Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708)

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S E C O N D   C H R O N I C L E S

CHAP. XXII.

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We read, in the foregoing chapter, of the carrying away of Jehoram’s

sons and his wives; but here we find one of his sons and one of his

wives left, his son Ahaziah and his wife Athaliah, both reserved to be

the shame and plague of his family.

I. Ahaziah was the shame of it as a partaker,

1. In the sin, and,

2. In the destruction, of the house of Ahab,

ver. 1-9.

II. Athaliah was the plague of it, for she destroyed all the

seed-royal, and usurped the throne,

ver. 10-12.

Ahaziah Slain by Jehu.	B. C. 884.

     

1 And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest

son king in his stead: for the band of men that came with the

Arabians to the camp had slain all the eldest. So Ahaziah the son

of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.

  2 Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign,

and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also

was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.

  3 He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his

mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.

  4 Wherefore he 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.

  5 He walked also after their counsel, and went with Jehoram the

son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at

Ramoth-gilead: and the Syrians smote Joram.

  6 And he returned to be healed in Jezreel because of the wounds

which were given him at Ramah, when he fought with Hazael king of

Syria. And Azariah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to

see Jehoram the son of Ahab at Jezreel, because he was sick.

  7 And the destruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram:

for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the

son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off the house of

Ahab.

  8 And it came to pass, that, when Jehu was executing judgment

upon the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah, and the

sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, that ministered to Ahaziah, he

slew them.

  9 And he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him, (for he was hid

in Samaria,) and brought him to Jehu: and when they had slain

him, they buried him: Because, said they, he is the son of

Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart. So the house

of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.

     

We have here an account of the reign of Ahaziah, a short reign (of one

year only), yet long enough, unless it had been better. He was called

Jeho-ahaz

(ch. xxi. 17);

here he is called Ahaz-iah, which is the same name and of the

same signification, only the words of which it is compounded are

transposed. He is here said to be forty-two years old when he began to

reign

(v. 2),

which could not be, for his father, his immediate predecessor, was but

forty when he died, and it is said

(2 Kings viii. 26)

that he was twenty-two years old when he began to reign. Some

make this forty-two to be the age of his mother Athaliah, for in the

original it is, he was the son of forty-two years, that is, the

son of a mother that was of that age; and justly is her age put for

his, in reproach to him, because she managed him, and did what she

would–she, in effect, reigned, and he had little more than the title

of king. Many good expositors are ready to allow that this, with some

few more such difficulties, arise from the mistake of some transcriber,

who put forty-two for twenty-two, and the copies by which the error

should have been corrected might be lost. Many ancient translations

read it here twenty-two. Few books are now printed without some

errata, yet the authors do not therefore disown them, nor are

the errors of the press imputed to the author, but the candid reader

amends them by the sense, or by comparing them with some other part of

the work, as we may easily do this.

     

The history of Ahaziah’s reign is briefly summed up in two clauses,

v. 3, 4.

His mother and her relations were his counselors to do wickedly, and it

was to his destruction.

     

I. He did wickedly. Though by a special providence of God he was

preserved alive, when all his brethren were slain, and reserved for the

crown, notwithstanding he was the youngest of them–though the

inhabitants of Jerusalem, when they had buried his father

ingloriously, made him king, in hopes he would take warning by that not

to tread in his steps, but would do better for himself and his

kingdom–yet he was not influenced by the favours either of God or man,

but walked in the way of the house of Ahab, did evil in the sight of

the Lord like them

(v. 3, 4),

that is, he worshipped, Baalim and Ashtaroth, supposing (as the learned

bishop Patrick thinks) that by these demons, as mediators, they might

have easier access to the supreme Numen, the God of Israel, or

that these they might resort to at all times and for all

matters, as being nearer at hand, and not of so high a

dignity, but of a middle nature between the immortal God and

mortal men–deified heroes; so they worshipped them as the church of

Rome does saints and angels. That was sufficiently bad; but I wish

there was no reason to suspect worse. I am apprehensive that they

looked upon Jehovah, the God of their fathers, to be altogether such a

one as these Baalim, and them to be as great and as good as he, nay,

upon one account, more eligible inasmuch as these Baalim encouraged in

their worshippers all manner of lewdness and sensuality, which the God

of Israel strictly forbade.

     

II. He was counselled by his mother and her relations to do so. She

was his counsellor

(v. 3)

and so were they, after the death of his father,
v. 4.

While his father lived he took care to keep him to idolatry;

but, when he was dead, the house of Ahab feared lest his father’s

miserable end should deter him from it, and therefore they were very

industrious to keep him closely to it, and to make him seven

times more a child of hell than themselves. The counsel of

the ungodly is the ruin of many young persons when they are setting out

in the world. This young prince might have had better advice if he had

pleased from the princes and the judges, the priests and the Levites,

that had been famous in his good grandfather’s time for teaching in the

knowledge of God; but the house of Ahab humoured him, and he walked

after their counsel, gave himself up to be led by them, and did

just as they would have him. Thus do those debase and destroy

themselves that forsake the divine guidance.

     

III. He was counselled by them to his destruction. So it proved. Those

that counsel us to do wickedly counsel us to our destruction; while

they fawn, and flatter, and pretend friendship, they are really our

worst enemies. Those that debauch young men destroy them. It was bad

enough that they exposed him to the sword of the Syrians, drawing him

in to join with Joram king of Israel in an expedition to Ramoth-Gilead,

where Joram was wounded, an expedition that was not for his honour.

Those that give us bad counsel in the affairs of religion, if regarded

by us, may justly be made of God our counsellors to do foolishly in our

own affairs. But that was not all: by engaging him in an intimacy with

Joram king of Israel, they involved him in the common ruin of the house

of Ahab. He came on a visit to Joram

(v. 6)

just at the time that Jehu was executing the judgment of God upon that

idolatrous family, and so was cut off with them,

v. 7-9.

Here,

1. See and dread the mischief of bad company–of joining in with

sinners. If not the infection, yet let the destruction be feared.

Come out from Babylon, that falling house,

Rev. xviii. 4.

2. See and acknowledge the justice of God. His providence brought

Ahaziah, just at this fatal juncture, to see Joram, that he might fall

with him and be taken as in a snare. This we had an account of before,

2 Kings ix. 27, 28.

It is here added that he was decently buried (not as Jehoram, whose

dead body was cast into Naboth’s vineyard,

2 Kings ix. 26),

and the reason given is because he was the son (that is, the grandson)

of good Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with his heart. Thus is

he remembered with honour long after his death, and some respect

shown even to his degenerate unworthy seed for his sake. The memory

of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot.

Athaliah Usurps the Throne.	B. C. 884.

     

10 But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was

dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of

Judah.

  11 But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the

son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons that

were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So

Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada

the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from

Athaliah, so that she slew him not.

  12 And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and

Athaliah reigned over the land.

     

We have here what we had before,

2 Kings xi. 1,

&c.

1. A wicked woman endeavouring to destroy the house of David, that she

might set up a throne for herself upon the ruins of it. Athaliah

barbarously cut off all the seed-royal

(v. 10),

perhaps intending to transmit the crown of Judah after herself to some

of her own relations, that though her family was cut off in Israel by

Jehu it might be planted in Judah.

2. A good woman effectually preserving it from being wholly extirpated.

One of the late king’s sons, a child of a year old, was rescued from

among the dead, and saved alive by the care of Jehoiada’s wife

(v. 11, 12),

that a lamp might be ordained for God’s anointed; for no word of

God shall fall to the ground.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708)

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