7 occurrences in 7 dictionaries

Reference: Ahaziah

American

1. Son and successor of Ahab, king of Israel, 1Ki 22:51; 2Ki 1. He reigned two years, alone and with his father, who associated him in the kingdom the year before his death, B. C. 894. Ahaziah imitated Ahab's impiety, and worshipped Baal and Astarte, whose rites had been introduced into Israel by Jezebel his mother. During his reign the Moabites revolted. Having joined the king Jehoshaphat in a commercial enterprise on the Red Sea, his impiety blasted the whole. After a fall from the gallery of his house, he sent to consult a god of the Philistines as to his recovery. Elijah the prophet foretold his speedy death-first to the messengers, and again to Ahaziah himself, after two companies of fifty had been consumed by fire from heaven.

2. Otherwise Jehoahaz, or Azariah, king of Judah, son of Jehoram and Athaliah; he succeeded his father B. C. 881, 2Ki 8:25; 2Ch 22:2. He was twenty-two years of age when he ascended the throne, and reigned but one year at Jerusalem. He followed the house of Ahab, to which he was allied by his mother, and did evil. He met his death at the hand of Jehu, while in company with Joram, son of Ahab.

Easton

held by Jehovah.

(1.) The son and successor of Ahab. He followed the counsels of his mother Jezebel, and imitated in wickedness the ways of his father. In his reign the Moabites revolted from under his authority (2Ki 3:5-7). He united with Jehoshaphat in an attempt to revive maritime trade by the Red Sea, which proved a failure (2Ch 20:35-37). His messengers, sent to consult the god of Ekron regarding his recovery from the effects of a fall from the roof-gallery of his palace, were met on the way by Elijah, who sent them back to tell the king that he would never rise from his bed (1Ki 22:51; 2Ki 1:18).

(2.) The son of Joram, or Jehoram, and sixth king of Judah. Called Jehoahaz (2Ch 21:17; 25:23), and Azariah (2Ch 22:6). Guided by his idolatrous mother Athaliah, his reign was disastrous (2Ki 8:24-29; 9:29). He joined his uncle Jehoram, king of Israel, in an expedition against Hazael, king of Damascus; but was wounded at the pass of Gur when attempting to escape, and had strength only to reach Megiddo, where he died (2Ki 9:22-28). He reigned only one year.

Fausets

("whom Jehovah holds".)

1. Son of Ahab and Jezebel; king of Israel; a worshipper of Jeroboam's calves, and of his mother's idols, Baal and Ashtoreth. After the Israelite defeat at Ramoth Gilead. Syria was master of the region E. of Jordan; so Moab (2Ki 1:1; 3:5), heretofore tributary to Israel, refused the yearly tribute of 100,000 rams with their wool, and 100,000 lambs (2Sa 8:2; Isa 16:1; 2Ki 3:4). Ahaziah was prevented by a fall through a lattice in his palace at Samaria from enforcing it; but Jehoram his brother subsequently attempted it. Ahaziah sent to Baalzebub (lord of flies), god of Ekron, to inquire, should he recover? Elijah, by direction of the angel of the Lord, met the messengers, and reproving their having repaired to the idol of Ekron as if there were no God in Israel, announced that Ahaziah should die. The king sent a captain of 50 and his men to take Elijah. At Elijah's word they were consumed by fire. The same death consumed a second captain and his 50.

The third was spared on his supplicating Elijah. Elijah then in person announced to the king what he had already declared to his messenger.

So accordingly Ahaziah died. He was in alliance with Jehoshaphat in building ships at Ezion Geber to go to Tarshish; but the ships were wrecked, the Lord, as He intimated by Eliezer son of Dodavah of Mareshah, thereby manifesting disapproval of the alliance of the godly, with Ahaziah "who did very wickedly. Jehoshaphat therefore, when he built a new fleet of merchant ships (as the phrase "ships of Tarshish" means; the other reading is "had ten ships"), in which undertaking Ahaziah wanted to share, declined further alliance; bitter experience taught him the danger of evil communications (1Co 15:33). Let parents and young people beware of affinity with the ungodly, however rich and great (2Co 6:14, etc.).

2. Nephew of the former. At first viceroy during his father's sickness, then king of Judah, son of Jehoram of Judah and Athaliah, Ahab's cruel daughter (2Ki 9:29, compare 2Ki 8:25).

