2 Chronicles

22* And the inhabitants of Jerusalem installed his youngest son Ahaziah as his successor, because the invading raiders, the Mazonite Arabs, had killed all the first ones.

And Ahaziah the son of King Jehoram of Judah became king. 2* Ahaziah was twenty-two years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned one year at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was ʽAthaliah the daughter of ʽOmri. 3 He too followed the paths of the family of Ahab, because his mother was his adviser to do wrong; 4 and he did what displeased Jehovah like the family of Ahab, because he had them as advisers after his father’s death to ruin him; 5 he went by their advice too, and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab, the king of Israel, to war against King Hazael of Syria at Ramoth-Gilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram, 6 and he went back to recover at Jezreʽel from the wounds they had given him at Ramah in his fighting with King Hazael of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, the king of Judah, went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab at Jezreʽel, because he was sick 7** (and the trampling down of Ahaziah, for him to come to Joram, was from God), and when he came there he went out with Jehoram to Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Jehovah had anointed to extirpate the family of Ahab; 8 and as Jehu was prosecuting the case against the family of Ahab he found the captains of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s brothers in attendance on Ahaziah, and killed them, 9 and looked for Ahaziah; and they captured Ahaziah (he having gone into hiding in Samaria) and brought him to Jehu, and he put him to death. And they buried him, because they said “He was the son of Jehoshaphat, who devoted himself to Jehovah with all his heart.” And Ahaziah’s family could not muster strength to assert the royal power.

10 And Ahaziah’s mother ʽAthaliah saw that her son was dead, and she stood up and destroyed all the royal blood of the house of Judah. 11 But Princess Jehoshabeʽath took Ahaziah’s son Joash and spirited him away from among the princes who were being dispatched, and put him and his nurse in the bedding-closet, and King Jehoram’s daughter Jehoshabeʽath, Priest Jehojadaʽ’s wife, because she was Ahaziah’s sister, concealed him from ʽAthaliah and she did not put him to death. 12 And he was with them in Jehovah’s house in hiding for six years, and ʽAthaliah reigned over the country.