven. In the older narrative Elijahs work is exclusively confined to the Northern Kingdom. But the chronicler entirely ignores Elijah, except when his history becomes connected for a moment with that of the house of David.
The other prophets of Judah delivered their messages by word of mouth, but this communication is made by means of “a writing.” This, however, is not without parallel: Jeremiah sent a letter to the captives in Babylon, and also sent a written collection of his prophecies to Jehoiakim. {Jer 29:1-32, Jer 36:1-32} In the latter case, however, the prophecies had been originally promulgated by word of mouth.
Elijah writes in the name of Jehovah, the God of David, and condemns Jehoram because he was not walking in the ways of Asa and Jehoshaphat, but in the ways of the kings of Israel and the house of Ahab. It is pleasant to find that, in spite of the sins which marked the latter days of Asa and Jehoshaphat, their “ways” were as a whole such as could be held up as an example by the prophet of Jehovah. Here and elsewhere God appeals to the better feelings that spring from pride of birth. Noblesse oblige. Jehoram held his throne as representative of the house of David, and was proud to trace his descent to the founder of the Israelite monarchy and to inherit the glory of the great reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat; but this pride of race implied that to depart from their ways was dishonorable apostasy. There is no more pitiful spectacle than an effeminate libertine pluming himself on his noble ancestry.
Elijah further rebukes Jehoram for the massacre of his brethren, who were better than himself. They had all grown up at their fathers court, and till the other brethren were put in possession of their fenced cities had been under the same influences. It is the husband of Ahabs daughter who is worse than all the rest; the influence of an unsuitable marriage has already begun to show itself. Indeed, in view of Athaliahs subsequent history, we do her no injustice by supposing that, like Jezebel and Lady Macbeth, she had suggested her husbands crime. The fact that Jerohams brethren were better men than himself adds to his guilt morally, but this undesirable superiority of the other princes of the blood to the reigning sovereign would seem to Jehoram and his advisers an additional reason for putting them out of the way; the massacre was an urgent political necessity.-
“Truly the tender mercies of the weak, As of the wicked, are but cruel.”
There is nothing so cruel as the terror of a selfish man. The Inquisition is the measure not only of the inhumanity, but also of the weakness, of the mediaeval Church; and the massacre of St. Bartholomew was due to the feebleness of Charles IX, as well as to the “revenge or the blind instinct of self-preservation” of Mary de Medici.
The chroniclers condemnation of Jehorams massacre marks the superiority of the standard of later Judaism to the current Oriental morality. For his sins Jehoram was to be punished by sore disease and by a great “plague” which would fall upon his people, and his wives, and his children, and all his substance. From the following verses we see that “plague,” here as in the case of some of the plagues of Egypt, has the sense of calamity generally, and not the narrower meaning of pestilence. This plague took the form of an invasion of the Philistines and of the Arabians “which are beside the Ethiopians.” Divine inspiration prompted them to attack Judah; Jehovah stirred up their spirit against Jehoram. Probably here, as in the story of Zerah, the term Ethiopians is used loosely for the Egyptians, in which case the Arabs in question would be inhabitants of the desert between the south of Palestine and Egypt, and would thus be neighbors of their Philistine allies.
These marauding bands succeeded where the huge hosts of Zerah had failed; they broke into Judah, and carried off all the kings treasure, together with his sons and his wives, only leaving him his youngest son: Jehoahaz or Ahaziah. They afterwards slew the princes they had taken captive. The common people would scarcely suffer less severely than their king. Jehoram himself was reserved for special personal punishment: Jehovah smote him with a sore disease; and, like Asa, he lingered for two years and then died. The people were so impressed by his wickedness that “they made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers,” whereas they had made a very great burning for Asa.
