King Ahaziah
22
📚And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made his youngest son Ahaziah king in his place, for the band of men who came with the Arabians to the camp had killed all the older ones. So Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, reigned.2 📚Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah. She was the daughter of Omri 📖.
3 📚He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his advisor to behave wickedly 📖. 4 📚Therefore he did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab, for after the death of his father they became his counsellors to his destruction. 5 📚And he walked according to their counsel, and went with Jehoram 📖, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-Gilead. And the Syrians struck Joram, 6 📚and he returned to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds which were given him at Ramah 📖, when he fought with Hazael, king of Syria. And Azariah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab at Jezreel, because he was sick.
7 📚And by coming to Joram, the destruction of Ahaziah was from God. For when he had come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu, the son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. 8 📚And it came about when Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, and found the leaders of Judah, and the sons of the brothers of Ahaziah, who ministered to Ahaziah, that he killed them. 9 📚And he looked for Ahaziah, and they caught him (for he was hidden in Samaria), and brought him to Jehu. And when they had killed him, they 📖 buried him, saying “Because he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart”. So there was no one of the house of Ahaziah who had power to retain the kingdom.
22:7-9 The record of how Jehu destroyed the house of Ahab is in 2 Kings chapters 9 and 10, Ahaziah’s death is in 2 Kings 9:21-28.⚜
Wicked queen Athaliah
10 📚But when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal offspring of the house of Judah.
The rescue of Joash
11 📚But Jehoshabeath 📖, the daughter of the king, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were killed, and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah, so that she did not kill him. 12 📚And he was with them, hidden in the house of God, for six years, and Athaliah reigned over the land.