2 Kings 15:1

2 Kings 15:1-7. Reign of Azariah king of Judah. He is smitten with leprosy and lives apart. His death (2 Chronicles 24:1-23)

1. In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam… began Azariah This statement cannot be made to accord with the numbers given in the previous Chapter s. In 2 Kings 14:1 it is said that Amaziah the father of Azariah began to reign in the second year of Joash king of Israel. Now Joash (2 Kings 13:10) reigned sixteen years. Therefore he lived fourteen years contemporary with Amaziah. And the latter lived (2 Kings 14:17) after Joash's death fifteen years more. Hence his whole reign was twenty-nine years. Again in the fifteenth year of Amaziah, Jeroboam II. began to reign (2 Kings 14:23). Hence Amaziah must have died and Azariah ascended the throne of Judah in the fourteenth or fifteenth year of Jeroboam, and not in the twenty-seventh as here stated. The explanation given in the margin of A.V. that the twenty-seven years are made up of the time when Jeroboam reigned alone, and several years in which he was consort with his father in the kingdom while Joash was engaged in the Syrian wars has nothing in Scripture to warrant it. Nor does it seem to have been the custom for a king to make his son partner in the sovereignty. If in any case such a plan had been resorted to, it would surely have been adopted when this king Azariah became a leper. But while it is expressly stated, in verse 5 below, that the king's son Jotham was set over the household and judged the people of the land, there is no mention of a co-regency. The numbers in the verse before us present a difficulty which has not yet been solved.

Azariah In verses 13, 30, 32 and 34 of this chapter called Uzziah. On this change cf. 2 Kings 14:21 note.