The chroniclers account of the reign of Ahaziah does not differ materially from that given by the book of Kings, though it is considerably abridged, and there are other minor alterations. The chronicler sets forth even more emphatically than the earlier history the evil influence of Athaliah and her Israelite kinsfolk over Ahaziahs short reign of one year. The story of his visit to Jehoram, king of Israel, and the murder of the two kings by Jehu, is very much abridged. The chronicler carefully omits all reference to Elisha, according to his usual principle of ignoring the religions life of Northern Israel; but he expressly tells us that, like Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah suffered for consorting with the house of Omri: “His destruction or treading down was of God in that he went unto Jehoram.” Our English versions have carefully reproduced an ambiguity in the original; but it seems probable that the chronicler does not mean that visiting Jehoram in his illness was a flagrant offense which God punished with death, but rather that, to punish Ahaziah for his imitation of the evil-doings of the house of Omri. God allowed him to visit Jehoram in order that he might share the fate of the Israelite king.
The book of Kings had stated that Jehu slew forty-two brethren of Ahaziah. It is, of course, perfectly allowable to take “brethren” in the general sense of “kinsmen”; but as the chronicler had recently mentioned the massacre of all Ahaziahs brethren, he avoids even the appearance of a contradiction by substituting “sons of the brethren of Ahaziah” for brethren. This alteration introduces new difficulties, but these difficulties simply illustrate the general confusion of numbers and ages which characterizes the narrative at this point. In connection with the burial of Ahaziah, it may be noted that the popular recollection of Jehoshaphat endorsed the favorable judgment contained in the “writing of Elijah”: “They said” of Ahaziah, “he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought Jehovah with all his heart.” The chronicler next narrates Athaliahs murder of the seed royal of Judah and her usurpation of the throne of David, in terms almost identical with those of the narrative in the book of Kings. But his previous additions and modifications are hard to reconcile with the account he here borrows from his ancient authority. According to the chronicler, Jehoram had massacred all the other sons of Jehoshaphat, and the Arabians had slain all Jehorams sons except Ahaziah, and Jehu had slain their sons; so that Ahaziah was the only living descendant in the male line of his grandfather Jehoshaphat; he himself apparently died at the age of twenty-three. It is intelligible enough that he should have a son Joash and possibly other sons; but still it is difficult to understand where Athaliah found “all the seed royal” and “the kings sons” whom she put to death. It is at any rate clear that Jehorams slaughter of his brethren met with an appropriate punishment: all his own sons and grandsons were similarly slain, except the child Joash. The chroniclers narrative of the revolution by which Athaliah was slain, and the throne recovered for the house of David in the person of Joash, follows substantially the earlier history, the chief difference being, as we have already noticed, that the chronicler substitutes the Levitical guard of the second Temple for the bodyguard of foreign mercenaries who were the actual agents in this revolution. 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 wifes 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. Athaliahs usurpation was a bold attempt to reverse the usual process and transfer the husbands dominions to the authority and faith of the wifes family. It is probable that Athaliahs permanent success would have led to the absorption of Judah in the Northern Kingdom. This last misfortune was averted by the energy and courage of Jehoiada, but in the meantime the half-heathen queen had succeeded in causing untold harm and suffering to her adopted country. 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 VIs wife, Margaret of Anjou, contributed considerably to the prolonged bitterness of the struggle between York and Lancaster; and to Henry VIIIs marriage with Catherine of Aragon the country owed the miseries and persecutions inflicted by Mary Tudor. But, on the other hand, many of the foreign princesses who have shared the English throne have won the lasting gratitude of the nation. A French queen of Kent, for instance, opened the way for Augustines mission to England.
But no foreign queen of England has had the opportunities for mischief that were enjoyed and fully utilized by Athaliah. She corrupted her husband and her son, and she was probably at once the instigator of their crimes and the instrument of their punishment. By corrupting the rulers of Judah and by her own misgovernment, she exercised an evil influence over the nation; and as the people suffered, not for their sins only, but also for those of their kings, Athaliah brought misfortunes and calamity upon Judah. Unfortunately such experiences are not confined to royal families; the peace and honor, 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 and temperament. Here is a very general and practical application of the chroniclers objection to intercourse with the house of Omri.