Called Jehoahaz (2Ch 21:17-19). Azariah ("whom Jehovah helps," substantially equivalent to Ahaziah or Jehoahaz by transposition, a name sadly at variance with his character), in 2Ch 22:6, may be a transcriber's error for Ahaziah. In 2Ch 22:2, for 42 there should be, as in 2Ki 8:26, "twenty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign," for his father Jehoram was only 40 when he died (2Ch 21:20).

Ahaziah walked in all the idolatries of Ahab his maternal grandfather, his mother being his counselor to do wickedly. He allied himself with Jehoram of Israel, brother of the former Ahaziah (in spite of the warning God gave him in the fatal issue of the alliance of godly Jehoshaphat, his paternal grandfather, with wicked Ahab), against Hazael of Syria at Ramoth Gilead. Jehoram was wounded, and Ahaziah went to see him at Jezreel. There his destruction from God ensued by Jehu, who conspired against Joram. Akin to Ahab in character, as in blood, he might have overspread Judah with the same idolatry as Israel, but for God's intervention.

Fleeing by the garden house, he was smitten in his chariot at the going up to Gur by Ibleam, and he fled to Megiddo and died there.

God's people must separate from the world, lest they share the world's judgments (Re 18:4). In 2Ch 22:9 we read Ahaziah was hid in Samaria, brought to Jehu, and slain. The two accounts harmonize thus. Ahaziah fled first to the garden house (Bethgan), and escaped to Samaria where were his brethren; thence brought forth from his hiding place to Jehu, he was mortally wounded in his chariot at the hill Gut beside Iblcam, and reaching Megiddo died there. Jehu allowed Ahaziah's attendants to bury him honorably in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David, "because, said they, he is the son grandson of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart." Otherwise "in Samaria" may mean "in the kingdom of Samaria," or 2Ch 22:9 may mean merely, he attempted to hide in Samaria, but did not reach it. The recurrence of the same names Joram and Ahaziah in both the dynasties of Israel and Judah is a delicate mark of truth, it being the natural result of the intermarriages.

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Hastings

Two kings of this name are mentioned in the OT, one in each of the Israelite kingdoms.

1. Ahaziah of Israel was the son of Ahab, and ruled after him only two years or parts of years. He is said to have been a worshipper of Baal, that is, to have continued the religious policy of his father. By a fall from a window of his palace he was seriously injured, and, after lingering awhile, died from the accident. The Moabites, who had been subject to Israel, took this opportunity to revolt. Ahaziah is accused of sending messengers to inquire of the celebrated oracle at Ekron, and is said unexpectedly to have received his answer from Elijah (2Ki 1).

2. Ahaziah of Judah was son of Jehoram and grandson of Jehoshaphat. Under the influence of his mother, who was a daughter of Ahah and Jezehel, it is not surprising to read that he walked in the ways of Ahab. All that we know of him is that he continued the league with Israel, and that, going to visit his uncle Jehoram in Jezreel, he was involved in his fate at the revolt of Jehu (2Ki 9:27).

H. P. Smith.

Morish

Ahazi'ah

1. Son of Ahab and Jezebel. He reigned over Israel two years (B.C. 897-6) and did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, it being remarked of him that he walked in the way of his mother as well as of his father and of Jeroboam. He was a worshipper of Baal; and having injured himself by falling through a lattice he sent to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron. Elijah met the messengers on their road, and turned them back with a message to Ahaziah, reproaching him with his impiety, and telling him he should not recover from his sickness. Ahaziah, on finding by the description the messengers gave that it was Elijah, sent a captain and fifty men to seize him. Elijah called down fire from heaven and they were consumed. Another fifty were sent and they also were consumed. The captain of the third fifty begged Elijah to spare their lives, which he did, and he went with them and delivered the message to Ahaziah. The prediction was verified and he died. The history of this king presents a sad picture of the state of idolatry and wickedness into which Israel had fallen, while professing to be God's people. 1Ki 22:49,51-53; 2Ki 1; 2Ch 20:35.

2. Son of Jehoram and Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, therefore nephew of the above. He succeeded his father as king of Judah, and reigned one year (B.C. 885). He did wickedly, his mother being his counsellor to his destruction. He formed an alliance with Joram king of Israel and went with him against Hazael king of Syria. Joram was wounded and went to Jezreel to be healed. Ahaziah afterwards went to visit Joram, and God caused his death by Jehu when he cut off the house of Ahab. 2Ki 8:24-29; 9:16-29; 2Ch 22:1-9. He is called AZARIAH in 2Ch 22:6, and JEHOAHAZ in 2Ch 21:17. "In proper names," says F?rst, "those of cognate senses were often interchanged." In 2Ki 8:26 he is said to be 22 years old when he began to reign; but in 2Ch 22:2 it says he was 42. The latter is doubtless a mistake of some copyist, for his father was only 40 years old when he died. 2Ch 21:5,20. The Syriac and Arabic copies read 22 in both passages.

