(51) Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel. (52) And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin: (53) For he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the LORD God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.
This is but the beginning of the short reign of Ahaziah. But short as it was, it was too long in evil. Alas! what a melancholy account, for the most part, is the statement given of the reigns of such men. The relation generally runs in the same words; He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father. O Lord what is the sum total of man's history, but of man's sinfulness, and thy grace. Doth not every act of thine speak in language like thine, O Lord, by the Prophet; I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger: I will not return to destroy Israel: for I am God, and not man: the Holy One in the midst of thee. Hosea 11:9.