He himself would suffer terrible illness in his innards until they fell out (vv. 11).Īs a result of this, a scathing letter was sent to Jehoram in the name of Elijah the Prophet warning him that God has decreed to smite the entire nation – and his family in particular. 21:4), and he subsequently led the nation to idolatry (v. 21:6) Jehoram began his reign by killing off his siblings, as well as many of the noblemen (II Chron. The Torah attests that because Ahaziah’s father Jehoram married the daughter of Ahab, he fell to wicked ways, veering from the path of his righteous father Jehoshaphat (II Kings 8:18, II Chron. Explaining it requires further background into the Biblical story of the time. Radak was a great Biblical commentator, philosopher and grammarian of 12th-13th century Provence. There is a second answer to this question suggested by the commentator R’ Dovid Kimchi (known as “Radak”) to II Kings 8:26. (See also Rashi to II Kings 9:29 and Radak to II Kings 8:26 for the details of the calculated 42 years.) Thus, the meaning of “Ahaziah was 42 when he became king” is actually that his coronation occurred exactly 42 years after the decree on his family was first promulgated. When his reign began, the decree against the House of David was destined to take effect – and indeed, he was murdered one year later. The 42 refers to the number of years which had transpired between Jehoshaphat’s marriage to the daughter of Omri and the start of his grandson Ahaziah’s reign. He was actually only 22, as the Book of Kings. 22 describes, Jehu had Ahaziah (who was visiting Jehoram at the time) killed as well, and Ahaziah’s mother Athaliah (daughter of Ahab) then murdered all of the heirs to the throne – save one son Joash whom his sister Jehosheba saved and hid – and took over the reign of Judah herself.īased on this, Seder Olam explains the discrepancy regarding the age of Ahaziah at the time he became king. The King of Samaria at the time was Jehoram son of Ahab, God sent a prophet to anoint Jehoram’s general Jehu to wipe out Ahab’s family and assume the kingship himself (see II Kings ch. This occurred during the reign of King Ahaziah. 17), writes that on the day on which the righteous King Asa, father of Jehoshaphat, married his son to the daughter of King Omri, God decreed that the destruction which was to befall Omri’s family would extend to the Judean dynasty as well. In this vein, Seder Olam Rabbah, an important work on Biblical and post-Biblical chronology written in the 2nd century (Ch. The union between the royal families of David and Omri signified that the wickedness of the latter family had entered the former – and the doom which was ultimately decreed upon it would eventually bear down upon the Davidic line as well. 22:1)īoth of these marriages had catastrophic effects on the House of David. 18:1 which states that Jehoshaphat “allied himself in marriage” (va’yitchatain) with Ahab – see Rashi to II Chron.
21:6, 22:2.) The Sages further have a tradition that Jehoshaphat himself married Ahab’s sister, the daughter of the wicked King Omri. His son married Athaliah, daughter of the wicked Ahab, king of the northern Kingdom of Israel (also known as Samaria). Jehoshaphat, in the manner of royalty of all ages, arranged a match for his son Jehoram based to some degree on political considerations. Ahaziah’s grandfather was the righteous King Jehoshaphat while his father was the wicked Jehoram. To understand them, I need to quickly give the background to Ahaziah’s coronation. There are two primary answers to this question. (In general, the Sages view Chronicles as more allegorical, while the earlier books are taken more literally.) In fact, there are many discrepancies between the earlier books of the Prophets and Chronicles, ranging from very subtle distinctions in language to major disagreements in the Bible’s basic storyline. It’s nice to see that you’re studying the Torah so carefully. The latter seems to definitely be wrong since his father Jehoram was only 40 when he died (II Kings 8:17 & II Chronicles 21:20). How old was Ahaziah when he became king? II Kings (8:26) states he was 22, while II Chronicles 22:2 writes 42.
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