Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he became king. But in the book of Kings it says, “Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king” (2 Kings 8:26)! Moreover, his father Jehoram’s entire lifespan was only forty years, for the text says as follows: “Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years” (1 Chronicles 21:5)—so how could [Ahaziah] have been forty-two years old when his father died? That would be impossible! It says in Seder Olam (17): “Once Asa married off his son Jehoshaphat to Omri’s daughter, this decree was issued—that the royal family of David be wiped out along with the house of Ahab.” And that is what happened: King Ahaziah of Judah died together with the king of Israel—for Jehu killed them—and then Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, saw that her son was killed and she killed off all the potential royal heirs. So that is why the text counts forty-two—from the time the decree was issued. [How so?] It was in the thirty-first year of Asa that [Jehoshaphat] married [Omri’s daughter]. For the text says, “In the thirty-first year of King Asa of Judah, Omri became king over Israel” (1 Kings 16:23)—yet he had already reigned for four years prior (1 Kings 16:15–16)! What it means, rather, is that he became king in the full sense: he married into the family of Asa, grew in stature, and killed Tibni and reigned over Israel (1 Kings 16:22). And from the thirty-first year of Asa until King Ahaziah of Judah died there are in fact forty-two years. How so? Nine years of Asa; twenty-five of Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:42), for a total of thirty-four; and eight years of Jehoram, for a total of forty-two. But this midrash is very far from the plain sense. It is possible to explain that Jehoram lived for more than forty years, but for purposes of [counting] the duration of his reign, the text only counts the eight years during which he ruled at full strength. It does not, however, count toward his reign the years from the time he fell in the hands of the Arabs (2 Chronicles 21:16–17) and also fell ill (ibid. vv. 18–19). In fact, his son Ahaziah was made king in his place while his father [Jehoram] was still alive—at the time of Jehoram’s fall, after which he continued on having lost all desire (ibid. 21:20)—and those years totaled twenty. So it was when they made Ahaziah king during his father’s lifetime that he was twenty-two—that is the meaning of the assertion in Kings, “Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king”—and it was when his father died that he was forty-two. And he only reigned for one year after his father’s death.

His mother’s name was Athaliah daughter of Omri. She was Ahab’s daughter, as the text says above (2 Chronicles 21:6); but it relates her to her father’s father. The same is true for: “They then returned to their father Reuel” (Exodus 2:18)—for Reuel was their father’s father.