Apparent discrepancies between the accounts in Kings and Chronicles of the death of king Ahaziah have frustrated many historical reconstructions. First, it appears in the Kings account that the Judahite princes are killed after king Ahaziah is liquidated. Ahaziah is killed in 2 Kgs 9:27 after which Jehu comes upon the brothers of Ahaziah and kills them in 2 Kgs 10:12–14. In Chronicles Jehu kills the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s brothers in 2 Chr 22:8 then hunts for Ahaziah and kills him in v. 9. Second, the Kings account provides a different itinerary for Ahaziah as he flees Jehu and puts the location of Ahaziah’s death as Megiddo (2 Kgs 9:27), while in Chronicles he was found hiding in Samaria and was then brought to Jehu at an undisclosed location and executed (2 Chr 22:9). Third, the two accounts appear to have conflicting views of where he was buried. Kings explicitly says his body was recovered and brought to Jerusalem for burial (2 Kgs 9:28), while Chronicles provides no explicit location for the burial, and may imply he was buried by his executors on the spot of his execution (v. 9).
Some have attempted to harmonize this data into a coherent historical reconstruction. Others have belittled such harmonization as special pleading and instead conclude the narratives are simply contradictory (e.g., Rudolph, Chronikbücher, 269; Williamson, Chronicles, 311). However, in my analysis I will show that this position of disdain for such harmonization actually uncritically assumes contradiction before proving it and is, itself, guilty of harmonization. First, the Kings account records the slaughter of the “sons of the king” (b̲ənê hammelek̲) in 2 Kgs 10:6–7 and the “brothers of Ahaziah” (ʾăḥê ʾăḥazyāhû) in 2 Kgs 10:13. Chronicles, however, records Jehu killing “the princes of Judah” (śārê yəhûd̲āh) and the “sons of the brothers of Ahaziah” (b̲ənê ʾăḥê ʾăḥazyāhû). It is far from clear whether these two sets of victims should be equated (harmonized) and we have every reason to view them as distinct. The “princes of Judah” (śārê yəhûd̲āh) are not mentioned in the Jehu account in Kings and Ahaziah’s brothers (ʾăḥê ʾăḥazyāhû) are not mentioned in 2 Chronicles 22, which instead records the deaths of the “sons” of Ahaziah’s brothers (b̲ənê ʾăḥê ʾăḥazyāhû). Rather than eschewing harmonization, assertions that these accounts are contradictory actually first have to harmonize the accounts themselves and assert that what appear to be distinct groups of people in the different accounts are actually the same groups of people. In light of this the supposed contradiction (only shown through harmonization), the disparate chronology regarding the execution of the princes is a non sequitur. This paper will instead examine the two accounts without such harmonization in order to investigate potential contradictions and possible solutions to their historical reconstructions.