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We have evidence that the ungodly rule of Jehoram was not popular in Judah. "He
departed without being desired" by his people, nor did they make any burning of
precious spices at his funeral, such as was customary at the obsequies of kings
(comp. 2 Chronicles 16:14; Jeremiah 34:5). And although "they buried him in the
city of David," yet "not in the sepulchers of the kings."^261 If these notices seem to
indicate a hostile popular feeling, the same inference comes to us from the unusual
statement that "the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in
his stead" (2 Chronicles 22:1).
It would probably be too much to conclude that there was opposition to the accession
of one who must have been known to be like-minded with his father on the part of
the Levite and Priest party, although the revolt of the priest city Libnah and the later
activity of the high priest Jehoiada and of the Levites on behalf of Joash (22:11; 23)
seem to point in that direction. But we cannot be mistaken in concluding that
Ahaziah was placed on the throne by a faction in Jerusalem favorable to the new
order of things. And it needs no elaborate argument to convince us that, alike
religiously and politically, a regime must have been profoundly unpopular which had
reversed the whole former order of things, was associated with the permanent loss of
Edom, the defection of so important a center as Libnab, and the victorious incursions
of Philistines and Arab bands. To these outward calamities must be added the
paramount sway of a woman, such as the daughter of Ahab, and the remodeling of
Judah after the pattern of Israel, which even mere patriots must have felt to be a most
humiliating abdication of supremacy in favor of the northern kingdom. And in the
history of the brief reign of Ahaziah, as well as in the later rising which resulted in
the death of Athaliah, the existence of two parties in Judah must be kept in view; the
one representing the corrupt court faction, the other the growing popular feeling in
favor of return to the old order of things.
(^)