Ch. 2 Kings 13:1-9. Reign of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, over Israel (Not in Chronicles)

1. In the three-and-twentieth year of Joash … king of Judah, Jehoahaz … began to reign] The chronology here seems inconsistent with verse 10. Jehoahaz’s seventeen years, according to the statement before us, would go on to the fortieth year of Joash king of Judah, whereas the successor of Jehoahaz is stated in verse 10 to have begun his reign in the thirty-seventh year of Joash. It is possible that seventeen years, according to Jewish reckoning, may really have been very little more than fifteen. Still that does not bring the dates into accord. Where the mistake may be is not easy to discover. The LXX. represents the same numbers, which it is clear cannot all be correct, though the error is not large. See Chronological Table in the Introduction.

Jehoahaz the son of Jehu] The first of the four generations for which God promised that the line of Jehu should continue.

Verse 1. - In the three and twentieth year of Joash; rather, as in Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 9:8. § 5), in the one and twentieth year. This is a correction required by ver. 10 and also by 2 Kings 12:1. The proof is given at somewhat tedious length by Keil ('Biblical Commentary,' pp. 373, 374) and Bahr ('Books of the Kings,' pp. 139, 140). It seems unnecessary to enter into a lengthy discussion of the point, since all the synchronisms of the later kings of Israel and Judah are in confusion, and appear to be the work of a later hand. The son of Ahaziah (comp. 2 Kings 11:2; 2 Chronicles 22:11) King of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel; literally, reigned over Israel. The "later hand," which inserted the synchronism, neglected to bring the two portions of the verse into agreement. Our translators have sought to cover up his omission by translating malak "began to reign," and then supplying "and reigned" in the next clause. And reigned seventeen years (so also Josephus, l.s.c.). 2 Kings 13:1Reign of Jehoahaz. - Jehu was followed by Jehoahaz his son, "in the twenty-third year of Joash of Judah." This synchronistic statement is not only at variance with 2 Kings 13:10, but cannot be very well reconciled with 2 Kings 12:1. If Jehoahaz began to reign in the twenty-third year of Joash king of Judah, and reigned seventeen years, his son cannot have followed him after his death in the thirty-seventh year of Joash of Judah, as is stated in 2 Kings 13:10, for there are only fourteen years and possibly a few months between the twenty-third and thirty-seventh years of Joash; and even if he ascended the throne at the commencement of the twenty-third year of the reign of Joash and died at the end of the thirty-seventh, they could only be reckoned as fifteen and not as seventeen years. Moreover, according to 2 Kings 12:1, Joash of Judah began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and therefore Athaliah, who ascended the throne at the same time as Jehu, reigned fully six years. If, therefore, the first year of Joash of Judah coincides with the seventh year of Jehu, the twenty-eighth year of Jehu must correspond to the twenty-second year of Joash of Judah; and in this year of Joash not only did Jehu die, but his son Jehoahaz ascended the throne. Consequently we must substitute the twenty-second year of Joash, or perhaps, still more correctly, the twenty-first year (Josephus), for the twenty-third.

(Note: On the other hand, Thenius, who follows des Vignoles and Winer, not only defends the correctness of the account "in the twenty-third year of Joash," because it agrees with the twenty-eight years' reign of Jehu (2 Kings 10:36), but also holds fast the seventeen years' duration of the reign of Jehoahaz on account of its agreement with 2 Kings 14:1; for 6 years (Athaliah) + 40 years (Joash) equals 46 years, and 28 years (Jehu) + 17 years (Jehoahaz) equals 45 years; so that, as is there affirmed, Amaziah the son of Joash ascended the throne in the second year of Joash the son of Jehoahaz. But to arrive at this result he assumes that there is an error in 2 Kings 13:10, namely, that instead of the thirty-seventh year we ought to read the thirty-ninth year there, according to the edit. Aldina of the lxx. But apart from the fact that, as we have shown above in the text, the datum "in the twenty-third year of Joash" does not harmonize with the twenty-eight years' reign of Jehu, this solution of the difference is overthrown by the circumstance that, in order to obtain this agreement between 2 Kings 13:1 and 2 Kings 13:14, Thenius reckons the years of the reigns not only of Athaliah and Joash, but also of Jehu and Jehoahaz, as full years (the former 16 + 40, the latter 28 + 17); whereas, in order to bring the datum in 2 Kings 13:1 (in the twenty-third year of Joash) into harmony with the emendation proposed in 2 Kings 13:10 (in the thirty-ninth year of Joash), he reckons the length of the reign of Jehoahaz as only sixteen years (instead of seventeen). For example, if Jehoahaz reigned seventeen years, supposing that he ascended the throne in the twenty-third year of Joash of Judah, he died in the fortieth year of Joash (not the thirty-ninth), and his son began to reign the same year. In that case Amaziah would have begun to reign in the first year of Jehoash of Israel, and not in the second, as is stated in 2 Kings 14:1. - The reading of the lxx (ed. Ald. v. 10), "in the thirty-ninth year," is therefore nothing but a mistaken emendation resorted to for the purpose of removing a discrepancy, but of no critical value.)

If Jehu died in the earliest months of the twenty-eighth year of his reign, so that he only reigned twenty-seven years and one or two months, his death and his son's ascent of the throne might fall even in the closing months of the twenty-first year of the reign of Joash of Judah. And from the twenty-first to the thirty-seventh year of Joash, Jehoahaz may have reigned sixteen years and a few months, and his reign be described as lasting seventeen years.

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