2 Chronicles 22:8

2Ch 22:8 And it came to pass, that, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, that ministered to Ahaziah, he slew them.

Ver. 8. When Jehu was executing.] 2Ki 9:22, &c.

And the sons of the brethren.] 2Ki 10:13-14.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The sons of the brethren of Ahaziah; either properly so called; or the sons of his cousins or near kinsmen, who are oft called

brethren; for his brethren were slain, 2Ch 22:8.

That ministered to Ahaziah; that came thither to wait upon their king Ahaziah, as is here implied, and withal to visit Joram and his children, as is noted, 2Ki 10:13.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2Ch_22:8

For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.

A mothers influence

Every first thing continues for ever with the child; the first colour, the first music, the first flower paint the foreground of life. Every new educator effects less than his predecessor, until at last, if we regard all life as an educational institute, a circumnavigator of the world is less influenced by all the nations he has seen than by his nurse. (W. Richter.)

A mothers influence

Mothers, ye are the sculptors of the souls of the coming men; queens of the cradle, humble or high, ye are the queens of the future. In your hands lie the destinies of men. I am not speaking poetry, but plain fact, which history proves. Neros mother was a murderess; Nero was a murderer, on a gigantic scale. Byrons mother was proud, ill-tempered, and violent; Byron was proud, ill-tempered, and violent. Washingtons mother was noble and pure; Washington was noble and pure. Scotts mother loved poetry and painting; you know what Walter Scott was. Carlyles mother was stern, and full of reverence; Carlyle very much so. Wesleys mother was a God-like woman; Wesley was a God-like man. The prison chaplain will tell you that the last thing forgotten, in all the recklessness of dissolute profligacy, is the prayer or hymn taught by a mothers lips, or uttered at a fathers knee. Yes, when all other roads are closed, there is one road open to the heart of the desperate man--the memory of his mother. (Great Thoughts.)

An unnatural mother

For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly. There must be a mistranslation! All nature is offended by this tremendous affront. Can we not.find some other word for mother? Any other word will do better, even father would not be so objectionable. The one word that cannot be tolerated here is the word that is found, namely, mother! We might close the Bible here, and say the book that contains this statement was never inspired. But we cannot do so. Then the word counsellor is so full of plan, premeditation, arrangement; the mother was a schoolmistress, with one pupil, and she suggested, invented, culminated ends, whispered, threw out hints, advised bad policies; told him when he was halting because the course was evil to go on! Napoleon said, They that rock the cradle rule the world. To have a cradle rocked by such a mother as Athaliah surely were enough to be foredoomed to endless misery! How sweetly the text would have read had it proceeded on the lines of nature!--for his mother was his counsellor to do bravely. Surely the word wickedly is a misprint, traceable to some careless copyist!--his mother was his counsellor to do wisely, patiently, hopefully,--these would have been womanly words, words most motherly, the very words with which we build home and Church and heaven. But the word is wickedly, and we must regard it in its literal significance. What are mothers doing now? They could be Gods foremost ministers. No man can pray like a woman; no man has the art of eloquence as a woman has it; no one can come into life so silently, quietly, blessingly as woman, mother, sister. If women would preach surely the world would listen. They ought to preach; they know the secret of love, they have the answer to the Cross, they can solve in some degree the enigma of sacrifice. This is the very reason of the horribleness of the text. If woman had been otherwise, then the word wickedly would not have read with such a sense of irony and moral collision as it does in this instance. It is because woman can be so heavenly that she can be so low, and wicked, and bad; it is because she can be so like a saviour that she can be such an engine and agent of ruin. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, took vengeance.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(8) When Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab.—The Hebrew phrase strictly means to plead with, or argue a cause with. (Comp. 1Sa_12:7.) When God is said to plead with men, the notion of judicial punishment is often involved, as in Joe_3:2; Isa_66:16; and such is the meaning here. Jehu was an instrument of Divine vengeance, even when fulfilling the projects of his own ambition, as were the savage Assyrian conquerors (Isa_10:5-7).

And found.—Rather, he found.

The sons of the brethren of Ahaziah.—Comp. 2Ki_10:12-14, where the details are given. The persons whom Jehu slew are there called Ahaziah’s “brethren”—i.e., kinsmen (a common use; so LXX. here), and are said to have been forty-two in number. The Hebrew term is wide enough to include cousins and grandsons as well as nephews of the king. The “princes of Judah” who accompanied them would naturally be members of the court in charge of them, and are perhaps to be included in the total of forty-two persons. Thenius, indeed, in his note on 2Ki_10:13, alleges that we must understand the real brothers of Ahaziah, whom the chronicler gets rid of (!) on an earlier occasion (i.e., 2Ch_21:17; 2Ch_22:1), because he required a Divine judgment in the lifetime of Jehoram. buch arbitrary criticism hardly deserves refutation; we may, however, remark that Thenius relies on the untenable assumption that Jehoram could not have begotten any children before Ahaziah, whom he begot in his eighteenth or nineteenth year.

That ministered to Ahaziah.—In attendance on Ahaziah—i.e., attached to the retinue of Ahaziah as pages, &c.

He slew them.—And slew them.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. And it came to pass, that when … and found … that ministered to Ahaziah, he slew them] R.V. And it came to pass, when … that he found … ministering to Ahaziah, and slew them.

the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah] In 2Ki_10:13, “the brethren (i.e. kinsmen) of Ahaziah.” The brethren (in the strict sense of the word) of Ahaziah had already been killed (2Ch_22:1).

that ministered] R.V. ministering. According to 2 Kin. they were going to “salute the children of the king and the children of the queen” (probably a courtly expression for “salute the king and the queen”).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he sought Ahaziah,.... Who fled on Joram's being wounded by Jehu:

and they caught him; the soldiers of Jehu, who were sent after him, and bid to smite him:

for he was hid in Samaria; either in some part of the kingdom of Samaria, or in the city itself, whither he fled:

and brought him to Jehu: who was at Jezreel; see Gill on Kg2 9:27,

and when they had slain him they buried him; not at Jezreel, but delivered him to his servants to carry him to Jerusalem, and there bury him in the sepulchres of his fathers, Kg2 9:28,

because, said they, he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart; a grandson of his, and therefore out of respect to the memory of his name, these being religious men, ordered his burial there:

so the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom; his brethren and their sons being slain, and his own children being young fell into the hands of Athaliah, who murdered them all, but one, hid by his aunt, and so got the government into her own hands, as may be observed in the following verses, Ch2 22:10.

Next: 2 Chronicles Chapter 23

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Out. Heb. "exercising judgment with." --- Brethren, who had been themselves slain by the rovers. Ochozias employed his nephews at court, and they expected that he would make some stay at Jezrahel.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Executing judgment upon the house of Ahab. The description of all this is sufficiently graphically scattered along the verses of 2Ki 9:24-11:20. And found the princes of Judah (see especially. (2Ki_10:7, 11 11:13-20) And the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah. This both explains and is explained by 2Ki_10:12-14. That ministered to Ahaziah. Even this enigmatical little clause receives its probable explanation from the last clause of ver. 13 in last quotation foregoing.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

and the sons of Ahaziah’s brothers He does not mention Ahaziah’s brothers because they were slain in the days of Joram their father, as it is written (above 21:17): “And they marched upon Judah and split it, etc., and no son was left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.