2 Kings 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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) Ahaziah.—Called Jehoahaz (2Chronicles 21:17). Ewald thinks he assumed the name of Ahaziah on his accession.

The daughter of Omri—i.e., granddaughter. Omri is mentioned rather than Ahab as the founder of the dynasty, and the notorious example of its wickedness. (Comp. Micah 6:16 : “The statutes of Omri are kept.”)

Benson Commentary

2 Kings 8:26-27. Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign — How this agrees with 2 Chronicles 22:2, see on that place. The daughter of Omri — That is, his grand-daughter, 2 Kings 8:18. He walked in the way of the house of Ahab — He not only worshipped the calves, but also Baal. For he was son-in-law of the house of Ahab — And so was corrupted in his religion by his connection with that idolatrous and wicked family. He was the proper son of Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, and the grandson-in-law of Ahab, his father Joram being properly Ahab’s son-in- law.

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

Such names as Athaliah, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, indicate that the Baal-worshipping kings of Israel did not openly renounce the service of Yahweh. Athaliah is "the time for Yahweh;" Ahaziah "the possession of Yahweh;" Jehoram, or Joram, "exalted by Yahweh."

The daughter of Omri - "Son" and "daughter" were used by the Jews of any descendants (compare Matthew 1:1). The whole race were "the children of Israel." Athaliah was the grand-daughter of Omri (see the margin). Her being called "the daughter of Omri" implies that an idea of special greatness was regarded as attaching to him, so that his name prevailed over that of Ahab. Indications of this ideal greatness are found in the Assyrian inscriptions, where the early name for Samaria is Beth-Omri, and where even Jehu has the title of "the son of Omri."

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

How this agrees with 2 Chronicles 22:2, See Poole "2 Chronicles 22:2" on that place.

The daughter of Omri, i.e. his granddaughter. See above 2 Kings 8:18.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign,.... In 2 Chronicles 22:2 he is said to be forty two years of age; for the solution of that difficulty See Gill on 2 Chronicles 22:2,

and he reigned one year in Jerusalem; which was the whole of his reign:

and his mother's name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel; that is, his granddaughter; for she was the daughter of Ahab the son of Omri, 2 Kings 8:18, it was usual for grandchildren to be called children, sons and daughters, and perhaps she might be educated in the family of Omri.

Geneva Study Bible

{o} 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.

(o) Which is to be understood, that he was made king when his father reigned, but after his father's death he was confirmed king when he was forty-two years old, as in 2Ch 22:2.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26. Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah] In 2 Chronicles 22:2 his age is given as forty-two. This cannot be correct, but is due to a misreading of the Hebrew letters which were used as numerals. Jehoram, the father of Ahaziah, was thirty-two years old (see verse 17) when he began to reign and he reigned eight years. If Ahaziah was two and twenty at his father’s death, he was born when Jehoram was eighteen. This is not uncommon in the East. Indeed we find from 2 Chronicles 22:1 that Jehoram had other children older than Ahaziah, but they were slain by the Arabian invaders.

Athaliah, the daughter of Omri] Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel and so the grand-daughter of Omri. For this manner of speech cf. verse 20 of the next chapter, where Jehu is called the son of Nimshi, though he has been twice spoken of in previous verses (2, 14) as the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 26. - Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign. The writer of Chronicles says, "two and forty" (2 Chronicles 22:2), which is absolutely impossible, since his father was but forty when he died (see ver. 17, and setup. 2 Chronicles 21:5, 20). Even "two and twenty" is a more advanced age than we should have expected, since Ahaziah was the youngest of Jehoram's sons (2 Chronicles 21:17); he must therefore have been born in his father's nineteenth year. Yet he had several elder brothers (2 Chronicles 21:17; 2 Chronicles 22:1)! To explain this, we have to remember

(1) the early age at which marriage is contracted in the East (twelve years); and

(2) the fact that each prince had, besides his wife, several concubines. That Joram had several appears from 2 Chronicles 21:17. And he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's Ares was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri King of Israel. There is something very remarkable in the dignity and precedence attached to Omri. He was, no doubt, regarded of a sort of second founder of the kingdom of Israel, having been the first monarch to establish anything like a stable dynasty. His "statutes" were looked upon as the fundamental laws of the kingdom, and were "kept" down to the time of its destruction (Micah 6:16). Foreigners knew Samaria as Beth. Khumri, or "the house of Omri." He is the only Israelite king mentioned by name on the Moabite Stone (line 5), and the earliest mentioned in the inscriptions of Assyria. Even Jehu, who put an end to his dynasty, was regarded by the Assyrians as his descendant, and known under the designation of" Yahua, the son of Khnmri" (Black Obelisk, epig. 2.). Athallah, the daughter of Ahab, is called "the daughter of Omri," not only in the present passage, but also in 2 Chronicles 22:2. 2 Kings 8:26

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.