Smith

Ahazi'ah

(sustained by the Lord).

1. Son of Ahab and Jezebel eighth king of Israel, reigned B.C. 896-895. After the battle of Ramoth in Gilead, in which Ahab perished [AHAB], the vassal king of Moab refused his yearly tribute; comp.

See Ahab

Isa 16:1

Before Ahaziah could take measures for enforcing his claim, he was seriously injured by a fall through a lattice in his palace at Samaria. Being an idolater, he sent to inquire of the oracle of Baalzebub in the Philistine city of Ekron whether he should recover his health. But Elijah, who now for the last time exercised the prophetic office, rebuked him for this impiety, and announced to him his approaching death. The only other recorded transaction of his reign, his endeavor to join the king of Judah in trading to Ophir, is related under JEHOSHAPHAT.

See Jehoshaphat

1Ki 22:49-53; 1/1/type/worrell'>2Ki 1:1,1; 2Ch 20:35-37

2. Fifth king of Judah, son of Jehoram and Athaliah (daughter of Ahab), and therefore nephew of the preceding Ahaziah, reigned one year, B.C. 884. He is Galled AZARIAH,

See Azariah

2Ch 22:2

probably by a copyist's error, and JEHOAHAZ.

See Jehoahaz

2Ch 21:17

He was 22 years old at his accession.

2Ki 8:26

(his age 42, in

2Ch 22:2

Isa a copyist's error). Ahaziah was an idolater, and he allied himself with his uncle Jehoram king of Israel against Hazael, the new king of Syria. the two kings were, however defeated at Ramoth, where Jehoram was severely wounded. The revolution carried out in Israel by Jehu under the guidance of Elisha broke out while Ahaziah was visiting his uncle at Jezreel. As Jehu approached the town, Jehoram and Ahaziah went out to meet him; the former was shot through the heart by Jehu, and Ahaziah was pursued and mortally wounded. He died when he reached Megiddo.

Watsons

AHAZIAH, the son of Ahab, king of Israel. Ahaziah reigned two years, partly alone, and partly with his father Ahab, who appointed him his associate in the kingdom a year before his death. Ahaziah imitated his father's impieties, 1Ki 22:52, &c, and paid his adorations to Baal and Ashtaroth, the worship of whom had been introduced into Israel by Jezebel his mother. The Moabites, who had been always obedient to the kings of the ten tribes, ever since their separation from the kingdom of Judah, revolted after the death of Ahab, and refused to pay the ordinary tribute. Ahaziah had not leisure or power to reduce them, 2Ki 1:1-2, &c, for, about the same time, having fallen through a lattice from the top of his house, he was considerably injured, and sent messengers to Ekron to consult Baalzebub, the god of that place, whether he should recover, 2Ki 1:1-17. Elijah met the messengers, and informed them he should certainly die; and he died accordingly.

2. AHAZIAH, king of Judah, the son of Jehoram and Athaliah. He succeeded his father in the kingdom of Judah, A.M. 3119; being in the twenty-second year of his age, 2Ki 8:26, &c; and he reigned one year only in Jerusalem. He walked in the ways of Ahab's house, to which he was related, his mother being of that family. Joram, king of Israel, 2 Kings 7, going to attack Ramoth Gilead, which the kings of Syria had taken from his predecessors, was there dangerously wounded, and carried by his own appointment to Jezreel, for the purpose of surgical assistance. Ahaziah, Joram's friend and relation, accompanied him in this war, and came afterward to visit him at Jezreel. In the meantime, Jehu, the son of Nimshi, whom Joram had left besieging the fortress of Ramoth, rebelled against his master, and set out with a design of extirpating the house of Ahab, according to the commandment of the Lord, 2 Kings 9. Joram and Ahaziah, who knew nothing of his intentions, went to meet him. Jehu killed Joram dead upon the spot: Ahaziah fled, but Jehu's people overtook him at the going up of Gur, and mortally wounded him; notwithstanding which, he had strength enough to reach Megiddo, where he died. His servants, having laid him in his chariot, carried him to Jerusalem, where he was buried with his fathers, in the city of David.