2 Kings 14:1

REIGN OF AMAZIAH, KING OF JUDAH, 2 Kings 14:1-22.

1. In the second year of Joash Amaziah’s father reigned in Jerusalem forty years. 2 Kings 12:1. In his thirty-seventh year Joash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign in Samaria. 2 Kings 13:10. Hence it would seem that Amaziah’s accession must have taken place in (not the second, but) the third or fourth year of Joash the son of Jehoahaz. To account for this difficulty some adopt the hypothesis of a co-regency, as stated in note on 2 Kings 13:1. But this is unnecessary, as the apparent discrepancy may be more easily accounted for by supposing that the first and last years of the forty years’ reign of Joash king of Judah were only parts of two years. Thus Keil: “These forty years may have amounted only to thirty-eight and a half or thirty-eight and three quarters, in case that Joash attained to the sovereignty a couple of months before Nisan, and his death occurred a few months after Nisan.”