2 Kings 9:27-29

C. THE DEATH OF AHAZIAH OF JUDAH 9:27-29

TRANSLATION

(27) When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of Beth-Gan. But Jehu pursued after him, and said, Also smite him in the chariot. And they did so at the ascent of Gur which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there. (28) And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and they buried him in the sepulcher with his fathers in the city of David. (29) Now in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah had begun to reign over Judah.

COMMENTS

When Ahaziah saw what had happened to Joram, he fled southward toward the land of Judah by the way of Beth-Gan,[558] a village due south of Jezreel. Jehu ordered that Ahaziah also be slain. Ahaziah was the grandson of Ahab, and hence was part of the house of Ahab which Jehu was to slay. As Ahaziah's chariot slowed down at the steep ascent of Gur at the southern edge of the plain of Esdraelon, Jehu's archers were able to overtake him and inflict a wound upon him. Ahaziah then changed directions and headed west toward Megiddo, partly because he was now in no condition to make the rugged climb back to Jerusalem, and partly because he wished to throw off his pursuers. There he died, either of the wounds he had received at the ascent of Gur, or as a result of some new violence on the part of Jehu (cf. 2 Chronicles 22:8-9). Ahaziah's servants then transported the body of their master to Jerusalem and buried him in his own sepulcher in the city of David (2 Kings 9:28). Like Egyptian kings, the kings of Judah seem to have made it their business to see to the construction of their tombs as soon as they mounted the throne. Even though Ahaziah had reigned but a year, he had already prepared his place of burial.[559]

[558] The Septuagint so renders. The KJV has elected to render as two common nouns, garden house the meaning of which is dubious.

[559] On the discrepancy between 2 Kings 9:29 and 2 Kings 8:25 as to the year of Ahaziah's accession, see the comments on the earlier passage.