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CHRONOLOGICAL NOTE TO CHAPTER 15
To aid such readers as are interested in the somewhat difficult study of the
chronology of that period, we shall put together the principal points in the elaborate
note of Dr. Bahr in his Commentary on 2 Kings 8:16.
Let it be kept in mind that the accession of Jehu forms the beginning of a new period,
alike as regards the kings of Israel and those of Judah, since both Joram and Ahaziah
were killed in the revolution of Jehu. Again, let it be remembered that chronologists
fix, with singular unanimity, on the year 884 B.C. as that of the accession of Jehu,
and the death of the two kings. Starting from this point, we can reckon backwards the
years of the various kings in the past, and forward those of the reigns that followed
Joram and Ahaziah. In all such computations we must, however, bear in mind that
the Jews always reckoned the years of a king from the month Nisan to the month
Nisan, so that not only a month, but even a day before or after that month, was
reckoned as if it had been a year. It will be seen that the computation of a fragment of
a year as if it had been a whole year must frequently introduce elements of confusion
in our attempts to piece together the statements of the various reigns. And this must
therefore be taken into account when studying the chronology. Keeping this in view,
and counting backwards from the year 884, we have: -
I. KINGS OF JUDAH.
- Ahaziah: died, 884; reigned one, not full, year (2 Kings 8:26); acceded in 884 or
885 B.C. - Jehoram: died, 885; reigned eight years (2 Kings 8:17); acceded in 891 or 892
B.C. - Jehoshaphat: reigned twenty-five years (1 Kings 22:42); acceded in 916 or 917
B.C.
II. KINGS OF ISRAEL.
- Ahab: reigned twenty-two years (1 Kings 16:29). Since the first year of the reign
of Jehoshaphat coincided with the fourth of that of Ahab, Ahab acceded in 919 or
920 B.C. - Ahaziah: reigned two, not full, years (1 Kings 22:51; cp. 2 Kings 3:1); acceded
between 897 and 898 B.C.
(^)
APPENDIX