An Initial Summary Of The Reign Of Ahaziah King of Judah (2 Kings 8:25-27). c. 841 BC.
Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram of Judah, would only reign for a few months before he was killed by Jehu during the latter's rebellion against Jehoram of Israel. Nevertheless during that short reign he continued in his father's sins and in the sins of the house of Ahab, and failed to make any attempt to bolster up the true worship of YHWH. Thus he also was stigmatised as ‘doing what was evil in the sight of YHWH'. And this owed much to the fact that his father had married Ahab's daughter who had brought her zeal for Baal with her. Just as Solomon's foreign wives had led him astray, the Israelite royal family were now leading the kings of Judah astray.
Analysis.
a In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign (2 Kings 8:25).
b Ahaziah was two and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel (2 Kings 8:26).
a And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, as did the house of Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab (2 Kings 8:27).
Note that in ‘a' Ahaziah began to reign, and in the parallel in his reign did what was evil in the eyes of YHWH. Centrally in ‘b' we have the main details about his reign.
‘In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.'
As usual the author gives us the date of Ahaziah's reign in terms of the parallel king of Israel. In those days there was no general method of dating, and thus things had to be dated in terms of some well known event, such as, in this case, the reign of another king. It also in this case had the benefit that it synchronised the reigns of the kings of the two countries.
‘Ahaziah was two and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel.'
Ahaziah came to the throne at the age of twenty two, but his reign only lasted for a few months. This was partly because he unfortunately got caught up in Jehu's rebellion against the king of Israel by ‘accident', and partly because Jehu saw him as a Baalite, and therefore as fair game. But the prophetic author saw it as a just judgment on his sin.
As is usual for a king of Judah the queen mother's name is given, but in this case it had added significance because she was of the house of Omri and Ahab, the Baalite kings of Israel. ‘Daughter of' need only mean ‘descended from', for she was in fact Ahab's daughter (2 Kings 8:18). It may be that Omri is mentioned here because of his recognised status as founder of the dynasty. Even Assyria thought of Israel as ‘bit-Omri', the house of Omri for centuries to come. Athaliah would shortly become even more notorious when she seized the throne on the death of her son and tried to destroy all Azariah's heirs (2 Kings 11:1). She was no doubt filled with anguish at the death of her son and seemingly could not bear the thought of being thrust into the background by the new queen mother. It was also possibly partly because of her zeal for Baal, and her desire to make Judah a country which worshipped Baal. By being ‘unequally yoked with unbelievers' the kings of Judah brought on Judah unimaginable consequences.
‘And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, as did the house of Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab.'
As a result of the influence of his mother Ahaziah was also a worshipper of Baal, walking in the ways of the house of Ahab, and thus the verdict on his reign was that, like his father, he did what was evil in the eyes of YHWH, with his influence certainly affecting the court, and permeating through to those over whom he ruled. When the king was slack with regard to God's covenant, it filtered through to the people. It was not a situation which YHWH would allow to continue.