Context & Key Themes
2 Chronicles 22 covers the brief, disastrous reign of Ahaziah and the seizure of power by Athaliah. Ahaziah is the son of Jehoram and Athaliah, which means he is the grandson of Ahab and Jezebel, and the daughter of Omri is his mother. The Chronicler is explicit: the house of Ahab was his counselors after his father’s death and they became his destruction. He goes with Jehoram king of Israel to war against Hazael of Syria and visits the wounded Jehoram at Jezreel, where Jehu finds him and kills him. When Athaliah sees her son is dead, she destroys all the royal offspring of the house of Judah. But Jehosheba, Ahaziah’s sister, hides the infant Joash in the house of God for six years while Athaliah reigns. The Davidic line comes within one infant of extinction.
Key Verse
“But Jehosheba, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were about to be put to death, and she put him and his nurse in a bedroom.”
— 2 Chronicles 22:11
Summary
The inhabitants of Jerusalem make Ahaziah, Jehoram’s youngest son, king in his place, for the band that came with the Arabians had killed all the older sons. Ahaziah is forty-two years old and reigns one year. His mother is Athaliah, granddaughter of Omri. He also walks in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother is his counselor in doing wickedly. He does what is evil in the sight of the Lord as the house of Ahab did, for they are his counselors after his father’s death, to his destruction. He goes with Jehoram son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead. Jehoram is wounded and returns to Jezreel to recover. Ahaziah goes down to visit Jehoram in Jezreel. But it is ordained by God that the downfall of Ahaziah should come about through his going to visit Joram, for when he comes he goes out with Jehoram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. When Jehu is executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he meets the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s brothers who ministered to Ahaziah, and kills them. He searches for Ahaziah, who is captured while hiding in Samaria, and is brought to Jehu and put to death. They bury him, for they say he is the grandson of Jehoshaphat who sought the Lord with all his heart. So the house of Ahaziah had no one able to rule the kingdom. When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah sees that her son is dead, she rises and destroys all the royal offspring of the house of Judah. But Jehosheba, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were about to be put to death and puts him and his nurse in a bedroom. So Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and wife of Jehoiada the priest, hides him from Athaliah so that she does not put him to death. He remains with them six years, hidden in the house of God, while Athaliah reigns over the land.
Reflection
The Chronicler’s observation that Ahaziah’s downfall was ordained by God through his visit to Joram is one of his characteristic theological annotations — the moment when he lifts the curtain on the divine purposiveness behind the human events. Ahaziah did not go to Jezreel knowing he would encounter Jehu there. He went to visit his wounded uncle. But the visit placed him in the path of the judgment God had set in motion against the house of Ahab, and the man who was grandson of Ahab through his mother went down with Ahab’s house. The counsel of his mother was his destruction, as the Chronicler said at the chapter’s opening.
Jehosheba’s act of hiding the infant Joash is the same act of moral courage the Chronicler described in 2 Kings 11 with somewhat more detail. What matters here is the same: one woman, one infant, one bedroom, and six years of concealment — the entire future of the Davidic covenant resting on whether a baby remains hidden in the house of God while a woman who is the granddaughter of Jezebel sits on David’s throne. The tension is real. The margin is one child. And the child survives because one person acted with courage in the right moment.