The King’s Real Age
Question
Hi, I was speaking with a Muslim recently and as expected he said the Torah as the Jews have it is corrupted and they have the real version. But he did point out a discrepancy that I wasn’t expecting.
In Kings II 8:26 it says that King Ahazia took the throne at 22 years old.
But in Chronicles II 22:2 it says that King Ahazia took the throne at 42 years old.
My first thought was that Chronicles has some sort of inferior status in the cannon regarding authority of content. But I’m not sure.
In any case, how do we reconcile this weird contradiction?
Answers
Chronicles is as much a part of the Nach as every other part of Nach and it is not “inferior” in any way whatsoever.
The Redak, Rabbi David Kimche, one of the foremost commentators on the Bible, explains that Ahaziah could not have been forty two, since his father, Jehoram, was only forty when he died. Rather, the Redak explains that it is referring to an event that took place forty two years earlier, one which affected him and his entire family. What happened was that a marriage was arranged between the monarchy of the kingdom of Judah and the wicked monarchy of the kingdom of Israel. That union meant that they were considered as one family by God, and therefore the Divine decree that Omri’s household be wiped out would now include the Davidic dynasty as well.
Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team