Jehoahaz
- This article is about the king of the Northern Kingdom. For the three other kings known by this name, see Jehoahaz (disambiguation)
Jehoahaz (Hebrew יהורםאחז YHWH has held) (r. 856-839 BC according to Ussher,[1] or r. 814-797 BC according to Thiele[2]) was the eleventh king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the first of four generations of the House of Jehu to follow its founder, Jehu.
Contents
Accession and synchrony
Jehoahaz was the son of Jehu, but the Bible does not state the year of his birth. He did not serve as viceroy in his father's reign for any appreciable length of time.
He came to his throne in the twenty-third year of the reign of King Joash of the Southern Kingdom and died in the same year as did Joash.[3] He did, however, have a son and successor, also named Joash, to whom he granted the executive viceroyship in the last (or the next before last) year of his reign.
Military Disaster
Jehoahaz never once made any effort to turn his kingdom away from the false religion that Jeroboam I had set up—or from the worship of Asherah, in that the people of Samaria still kept an Asherah pole in a high place in or near that city.[4]
The result was the most severe military disaster that God had yet visited upon the Northern Kingdom.[5] The Syrians, under the command of King Hazael and his son (and probably viceroy) Benhadad II, conducted a series of devastating raids on that kingdom.[6] In those raids they captured many Israelite cities, and left Jehoahaz with a tiny remnant of an army consisting of 50 cavalrymen, 10 chariots, and 10,000 infantrymen.[7]
In desperation, Jehoahaz actually prayed to God, and God did send help. The Bible says only that God sent "a savior" and does not specify what sort of savior that was.[5][8]
Death and Succession
Jehoahaz made his son viceroy in the last or next-to-last year of his reign. He died quietly, and his son immediately consulted the prophet Elisha for advice on how to cope with the Syrians.
References
- ↑ James Ussher, The Annals of the World, Larry Pierce, ed., Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003 (ISBN 0890513600), pghh. 542-3
- ↑ Leon J. Wood, A Survey of Israel's History, rev. ed. David O'Brien, Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1986 (ISBN 031034770X), p. 275
- ↑ II_Kings 13:1
- ↑ II_Kings 13:2,6
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Authors unknown. "King Jehoahaz of Israel - Biography." The Kings of Israel, hosted at http://www.geocities.com/ Retrieved June 10, 2007.
- ↑ II_Kings 13:3
- ↑ II_Kings 13:7
- ↑ II_Kings 13:4-5
See also
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