2 Kings 9:27

Death of Ahaziah king of Judah (2 Chronicles 22:7-9)

27. by the way of the garden house The events took place close to the royal grounds, for Naboth's vineyard lay in the neighbourhood. The garden house may have been some building at the extremity of the domain by which flight from the scene of destruction appeared easy to Ahaziah. The LXX. however treats it as a proper name, writing Βαιθγάν. This has been supposed to be the same as En-gannim = -the well of the gardens" which is identified with the modern Jenin. This place lies south from Jezreel on the road to Samaria, and would be on the shortest route by which Ahaziah could make his way to Jerusalem.

And Jehu followed after him i.e. In the person of his partizans and followers, to whom he gave the order -Smite him also". Jehu wished to get into Jezreel as soon as possible, and left the fate of the king of Judah to others.

Smite him also in the chariot In the original the command continues -at the going up to Gur" (R.V. at the ascent of Gur), as though Jehu knowing the country specified to his men the place where they would be most likely to overtake Ahaziah, where the ground began to rise, and so would retard his flight. This seeming somewhat unnatural, the A.V. inserted -And they did so", the R.V. -and they smote him". Neither Gur nor Ibleam have been identified, and there is some difference between the statements here and the narrative in Chronicles. There we read (2 Chronicles 22:9) that Jehu -sought Ahaziah, and they caught him (for he was hid in Samaria) and brought him to Jehu, and when they had slain him they buried him". The LXX. in this passage has a rendering which suggests how the two accounts may be reconciled. There it is said that Ahaziah had gone to Samaria to be cured (ἰατρευόμενον). Suppose that in the pursuit Jehu's command to smite him had been carried out, and the wounded king escaped to Samaria in which direction he was hurrying. If he remained there to have his wound attended to, the emissaries of Jehu might discover him, when the new king came to his capital to take possession, and Ahaziah might then be taken to Megiddo and slain. The Chronicler speaks more at length on the particulars of Ahaziah's death, as the evil issue of an alliance between a king of Judah and the house of Ahab was the sort of lesson on which it suited his purpose to dwell.

And he fledto Megiddo Megiddo was on the southern extremity of the plain of Esdraelon, and by its position was a place of much strategical importance. It had a king when the Israelites entered Canaan, and it was the scene of the battle against the Canaanites in the days of Deborah. It was a place of importance in the days of Solomon (1 Kings 4:12) for he made it one of his commissariat stations. At a later period it was the scene of Josiah's death (2 Kings 23:29) when he had taken part with Assyria against Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt. If we consider -Samaria" in 2 Chronicles 22:9 to mean -the land of Samaria" and not the city, Megiddo was a part thereof, and in that way another method of reconciling the narratives in Kings and Chronicles would be found.

and died there It was part of Jehu's commission to have Ahaziah slain, for he was Ahab's grandson.