2 Chronicles 22:9

2Ch 22:9 And he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him, (for he was hid in Samaria,) and brought him to Jehu: and when they had slain him, they buried him: Because, said they, he [is] the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart. So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.

Ver. 9. And he sought Ahaziah.] 2Ki 9:27.

Because, said they, he is the son of Jehoshaphat:] Holiness hath its honour in the worst hearts. Here also Ahaziah receiveth courtesy from Jehoshaphat’s dust.

So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.] Either by reason of their tender age, or for want of partakers, or by reason of Athaliah’s might.

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.

2Ch 22:9. They sought Ahaziah — Who, though wounded, had made his escape. They caught him, for he was hid in Samaria — He fled first to Megiddo, but not thinking himself safe there, he fled to Samaria, where he was taken, and sent thence, by Jehu’s order, to Megiddo, where he received the sentence of death. See note on 2Ki 9:27.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This was the just plague of God, because he joined himself with God’s enemies: yet God to declare the worthiness of Jehoshaphat his grandfather, moved them to give him the honor of burial.

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

he sought Ahaziah, and they caught him (for he was hid in Samaria)--(compare Kg2 9:27-29). The two accounts are easily reconciled. "Ahaziah fled first to the garden house and escaped to Samaria; but was here, where he had hid himself, taken by Jehu's men who pursued him, brought to Jehu, who was still near or in Jezreel, and at his command slain at the hill Gur, beside Ibleam, in his chariot; that is, mortally wounded with an arrow, so that he, again fleeing, expired at Megiddo" [KEIL]. Jehu left the corpse at the disposal of the king of Judah's attendants, who conveyed it to Jerusalem, and out of respect to his grandfather Jehoshaphat's memory, gave him an honorable interment in the tombs of the kings.

So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom--His children were too young to assume the reins of government, and all the other royal princes had been massacred by Jehu (Ch2 22:8).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. He sought Ahaziah] See a different account 2Kg 9:27, and the note there, where the accounts are reconciled.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(9) And he sought Ahaziah.—In 2Ki_9:27-28 we find a different tradition concerning the death of Ahaziah. That passage, literally rendered, runs as follows: “And Ahaziah king of Judah had seen it (i.e., the death of Jehoram, 2Ki_9:24), and he fled by the way of the garden palace, and Jehu pursued after him, and said, Him, too, smite (shoot) ye him in the chariot!—on the ascent of Gûr, beside Ibleam; and he fled to Megiddo, and died there.” (Perhaps and they smote him has fallen out before the words on the ascent of Gûr.) “And his servants brought him in the chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own grave, with his fathers, in the city of David.” Such divergences are valuable, because they help to establish the independence of the two accounts.

For he was hid.—Now he was hiding.

And when they had slain him.—And they put him to death, and buried him; for they said, &c.

He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord.—A didactic remark in the usual manner of the chronicler.

So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.—Literally, And the house of Ahaziah had none to retain strength for kingship (= capable of assuming the sovereignty). Another sentence marked throughout by the chronicler’s own style. (Comp. 2Ch_13:20, “retained strength.”) It forms the transition to the account of Athaliah’s usurpation of the throne.

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

9. for he was hid in Samaria] R.V. now he was hiding in Samaria. Thus according to Chron. Ahaziah fled southward from Jezreel; while according to 2 Kin. his flight was westward to Megiddo (perhaps to be identified with Khan el-Lejjun, Bädeker, p. 227). The statement in Kings is more probably correct.

and brought him to Jehu: and when they had slain him, they buried him: Because, said they] R.V. and they brought him to Jehu, and slew him; and they buried him, for they said. Again the account given in Kings is to be preferred, viz. that Ahaziah fled wounded to Megiddo (which had not yet transferred its allegiance to Jehu) and died there (of his wounds). His body may have been brought to Jehu.

had no power to keep still] R.V. had no power to hold.

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.

Compare the marginal reference. Ahaziah after remaining a while at Megiddo, removed to Samaria, where his wounds could be better cared for and concealment might be easier; Jehu’s emissaries discovered him there; they took him to Jehu, who happened at the time to be at Megiddo; and then and there Jehu put him to death. The narrative here is therefore supplementary to that of 2 Kings, and finds its proper place between the clause,” He fled to Megiddo,” and the words “and died there.”

