The kings of Israel and Judah

King Ahaziah of Judah

The kingdom of Judah (the south) · Reigned one year (2 Kings 8:26) · Evil before God · 2 Kings 8:25 to 29; 9:27 to 29; 2 Chronicles 22:1 to 9

Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram of Judah and grandson of Ahab through his mother Athaliah, reigned only one year. His mother was his counsellor to do wickedly, and he walked in the ways of Ahab's house. He joined his uncle Joram of Israel in battle, and when Jehu carried out God's judgment on Ahab's dynasty, Ahaziah was caught up in it and killed. His death opened the way for his mother Athaliah to seize the throne. He is not the same man as Ahaziah king of Israel a generation earlier.

And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the LORD, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son in law of the house of Ahab.2 Kings 8:27 (KJV)

A king shaped by Ahab's house

Ahaziah was twenty-two when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri and granddaughter of the wicked house of Ahab. He walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the LORD as did that house, for they were his counsellors after the death of his father, to his destruction. Chronicles says plainly that his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.

Here the two royal families, Judah and Israel, had become so intertwined by the marriage Jehoshaphat arranged that the idolatry of the north now sat on the throne of David itself.

Caught in the judgment on Ahab's dynasty

Ahaziah went with Joram king of Israel, his uncle, to war against Syria at Ramoth-gilead, and when Joram was wounded, Ahaziah went down to visit him at Jezreel. It was there that Jehu, anointed by God to destroy the whole house of Ahab, struck. Chronicles says the destruction of Ahaziah was of God, for by coming to Joram he came into the path of judgment.

Jehu killed Joram, and then pursued Ahaziah, who was wounded and fled but died of his wounds. He was given a burial for the sake of his grandfather Jehoshaphat, who had sought the LORD with all his heart, a small mercy for the sake of a godly ancestor.

The biblical verdict

The Bible's judgment is brief and clear: Ahaziah did evil, because he was of the house of Ahab by his mother and by his counsellors. His short reign left almost nothing but the tragedy of a young king led into ruin by the wicked family that surrounded him.

The accounts in Kings and Chronicles differ in some details of how and where he died, one saying he was found hiding in Samaria and brought to Jehu, the other that he was struck near Ibleam, and Scripture does not smooth the difference away. What both agree on is the verdict and the outcome: an evil king, dead within a year, and the throne of David left dangerously empty.

Where it points

Ahaziah is a study in the power of bad counsel and evil influence. He had the throne of David but the heart of Ahab, because the voices around him, above all his mother's, steered him to wickedness. Scripture treats the company we keep and the counsel we heed as matters of life and death.

His death nearly extinguished the line of David, for his mother Athaliah would now try to destroy the whole royal seed. That the promise survived at all was pure grace, and it drove the story on toward the one King whose counsel is always right and whose throne no usurper can seize.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Related: Jehoram of Judah · Athaliah · Joash of Judah · Jehu · All the kings of Israel and Judah