Synopsis of the Chapter
The impious Ahaziah succeeds his impious father Jehoram; Jehu kills him together with Jehoram king of Israel. Athaliah, the wife of Jehoram, kills all the sons of Ahaziah, except the one small child Joash, whom his aunt Jehoshabeath secretly rescued from death. So Athaliah alone reigns.
Verse 1: Ahaziah ¶
1. AHAZIAH. — He is the one who was called by the reversed name Jehoahaz in the preceding chapter, verse 17.
Verse 2: Ahaziah Was Forty-Two Years Old ¶
2. AHAZIAH WAS FORTY-TWO YEARS OLD WHEN HE BEGAN TO REIGN. — There is a great question and apparent contradiction here; for in 4 Kings (2 Kings) chapter 8, verse 26, it says: "Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign," because, as was said above, Jehoram began to reign at age thirty-two, and reigned eight years, and died at the age of forty, says Josephus; his son Ahaziah immediately succeeded him; therefore he could not have been forty-two years old, for otherwise he would have been two years older than his father Jehoram, who died at the age of forty; therefore Ahaziah was then twenty-two years old. First, the Hebrews in Seder Olam, chapter 17, followed by Genebrardus and Serarius, answer that these 42 years should be computed from the sixth year of Omri, who was the maternal grandfather of Ahaziah, whose ways and idols Ahaziah followed; for Omri began to reign alone in Samaria, which he had founded and raised to be the capital of the kingdom of Israel, in the sixth year of his reign, and reigned in it eight years; his son Ahab succeeded him and reigned 22 years with his son Ahaziah; Jehoram likewise succeeded as his son for 12 years; and in his twelfth and last year, this Ahaziah son of Jehoram began to reign in Judah, and in that same year was killed by Jehu along with Jehoram king of Israel. Now add the 8 years of Omri, 22 of Ahab, 12 of Jehoram, and you get the 42 we are looking for. For the Israelites seem to have established an era from the beginning of the kingdom of Samaria, and numbered years from it, just as historians count from the founding of Rome. Similarly Absalom is said to have rebelled against David after 40 years, that is, computed from the first anointing of David as king, 2 Samuel chapter 15, verse 7. But the objection stands that these 42 years are said to be Ahaziah's, not of the kingdom of Samaria. Hence the Hebrew clearly has: 'A son of 42 years was Ahaziah when he began to reign.' Furthermore, Ahaziah was king of Judah; why then would Scripture reckon his years from the kingdom of Samaria, a different and indeed hostile kingdom? Second, St. Jerome in the Traditions, the Gloss, Lyranus, Hugo, Dionysius, Gordonus, Mendoza, Vatablus and Francisco Suarez, Part III, tome 1, disputation 6, section 1, answer that Jehoram began to reign at age 32 with his father Jehoshaphat, and reigned with him for twenty years; then after his death reigned alone for eight years, and only these eight are counted because they pertain to the chronological reckoning; therefore he died not at age 40, as Josephus says, but at 60; so that Ahaziah his son who succeeded him was 42 years old; yet in 3 Kings (1 Kings) chapter 8, verse 26, he is said to have been 22 years old, because he had reigned 20 years with his father Jehoram; so when he began to reign with him he was 22; but when his father died after 20 years, when Ahaziah reigned alone, he was 42. But then Jehoshaphat would have had to beget Jehoram at age eight; for Jehoshaphat began to reign at age 35, reigned 25 years, and died at sixty; add five or, as others say, eight years during which Jehoram reigned after his death, that makes 68 years for Jehoshaphat, of which 42 must be attributed to Ahaziah and about eighteen to his father Jehoram when he begot him, which together make 50; so only eight years remain for Jehoshaphat, the age at which he would have begotten Jehoram, which is impossible. I pass over the fact that these authors say that three kings reigned simultaneously — grandfather Jehoshaphat, son Jehoram, and grandson Ahaziah — for 20 years, which is novel and unprecedented. Third, Sanchez and others, to avoid this argument, say that Jehoram reigned with his father Jehoshaphat for eight years, and after his death reigned for 20 years; but unhappily, having been struck by God with an incurable disease; and therefore his son Ahaziah administered the kingdom for his sick and wasting father, and therefore these twenty years are included here in the 42 years of Ahaziah. So Ahaziah, when he began to reign with his father Jehoram, was 22 years old; but when, after 20 years, his father died, and he reigned alone, he was 42. But the objection stands, first, that his father Jehoram suffered from this disease for only two years, as is said in 2 Chronicles chapter 21, verse 19. Second, that these twenty years should then have been called years of Ahaziah's reign, not of his life, so that the chronology of the years of reign during which each king reigned in Judah would be maintained in continuous sequence; otherwise these twenty years would be missing from the chronology of the kingdom of Judah; therefore no chronologer counts them, which is a sign that they did not exist. Third and most importantly, the years of Jehoram king of Judah and of his son Ahaziah are included within the years of Jehoram king of Israel, as is clear from 4 Kings (2 Kings) 8:16 and 25, and chapter 9, verses 27 and 29. Now Jehoram king of Israel began to reign in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, and reigned twelve years, as is said in 4 Kings (2 Kings) chapter 3, verse 1; therefore he reigned seven years after the death of Jehoshaphat, who had reigned 25 years. Therefore both Jehoram king of Israel and Jehoram king of Judah and his son Ahaziah died in the seventh year after the death of Jehoshaphat. Therefore none of them could have reigned twenty years after Jehoshaphat's death; so Ahaziah could not then have been forty-two years old. So Cajetan, Salianus, and others.
