²⁶ Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah,^(A) a granddaughter of Omri^(B) king of Israel.

¹¹ He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed.^(A) Then the man of God began to weep.^(B)

Ahaziah King of Judah^(A)(B)

22 The people^(C) of Jerusalem^(D) made Ahaziah, Jehoram’s youngest son, king in his place, since the raiders,^(E) who came with the Arabs into the camp, had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.

² Ahaziah was twenty-two^[a] years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.

³ He too followed^(F) the ways of the house of Ahab,^(G) for his mother encouraged him to act wickedly. ⁴ He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for after his father’s death they became his advisers, to his undoing. ⁵ He also followed their counsel when he went with Joram^[b] son of Ahab king of Israel to wage war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead.^(H) The Arameans wounded Joram; ⁶ so he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds they had inflicted on him at Ramoth^[c] in his battle with Hazael^(I) king of Aram.

Then Ahaziah^[d] son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab because he had been wounded.

⁷ Through Ahaziah’s^(J) visit to Joram, God brought about Ahaziah’s downfall. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. ⁸ While Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab,^(K) he found the officials of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s relatives, who had been attending Ahaziah, and he killed them. ⁹ He then went in search of Ahaziah, and his men captured him while he was hiding^(L) in Samaria. He was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, “He was a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought^(M) the Lord with all his heart.” So there was no one in the house of Ahaziah powerful enough to retain the kingdom.

Athaliah and Joash^(N)

¹⁰ When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah. ¹¹ But Jehosheba,^[e] the daughter of King Jehoram, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Because Jehosheba,^[f] the daughter of King Jehoram and wife of the priest Jehoiada, was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid the child from Athaliah so she could not kill him. ¹² He remained hidden with them at the temple of God for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

¹³ She looked, and there was the king,^(A) standing by his pillar^(B) at the entrance. The officers and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and musicians with their instruments were leading the praises. Then Athaliah tore her robes and shouted, “Treason! Treason!”

¹⁴ Jehoiada the priest sent out the commanders of units of a hundred, who were in charge of the troops, and said to them: “Bring her out between the ranks^[a] and put to the sword anyone who follows her.” For the priest had said, “Do not put her to death at the temple of the Lord.” ¹⁵ So they seized her as she reached the entrance of the Horse Gate^(C) on the palace grounds, and there they put her to death.

¹⁶ Jehoiada then made a covenant^(D) that he, the people and the king^[b] would be the Lord’s people. ¹⁷ All the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols and killed^(E) Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars.

¹⁸ Then Jehoiada placed the oversight of the temple of the Lord in the hands of the Levitical priests,^(F) to whom David had made assignments in the temple,^(G) to present the burnt offerings of the Lord as written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and singing, as David had ordered. ¹⁹ He also stationed gatekeepers^(H) at the gates of the Lord’s temple so that no one who was in any way unclean might enter.

²⁰ He took with him the commanders of hundreds, the nobles, the rulers of the people and all the people of the land and brought the king down from the temple of the Lord. They went into the palace through the Upper Gate^(I) and seated the king on the royal throne. ²¹ All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was calm, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword.^(J)

⁷ Now the sons of that wicked woman Athaliah had broken into the temple of God and had used even its sacred objects for the Baals.