ContradictionsReading order 158Bible context 2 min read

Who buried Ahaziah?

Kings says Ahaziah's own servants buried him in Jerusalem. Chronicles attributes burial to the people who captured and killed him, out of respect for Jehoshaphat.

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Ahaziah dies at Megiddo and his servants bury him in Jerusalem

But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot. And they did so at the going up to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there. And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David.

2 Kings 9:27-28

Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)

Read the full chapter:2 Kings 9

Ahaziah is captured in Samaria, killed, and buried by the captors

And it came to pass, that, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, that ministered to Ahaziah, he slew them. And he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him, (for he was hid in Samaria,) and brought him to Jehu: and

when they had slain him, they buried him

: Because, said they, he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart. So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.

2 Chronicles 22:8-9

Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)

Read the full chapter:2 Chronicles 22

Understanding the contradiction

Second Kings 9:28 explicitly identifies Ahaziah's servants as those who take his body to Jerusalem and bury him in his ancestral tomb. In 2 Chronicles 22:9, the continuing plural subject naturally refers to his captors and killers, who grant burial because he descends from Jehoshaphat. The disagreement concerns the agents and reason for burial.

One reconciliation takes Chronicles' burial language to mean that Jehu's men authorized Ahaziah's servants to perform it. That is possible as indirect agency, but the passage does not state the handover or distinguish permission from carrying out burial. Chronicles leaves the burial city unnamed, so it does not explicitly contradict Jerusalem as the location.

Related comparisons: How and where did Ahaziah die?

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contradiction2 Kings2 Chronicles

Ahaziah dies at Megiddo and his servants bury him in Jerusalem

Ahaziah is captured in Samaria, killed, and buried by the captors

Understanding the contradiction

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