Why is Ahaz called king of Israel?

Difficult Passages · Who, Where, and Which

Why is Ahaz called king of Israel?

Chronicles calls Judah’s kings kings of Israel, Judah being the house of David and the temple; and Ahaz walked in the ways of Israel’s kings.

The Passages

2 Chronicles 28:19

19 For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD.

1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. 2 Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father.

The Difficulty

Ahaz was king of Judah, “Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah” (2 Kings 16:1). But Chronicles says, “the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel” (2 Chronicles 28:19).

The Answer

Chronicles calls Judah’s kings kings of Israel elsewhere too: “Jehoshaphat king of Israel” (2 Chronicles 21:2), and under Rehoboam “the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves” (12:6). Judah held the throne of David, the rightful king of all Israel, and the temple, and those “out of all the tribes of Israel” who sought the LORD came to Jerusalem (11:16). And Ahaz is called so with point here: “he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel” (28:2). Gill gives both reasons. The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac read “king of Judah”; the KJV keeps the Hebrew.

Sources

John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, vol. 3 (1765), p. 78, on 2 Chronicles 28:19

he is called king of Israel, because he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and because he ruled over two of the tribes of Israel, and of right was king over all Israel, as David and Solomon his ancestors were

Checked against: Internet Archive scan of the first edition, 2026-10-28