AHAZIAH (; 1n.rits; and rrtrizA, holder of . " 7ehovah; Sept. 'Oxolas), I. The son and successor of Ahab, and eighth king of Israel. He reigned two years, B. C. S97-896. It seems that Jezebel exercised over her son the same influence which had guided her husband ; and Ahaziah pursued the evil courses of his father. The most signal public event of his reign was the revolt of the Moabites, who took the opportunity of the defeat and death of Ahab to discontinue the tribute which they had paid to the Israelites. Ahaziah became a party in the attempt of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to revive the maritime traffic by the Red Sea ; in con sequence of which the enterprise was blasted, and came to nothing (2 Chron. xx. 35-37). Soon after, Ahaziah, having been much injured by a fall from the roof-gallery of his palace, had the infatuation to send to consult the oracle of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, respecting his recovery. But the messengers were met and sent back by Elijah, whc announced to the king that he should rise no mom from the bed on which he lay (1 Kings xxii. 51, to 2 Kings i. is).
2. Son of Jehoram by Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and sixth king of Judah, called also Azariah, 2 Chron. xxii. 6, and Jehoahaz, 2 Chron. xxi. 17. He reigned but one year (B.C. 8S5), and that ill, suffering himself in all things to be guided by the wicked counsels of his idolatrous mother, Athaliah. He cultivated the connections
which had unhappily grown up between the two dynasties, and which had now been cemented by marriage. Hence he joined his uncle Jehoram of Israel in an expedition against lIazael, king of Damascene-Syria, for the recovery of Ramoth Gilead ; and afterwards paid him a visit while he lay wounded in his summer palace of Jezreel. The two kings rode out in their several chariots to meet Jehu ; and when Jehoram was shot through the heart, Ahaziah attempted to escape, but was pursued, and being mortally wounded, had only strength to reach Mcgiddo, where he died. His body was conveyed by his servants in a chariot to Jerusalem for interment (2 Kings ix. 28). In 2 Chron. xxii. 7-9, the circumstances are somewhat differently stated ; but the variation is not sub stantial, and requires no particular notice. It appears from that passage, however, that Jehu was right in considering Ahaziah as included in his commission to root out the house of Ahab. [In 2 Kings viii. 26, Ahaziah is said to have been twenty-two years old when he began to reign ; but in 2 Chron. xxii. 2, his age then is stated as forty. two. The former is undoubtedly correct, as the latter makes him older than his father. Compare 2 Chron. xxi. .5, 2o.]—J. K.