Ahaziah of Judah

Who is Ahaziah of Judah?

Ahaziah of Judah was king of Judah, and the son of Jehoram and Athaliah, the daughter of king Ahab of Israel. He is also called Jehoahaz.

According to 2 Chronicles 22:2, Ahaziah was 42 years old when his reign began, while 2 Kings 8:26 gives his age as 22 years. Most scholars regard the 42 years in 2 Chronicles 22:2 as a copyist's error for an original 22 years. The age of 22 is also found in some Greek and Syrian manuscripts of 2 Chronicles 22:2. According to the biblical sources, he reigned for only one year. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 842 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the date 841/840 BC. As explained in the Rehoboam article, Thiele's chronology for the first kings of Judah contained an internal inconsistency that placed Ahaziah's reign one year after his mother Athaliah usurped the throne. Later scholars corrected this by dating these kings one year earlier, so that Ahaziah's dates are taken as one year earlier than Thiele's in the present article. Under the influence of his mother Athaliah, he introduced forms of worship that offended the Yahwistic party.