Fourth, therefore, Cajetan, Bellarmine in the manuscript concordance of the years of the kings of Israel and Judah which I have in my possession, Torniellus, Salianus, Mariana, Scaliger, and others hold that there is a scribal error here, and that 22 years should be substituted for 42. For it is clearly said in 4 Kings (2 Kings) chapter 8, verse 26: "Ahaziah was 22 years old when he began to reign," and so the Septuagint corrected at Rome reads here. Twenty, they say, years old was Ahaziah; and in the Notes it is added that other codices have: Twenty-two years old. And easily in the Hebrew, for esrim (twenty), arbaim (forty) could have crept in; more easily still an error crept into the numerical ciphers, so that instead of 22 there was placed 42, says Mariana; for the letters beth and mem are similar in character. And this seems to have been the origin of the error. I acknowledge that all Hebrew and Latin codices in this place have 42, not 22; but the arguments compel us to substitute 22 for 42. For no other solid solution can be offered here; nor do the interpreters, but Sacred Scripture itself corrects itself where corrupted by copyists — namely, the Book of Kings corrects the Book of Chronicles in the years aforesaid, corrupted by the fault of scribes. Many things have been corrected in the Vulgate edition by the Romans, and more could be corrected, as the correctors themselves acknowledge in their preface; and errors in numbers easily happen, and do not pertain to faith or morals. Similarly, many remove Cainan from the series of generations in the genealogy of Christ, although all the Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, etc. manuscripts consistently have it, in Luke chapter 3, verse 36. Finally, in this passage instead of 42 years, the Syriac has: Ahaziah was 22 years old. Both Arabic versions have the same, namely the Antiochene, or Mt. Sinai version, and the Alexandrian, or Coptic version, as the Most Illustrious Lord Sergius Risius, a Maronite, Archbishop of Damascus, assured me in Rome.
ATHALIAH THE DAUGHTER OF OMRI. — 'Daughter,' that is, granddaughter. For she was the daughter of Ahab, who was the son of Omri, as is clear from the preceding chapter, verse 6, and 4 Kings (2 Kings) chapter 8, verse 18.
Verse 10: She Destroyed All the Royal Offspring ¶
10. SHE DESTROYED ALL THE ROYAL OFFSPRING — namely all the sons of her son King Ahaziah, of whom he had many from many wives (as was then the custom of kings). She therefore killed all her grandchildren by her son Ahaziah, so that with those heirs of the kingdom removed, she alone as grandmother might reign freely and with impunity. See to what great acts of murder a woman's desire and lust for power drove her.
Verse 11: Jehoshabeath Rescued Joash ¶
11. BUT JEHOSHABEATH THE DAUGHTER OF KING JEHORAM (not of Athaliah, but of another wife) STOLE HIM (Joash) FROM AMONG THE KING'S SONS WHEN THEY WERE BEING KILLED — "whom, among the corpses of his slain brothers," says Josephus, "she secretly carried away by the nurse's help, Athaliah thinking him dead, and hid him in her own house, and with only her husband (Jehoiada the Pontiff) knowing, concealed him for six years in the temple in the bedroom," that is, in one of the chambers or rooms where there was a dining hall in which the Priests and Levites ate who served their turn in the temple that week. For many such chambers were around the temple, and therefore they themselves are called the temple, that is, appendages of the temple. The rest of this chapter I have explained in 4 Kings (2 Kings) chapter 9.