How long did ahaziah reign

If you already have an account, Sign in. How could Ahaziah be both 22 years old and 42 years old when he started to reign? Was Ahaziah 22 or 42 years old when he became king of Judah? Joram was 40 when he died, showing that Ahaziah could not have been 42, but was instead 22 when he began his reign.

So what does the 42 in 2 Chronicles indicate? There are two primary answers that Christian scholars have given. Either answer reveals there is no contradiction:. Leading Hebraist Dr. John Gill listed several responses to this alleged contradiction in the s:. Obviously Dr. Gill was appealing for another view: that it was simply a copyist mistake. More recently, chronologist Dr.

Jones makes the case that 42 should remain in 2 Chronicles Hence, he reinterprets the verse instead of appealing to a copyist mistake.

He points out that the words was and old in 2 Chronicles are not in the original Hebrew but were added to the English translation to make it smoother. Jones states:. Although this seems to answer this alleged contradiction, many are not entirely convinced. If 42 is to be interpreted as the beginning of the dynasty of Omri in 2 Chronicles, then why is 22 in 2 Kings 8 not also referring to the beginning of the dynasty of Omri?

By this reasoning, this would mean the alleged contradiction could still exist. Another reason others are not entirely convinced is that other ancient texts have 22 in this verse, not Many fail to realize that several ancient texts have 22 or simply 20 instead of 42 as listed in the Masoretic Text MT in 2 Chronicles He had other siblings, but all of his brothers were killed by raiders while they were away from the palace.

As soon as he was in power he immediately began to lead the people in the wrong direction. God only allowed King Ahaziah to rule Judah for one year before he took his life. Jehu was a military commander used by God to carry out his judgment against King Ahab for his previous sins.

He also killed the advisors, friends, distant relatives and associates of Ahab. During the short year that King Ahaziah was in power, the young ruler had aided the Israeli King Joram against the land of Aram. King Joram lost this fight and was wounded. After the wounded monarch returned home, King Ahaziah went to visit him. Once when he did God led him into a surprise attack by Jehu.

King Ahaziah ended up escaping but was later found dead in another land. He was given a proper burial by Jehu because out of respect for his godly grandfather, King Jehoshaphat.

This was the only thing good that the people of Israel said about Ahaziah after his death. So she probably was Ahab sister. Many have noted how similar kaf and bet are in appearance and suggest a scribe could have easily misread an original mem twenty and copied it as a kaf forty.

This may be the explanation, but it faces a difficulty. The Hebrew manuscripts at these two verses do not use gematria to represent the age, but give the age using words. It would seem to require a conscious effort for a scribe to change twenty into forty assuming the two values originally matched. This has led some chronologists to another explanation wherein both statements can be true.

How could this be? Instead, it uses a Hebrew idiom, a son of forty-two years. The question then becomes a son of whom? Here is a king sitting on the throne of Judah in the Southern Kingdom who is a descendent of a godless line from the Northern Kingdom. We may not be all that familiar with Omri, but we will readily recognize his son: the wicked king Ahab who was married to Jezebel.

For the non Biblicist, the solution is quite simple. The 42 is merely another scribal error where 42 was mistakenly written for A crucial problem with this rationale is that the Hebrew Text does not give numbers. Chronicles recorded an incident and referenced it to the beginning of Asa's dynasty rather than to his actual years of reign. Note that the verse in question calls attention to Omri and it may readily be seen that it is exactly the 42 nd year Judaic reckoning of the dynasty of Israel which he founded in B.

But the Holy Ghost will not have him for a son of David's line at all. He is the son of Athaliah, the daughter of Omri and Jezebel. He is no seed of David. This interpretation is confirmed by St. Jehoshaphat, in the manner of royalty of all ages, arranged a match for his son Jehoram based to some degree on political considerations.

His son married Athaliah, daughter of the wicked Ahab, king of the northern Kingdom of Israel also known as Samaria. This might be implied by II Chron. Both of these marriages had catastrophic effects on the House of David.

The union between the royal families of David and Omri signified that the wickedness of the latter family had entered the former — and the doom which was ultimately decreed upon it would eventually bear down upon the Davidic line as well. In this vein, Seder Olam Rabbah , an important work on Biblical and post-Biblical chronology written in the 2nd century Ch. This occurred during the reign of King Ahaziah. As II Chron. Based on this, Seder Olam explains the discrepancy regarding the age of Ahaziah at the time he became king.

He was actually only 22, as the Book of Kings. When his reign began, the decree against the House of David was destined to take effect — and indeed, he was murdered one year later. Radak was a great Biblical commentator, philosopher and grammarian of 12thth century Provence. Explaining it requires further background into the Biblical story of the time. As a result of this, a scathing letter was sent to Jehoram in the name of Elijah the Prophet warning him that God has decreed to smite the entire nation — and his family in particular.

He himself would suffer terrible illness in his innards until they fell out vv. Elijah had actually ascended to heaven long before this. Some of the commentators suggest that he appeared in a vision to dictate the letter to a later prophet.

As Chronicles continues, all of this came to pass shortly after. The Philistines and Arabs attacked, carrying off his wealth and most of his family — save his son Ahaziah who would succeed him.