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2
Chronicles Chapter Twenty-two
2 Chronicles 22
Chapter Contents
The reign of Ahaziah, Athaliah destroys the royal family.
The counsel of the ungodly ruins many young persons when
they are setting out in the world. Ahaziah gave himself up to be led by evil
men. Those who advise us to do wickedly, counsel us to our destruction; while
they pretend to be friends, they are our worst enemies. See and dread the
mischief of bad company. If not the infection, yet let the destruction be
feared, Revelation 18:4. We have here, a wicked woman
endeavouring to destroy the house of David, and a good woman preserving it. No
word of God shall fall to the ground. The whole truth of the prophecies that
the Messiah was to come from David, and thereby the salvation of the world,
appeared to be now hung upon the brittle thread of the life of a single infant,
to destroy whom was the interest of the reigning power. But God had purposed,
and vain were the efforts of earth and hell.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Chronicles》
2 Chronicles 22
Verse 2
[2]
Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one
year in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.
Forty two years —
Some acknowledge an error in the transcribers of the present Hebrew copies, in
which language the numeral letters for 22 and 42 are so like, that they might
easily be mistaken. For that it was read 22 here, as it is in the book of
Kings, in other Hebrew copies, they gather from hence, that it is at this day
so read in divers ancient Greek copies, as also in those two ancient translations,
the Syriack and the Arabick, and particularly in that most ancient copy of the
Syriack which was used by the church of Antioch in the primitive times, and to
this day is kept in the church of Antioch.
The daughter — Of
Ahab, Omri's Son. Grand-children are often called sons and daughters.
Verse 4
[4] Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab: for
they were his counsellors after the death of his father to his destruction.
His father —
Who, while he lived, seduced his son himself, and made other evil counsellors
unnecessary.
Verse 9
[9] And
he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him, (for he was hid in Samaria,) and
brought him to Jehu: and when they had slain him, they buried him: Because,
said they, he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his
heart. So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.
Ahaziah —
Who, tho' wounded, had made an escape, 2 Kings 9:27.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Chronicles》
22 Chapter 22
Verses 1-12
Verses 1-9
And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son
king.
Ahaziah’s wicked reign
I. Its beginning
through home influence. Here all start life in right or wrong direction. Home
influence affects societies, Churches, and nations.
II. Its continuance
by evil counsellors (2 Chronicles 22:4). A nation with
evil legislators like a ship directed in the midst of rooks--in imminent peril.
III. Its end in
judgment which it entailed. (J. Wolfendale.)
Verse 8
For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.
A mother’s influence
Every first thing continues for ever with the child; the first
colour, the first music, the first flower paint the foreground of life. Every
new educator effects less than his predecessor, until at last, if we regard all
life as an educational institute, a circumnavigator of the world is less
influenced by all the nations he has seen than by his nurse. (W.
Richter.)
A mother’s influence
Mothers, ye are the sculptors of the souls of the coming men;
queens of the cradle, humble or high, ye are the queens of the future. In your
hands lie the destinies of men. I am not speaking poetry, but plain fact, which
history proves. Nero’s mother was a murderess; Nero was a murderer, on a
gigantic scale. Byron’s mother was proud, ill-tempered, and violent; Byron was
proud, ill-tempered, and violent. Washington’s mother was noble and pure;
Washington was noble and pure. Scott’s mother loved poetry and painting; you
know what Walter Scott was. Carlyle’s mother was stern, and full of reverence;
Carlyle very much so. Wesley’s mother was a God-like woman; Wesley was a
God-like man. The prison chaplain will tell you that the last thing forgotten,
in all the recklessness of dissolute profligacy, is the prayer or hymn taught
by a mother’s lips, or uttered at a father’s knee. Yes, when all other roads
are closed, there is one road open to the heart of the desperate man--the
memory of his mother. (Great Thoughts.)
An unnatural mother
“For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.” There must be
a mistranslation! All nature is offended by this tremendous affront. Can we
not.find some other word for “mother”? Any other word will do better, even
“father” would not be so objectionable. The one word that cannot be tolerated
here is the word that is found, namely, “mother”! We might close the Bible
here, and say the book that contains this statement was never inspired. But we
cannot do so. Then the word “counsellor” is so full of plan, premeditation,
arrangement; the mother was a schoolmistress, with one pupil, and she
suggested, invented, culminated ends, whispered, threw out hints, advised bad
policies; told him when he was halting because the course was evil to “go on!”
Napoleon said, “They that rock the cradle rule the world.” To have a cradle
rocked by such a mother as Athaliah surely were enough to be foredoomed to
endless misery! How sweetly the text would have read had it proceeded on the
lines of nature!--for his mother was his counsellor to do bravely. Surely the
word “wickedly” is a misprint, traceable to some careless copyist!--his mother
was his counsellor to do wisely, patiently, hopefully,--these would have been
womanly words, words most motherly, the very words with which we build home and
Church and heaven. But the word is “wickedly,” and we must regard it in its
literal significance. What are mothers doing now? They could be God’s foremost
ministers. No man can pray like a woman; no man has the art of eloquence as a
woman has it; no one can come into life so silently, quietly, blessingly as
woman, mother, sister. If women would preach surely the world would listen.
They ought to preach; they know the secret of love, they have the answer to the
Cross, they can solve in some degree the enigma of sacrifice. This is the very
reason of the horribleness of the text. If woman had been otherwise, then the
word “wickedly” would not have read with such a sense of irony and moral
collision as it does in this instance. It is because woman can be so heavenly
that she can be so low, and wicked, and bad; it is because she can be so like a
saviour that she can be such an engine and agent of ruin. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verse 12
And Athaliah reigned over the land.
The evil effects of royal marriages
A distinguished authority on European history is fond of pointing
to the evil effects of royal marriages as one of the chief drawbacks to the monarchical
system of government. A crown may at any time devolve upon a woman, and by her
marriage with a powerful reigning prince her country may virtually be subjected
to a foreign yoke. If it happens that the new sovereign professes a different
religion from that of his wife’s subjects, the evils arising from the marriage
are seriously aggravated. Some such fate befell the Netherlands as the result
of the marriage of Mary of Burgundy with the Emperor Maximilian, and England
was only saved from the danger of transference to Catholic dominion by the
caution and patriotism of Queen Elizabeth. Athaliah’s usurpation was a bold
attempt to reverse the usual process and transfer the husband’s dominions to
the authority of faith of the wife’s family. It is probable that Athaliah’s
permanent success would have led to the absorption of Judah in the northern
kingdom. Our own history furnishes numerous illustrations of the evil
influences that come in the train of foreign queens. Edward II suffered
grievously at the hands of his French queen; Henry VI.’s wife, Margaret of
Anjou, contributed considerably to the prolonged bitterness of the struggle
between York and Lancaster; and to Henry VIII’s marriage with Catherine of
Aragon the country owed the miseries and persecutions inflicted by Mary Tudor.
But no foreign queen of England has had the opportunities for mischief that
were enjoyed and fully utilised by Athaliah. The peace and honour and
prosperity of godly families in all ranks of life have been disturbed, and
often destroyed, by the marriage of one of their members with a woman of alien
spirit mad temperament. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》