1 Kings 22:51

AN INTRODUCTION OF THE REIGN OF AHAB'S SON; AHAZIAH

"Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherein he made Israel to sin. And he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger Jehovah the God of Israel, according to all that his father had done."

"These three verses are closely connected with 2 Kings 1. The division here obscures the connection between the sin of Ahaziah and the judgment which it provoked."[39]

"Ahaziah ... began to reign ... in Samaria ... and he reigned two years in Israel" (1 Kings 22:51). The Jewish method of counting years by including portions as whole years, in this instance, increases this evil ruler's tenure on the throne of Israel. As Cook noted, "He ruled not much more than a twelfth month."[40]

"Ahaziah ... walked in the way of his mother" (1 Kings 22:52). "This is the only place in the Bible where we find this expression."[41] This stresses the continuing influence of Jezebel even after the death of Ahab. It was to that evil woman alone, or at least in the principal part, that the cause of the retrogression of Israel into idolatry must be assigned.

The ending of 1Kings here results from the arbitrary division of the one Book of Kings into two parts by the translators of the Septuagint (LXX) who found the roll upon which both books were written too cumbersome and simply divided into two rolls. Our English Bible has followed that division.