Azariah] Read, as margin, Ahaziah.
7–9 (compare 2 Kings ix. 16–26, 27, 28, x. 11–14).
The Death of Ahaziah.
7–9. These verses give a hasty summary of the passages in Kings The Chronicler’s version differs in some particulars from Kings The divergences may largely be due to the extreme brevity of Chronicles, and they do not absolutely require a variant form of the tradition for their explanation (so Torrey, Ezra Studies, p. 74), particularly if Samaria here in Chronicles denotes not the city but simply the province. Verse 7 is a brief but sufficient abridgment of 2 Kings ix. 16–26 from the point of view of Ahaziah’s concern in the affair. On the other hand there is great probability in the view that the Chronicler’s account goes back to a version of the tradition independent of that in Kings; see the notes on verses 8, 9; and compare Cook in the Jewish Quarterly Review for 1908, p. 612.
⁷Now the destruction[¹] of Ahaziah was of God, in that he went unto Joram: for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.
[¹] Hebrew treading down.
7. destruction] Rather, ruin, or downfall, LXX., καταστροφή). Ahaziah’s brethren fell with him (verse 8).
had anointed] compare 2 Kings ix. 1–10.
⁸And it came to pass, when Jehu was executing judgement upon the house of Ahab, that he found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, ministering to Ahaziah, and slew them.
8. the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah] LXX. “the brethren (i.e. the kinsmen) of Ahaziah”: so also 2 Kings x. 13. The brethren (in the strict sense of the word) of Ahaziah had already been killed (verse 1).
ministering] According to 2 Kings they were going to “salute the children of the king and the children of the queen” (probably a courtly expression for “salute the king and the queen”). Their murder in Kings is clearly regarded as subsequent to Ahaziah’s death, whereas in Chronicles the attack on Ahaziah (verse 9) apparently is placed after the murder of the brethren as recorded in the present verse. It is possible, however, to suppose that verses 8 and 9 are not meant to be related to each other in a time sequence, and that verses 7, 8, 9 are all relatively independent statements.