Passage

2 Chronicles 22.2

Book: 2 Chronicles · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his stead; for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the eldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.

2. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.

He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab; for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly. 4. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, as did the house of Ahab; for they were his counsellors after the death of his father, to his destruction. (2 Chronicles 22:1-4, ASV)

WEB

The inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his place, because the band of men who came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the oldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.

2. Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.

He also walked in the ways of Ahab’s house, because his mother was his counselor in acting wickedly. 4. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, as did Ahab’s house, for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction. (2 Chronicles 22:1-4, WEB)

KJV

And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his stead: for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the eldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.

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.

He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly. 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. (2 Chronicles 22:1-4, KJV)

YLT

And the inhabitants of Jerusalem cause Ahaziah his youngest son to reign in his stead, (for all the elder had the troop slain that came in with the Arabians to the camp,) and Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah reigneth.

2. A son of twenty and two years [is] Ahaziah in his reigning, and one year he hath reigned in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother [is] Athaliah daughter of Omri;

he also hath walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother hath been his counsellor to do wickedly. 4. And he doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, like the house of Ahab, for they have been his counsellors, after the death of his father, for destruction to him. (2 Chronicles 22:1-4, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: The Chronicler, as narrator. The book is anonymous.
Audience: The restored community in post-exilic Judah, living as a Persian province around a rebuilt temple, being shown how the monarchy and the sanctuary they inherited came to this point.
Location: Jerusalem and post-exilic Judah. The narrated events run from Solomon's accession to the fall of the city and the decree of Cyrus.
Time period: Narrating roughly 970 to 539 BC; composed later, most commonly placed in the fifth or fourth century BC. The book is anonymous. Jewish tradition associates it with Ezra, which is tradition rather than a claim the text makes.

Theological reading

The verse carries a well-known numerical difficulty and a page that hides it is not worth reading. Here Ahaziah is forty-two at accession; 2 Kings 8:26 says twenty-two. Forty-two is impossible on the surrounding data, since it would make him older than his father Jehoram, who died at forty. The standard explanation is a copying error in the transmission of a numeral, which is the class of variant most vulnerable to it. The theological content of the verse is elsewhere and is undisturbed: his mother is Athaliah, granddaughter of Omri, and the Chronicler names her because the next chapter is about a house of Ahab poisoning the house of David from inside.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H0259 - echad, echad, Strong's H0259
H8034 - shem, shem, Strong's H8034
H1121 - ben, ben, Strong's H1121

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Bible Contradictions Objection Defeater

Concepts:

Bible Contradictions Objection

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.