2 Kings 8:25

In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25-29) The reign of Ahaziah king of Judah. His expedition with Joram of Israel against Hazael at Ramoth-gilead. (Comp. 2Chronicles 22:1-6.)

Two-and-twenty years old.—He was Jehoram’a youngest son (2Chronicles 21:17; 2Chronicles 22:1), and, as his father died at the age of thirty-nine or forty (2Kings 8:17), he must have been begotten in Jehoram’s seventeenth or eighteenth year. There is no difficulty in this, nor even in the supposition that Jehoram had begotten sons before Ahaziah, as Thenius seems to imagine. He may have become a father at thirteen or fourteen, and Athaliah was certainly not his only wife.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:25-29 Names do not make natures, but it was bad for Jehoshaphat's family to borrow names from Ahab's. Ahaziah's relation to Ahab's family was the occasion of his wickedness and of his fall. When men choose wives for themselves, let them remember they are choosing mothers for their children. Providence so ordered it, that Ahaziah might be cut off with the house of Ahab, when the measure of their iniquity was full. Those who partake with sinners in their sin, must expect to partake with them in their plagues. May all the changes, troubles, and wickedness of the world, make us more earnest to obtain an interest in the salvation of Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

On the death of Jehoram, see 2 Chronicles 21:12-19. His son is also called Jehoahaz (margin) by a transposition of the two elements of the name.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2Ki 8:24. Ahaziah Succeeds Him.

24. Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead—(See on [334]2Ch 22:1).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In the twelfth year of Joram.

Object. It was in the eleventh year of Joram, 2 Kings 9:29.

Answ. Either, first, He began to reign in the confines of Joram’s eleventh and twelfth year, in the very end of his eleventh year, or towards the beginning of the twelfth, whence it is indifferently ascribed to the one or the other. Or, secondly, The one year of Ahaziah did concur with the latter half of Joram’s eleventh year, and the former half of his twelfth year: and if he could not be said to

begin to reign in both these years, yet he might unquestionably be said to reign in both of them; and the Hebrew word, both here and 2 Kings 9:29, properly signifies he reigned, and not he began to reign, as it is translated. Or, thirdly, Ahaziah began to reign with his father, and during his life, according to the late examples both in Judah and Israel, there being also special occasion for it, by reason of Joram’s cruel and long sickness, 2 Chronicles 21:18, &c.; and this was in Joram’s eleventh ear, and then his father died, and he began his single reign in Joram’s twelfth year.

Ahaziah, called also Jehoahaz, 2 Chronicles 21:17, and Azariah, 2 Chronicles 22:6.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign. He is called Jehoahaz, and said to be the youngest son of Jehoram, 2 Chronicles 21:17.

Geneva Study Bible

In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25–29. Reign of Ahaziah king of Judah. His war against Hazael king of Syria. Joram king of Israel helps Ahaziah and is wounded (2 Chronicles 22:1-6)

25. Joram … Jehoram] To prevent confusion it will be convenient to adopt the orthography of this verse for these names, Joram king of Israel, and Jehoram king of Judah. They are but different forms of the same name, and given in the Bible narrative indiscriminately to each.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 25-29. - THE WICKED REIGN OF AHAZIAH IN JUDAH. The writer continues the history of Judah through another reign - a very short one-almost to its close. He describes the wickedness of Ahaziah, for the most part, in general terms, attributes it to his connection with the "house of Ahab," and notes his alliance with Joram of Israel against the Syrians, and his visit to his brother monarch at Samaria, which led on to his death. Verse 25. - In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab King of Israel. In 2 Kings 9:29 the year of Ahaziah's accession is said to have been Joram's eleventh year. It is conjectured that he began to reign as viceroy to his father during his severe illness in Joram's eleventh year, and became sole king at his father's death in the year following. Did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram King of Judah begin to reign; i.e. begin to be full king. 2 Kings 8:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Reign of Ahaziah of Judah (cf. 2 Chronicles 22:1-6). - Ahaziah, the youngest son of Joram, ascended the throne in the twenty-second year of his age. The statement in 2 Chronicles 22:2, that he was forty-two years old when he became king, rests upon a copyist's error, namely, a confusion of כ twenty with מ forty. Now, since his father became king at the age of thirty-two, and reigned eight years, Ahaziah must have been born in the nineteenth year of his age. Consequently it may appear strange that Ahaziah had brothers still older than himself (2 Chronicles 21:17); but as early marriages are common in the East, and the royal princes had generally concubines along with their wife of the first rank, as is expressly stated of Joram in 2 Chronicles 21:17, he might have had some sons in his nineteenth year. His mother was called Athaliah, and was a daughter of the idolatrous Jezebel. In 2 Kings 8:26 and 2 Chronicles 22:2 she is called the daughter, i.e., grand-daughter, of Omri; for, according to 2 Kings 8:18, she was a daughter of Ahab. Omri, the grand-father, is mentioned in 2 Kings 8:26 as the founder of the dynasty which brought so much trouble upon Israel and Judah through its idolatry.