Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 18:2

Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also [was] Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.

2. His mother’s name also was Abi ] R.V. And his mother’s name was Abi. In Chronicles the name is given as Abijah.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Twenty and five years old was he – This statement, combined with that of 2Ki 16:2, would make it necessary that his father Ahaz should have married at the age of 10, and have had a child born to him when he was 11 years of age. This is not impossible; but its improbability is so great, that most commentators suggest a corruption in some of the numbers.

The Zachariah here mentioned was perhaps one of the faithful witnesses of Isaiah Isa 8:2.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign. How is this credible? For then Ahaz, who lived but six and thirty years, 2Ki 16:2, must beget Hezekiah at the eleventh year of his age.

Answ. 1. There are some like instances mentioned by credible authors; which these very men will not deny, who are so ready to quarrel with the Holy Scriptures for such matters.

2. This being the confessed custom of sacred and other writers, in the numbering of years, sometimes to omit, and sometimes to add, those which are imperfect or unfinished; and so Ahaz might be near one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and near seventeen years older when he died. And on the other side, Hezekiah, when he began to reign, might be only four and twenty years old complete, and but entered into his five and twentieth year. And thus Ahaz might be between thirteen and fourteen years old when he got Hezekiah; which is not at all strange, especially in that nation, to which God had promised a singular degree of fruitfulness, and in that house of David, to which God had made so many and such great promises.

3. It is not certain that Ahaz lived only thirty six years; for those sixteen years which he reigned, 2Ki 17:2, may be computed, not from the first beginning of his reign, when he reigned with his father, (of which See Poole “2Ki 15:30“,) which was at the twentieth year of his age, but from the beginning of his reign alone.

4. Some affirm that Hezekiah was not the natural, but only the legal son and successor of Ahaz; for the name of son is given in Scripture to such persons; as 1Ch 3:16, compared with 2Ki 24:17; Mat 1:12, compared with Jer 22:30; and to adopted sons, Act 7:21 Heb 11:24; and to sons-in-law, 1Sa 24:16; 26:17; Luk 3:23. Any of these solutions are far more credible to any man of common prudence, than that these sacred books, whose Divine original hath been so fully evidenced both by God and men, are but the fictions and contrivances of a base impostor. And if none of these solutions were sufficient, it is absurd to conclude that a true resolution cannot be found because it is not yet found; because it is manifest, that many difficulties, both in Scripture and in the arts, which were formerly judged insoluble, have been cleared in later times; and therefore we may justly expect the resolution of other difficulties, which may be thought not yet fully explained. Abi, or Abijah, 2Ch 29:1.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign,…. Now as Ahaz his father began to reign at twenty, and reigned sixteen, he must die at thirty six; so that this son of his must be born to him when at eleven years of age, for only so many years there be between twenty five and thirty six, which may seem wonderful; but, as Grotius observes, Hezekiah had now entered into the twenty fifth year, and he might be just turned of twenty four, and so his father might be twelve years of age at his birth: besides, as it is usual for the divine historian to take away or add the incomplete years of kings, Ahaz might be near twenty one when he began to reign, and might reign almost seventeen, which makes the age of Ahaz to be about thirty eight; and Hezekiah being but little more than twenty four, at his death there were thirteen or near fourteen years difference in their age, and which was an age that need not be thought incredible for begetting of children. Bochart f and others g have given many instances of children begotten by persons under that age, even at ten years of age h: four years after his birth, the famous city of Rome began to be founded i, A. M. 3256, and before Christ 748, as commonly received, though it is highly probable it was of a more early date; according to Dionysius Halicarnassensis, it was founded in the first year of the seventh Olympaid, in the times of Ahaz, A. M. 3118 k:

and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem; so that he reigned twenty three years or more after the captivity of the ten tribes:

his mother’s name also was Abi the daughter of Zachariah; perhaps the daughter of the same that was taken by Isaiah for a witness, Isa 8:3 who very probably was a very good woman, and took care to give her son a religious education, though he had so wicked a father.

f Ep. Carbonell. tom. 1. oper. p. 920. g Vid. Hieronymi Opera, tam. 3. Ep. Vital. fol. 25. C. h T. Bab. Avodah Zarah, fol. 44. 1. i Usser. Annal. p. 86, 87. k Vid. Breithaupt. Not. in Hist. Gorion. Heb. l. 5. c. 1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(2) Abi.This should probably be Abijah, as in Chronicles and a few MSS.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

2. Twenty and five years old Since Ahaz was only thirty-six years old at his death, (2Ki 16:2, note,) he must have begotten this son Hezekiah when about eleven years old. To show that this was not impossible, Keil instances the following: “In the East they marry girls of nine or ten years of age to boys of twelve or thirteen. VOLNEY, Reisen, xi, p. 360 . ) Among the Indians husbands of ten years of age and wives of eight are mentioned. THEVENOT, Reisen, cxi, pp. 100, 165. In Abyssinia boys of twelve and even ten years old marry. RUPPELL, Abessynien, xi, p. 59. Among the Jews in Tiberias, mothers of eleven years of age and fathers of thirteen are not uncommon, (BURCKH., Syria, p. 570;) and Lynch saw a wife there, who to all appearance was a mere child about ten years of age, who had been married two years already.” Others, however, suppose a corruption in the text of chap. 2Ki 16:2, and with the Syriac and Arabic versions at 2Ch 28:1, make Ahaz forty years old at his death.

His mother’s name “The names of the mothers of all the later kings of Judah are mentioned in Holy Scripture; intimating the importance of a mother’s influence, especially in evil days.” Wordsworth.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments