Verses 1-12

CHAPTER 22 Ahaziah and Athaliah

1. Ahaziah and his evil reign (2 Chronicles 22:1-4)

2. His alliance with Ahab’s son (2 Chronicles 22:5)

3. At Jezreel (2 Chronicles 22:6-7)

4. Jehu’s judgment and Ahaziah’s end (2 Chronicles 22:8-9)

5. Athaliah (2 Chronicles 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 (2 Chronicles 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! Ahaziah’s 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. Athaliah’s awful crime in slaying the seed royal and the miraculous preservation of Joash, the reader will also find explained in 2 Kings.