Azariah; two sons called by the same name, though doubtless distinguished by some additional title, which is not mentioned here, because it did not concern succeeding ages to know it. Though indeed there is a difference in their Hebrew names, the one being Azariah, the other Azariahu, hu being the last syllabic in his name, as in Elihu and others. Jehoshaphat king of Israel; so he is called, either,
1. Because he was so by right. Or,
2. Because he was king not only of Judah and Benjamin, but of a great number of Israelites, who had come into and settled themselves in his kingdom, in his and in his predecessor's days; who being a considerable, and the purest and best, part of Israel, may well be called Israel, being more truly and properly God's Israel than their apostate brethren, who were no longer worthy of that name. Or,
3. Because all his subjects were Israelites; and therefore he was king of Israel, though not of all Israel. Or,
4. With some reflection upon his memory for making so strict an alliance and friendship with the king of Israel, whose cause he defended with his own and his kingdom's great hazard, as if he had been the king not so much of Judah as of Israel. And this may be the rather noted here, because here speedily follows a sad effect of that wicked and cursed match. Some say Israel was foisted into some copies by the transcriber instead of Judah, as it was first written.