Chapter 3: His Mother's Counsel

The people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah king. He was twenty-two years old, the youngest of Jehoram's sons and the only one left alive. From the moment he took the throne, his mother stood beside it.

His mother was his counselor in doing wickedly. (2 Chronicles 22:3)

She surrounded him with advisors from the house of Ahab, her father's family, and they led him exactly where she wanted.

ATHALIAH (to Ahaziah)“Your uncle Joram is marching against Hazael, king of Syria, at Ramoth-gilead. Ride with him. The house of Ahab is your family. Their wars are your wars.”— 2 Chronicles 22:3-4

AHAZIAH (to his officers)“Prepare the chariots. We ride north to Ramoth-gilead. We fight alongside King Joram of Israel.”— 2 Chronicles 22:5

It was the same battlefield where his grandfather Ahab had been killed years earlier. The same place. The same alliance. As if the family had learned nothing.

Joram was wounded in the fighting and withdrew to the city of Jezreel to recover. Ahaziah traveled to Jezreel to visit him. Both kings, together in one place.