2 Kings 15:1

2 KINGS CHAPTER 15 Azariah, his good reign, but is punished with leprosy, and dieth, 2 Kings 15:1. Zachariah reigneth ill; is slain by Shallum; who reigneth a month, and is slain by Menahem, 2 Kings 15:8. He is strengthened by Pul king of Assyria: his son succeedeth him, 2 Kings 15:16. He is slain by Pekah, 2 Kings 15:23. A part of the Israelites is carried away captive to Assyria by Tiglath-pileser, 2 Kings 15:27. Hoshea slayeth Pekah, and succeedeth him. Jotham's good reign over Judah: Ahaz succeedeth him, 2 Kings 15:30. Quest. How can this be true, seeing Amaziah, the father of this Azariah, lived only till the fifteenth year of Jeroboam's reign, 2 Kings 14:2,23 ? Answ. This might be either, first, Because Jeroboam was made king by and reigned with his father eleven or twelve years, and afterwards reigned alone; and so there is a twofold beginning of his kingdom; by the former this was his twenty-seventh year, and by the latter his fifteenth year. Or, secondly, Because there was an interreign for eleven or twelve years in the kingdom of Judah; either through the prevalency of that faction which cut off Amaziah the father, and kept the son out of his kingdom; or because Azariah was very young when his father was slain, and the people were not agreed to restore him to his right till his sixteenth year, 2 Kings 14:21 2 Chronicles 26:1. And yet these eleven or twelve years of interreign, in which he was excluded from the exercise of his regal office, some think to be included in those fifty-two years which are here ascribed to Azariah's reign, 2 Kings 15:2, which may well be doubted. Azariah, called also Uzziah here, 2 Kings 15:13,30. Began Azariah to reign; solely and fully to exercise his regal power.