One thing I still don’t understand is how the kings intertwined and started naming their children after relatives, which is very confusing.\u00a0 Why would kings do that when the entire pride of a king rests on the fact of all they have accomplished in their reign and in the hope that their lineage will carry on, which are things that can get mixed up and given credit to the wrong king and family if they all have the same names?<\/p>\n\t
Even today we have people who name children after fathers, grandfathers, or a favorite relative, so it isn’t surprising to see people doing it in the past. After all, we’ve had two John Adams and two George Bushes as presidents in our country. We see it as confusing because we have decades of history condensed for us in a few sentences. Sometimes names just become popular and several people just happen to have the same name.<\/p>\n
Jehoshaphat’s eldest son, Jehoram, was born seven years before Jehoshaphat became king in Judah. Ahab who was reigning at the time in Israel named his eldest son Ahaziah and his second son Jehoram. Ahab’s son Jehoram wasn’t expected to take the throne in Israel. He only became king because his eldest brother only reigned two years before dying and he died without heirs. That is how there ended up being two Jehorams on two thrones at the same time.<\/p>\n
Jehoram married Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter, and their first son was named Ahaziah — most likely named after Athaliah’s brother. He was born about eight years before Azahiah took the throne in Israel. Jehoram’s son, Ahaziah, did not come to the throne until 12 years after his uncle of the same name had died. For people at that time, there would not have been any confusion about the kings.<\/p>\n
Jehu, who overthrew Jehoram in Israel, named his eldest son Jehoahaz (the other name of Ahaziah in Judah). We don’t know how old Jehoahaz was when he became king of Israel. He could have been born before his father Jehu even knew that God had picked him to be the next king in Israel. But he started reigning 29 years after Jehoahaz (Ahaziah), king of Judah, had died. So again, people would not have mixed the two up.<\/p>\n
Now Jehoahaz of Israel did name his eldest son Jehoash while Judah’s current king was name Jehoash. That was bound to cause some confusion as they both ended up ruling at the same time.<\/p>\n
That is why, when reading the accounts of the kings you need to pay attention to which country the king was reigning.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: One thing I still don’t understand is how the kings intertwined and started naming their children after relatives, which is very confusing.\u00a0 Why would kings do that when the entire pride of a king rests on the fact of all they have accomplished in their reign and in the hope that their lineage will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[279,998],"class_list":["post-28948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-history","tag-names"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28936,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-confused-by-the-story-of-athaliah\/","url_meta":{"origin":28948,"position":0},"title":"I’m confused by the story of Athaliah","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Okay, so in II Chronicles 21, we're told that Jehoram was a very bad king and walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, so God sent a message to Him through Elijah stating that God would take away Jehoram's children, wives, and possessions, and furthermore He would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20313,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-ahaziah-begin-to-reign-in-the-eleventh-or-twelfth-year-of-jorams-reign\/","url_meta":{"origin":28948,"position":1},"title":"Did Ahaziah begin to reign in the eleventh or twelfth year of Joram’s reign?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have another question regarding a couple of passages in II Kings. II Kings 8:25 and II Kings 9:29 concerning when Ahaziah began to reign as king. One passage says in the twelfth year of Joram and the other passage says in the eleventh year of Joram. This was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38147,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/because-of-the-sins-of-jeroboam\/","url_meta":{"origin":28948,"position":2},"title":"Because of the Sins of Jeroboam","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Matthew 5:13-16 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Few credit the influence we have on the lives of those around us. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The things we do and say impact the lives of those we come in contact. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes our influence spreads to people we may not have seen. II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The example of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17770,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-asa-and-jehoshaphats-reigns-overlap-in-judah\/","url_meta":{"origin":28948,"position":3},"title":"Did Asa and Jehoshaphat’s reigns overlap in Judah?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: From the dates I can find, King Asa and Jehoshaphat overlapped in their reigns as kings. 873 - 870. Is that correct? And why the overlap? Also, when Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel and went to Judah do we know for sure which king was reigning over Judah (Asa\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82183,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-there-no-black-people-in-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":28948,"position":4},"title":"Why are there no black people in the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are there no black people in the Bible? Why don't the people have black names? Answer: There are people mentioned in the Bible whose skin color would have been dark. Moses' wife, who was from Cush (Numbers 12:1) An unnamed Cushite runner (II Samuel 18:21) Tirhakah king of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43183,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-it-wrong-to-use-passages-from-the-kings-to-help-define-a-word-in-job\/","url_meta":{"origin":28948,"position":5},"title":"Isn’t it wrong to use passages from the Kings to help define a word in Job?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear sir, I happened onto your website in search of a definition of the intent of the word \"curse\" as used in Job. I do have a question for you. If the book of Job was written before the Levitical priesthood was established, which would explain why Job, himself,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}