And when they had slain him, they buried him - Jehu’s emissaries killed him but allowed his servants to bury him (see 2Ki 9:28).

No power ... - As Ahaziah was but twenty-three at his death (2Ch 22:2 note), he had no grown-up son to take the crown.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Hid in the kingdom of Samaria, (Malvenda) at Mageddo, where he was wounded; though he was perhaps put to death at Jezrahel, 4 K. ix. 27. --- Buried him, at Jerusalem. --- Reign. Heb. "the house of Ochozias had no one to bear the weight of the kingdom." The children of the deceased were too young, particularly as most of the princes were slain. C. --- Human hope failed, but God’s providence kept David’s issue on the throne, till Christ appeared. W.

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).

He sought Ahaziah; who, though wounded, had made an escape, 2Ki 9:27.

He was hid in Samaria; either,

1. In the kingdom of Samaria, to wit, in Megiddo; or,

2. In the city of Samaria: and so he fled first to Megiddo; and not thinking himself safe there, he fled to Samaria; where he was taken, and sent thence by Jehu’s order to Megiddo, where he received the sentence of death. See more of this matter upon 2Ki 9:27.

They buried him; they gave his servants leave to carry him away to Jerusalem, and bury him there, 2Ki 9:28. Both God and men are ofttimes said to do what they and others do by their permission, when they could hinder them.

The house of Ahaziah, i.e. his posterity, because they were young and feeble, being ground between two millstones, the great and growing power of Jehu, and the craft and tyranny of Athaliah.

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

And he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him brought him buried him. This verse, which at the first sight seems at variance 2Ki_9:27, 2Ki_9:28, is perhaps a simply surprising instance of undesigned corroboration of history by the treatment of different historians. The verse, e.g. , corrects the italics of 2Ki_9:27; expunging them throws their proper force into the words, "at the going up to Gur," showing that Jehu reckoned on that steep kill to enable his pursuing warriors to overtake Ahaziah; makes a sufficiently possible harmony, to say the least, in respect of the remaining incidents narrated of his life that he made for the time a successful flight to Megiddo, afterwards sought to hide in deeper retirement in Samaria, was thence brought to Jehu at Megiddo, there eventually slain before his eyes, and by his own servants, who must be supposed to have had some attachment to him, but probably with the sanction of Jehu himself, conveyed "in a chariot to Jerusalem" for sepulture "in the sepulchre of his fathers in the city of David". (2Ki_9:28) The fact that he received decent burial being due to the God-fearing character of his grandfather, and that this should find its record on the page of the book that will last while the world lasts, that very page already two thousand five hundred years old, is a most touching consideration. Megiddo was on the Esdraelon or Jezreel plain, that stretched between the hills of Galilee and those of Mount Ephraim or Samaria. Had no power to keep still the kingdom. The undoubted meaning of this clause is that there was no one of the house of Ahaziah who could succeed him. The Hebrew text does not say, "no one left," etc. But the allusion can scarcely be to anything but the fact that transpires in our ver. 11 (where only Joash is mentioned as a son, and with him a nurse), viz. that his only surviving son was an infant, The king"s sons (presumably sons of Ahaziah and grandsons of her own) were among the "seed royal," whom the wicked Athaliah had "destroyed." Gesenius says that the words that wrap in them the slight ambiguity, jko rx; are a phrase peculiar to the later Hebrew, and he instances nine examples, all of which come from Daniel or Chronicles, the virtue of the phrase amounting to the ports ease of the Latin. Translate, And there was no one of the house of Ahaziah able for the kingdom, the exacter conditions of the case not being recorded.

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

Ahaziah - Who, tho' wounded, had made an escape, 2 Kings ix, 27.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

they caught him ... killed him

"they caught Ahaziah ... killed Ahaziah"

they buried him, for they said, "He is a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought Yahweh with all his heart."

They honored him enough to bury his body because he was the descendant of Jehoshaphat, who was a good king. This can be stated explicitly. AT: they buried his corpse, because they said, "He deserves to be buried, because he was a descendant of Jehoshaphat, who tried hard to please Yahweh." (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

the house of Ahaziah had no more power to rule the kingdom

Here "house of Ahaziah" is a metonym that refers to Ahaziah's descendants. Here "power to rule" is a metonym for a king. Since all the adult descendants of Ahaziah were dead, there was no one left to rule Judah. (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

Samaria

bury

Jehoshaphat

heart

kingdom

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.